gregdude

We did the Rhine cruise three years ago with Tauck. Forget independent excursions, you don't know where the ship will dock. In many cases where you dock near a city will not be the same place to find the ship when you return. Frequently once the excursions leave the ship the ship then moves miles away and the excursion bus goes to that location to rejoin the ship. The best you can do is have a few hours on your own if the cruise line builds a pickup into the schedule. For example we spent the day in Strasbourg, France, instead of talomg the afternoon excursion to Boden Boden, but Tauck arranged for a late afternoon bus to pick up a group of us that decided to take that option. We then joined the ship thirty miles away along with the excursion group. You will not have any idea of the exact docking locations, times, or other factors until you are on board the ship and they give you details at the nightly briefing the day before you arrive at a city or town. We found it best to not preplan anything and just enjoy the experience as it unfolds. River cruising is not anything like ocean cruising! Sit back and enjoy the experience I'm sure you will have a great time.

Absolutely true, the crew are excellent and the Tauck tour guides are also excellent. Tauck provides a top notch product on top notch ships. we are booked on our third river cruise with them next month based upon the high quality of our previous two cruises, Rhine and Danube. You get what you pay for with no extra costs during or after your cruise.

We have done two Tauck river cruises, both in category 3, not noise at all! We are booked next month on their Rhone River cruise, but unfortunately this ship does not offer the ability to book a Category 3 cabin (too small). We loved the category 3, great size and great to have the two deck windows!!

Several Tauck cruises give Salzburg as a choice tour out of Linz at no cost.

On our last two river cruises I have only used my iPhone: excellent photo ability, geotagging, saves everything to iCoud, easy to send photos to friends over WiFi on river boats, easy to carry, no weight. I own an SLR and a point and shoot, but the iPhone (any new high end phone camera) works perfectly. My new iPhone 8plus also has a built in zoom lens and excellent video ability. We are off to France for our third Tauck river cruise in May and my iPhone will be my only camera once again.

Very strange, we have been on two Tauck River Cruises, one Rhine and one Danube. With a total of 14 days the sun deck was never closed! Food was exceptional, last cruise was May, 2017, so good that we are now booked for next May with Tauck on the Rhône River. I have sailed on Holland America for 100+ days and found it to be ok, but not nearly to the level of Tauck river cruises.

Company: Tauck

Arrival Airport: Basel

Arrival Ship Location: Basel

Year of Trip: 2015 (Basel to Amsterdam)

Arrived day before departure, Tauck transportation waiting as we exited baggage area, took 15 minutes to get to the Tauck assigned hotel.

Company: Tauck

Arrival Airport: Prague

Arrival Ship Location: Reagansburg

Year of Trip: 2017 (Prague to Budapest)

Tauck transportation picked us up as we exited baggage area, took 25 minutes to reach Tauck assigned hotel in Prague (part of tour). Reached ship two days latter by Tausck bus.

We have done both with Tauck and enjoyed both. Danube was a longer trip, but very interesting (make sure you spend a few days in Prague on your own if not included in the itinerary). Take a look at Tauck, very inclusive with great excursions included.

I totally agree with sunsetbeachgal, a 7-8 day river cruise is an excellent choice for a first cruise. There is very little similarity between an ocean cruise and a river cruise except you have a cabin. If you enjoy active ocean cruises with all kinds of entertainment you may really dislike river cruising. 10 to 14 days on a relatively small boat with almost no entertainment could be something you would not enjoy. My wife and I did a Tauck Rhine River cruise two years ago and loved it and are leaving next week on the their Blue Danube cruise (seven days on the boat and two nights each in hotels in Prague and Budapest. The other issue, not mentioned so far, is that longer river cruise historically have had more problems with low or high water levels. Do your homework, but start with a shorter cruise. Also check Cruisecritic for how different cruise lines handle problems. There is a much higher chance for trip interruptions on river cruises. More than one cruise has turned into a bus trip and the boat a hotel because of river conditions.

All cruise lines would give you the same response. If you use a TA the line will never talk to you directly only talk to the TA. This is a part of the contract the cruise line has with travel agents. It is also one reason I don't use agents.

We did the Rhine in early May two years ago and temperature were great, 70+ degrees. The reason prices go up is, as you guessed, weather gets better in May. If it is cold you will not use the sun deck at all and that will be a real shame going through the Rhinr Gorge or any river cruising times.

Just noticed there was a great photo essay this week in USA Today on Tauck river boat updates with great pictures of food in the dinning room. If you Google "USA today Tauck River boat updates" you should find the story.

Yes, the same throughout the ship. As far as I know they only suggest a jacket at specialty dinner meals off the ship and at the final captains dinner (but not required). Only dress not allowed were tee shirts and shorts in the dinning room. On our Rhine cruise men wore jackets, but many did not wear a tie. Most men wore nice slacks and a collared shirt for dinner most nights. ABSOLUTELY NO SUITES OR FORMAL WEAR!

We did a Rhine River cruise with Tauck a year ago and have a Danube River cruise next month and a Rhone River cruise already booked for 2018. All I can tell you is that in general Tauck passengers tend not to post and if they do it is a general comment. As far as answering your questions the schedule is very changeable and not really determined until the night before arrival in a port/city. For example we were to start our cruise in Basel, but the water level was too high and too fast so the boat was unable to get to Basel. Tauck met us at the hotel as planned, but had to drive us about 30 miles south to Strasbourg where the boat was able to dock. In general you can expect an excursion in the morning and again in the afternoon depending on the general Tauck schedule. The menu changes all the time. In early May on our first cruise,asparagus were in season, so we had a number of asparagus options daily Breakfast and lunch had buffet options, but there were also menu options that could be ordered if you want to take more time. Dinner was always preceded by a cocktail hour in the lounge with hot/cold horderves and a daily briefing, hoderve choices were served with drinks. Dinner consisted of a variety of appetizers, soup and salad choices, several main course options, and desert. After dinner some simple form of entertainment was offered along with complimentary drinks in the lounge. One of the best features of Tauck River trip was that nothing was ever over crowded!

Perhaps the best advice I can give is that Tauck River cruises are very peaceful and extremely well orchestrated. If you are a type A personality, and need to know what is going to happen every minute of every day, you are on the wrong trip. But if you can sit back and let things happen without a care in the world you will love this experience.

As you can tell, we love the Tauck experience! Having every expense taken care of before you leave home adds tremendously to enjoying the trip! I would also recommend using the trip forums on the Tauck web site for your itinerary as the best place to ask questions, however even here you will find Tauck guest much more reserved about communicating.

Hope each of you have a great cruise!

Stay away from Viking! 190 passengers per ship, take a look at Tauck, same size ship, but only 130 passengers, makes a much better less crowded experience. Also I'm not sure an 18 day river cruise would be my first choice for someone your age. River cruises are very quiet, nothing at all like an ocean cruises. A 7day first experience will give you a better idea of what to expect.

We did this exact itinerary two years ago from Newark. Flew nonstop Neawrk to Munich then Munich to Basel returning directly Amsrerdam to Newark. The reason we selected Munich was the nice layover, smaller airport, easy to get around. We flew United but I know that Luftansa has the same service with shorter layover. This year we are doing a Danube cruise/ trip that starts in Prague. Again we are flying Newark to Munich then Munich to Prague with Luftassa.

We did a Tauck Rhine River cruise a year ago:

Rafting is a major issue, we needed to climb a steep set of narrow steps up to the boat alongside ours, cross over a narrow bridge between boats and then go down another narrow steep outside set of stairs to the main deck of our boat,

None of the river boats have elevators that go up to the sundeck meaning if rafting requires the use of the sundeck you are stuck. You never know where rafting will happen. In our case we left the boat at one docking location (and had to walk .5 miles to where the buses were located. We returned to the boat, after an excursion to Heidelberg, to find our boat rafted on the outside of another boat!

Good luck with you're planning, but mobility and river cruises in Europe are a significant issue.

We do a similar Tauck trip in May, ending in Budapest with two nights in a hotel as a part of the trip. Looks to me like there are visits, on our trip, to the market, opera house, and most of the other major sites. We also get two half days to explore on our own. If you have traveled with Tauck before you probably know their reputation is primarily a land tour company. They do a much better job than most at providing unique experiences. We did their Rhine cruise a year ago and loved the fact that the actual walking tours never exceeded 12-15 people to a local guide.

We did Basel to Amsterdam and thought it was a great direction. We did an extra day in both cities. The benefit of starting in Basel is the size of the city (very doable great free transportation a great first day to recover from the flight). Amsterdam was interesting, but very crowded, way too busy for the first day of the trip. Consider flying into Munich, great connection to Basel and not the mess of Paris, London, or Frankfort.

We booked in April 2016 for a cruise May 2017, glad we did, within two weeks our cruise date was no longer available, all cabins taken (Tauck).

One area that is important to us is size vs number of guests on a river boat. Most river boats are roughly the same size, but Viking carries 180+ people, while Tauck for example has the same size boat, but carries 130 people. This means no lines for dinning rooms, no standing in the lounge for port talks, and much better ratio of guests to tour guides. It is also important to consider what is included for the cost and what is not. If you like to have a drink in the afternoon, before dinner, or in the lounge after dinner, or you don't want the aggravation of gratuities for crew, guides, wait staff, you don't want up charges for certain tours then select an all inclusive line. Viking is less expensive until you add the up-charges. Other, upper end cruise lines, are all inclusive, you pay up front and you are done! We enjoy the Tauck experience, but there are other good all inclusive river cruise lines. If I were you I would start a spread sheet based on itineraries. Good luck and have a great cruise.

Unlike ocean cruises there are typically no sea/river days. During the day you are docked with no view or rafted next to another boat and at night you are cruising. The best location for viewing is always on the sundeck particularly if cruise through a scenic part of a river. Remember scenery on a river is on both sides of the boat!!

We did this trip in May, 2015, from Basel to Amsterdam and had no weather issues. Sat up on the sundeck of Tauck Inspire on most days. We are leaving his May 18 on Tauck Savor, Danube trip. May, especially mid-late late May, is an ideal time, warm but not hot. Be certain to select a river boat that has covered/shaded areas on the sundeck. Some are wide open and could be very hot in the sun.

This could be a problem since there is lock work being done and some boats can't get to Basel, and therefore must dock miles away. A year ago our Tauck cruise had to dock in Strasbourg because the water level was too high in Basel. Make certain you have a way to contact Viking once in europe for the exact location of the boat. Tauck always organizing transfers so we did not have an issue. None of this may impact your cruise, but you never know!

your spreadsheet is good, but I would add a few additional items:

1. Cost of excursions (some include all some include only one per day)

2. Airport pickup and drop off charges.

3. Included hotel stays before and or after the cruise.

4. included meals on shore during the cruise.

5. Flexibility of arrival day and departure day.

For us the real determination is the itinerary followed by how a particular line has handled low and high water levels over the past.