What are river cruises like?

Ive been on 2
I did the Danube on AMA Waterways and Bordeaux on Uniworld.

They are great. You get to meet lots of people. Yoh know who yoh dont want to hang out with or eat with quick. Most ships are 130 to 160 passengers.

Port excursions are included. The lines I was on offered a choice of 2 to 3 in each port. They also had only a couple optional excusions for a fee. Other lines charge a lot over and above their basic included ones.

Meals are awesome. Very local...as you cruise through each country the chefs keep it local.

I went on one that went on the riverways in Russia on my honeymoon, 20 years ago, so no idea on the prices. I don’t remember the company. It did include land excursions and I felt the food was very local. On the whole I think everything was geared to the cultural enrichment. There were leducational lectures and the evening entertainment was low keyed. I did enjoy it and would not hesitate to go on one again but I love to travel.

My parents sailed with Viking from Amsterdam to Budapest. They loved it! My mother hated water and she loved this.

We did a 5 day river cruise on the Yangtze River in China and that was a lot of fun, too!

DH's cousin just did a Uniglobe cruise and they loved it. they booked it through AAA and said it was fantastic! i looked into the Viking Cruises and with that ONE inquiry, i now get cruise booklets in my mailbox just about every day. it's insane how much they spam you with cruise booklets after just one inquiry. and clearly Viking sells your info because we are getting ads from other cruise companies too.

I wondered about the age range.  My husband mentioned doing one on the Yangtze, but I wasn't sure it was a great fit for a family with teens.  

This is something we have planned on doing for ouor 50th wedding anniversary. Only two more years to go. I am glad to hear of the good experiences some of you have had. But, did not realize they were so expensive. We had better start saving now.

I just went in December with AMA Waterways on the Danube. From Budapest to Nuremberg. It was a Christmas Market cruise. Idk how much is was as my mom gifted it to me but I did see the invoice and I believe it was about $4k for the two of us. We had an inside room (which was just fine, had a big window). Airfare was $800 from Wa state. I think it was a bit cheaper being itt was winter but it was sold out.

I would do it again. The food was really good, way better than ocean cruises. Probably because they don't have to cook for so many. And yes the food tended to be local. And you can totally bring alcohol on board, they don't check your luggage. It's way more laid back than an ocean cruise. The excursions all were very well organized and we had a great time. One night we had a Chef's Tasting dinner that people would have paid over $100 for anywhere else. It was included. Oh and during meals, beer, wine and sodas are included. Any other time, you have to pay for them. There were several times they served us champagne for free or a special local drink to try. I loved not being nickel and dimed for everything.
I think Viking is more expensive because they are more well known. My aunt who was with us and had been on Viking before, said they were very similar but liked AMA a bit better. Oh, and we had all ages on board. I thought it would be all older people but it wasn't. Maybe because it was Xmas time.

We did the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise on Viking about 18 months ago. It was fabulous! I've done many ocean cruises, but that was my first river cruise. We will definitely do it again.

The ship, service, food and included excursions were great! Also, beverages are included at lunch and dinner...including beer and wine. The captain and cruise director addressed the passengers every night before dinner, so we felt communication was really good, especially since there were issues with the river level being too high in places due to heavy rain that year. The hotel manager sat and had dinner with us one evening...and then sent us champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries to our cabin.

Regarding the river level issues, I felt they handled the problem very well. There was one bridge that we would not have been able to fit under until the water level went down a few inches, so we had to stay in one port an extra day. They gave us the option to either stay on the ship, or go by bus to the next city and meet up with the ship further down the river. We chose to stay on the ship, but those who took the bus to the next port were put up at a 5 star hotel, fed well, and taken on the included excursions. Those of us who stayed on board had very special treatment and local entertainment.

The cost is higher for a river cruise than an ocean cruise, but Viking quite often has 2-for-1 prices with airfare included. Their optional excursions are pricey, but it was worth it to us to pay extra to see places we would not otherwise see.

I would not take teenagers on a river cruise...they'll be bored to tears. The ships have a dining room and a lounge, and there really is no entertainment to speak of other than a piano player or string quartet.

I think of it as a floating 4-star hotel that took us from one amazing destination to another.

I agree with the poster who said they are inundated with brochures from Viking!  What a waste!!

We went on a river cruise about 2011 or 2012.  Went on Avalon which is not as well-known as Viking but might be considered a little nicer.  It was call the Impression I think, it was only a few months old.

We had an inside room which was fine. They have "french balconies" which are really small balconies not large enough for a chair and since we went in May, it was still really cold and not "balcony weather."

The demographics are a lot different than the major cruise lines.  I was one of the youngest, I would say the average is about 70, all well-refined, well-traveled.

Ours included tours at each port, wine included with dinner (but I don't think before).  But we could bring in wine from the port and they did not care.

Only about 150-ish people on board which is nice.

Another thing about the balconies on river cruises. Often the ships "double-park." We were in Budapest and there was a Viking ship docked at the shore and we pulled up next to it, walked through the Viking ship to shore.  Obviously the people in the balconies could not enjoy the view if they had a ship parked next door.  Plus you are in port during the day (usually) so the balcony is not as big of deal.

There's not a lot of things going on at night.  You typically get up pretty early, breakfast, head out, come back for dinner, pretty exhausted, then head to bed. They had some local music but it's not like you will be up partying till 2 pm.

I had said I was not crazy about it but now that I am older I may do it again.  

And yes, we get at least a few cruise brochures by mail every week from all of the companies. 

I’d love to do that too! I was in Germany (and Austria and France!) this past Nov/Dec to visit the Christmas markets and it would be amazing to do it on a river cruise! 

My parents did the German Christmas Market one, one in France to Normandy, and they are doing one in Italy in April. They love them.

They like that during the day they are off the boat walking about and at night the cruise. My dad likes that you can always see land. They have met lovely people on both.

papersilly The weather was cold most of the time. Usually in the mid 30's. We got lucky and had minimal rain and snow. It was very much like a winter here in Spokane. I wore layers and was fine. I did wear a hat most days just because you are outside a lot so it was colder when out for hours. Usually we had a city tour of sorts and then had time at a market. So that was cool to get some of everything. I think only in Melk, Austria we didn't go to a market as it's a small city. We visited an Abbey.

Our cruise was Dec 11-18th. We had 2 extra days in Budapest in the beginning and 1 1/2 days in Prague at the end.

Our cruise had free wifi and was pretty good considering where we were.

My husband and kids wouldn't have enjoyed all the shopping. But the scenery in Europe, oh my! Some of it you just can't describe. It's definitely an area I want to go back to.

I did a two week land/river cruise in China with Viking and it is one of the best things we've ever done. There are not as many add ons as big ship cruising - excursions and transfers and such tend to be included. I'm actually online right now researching a river cruise for 2019 and am looking at Vantage and Viking.

OMG! So did I!!! holly Which one did you do? It sounds exactly like the one I did. I did the AMAStella - it was outstanding!! This was my first cruise ever and a gift to myself and my three kids. My girls turned 21 on the cruise and even though we heard the cruises skewed older (they do!), there were quite a few teens on this cruise. My kids had people to hang out with and had fun. 

My favorite part of the cruise was George, our room cleaner. I worshiped him. Not a joke. We'd leave on our morning tour and our room would be perfectly clean when we came back. We'd go to dinner and he'd redo the whole room and leave us a chocolate and a pretty towel that looked like a monkey or an elephant or a bunny. I never ever get spoiled, so that was a big treat for me. Food-wise, it was good, but not great. I loved that the wine was included. I wish there were more things to do in the evenings and that was really my only super minor complaint. One night they had a violin/guitar trio and that was incredible, but it would have been fun if they organized things in the evenings.

You don't feel the boat moving except in the locks sometimes and everyone is so pleasant on board. It was expensive for the four of us, but I saved for years for this trip and it was worth every penny. Our tour guides were great, too. They really knew what was going on.