quality river cruising

[seapenarth]

Never been but would like to try. Which are the highest quality river cruise companies for European rivers ? Cabin space, beds and ensuite ? Food ( very important ) and service ? Bars and lounges ? Excursions and routes ? And of course crew and officers ? It is of course a personal judgement, but as with hotels, river cruises need gradings.

[pacmom]

Premicon Queen is the most luxurious and most expensive. River Cloud is up there as well as Deilmann. The lines catering to English speaking guests are Ama Waterways, Grand Circle, Uniworld, Avalon, Vantage and Viking. Grand Circle and Vantage sell only to Us Citizens and only through their respective home offices--no TA. Most of them are all inclusive in regards to tours. Meals are at one sitting--open seating. Breakfast and lunch are usually buffet, dinner is plated and served. It is quite difficult to answer general questions. Your best bet is to look at the web sites. From first hand experience, Uniworld and Vantage have suites--Viking does not. All lines mentioned are en suite. It is a very different experience from Ocean cruising. Very little lounge life or entertainment. Only one dining venue, food service usually confined to meals--tea on some days. Tell us where you would like to go and you will get good honest answers. Pat

[webfoot]

Hi Pat ... Avalon does sell through discounters ... and even has a partnership in Australia ... I always book through one of the discounters .. that company also sells Uniworld, AMA, Peter Deilmann, Viking, Tauck, Traflager and Uniworld ...

[pjtraveler]

Hi again, Pat.:)

 

Just to let you know, we have used our travel agent to book on both Uniworld and Viking. I assume you can do the same on the other lines.

[pacmom]

My original response was to say that GCT and Vantage can only be booked thru their home offices. All the other lines can be done that way or other ways. Hopefully the OP can find a trip that meets their wants and needs. As we all know research is a very important part of finding the right trip for your needs. We all also have our favorite lines and some are reluctant to entertain the thought that another cruise line might be as good. As Steamboat always says: itinerary, itinerary, itinerary first. Then the rest will fall into place. Pat

[smtcan]

We live in Canada. After some research I was ready to book with GCT, but had no success with their web-site, because they required a US Zip code for any communication. I called their office and asked for a brochure, but was told that they won't mail anything outside the US. I then asked for their email newsletter, and was told that that is only available to US residents. When I asked for an explanation, the operator told me that their cruises were designed to appeal to US residents. They would take our booking (in US dollars, which I expected and was prepared for), but that was all.

 

We have cruised before, and don't think our tastes are significantly different from those of US residents, so I cannot understand this attitude. Needless to say, we are looking elsewhere for our river cruise.

 

Sheila

[newlondon]

Pacmom listed a lot of good quality lines as well as Premicon Queen the top. You should look at Tauck which falls in between both quality and pricewise.

[letsgo39]

We are U.S. citizins but I definitely prefer to meet people from other countries when I travel We cruised on Avalon,Budapest to Amsterdam in 2007 and there were guests from many English speaking countries onboard.I really enjoyed our cruise and plan on cruising with Avalon again in 2010.. We enjoyed having the largest standard cabins on the rivers at 172 sq ft.. Avalon is owned by Globus which is the reason we chose it for our first rivercruise. We had taken several land tours with Globus in the past and knew they did a good job.There have been several complaints on here regarding GC customer service problems.

[Ricky Chan]

We live in Canada. After some research I was ready to book with GCT, but had no success with their web-site, because they required a US Zip code for any communication. I called their office and asked for a brochure, but was told that they won't mail anything outside the US. I then asked for their email newsletter, and was told that that is only available to US residents. When I asked for an explanation, the operator told me that their cruises were designed to appeal to US residents. They would take our booking (in US dollars, which I expected and was prepared for), but that was all.

 

We have cruised before, and don't think our tastes are significantly different from those of US residents, so I cannot understand this attitude. Needless to say, we are looking elsewhere for our river cruise.

 

Sheila

 

Sheila:

 

We are Canadians too. Taking our first river cruise in September and have chosen Scenic cruise, mainly because it has balcony (first of its kind in river cruising) and all-inclusive.

 

Hopfully it will be a good one.

 

Ricky