Brand New to River Cruising.

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, screwsmcernst said:

Next question...  

 

What is the nationality breakdown of European River cruises?  Will it be mostly Europeans?  or a healthy mix?  (Just curious.  No real reason.)  

 

Viking is heavily American with a spattering of folks from The UK, some Australians, and some Canadians.  Typically over 70% American on Viking.

[CCJack]

On our Viking Danube cruise our evening entertainment was sitting on the top deck and enjoying the beautiful views.    There seemed to be a "deck" group of people and a "lounge" group of people for evening entertainment.   We went as a couple (no group) and enjoyed the trip very much.   Did meet a few folks but we are not "very outgoing".   It all worked out and was a great trip.

 

Speaking of groups, I would not book so early you are the first cabin reserved.   We did this.   Then Viking sold every other cabin to one group, essentially a charter plus us, (not part of the charter).   They did let us know after they sold the rest of the boat and we were able to reschedule to another date but it was a hassle and a cost for us which they did not offer us any help with the costs.   I felt it was not handled well by Viking. 

 

[Kristelle]

Scenic trip we went on was majority Australians with some people from UK, Canada, USA and a couple from the Phillipines.

 

Not sure if that is every Scenic trip or just those marketed most in Australia - and particularly Amsterdam to Budapest (or reverse) which is the most popular river cruise for Australians and several companies here offer and market that itinerary.

[Nippy Sweetie]

On our first Viking cruise we were amazed to find ourselves surrounded by Americans. It just hadn't occurred to us that there might be so few of us Brits. 

We met up with a couple of Australians on the next cruise. 

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

On our first Viking cruise we were amazed to find ourselves surrounded by Americans. It just hadn't occurred to us that there might be so few of us Brits. 

We met up with a couple of Australians on the next cruise. 

 

Now after 10 Viking cruises, and a mix of Ocean and River, all of them are primarily American guests on board.  Americans are Viking's primary audience and most things are geared towards the American market.  In my opinion.

[screwsmcernst]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Now after 10 Viking cruises, and a mix of Ocean and River, all of them are primarily American guests on board.  Americans are Viking's primary audience and most things are geared towards the American market.  In my opinion.

 

Viking is very heavily marketed here in the US.  So I would imagine there would be quite a few North Americans  We are sailing Ama Waterways.  Not much is heard about them here.  I figure there will be more Europeans and Australians.  We shall see.

[Nippy Sweetie]

Viking advertises a lot here in UK so I don't understand why there are so few of us. I had only posted about seeing so many Americans on board in case potential passengers were hoping to meet lots of Europeans.

[Daisi]

Avalon has been a fairly good mix, but like other lines, most are American. Last Sept, we had several couples from the UK, some from Asia. I don't seem to remember any from Australia. Our first cruise had a large group from the Philippines. 

 

Adding to comments about going out on your own, make sure you check what ship you are on before going. 🙂 We were in Vienna, docked on the outside of another Avalon ship - not bad, interior is same design but different colour pallet. However, when we returned, there were now 3 Avalon ships rafted together and we were on the inside of the 3. Later on, they moved us again, so when we returned from our 2nd excursion, we were on the outside. We did hear stories of ships sailing with passengers from the wrong ship onboard...and passengers complaining because their room cards didn't work!

 

Edited May 29 by Daisi

[CDNPolar]

41 minutes ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Viking advertises a lot here in UK so I don't understand why there are so few of us. I had only posted about seeing so many Americans on board in case potential passengers were hoping to meet lots of Europeans.

 

I think that the American market has the larger cruising public.  On Uniworld in The Nile, the mix was largely American.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have no issue cruising with Americans.  We have cruised all over the world on Viking - Japan, China, South America, many parts of Europe and overall, the mix on the ships has been 70%+ American.

[gnome12]

19 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

I think that the American market has the larger cruising public.  On Uniworld in The Nile, the mix was largely American.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have no issue cruising with Americans.  We have cruised all over the world on Viking - Japan, China, South America, many parts of Europe and overall, the mix on the ships has been 70%+ American.

Personally, I prefer a more international mix, although I want an English language cruise.

[CDNPolar]

Just now, gnome12 said:

Personally, I prefer a more international mix, although I want an English language cruise.

 

I agree... I have American cousins, and many American friends and worked in the USA for years.  I personally travel to expand my horizons and knowledge in food, culture, and customs.  I love to meet people from all different countries and walks of life. 

[RobInMN]

1 hour ago, screwsmcernst said:

 

Viking is very heavily marketed here in the US.  So I would imagine there would be quite a few North Americans  We are sailing Ama Waterways.  Not much is heard about them here.  I figure there will be more Europeans and Australians.  We shall see.

On the 3 Ama cruises I've been on, I am not aware of anyone outside of the US and maybe Canada. It is a US company, and while they don't seem to have the same marketing budget Viking does, it does market to the US, and maybe somewhat exclusively in the US, I have no idea.

 

[Nippy Sweetie]

It's fine by me. I quite enjoy meeting a variety of Americans and hearing their different perspectives on life. It was just a surprise for us on our first river cruise.

On an Avalon cruise we were pretty annoyed to find that a large group of Australian car salesmen had been booked for the cruise. Some sort of reward scheme. Their organiser took over the best parts of the deck for private parties and made it very uncomfortable for other passengers who had equal rights to sit there. The men were all celebrating and hearty drinkers. It led to quite an unpleasant us and them situation. We never went with Avalon again after that.

[pontac]

Viking advertise different boats and dates in America than Britain, but sell cruises in the 'others' boats when there are spare cabins. I've been on a boat where there were on 3 Brit couples, rest were north Americans - it was a late booking and the date and boat didn't show on the UK site.

 

But usually its a mix of nationalities with the majority from North America on Viking

 

On the one (so far) trip I did with  Scenic (Bordeaux) the Programme Manager announced the nationalities on board as

UK – 68

Australia – 24

Canada -18

USA – 10

Ireland – 1

 

Maybe that's because Brits were more interested in visiting the world's premium wine region.

 

I've wondered why it's mostly North Americans and I can only think that many are 'doing' Europe, they want to walk in historic towns and see ancient Cathedrals, whereas many Brits live in historic towns and have ancient Cathedrals nearby.

And if they want to see Paris, Budapest, Vienna etc they get a very cheap flight and a few hours later they're there. My sons have taken weekends in Budapest and Prague

 

 

[CastleCritic]

Gonna level with you, most of us haven't been out of the states before we come for a river cruise.  When the guide in Vienna says that the "new church isnt worth visiting" hes talking about something that was built before we declared independence and it just confuses us(ok I think thats off by a few years but there is a large 1800s church/cathedral near the port that is "to insignificant to visit"). It goes well beyond that Ive heard a lot of people asking about some of the ....social difference with things like healthcare and retirement as well...A LOT.

[Daisi]

@CastleCritic, you mean like the Nieuwe Kirk in Amsterdam (1409) vs Oude Kerk? 🙂

[Canal archive]

We had a very informative talk on one cruise from one of our French guides about pensions etc and I think you might have been quite surprised. Although it is interesting all the different systems across the world. A direct comparison is not easy. I’m given to believe that the percentage of Americans holding a passport is very low but I see nothing wrong in that as your country is simply so huge with so many areas really worth visiting and I’m lucky enough to have visited some of them. Although now DH has decided he really needs to see a top flight baseball game and an American Football game and I’d love to visit New England.

[JordanF]

We have been on four river cruises: Avalon (Rhine); Gate 1 (Danube), Gate 1 (Yangtze) and Grand Circle (Egypt).  All were predominately American with some Canadians and the occasional Australian.   I think it has to do with marketing--our tour guide in Egypt told us about tours of English tourists that he had done--so evidently those were marketed separately.  Our Gate 1 land trips (Iceland, Vietnam) were the same as well.  

 

The other reality is the U.S. has a lot of people and is an affluent country.  According to my quick research, nearly 100 million Americans travelled outside of the U.S. in 2019 (year before the pandemic).  The most popular destination outside of North America for all of these intrepid Americans was Europe.  We fill a lot of river boat cabins.

[gnome12]

I don't believe that Uniworld markets different sailings to different markets. I think that all will show up on the various websites (or back in my day, in all of the various brochures).

[jimmymac613]

On 5/28/2024 at 3:13 PM, Kristelle said:

Scenic trip we went on was majority Australians with some people from UK, Canada, USA and a couple from the Phillipines.

 

Not sure if that is every Scenic trip or just those marketed most in Australia - and particularly Amsterdam to Budapest (or reverse) which is the most popular river cruise for Australians and several companies here offer and market that itinerary.

 

We were on a Scenic Rhine cruise in May 2022 and it was 90% Australians with some Canadians and only 6 from the U.S. (we were 2 of the 6).  We just got off of a Scenic Danube cruise and there were only a handful of Austalians with, I would guess, about 45% U.S, 40% Canadian and about 15-20 Taiwanese.  I think Scenic's 2 for 1 marketing in the U.S. has been successful.

[Canal archive]

Jimmymac613 sounds about right. Scenic  is an Australian company and we’ve cruised with them fo many years. On one cruise (the year of the Icelandic eruption) an Australian couple got caught up in the back log so Scenic fed them on a one boat in Budapest then put them in a taxi to catch us up. Their number put Australia above the Canadian contingent and as they boarded at midnight they were greeted with a rousing chorus of Advance Australia Fair. Absolute fun most of the passengers were up and on deck. It turned out to be one of the friendliest cruises I’ve ever been on.

I must admit that it was an Australian foursome who finally persuaded me to have my knee replacements, thank you for that the best thing I’ve ever done, health wise.

 

Edited May 30 by Canal archive

[Nippy Sweetie]

I must say we thoroughly enjoyed the company of some Australians on board one of the cruises. Very refreshing people and such good fun. (The car salesmen not so much!!)