European River Cruises

[Dick912]

We have been on 31 ocean cruises so far. We have done very little European cruising and no river cruises. Which European river cruise lines are geared more for North American people?

[LHT28]

there is  a river cruise forum  you may want to have a read over there https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/115-river-cruising/

[Shmoo here]

1 hour ago, Dick912 said:

We have been on 31 ocean cruises so far. We have done very little European cruising and no river cruises. Which European river cruise lines are geared more for North American people?

We used Vantage.  They are based in Boston, and our 2 trips with them were primarily US citizens.

[wheezedr]

Obviously Viking with its massive US advertising campaign would fall into that category.  My biggest tip would be that you carefully research river cruising.  We did the Grand European and throughly enjoyed it.  However many experienced ocean cruisers are surprised when river cruising.  In fact I always point out that ocean and river cruises basically only have 2 things in common, they are on a ship and they take place on water.

[paul929207]

We have taken a half dozen or so river cruises with Overseas Adventure Travel. Loved them all.

 

The previous posted is right there are significant differences between ocean and river cruises.

[dogs4fun]

We have booked river cruises on both Viking and Gate 1 - loved them all. Just booked our first Uniworld river cruise. All are geared toward North Americans (there are other lines as well geared toward the NA market with which I have no experience).

I would carefully research which company to use as prices and payment policies greatly differ. There are cheerleaders on the boards for any given cruise line - I recommend that you choose the line which best suits you.

The river cruise forum is a great place to begin:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/115-river-cruising/

[marco]

We've been on Vantage, Grand Circle and Viking....more than once on all, and on all of them all of the passengers were from the US. 

[Roz]

I've taken 3 Uniworld river cruises, and their cruises are geared towards English speakers.  Most of the passengers were from the US, but there were also Canadians, Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis.

 

Roz

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, Roz said:

I've taken 3 Uniworld river cruises, and their cruises are geared towards English speakers.  Most of the passengers were from the US, but there were also Canadians, Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis.

 

Roz

We've had a similar experience on 3 Uniworld cruises. The number of US passengers was probably less than 50% (much less on one cruise when there were almost as many Aussies plus a good number of Canadians and Brits).  We've really enjoyed the passenger demographics - you meet some very interesting people.

[Barrheadlass]

9 hours ago, paul929207 said:

We have taken a half dozen or so river cruises with Overseas Adventure Travel. Loved them all.

 

The previous posted is right there are significant differences between ocean and river cruises.

You mean cruises with Grand Circle.  OAT doesn’t do river cruises.  I’ve taken a number of GCT cruises, they market only to Americans.  On my two Uniworld cruises, there were British, German, and Aussies.  I really prefer a mix of nationalities.