Favourite River Cruise Operator?

Travel and Leisure

Note: Updated October 2022 after Emerald trip, extensively detailed here. Also, I wrote a review of our Gate 1 cruise and recently posted here.

The other day, the moderator to the river cruise FB group asked, "Which River Brand is your Personal Favorite?" That got me to thinking about it, and to answer her question, I needed to jot down some notes.

We've been on four river cruises: Uniworld (Rhine), Vantage¹ (Tulips & Windmills), Gate 1 (upper Danube) and just recently Emerald (lower Danube). Let me start off by saying that all four of these operators were excellent, but there were subtle differences that I will try to outline below.

Stateroom on the Ship

As with all operators, the room offered for your cruise will change by route, date and class of service purchased. The age of the ship, and the room size/layout should be taken into consideration; the booking site will tell you the name of the ship for you to look up. We travelled on all four in either middle or upper deck staterooms, but on Uniworld, it was a very old ship, that has now been retired (moved to the U by Uniworld fleet), and our room was small, with only a window (vs. floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors), and had a tiny bathroom. Note that Uniworld is famous (infamous?) for their ornate interiors that cruisers either love or hate, but our room pre-dated those changes. Conversely, the Vantage River Voyager was virtually brand new, and you could tell; the bathroom was almost bigger than the one we have at home! Gate 1 leases most of their ships, but it was in pretty good shape for her age, and we had little to complain about, with floor-to-ceiling windows and ample room to move around. Update: I have noticed that Gate 1 has picked up the lease on the River Voyager and renamed it the Monarch Queen. So now, in addition to their own ship, the Monarch Empress, they have the Queen as well. The Emerald Star was a very eye-pleasing design, with smooth surfaces and clean lines, and the room felt bigger than it actually was. The way the window slid down was cool, but the wooden railing blocked your view when sitting in the chairs. The Emerald bathroom was small, but the shower had better space than on Uniworld and our Gate 1 ship.

Winner: Gate 1 Monarch Queen (the Vantage River Voyager at the time). 2nd to Emerald and 3rd to Gate 1 (Monarch Baroness); unfair to judge Uniworld based on ship age.

Included Excursions

We found that our first three river cruise operators had similar included daily tours in our port of call. We disliked how Vantage and Emerald did not separate the "slow walkers" into their own group, and both Vantage and Uniworld put you on a fixed list for which bus to load onto. Gate 1 had a "first come, first serve" coach loading policy; that way we didn't have to wait for Lorna the Looky Loo to dawdle back to the bus before we could leave. Gate 1 did not have bicycles for use, but we found that we would not have had time to use them anyways, as our own self-guided touring kept us too busy. It is hard to punish Emerald for their Eastern Europe itinerary, as that portion of the Danube is much less populated and developed than the rest of Europe; as such, tours almost always required a bus trip, rather than just stepping off the ship into town. However, they could have handled the long excursions better by adding a meal allowance and staying in towns longer rather than rushing us back to the ship for lunch. We made use of the bikes on Emerald, Uniworld and Vantage, so that was a bonus.

Winner: slight edge to Gate 1, tie for 2nd/3rd, Emerald last.

Meals and Food Quality

Here's another one that is very close, but still there were slight differences. All four operators served very good to excellent food, and there was no clear winner from food quality perspective. However, Uniworld and Vantage did not offer a regional-specific dish, whereas Gate 1 served goulash for lunch in Budapest, weiner schnitzel in Vienna, etc. Emerald too, offered a regional dish as their chef's recommendation each evening, but portion size was smallish. Both Emerald and Vantage offered a lighter, buffet-style lunch in the café at the back of the ship or lounge upstairs. Emerald served me a couple of entrées that I felt were just ok - not quite up to the fine dining experience of our other three cruises. Strangely, they also did not offer any coffee service after dinner, and I'd have to run upstairs to the lounge to grab an espresso.

Winner: tie for first with Gate 1 for regional dishes, Vantage for café lunch at the back; Uniworld a close third, and Emerald last place, but not bad by any means.

Value for Dollar

This is a narrow field for us, because we are not travellers who will pay $700+/night for river cruising, so that eliminates major players like Tauck, Uniworld, and Scenic (although I have seen them offer 2-for-1 deals recently). But when we did sail with Uniworld, it was when she was a travel agent, and so the rate we paid cannot be reasonably compared with the others. However, looking up recent pricing offered by Uniworld, I can safely say that their prices come in at almost triple that of Gate 1 and at least double what a good deal with Emerald will set you back. We found Uniworld neither significantly different nor better than Emerald, Vantage or Gate 1, and certainly not enough to justify thousands of dollars more. With Vantage and Gate 1, we booked using a Travelzoo discount code that brought the per night cost down to $160 per person! We also found out about Emerald's 2-for-1 deal from a Travelzoo email blast, so it certainly pays to sign up for their updates. It doesn't really make sense to compare value using list prices, as I am hoping that no one is paying the published rate. Some reading this will say, "but Tauck is all-inclusive!" or that "with Uniworld, you leave your wallet at home!" While that may be true, with Gate 1 and Vantage, we only paid extra for one or two optional tours, and tips at the end - probably totalling a few hundred dollars per person. Emerald had very few optional tours, and having tips included avoided the annoying task of trying to find spare coins in the right currency for the local guides. Everyone includes free wine and beer with dinner (and most with lunch); I've never purchased an additional drink package. I don't drink alcohol at lunch, and sometimes will pick up a few local beers in town to try in our room or the deck while winding down from day touring. I've also managed to get over-served more than a few nights at dinner on both Vantage and Gate 1!

Winner: Tie - Vantage and Gate 1. Emerald next, then Uniworld comes in at very distant last place.

Customer Service

Customer service is also a key consideration - I'd say it was equal for the most part on the first three ships. However, I did notice some service hiccups on Emerald in the dining room, and my hypothesis is that their wait staff doesn't have the same incentive that the other cruises have w.r.t. tipping. e.g. on Gate 1, the servers were hopping to keep our glasses full and ensuring that we were well fed. Want more food? Sure, let me see if there's an extra entrée in the kitchen. Don't expect much in terms of onboard entertainment each evening, but Uniworld and Vantage were both very snoozy. The Gate 1 Cruise Director and Activity Host were exceptional, but that will vary from ship to ship, and operator to operator. Emerald's Activity Host tried to interact with the guests often, but we felt that she seemed to be trying too hard, rather than having the engagements flow naturally. With respect to pre-cruise experience, we did receive great call centre service from both Vantage and Gate 1. Emerald had some challenges in the first half of 2022 due to being hacked and some other factors, but I believe these are behind them now, and we didn't experience any issues. I didn't book our Uniworld trip, so can't comment on that experience. See footnote¹ on Vantage recent issues.

Winner: slight edge to Gate 1, Emerald at 2nd, with Uniworld and Vantage tied for last place.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a number of considerations to consider when selecting and determining who is the best at river cruising.  There are some other intangibles, like the makeup of guests on board. e.g. the guests on Gate 1 were noticeably younger, which made things like loading coaches, and running through the evening briefing move faster. My hypothesis is that the more expensive the cruise, the older the guests will be - something to consider if you like making the most of your time in town, vs. waiting for the folks with canes and walkers to catch up. With our first three cruises, the majority of cruisers were American, with just a handful of Commonwealth guests. On Emerald, there were very few Americans on board, with the majority being Canadian, then Brits followed by Aussies; however average age was higher than Gate 1, but not as senior as Uniworld and Vantage.

Even though our experiences were very similar, we felt that Gate 1 was the winner, edging out Emerald. Our Emerald experience differed because of the nature of Eastern Europe, giving us a much slower paced trip, but it was still enjoyable; the more diverse mix of guests was a bonus for us, but for value, we still think Gate 1 is slightly better. If we had managed to get on Gate 1's Monarch Empress or the Monarch Queen, then it would have been hands down, Gate 1.

Want to read my other posts about river cruising? Click here.

¹ Update: June 29, 2023, Vantage Travel Services, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced that United Travel Pte. Ltd., an affiliate of Nordic Hamburg and Heritage Expeditions, has agreed to acquire Vantage's assets and provide customers with future opportunities for the travel. I would not recommend booking with this new entity until the dust settles.