Which River Cruise operator is the best value for money?

[mosstraveltv]

Preferably Europe, but I'm willing to look further afield.

 

Thanks!

[beverlyjack]

In our opinion, it is Grand Circle, but it depends on what you want out of the cruise. The accommodations are spartan compared to many of the upscale lines, but the meals are excellent as are the guides. They spend more port time than most.They will make stops in small towns that others may not, and don't have "round trip" river cruises, where you sail the same stretch of river twice. Their ships are generally smaller, so they are less affected by low or high water. They cruise Europe, Asia and South America, an, until the recent troubles, Egypt, almost entirely on their own boats

 

Their per diems are less than most, with or without airfare.

 

They do not sell through TAs. Their website is http://www.gct.com. Their target audience in 50+ Americans.

[paul929207]

We also like Gran Circle.

 

However, you question is subjective. You will find fans of many lines.

[4774Papa]

We have done Vantage and AMA and will probably use them both again. We have a Vantage trip to China in three weeks. The prices are similar and quality is high, especially the hotels they both put you in outside the river cruise.

[Talisker92]

I am a Vantage fan. We have done 3 river cruises with them and are very satisfied. We have a Russian River cruise booked with them next year

[mosstraveltv]

Thanks everyone, you're right about me being subjective, but I'm not that knowledgable about river cruise operators, and wanted to raise my awareness of a few names that other cruisers may perceive as offering a value experience. Thanks, I'll check out the above.

[4774Papa]

I am a Vantage fan. We have done 3 river cruises with them and are very satisfied. We have a Russian River cruise booked with them next year

You will love the Vantage Russia.

[WhansaMi]

I think questions like this are a minefield --- best "value for the money" is so vague, and if there is one things I've learned about river cruises, it is that you need to get very specific about what your "bottom line" is, with regard to tours (not only where, but how they are handled), food, accommodations, etc.

 

In another thread, it was suggested that the reason I didn't enjoy our river cruise was because I went with a "cheaper" line, specifically, Vantage (which, at the time we were doing comps, was pretty much in the middle for the time, itinerary, and accommodations we wanted). I don't know that is true, based on what others have said on here, but perhaps it is.

 

It would probably be most helpful if you could make a list of your requirements -- what you envision your trip to be, and let the helpful people on here match a cruise line to your needs.

 

I will say, that if a friend of mine was thinking of a river cruise, I would ask these questions (and many more, but these would be the ones off the top of my head) and share these experiences:

 

How do you feel about being within a group of 30-40 people? Do you need to be in a much smaller group?

 

How much time do you feel comfortable being on a bus?

 

Do you prefer to be on a guided, cruise line-determined itinerary in port, or do you prefer to explore on your own? (For me, it was frustrating to drive past places on the bus, and not be able to really get out and explore them). It appears some lines make it easier to go out on your own than others.

 

What do you require with regard to bedding? Some lines only have Murphy beds or twin beds, while others have queens.

 

How active are you? Do you bike? Some river cruises have bikes you can take off the ship. Other lines seem to have a much, much older demographic. How are you with people who walk slowly? If the the line advertises an "active" group distinction, find out **exactly** what that means, as on our cruise, it only meant that the active group walked up steps the other group didn't.

 

What kind of fellow passenger would you prefer to travel with? On my cruise, it was almost entirely Americans; in retrospect, if I'd thought about this question, I may well have opted to be with a more heterogeneous group.

 

What kind of entertainment needs do you have? I found the entertainment on our ship not to my liking (but not bad... many people enjoyed it). Because there were limited public areas on the ship, once dinner is over, our only option was to go up top... but that was often closed to us, as the masts needed to be taken down to get under bridges. Some ships have more than one inside public area, which provides at least some options.

 

(Honestly, as I can entertain myself pretty easily with my IPod and Kindle, I thought I would be fine, but I did find the lack of options to even just go out and read in a place that was not my cabin, and do a little people watching, to be a bit stifling.)

 

Food: How important are options for you? If you've gone on ocean liners, be prepared for fewer options, especially for dinner. From what I've seen, most lines have one meat (defined as any non-fish animal protein), one fish, and one vegetarian option per dinner. My husband doesn't like chicken, so the night the "meat" dish was chicken, he was able to ask for a steak, but, clearly, that is not the norm, as the steak was not well seasoned, and presented very plainly.

 

Also, I think all newbies to river cruising should be clear about how dinner is structured. The dining room has tables for four, six, eight and occasionally, 10 people. I know some people who had hoped to have a nice romantic dinner alone, and that just isn't what happens.

 

Breakfast is an open time, set the day before (bases on expected port time), say 6:30 - 8:00. Lunch, too, is more open, with seating anytime within the open time (e.g. 11:30 - 1:00). Dinner, however, is only one seating, at a time determined by when the tours are expected to be over -- it is also open seating, meaning you can sit where you like, but you need to be at the dining room within 10 minutes of the doors opening, because they start putting away the first courses right away, as soon as the bulk of people are done.

 

There isn't the opportunity to eat later (no room service, no late night buffets), although, on a couple of occasions, when we had eaten very early (compared to how we eat at home) I did ask for a cheese plate to take to the room. No refrigerator, but I just ate it that night. :-)

 

This was one of the challenges I encountered trying to structure going out on our own, sometimes. For instance, a couple of times, we wanted to stay longer at a museum, but knew that, if we didn't get to the ship by dinner time, we'd have to buy dinner (which we did on multiple occasions). One time, however, we knew there wouldn't be time to stay as long as we wanted, AND get dinner before the "all aboard" time. On our ocean liner cruises, it wouldn't have been an issue -- as much as we love sitting in the main dining room, we would have, on that occasion, done what we wanted to do, and then, upon getting back to the ship, ordered room service or gone to the Lido. Consequently, we had to choose.

 

On to other things: Let's face it, if we set up a trip where tours are included, we tend to want to take those tours. REALLY research the tours, as best you can (a couple of them, I found to be almost misleading, in the literature), but ask yourself "how comfortable will I be going off on my own, if I am not satisfied with the tours?" and "how much tolerance do I have for tours that are not focusing on the elements I am interested in?"

 

I know there are other things.... (one just got lonely and left my mind ;-))), but it is time for me to lie down again. [shingles suck].

 

Oh yeah... water levels. Some rivers seems to be more likely to have difficulties at some point during the year, making them impassable. It was interesting to me, reading another thread, that said something like "I hope that, if we can't go on the river, they change it to a bus tour, rather than cancel it altogether". While I hope that is the case FOR HER (and I suspect they will, rather than give up all that revenue), for me, it would be my worse nightmare. So, think about how you would handle such an eventuality, and if you decide that, like me, you couldn't handle it becoming a bus tour, do research on each boat and itinerary, and do your best to minimize the chance of being put in that position.

 

I'd urge you to think about these things, prioritize them, and then start gathering information from MULTIPLE sources about the things you feel most passionately about. Put together a list of SPECIFIC questions, and ask people to tell you which line they traveled with, and gather as much information as possible.

 

I'm sure there are other aspects that are important to people (alcoholic beverages seemed to be a big one on our cruise, but since I don't drink much, I can't really weigh in). Honestly, I didn't KNOW to ask these questions prior to our trip, and since I don't know you, I don't know what is important. But, the kind people here can, I'm sure, give you whatever, information you need.

[franski]

Thanks everyone, you're right about me being subjective, but I'm not that knowledgable about river cruise operators, and wanted to raise my awareness of a few names that other cruisers may perceive as offering a value experience. Thanks, I'll check out the above.

 

WhansaMi has some great advice...

 

Most of the responses here are in support of Vantage and Gate 1 - which primarily cater to people in the US. Your info indicates you are from Leeds - so not sure how easy it would even be to book with either of these companies.

 

The "main" players (other that the two already mentioned) are Viking, Uniworld, AMA, Avalon, Tauck and Scenic. All have websites - and will happily send you information (electronically or in print) if you sign up on their websites.

 

I do think that there are more similarities than differences - but not all lines are the same. And, there are differences in itineraries.

 

If you can narrow your choices down - or identify a few things that you really want to see - that might help --> and then people can offer advice other than "I have travelled with "X" company, and it was great..."

 

Fran

[caviargal]

Whansami gives you lots of food for thought. Value is defined differently by all of us and for us, it means much more than price.

 

We would not choose Grand Circle as the boats are too spartan and they have only older passengers. We prefer a mix of ages and nationalities.

 

We want hotel bedding, nice bathrooms and a ship that is modern and well appointed. I need a fitness center and wifi access. We both want the in cabin entertainment system to have more than a few options, as there is sometimes not much going on in the evenings and it is nice to relax and watch a current movie. Avalon and AMA both offer all of these.

 

There are some differences that influenced our enjoyment of one line over another. Bike tours, fast walker tours, an on board masseuse all influenced our enjoyment of our most recent cruise on AMA, as well as overall warmth and attitude of the crew, the best we have had on any line and boat to date.

 

Dining was a surprise for us, especially the noisy and in some cases poorly laid out dining room, which have the bulk of passengers all in one place at the same time due to set up at breakfast and lunch.

 

AMA has food stations in different locations so this cut down on crowding as well as noise levels. We also preferred the way they served dinner (veggies served to us individually at the table and samples of special for the evening offered to us to taste) and really enjoyed the wonderful cheese board at lunch and dinner.

 

We expected to have tables for 2 in the dining room based on website and brochures. This was not the case on our first few river cruises and we were surprised and disappointed as we do not always want to dine with others. We were pleased to see that AMA offered tables for 2.

 

Itineraries are important to us especially in terms of extended port times and overnight stays. Our upcoming AMA cruise has us in port late or overnight on 3 evenings, so we can go off the boat and explore the local pubs. I agree that entertainment is not our cup of tea, however AMA had more diverse and lively entertainment that suited us well.

 

To us, value is about the aspects of a cruise (or any trip) that enhance our enjoyment. While the major lines (AMA, Avalon, Uniworld, Viking) may look similar from brochures, for us the devil is in the details.

 

Then there are the more inclusive lines, Tauck and Scenic, which provide value in terms of an end to end planned experience. That is worth the higher price to some, but of no value to us as we are not interested in those added components, preferring independence in most of our trip.

 

Good luck with your decision.

[newfirsttimer]

Everyone has given you excellent advice. My advice is to understand what a river cruise is....it is a group tour on water but in a more relaxed atmosphere than a bus. I purchase a river cruise for the itinerary and the ports of call and yes, for the convenience of someone else doing all the research on the stops/towns (that's what I have paid them for). Plus I don't have to worry about finding hotels and dining establishments. I like to be docked in town in the evening so after dinner you can go off ship and mix with the locals, however, that is generally not the norm since most ships are cruising overnight. I am going with Scenic to France in 2013 and they dock overnight in the small towns so that will be my reason for taking that particular cruise. As other posters have said, which line offers the best 'value for money' depends on what you are looking for. I have only done AMA and they were great all round, this year I am trying Scenic for the more 'all inclusive' nature. You have to go with an open mind and not let little things like low/high water levels ruin your expectations, just go with the flow no matter what line you choose. River cruising is not for everyone, some love it, some hate it. Just do your research up front so there are no surprises...it's like buying a house, read the small print.

[KCcruisin07]

I wouldn't go for the least expensive on a cruise because I would be miserable with a bad choice. (I realize you said value, but that is subjective.)

 

We chose an itinerary and then narrowed down to two lines, AMA and Avalon and then I found a special on AMA. I loved AMA because of the staff, rooms, and especially the tours and tour guides.

 

Be sure to look at reports people write here and reviews to get a better idea of the pros and cons of different lines.

[1965]

We cruised with Grand Circle from Vienna to Amsterdam 2 yrs. ago, and loved it. Grand Circle did a very good job. We currently have a Russian riverboat cruise booked through Gate 1. We've not used them before, but someone on cruisecritic just posted that they have returned from a Gate 1 cruise on the MS Russ, and there were only positive remarks about the trip. We didn't book with Grand Circle for our upcoming Russian cruise because the cost was quite a bit higher than Gate 1, and we have to consider price. Whatever your choice, hope you have a wonderful cruise.:)

[Ozjohnno]

As an Australian and with the strength of the Aussie dollar taken into account I have always believed that Tauck represents great value for money. Tauck is an all-inclusive line that gave us all we wanted and more. If you want to be pampered and meet a good mix of people then may I suggest you have a look at what Tauck has to offer.