Feedback on Grand Circle cruise line?

[Lindancer]

9 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

That's an interesting way of justifying no choice of excursions!  

 

I much prefer AMA (and Scenic, also in my experience) for an extensive list of excursions that works for those who want a 'postcard' tour as well as those who want to do something off the beaten track [especially useful if you have already visited the area].  I'm sorry you had a poor Cruise Director on AMA (my experience has been better), but as you note the CD doesn't lead the excursions – local guides are hired for that purpose.  I also disagree about the photo previews: seeing the details is very helpful for those who are still debating between choices. 

Maybe, but the awe factor is gone when you've already seen all the castles in the Loire Valley that were on the next day's agenda!  And since this was a Loire Valley extension, there was no debating among choices.

[RobInMN]

3 hours ago, Lindancer said:

I have been on 4 Grand Circle river cruises, 1 with Gate 1 and 1 with AMAwaterways.  Grand Circle was by far the best. And it is all because of the GUIDES.  Your personal guide (and there is usually one guide for every 25-30 passengers) will call you at home before you leave to ask if you have questions and then of course your number will be in his/her phone.  I once got lost in Antwerp and when I dialed our guide, she picked up saying "what's up Linda?"  The guides are also from the area in which you are traveling and extremely knowledgeable.  My AMAwaterways cruise was in the Bordeaux region of France and our guide was from IRELAND, currently living in Hungary.  He knew nothing about the French or their customs and embarrassed us by sending us into a full cafe in the middle of their extremely short lunch hour window, among other shortcomings.   He also had 160 passengers to deal with, although AMA sends you off with a local for whatever tour you picked.  His idea of a port talk the night before a stop was to show you photos of what you were going to see the next day - hello, can you say spoiler alert?  GCT doesn't make you pick your one shore excursion - they simply take you everywhere of interest you need to go.  Occasionally when there is an optional excursion offered, for which you do have to pay additional.  I also thought the food was quite good.

I haven't sailed with GCT since 2018, but I doubt that they changed their modus operandi.

L. Conrath

I couldn't disagree more. I agree with @Host Jazzbeau. However, my parents absolutely love GC.

You do have a way to spin GC's negatives to sound like positives though.

• 1 CM for 25-30 people the whole cruise? No thanks. I prefer smaller groups. Especially when they are broken up as "Active", "Gentle", or just "regular"
• While 1 CM being some sort of expert on the whole region might work for something like the Bordeaux region of France, That does not work so well on the Danube where you might visit 9 countries. I far prefer having local expert guides than a CM that is expected to be an expert for all stops. "Jack of all trades, master of none". The CM on Ama serves a different purpose than a CM on GC. The Ama CM is more of a coordinator. They coordinate all the tours with all the local expert guides. They figure out how many guides are needed for each tour. to keep the numbers per guide low. Our recent Ama CM always went out on one of the tours, and where ever practical, would bounce around from group to group to audit the guides and be available if anyone needed anything.
• There were 4 CMs on our GC Christmas Markets cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna. None of them were German. Let alone from Bavaria or Austria. So that is not always the case.
• No excursion choices? Again, no thanks. I like having options. There is no way you can see "everywhere of interest you need to go" in a way that satisfies everyone. I like "Cathedrals, Castles, Forts, & Ruins". Some people are more into wine tours. or even shopping.
• Any quality cruise line will give you a way to contact the ship or someone on the ship if there is an emergency (like getting lost).
• GC's food was "meh". And we are not foodies. Ama's food, while arguably good, tries to be a bit fancy for our preference, but we never went hungry. 
• #1 complaint about GC for us are the cabins. We will not go on GC again by our choice. At least not on a European river cruise, due to the cabins. The dual permanent/fixed fold down single bunks is an absolute no-go for us. We'd even be fine with a double (that's what we get at my in-laws).