Factors to consider when choosing a river cruise

Travel and Leisure

This question comes up regularly in the Facebook group I belong to, "We're new to river cruising... which is the best company to go with?" This question to me is like, "I've never driven a car, but I was wondering if someone could recommend one for me." Everyone will have different needs and wants, so it seems a little odd that one would ask complete strangers for advice for their next European vacation. There are so many variables that go into choosing your European vacation provider, so I thought I'd jot down some thoughts for your consideration.

Budget

This is likely the number one factor for most of you reading this; in fact, the rest of your consideration factors essentially need to be balanced out against the different financial options. I'll explain more on that below, but if budget is not a concern, you can probably stop reading this blog post, and go with Tauck. I mean, if you have a Bentley sitting in the garage, there probably wasn't even a consideration of who to sail Europe's waterways with. Have I been on Tauck? No, but I don't need own a Bentley to know that you're going to have an exceptional drive. But for the rest of us who drive Fords and Hyundais, who find that a Tauck cruise at $850-1,000/night¹ can't be justified, what are the next best options? I've done a price comparison before, and the other two Deluxe operators' (Uniworld and Scenic) list prices come in at around $800/night. You should be able to find decent sale prices for those two (edit: Scenic has been offering 2-for-1 deals through Travelzoo promos), but if you move downmarket into the First Class category, you'll find prices on Ama, Avalon, Emerald and Viking in the $550-750/night range, but usually good promos can bring those down to $300-450/night. Signing up for discount emails from the various operators and marketing sites can bring things down to a very palatable $200-250/night. Be on the lookout for 2-for-1 sales and promotions; of course, someone always says, "you get what you pay for", but in our experience, you get the same cruise that others are getting, just for much less money.

Quantity vs. Quality

When people ask the question on the group, "who's your favourite river cruise operator?", the highest number of results will come back with Viking. Why Viking? It's because they have the most ships and have the largest marketing budget. If say, 70 out of 100 cruisers have sailed with Viking, when you ask the question, you're probably going to get 70% saying that Viking was their choice. It's like saying, who knows who McDonalds is? Everyone does, of course, but do they make the best hamburgers, or is that the restaurant for you? That's subjective, but most would say that their product is very predictable and consistent. I'd argue that Viking is the same; while there are some that complain about their pre-payment policy, they can't have the most ships without delivering a decent quality service, over and over again. Many folks have commented however, that Viking does put the most guests per ship, compared to other brands. Less well-known names with a fraction of the number of ships seem to spend less on marketing and may offer a better experience, with fewer travellers packed onto your ship. Edit: With the recent Rhine water level issues, it is worth noting that Viking having so many ships can be beneficial when the water is too low or too high; they are able to offer "ship swap" modifications to the itinerary, whereas other operators may skip ports, or cancel cruises entirely.

Balancing your travel priorities

So what may be right for the majority of river cruisers, may not be right for you. Unfortunately, that's where the difficulty comes in for most newbies to this unique form of European travel; they don't know what river cruising is like, and therefore don't know how to differentiate the multitude of offers. But what are your priorities with respect to travel? Duration? Time of year? Flexibility? Exclusivity? Inclusions? Activities? Are you more interested in the "itinerary" and are just using the cruise as a floating mini-hotel with boutique restaurant, or is the cruise experience why you are going, and don't really care where you are? I guess my suggestion in this area, is that unless you have buckets of cash, trade-offs can and need to be made in order to satisfy the higher priority factors. e.g. If budget is more important than say, time of year, you are probably going to have to sacrifice something, and sail in the heat of the summer, when Europe is at its busiest, and river cruising prices are the lowest. Or maybe you just can't possibly think of travelling without a butler, so you're going to be limited to sailing with Scenic, or Uniworld (in a suite). And sure we'd like to have bicycles available for use, but is not having them worth passing up a $200/night sale on Gate 1 who doesn't offer them? I can't tell you what your priorities are, but as you peruse the different options available, make note of what your most important factors are, and be prepared to sacrifice the ones lower down your list.

Which operator?

Since I'm writing this primarily for river cruising newbies, who may never have set foot in Europe, this is an important factor that relates to the first one, budget. I wrote an entire post on this, but since you've never done a river cruise, virtually any First Class operator and route will delight you. It's like a high-definition TV; if you've never watched a movie on a 4k screen, you don't know what you're missing with your normal 1080p one. Sure, there are regional differences to each route, but the overall experience is pretty much the same. Yes, the Deluxe operators will have some perks and offerings that you can't/won't get on a 1st Class cruise, but you won't be regretting not having these, since you don't have any frame of reference. And I've stood on shore, waiting for our walking tour to depart, watching the tour guides who have just finished with one group, take off their Viking lanyards and QuietVox headsets, exchanging them for the Gate 1 versions; i.e. the walking tour you get with one operator is the same as the other operators' guests will experience. My message to the newbies here, is don't get caught up in the marketing fluff; you're going to have a great time regardless, so pick the one that best suits your budget and matches with your priorities.

When to go

This is probably going to come as a surprise, but peak season(s) for river cruising are late spring/early summer and late summer. Prices start to increase as the temperatures warm up in spring, but ease up in the heat of the summer, and climb back up later into September. I believe this also coincides with the demographics of the average river cruiser; early 60s to late 70s retirees with no kids to worry about. If you match that description, you're probably also going to want to avoid the heat and crowds in Europe in the summer. Therefore, some of the best sale prices you'll find will be in mid-August, but do you really want to brave the heat and battle with all of the tourists then? Of course there are other cruises where you don't have a choice of timing - e.g. Tulips and Windmills and Christmas Markets. But for most of the rest, you might want to sacrifice some budget to go at a more suitable time of year. There is also the issue of water levels in the river being too high in the spring, or too low in the late summer, but you can't really plan around that. This is especially true this summer; read more on water levels in this post.

Room choice

This is a topic that gets a lot of excited debate in the FB group. Some will swear that you absolutely need to be in a Viking Veranda Suite to enjoy your trip. Others will prefer to save money and opt for the small rooms at the bottom of the ship, with only small, water-level windows to peer out of (I don't recommend these rooms). This is where your priorities come in, and should influence your choice of provider and room. Christmas market cruising? You probably don't want to shell out big bucks for a dedicated outdoor space in the wintertime. Bed absolutely has to face the windows? Avalon. I wrote a more extensive piece on the different types of "balconies" available, but what I want to bring up is the delta in price to move up from the base package. On a 7-night cruise for example, to upgrade from the cheapest room on Viking to a tiny French balcony room will add another $500-600 per person. A larger Veranda room will add $1,000-1,200. On Gate 1's flagship, the Monarch Empress, moving up to a French balcony room for 7-nights varies between $200-400, and an Emerald upgrade to a 180 sq. ft. Panorama stateroom will only set you back $360 per person. 

Ship decor

I wasn't going to write about this, but there is one operator that has interior decor that cruisers either love or hate - Uniworld. Where most operators have gone with clean, sleek lines (e.g. Emerald, Scenic) and others have stayed with contemporary looks (Avalon, Tauck), Uniworld's interiors border on gaudy. It wouldn't be a big issue if you were getting a great deal, and you could overlook the opulent style for a week or so, but their rates are among the highest. Some of their rooms on the middle deck also don't have windows that open (their "regal" series of ships), so you'd have to put up with the outlandish decor AND not be able to have any fresh air in your room. Don't believe me? Have a look at this article from Business Insider.

Independent travel vs. fully guided

Lanyard-free exploring

This is the primary difference between a Deluxe, fully all-inclusive river cruise, and the rest of the 1st Class operators. Are you an independent traveller? Or do you prefer to be pampered virtually every moment of your day? If you're looking at river cruises, you are probably somewhere in-between, but my research would indicate that the more independent you are, the less you need to spend on your river cruise. e.g. With a 1st class cruise, once you have finished the free, included walking tour of the old town area, you can just put your tour lanyard in your pocket, and head off on your own. Go back to the ship for a gourmet lunch? Nah, just grab some schnitzel in town, and keep doing your own thing. Meanwhile, the folks that have paid a premium for a deluxe, fully organized trip, will probably be carted back to the ship for lunch, and be taken off to the next scheduled tour, whether they wanted it or not. Not a fan of the symphony? No problem, since you haven't paid for the optional Schönbrunn Palace concert. In our experience, some of the optional tours take too much time away from your own self-guided options, and use up that precious time that you have in port.

Activity level / average age of guests

Not wheelchair-friendly

It may not surprise you that there are not many/no young people who participate on river cruises, probably due to the relatively high cost, and perceptions of what it is like travelling on European waterways. Some operators do offer more active excursions (Avalon, Emerald, Ama) and many have bikes available for self-guided cycling in or between ports. On the flip side, virtually all lines will have a “slow walkers” group for the daily excursions, but sometimes this does not equate to less walking, just a slow(er) pace. I’ve read that Viking has an older demographic that others, and when we sailed on Uniworld and Vantage, we estimated the average age to be late 70s. Boarding the small canal boat in Bruges (pictured) was an extremely difficult task for some members in our group, and pretty much everything moved slower than we would have liked. While you can’t choose who the other guests on your ship will be, it is a factor to consider when selecting your river cruise operator. I have a hypothesis that the more expensive a cruise costs, the older the average age will be. Our upper Danube cruise was with Gate 1, the leader in river cruise price/performance, we were pleasantly surprised that the average age was in the 60s. This made things like going through evening port talks, and loading/unloading coaches go much more smoothly and efficiently. We also noticed a much higher participation in the evening entertainment events; on our other two cruises, the lounge was virtually empty after dinner.

Beverage services

Another common question comes up on the group with respect to alcohol, and what is included vs. the fully all-inclusive operators. I think one important point should be noted, is that unlike an ocean cruise, you don't really spend that much time on the ship. Think of it as a luxury, floating boutique hotel; with all of the daily tours and activities (self-planned or organised by the operator) that you end up doing, we find that we barely have time for one drink before heading to the dining room. Everyone includes beer and wine with dinner, most offer with lunch as well. There's even a couple of evenings where they offer free cocktails in the lounge (welcome reception and Captain's farewell dinner). So unless you take your drinking seriously, I'd suggest that the alcohol package (if offered) may not be worth it; you can always buy a drink here or there, à la carte.

Other inclusions / options

The Deluxe operators will sell you on an exclusive, fully all-inclusive river cruise, with nothing left for you to buy, and many will swear by the ability to "leave your wallet at home!" For a first-timer, this has a lot of appeal, especially if they have experience with ocean cruising, where almost everything comes with an additional cost. However, for pretty much all the operators that fall into the 1st Class category, it is what I like to call "almost all-inclusive". Aside from alcohol noted above, there are very few extra things that you might have to pay for over and above the initial package price. Usually, there will be optional tours (over and above the included daily excursion), and these range in price from $60-100 per person. Tips can sometimes be pre-paid, and are ~$20/night pp for onboard staff, and €2 per guide for onshore tours. So for a typical 1st Class, 7-night river cruise, you might end up paying $300 per person for these extras; Tauck, Scenic and Uniworld cruisers will say that they don't have to worry about these, but they are essentially pre-paying for all of these and more. Everyone lists their inclusions on their webpage, and any optional tours that you might find interesting; it's very easy to total up what you might end up paying with a 1st Class cruise and determine if the additional $2,500-3,000 per person is worth going up to a Deluxe operator. 

When to buy?

This is a good question that comes up on the FB group only occasionally, "when are the best deals available?" For most operators, their sailing season starts in early spring, and continues right through to Christmas Markets in December. But that doesn't mean you need to time your search around the approximate departure date of your potential cruise. Operators offer sales all year round, typically coinciding with traditional sale events (e.g. Canada Day, Black Friday, etc.). Sometimes, this means buying (or at least placing your deposit) over a year in advance. Yes, last minute deals do come up, but I'd call them more like "last few months deals", as I've seen deeply discounted fares on unsold rooms from 3 to 6 months out. If you're flexible on route and dates, you will have the best shot at securing a ridiculous deal on a First Class river cruise. And I'm not talking about a $300/night rate on a mid-August sailing; no, you can find great options for May/June and September/early October if you are patient. Update: I have noticed that recently the middle deck, rear staterooms (usually exactly the same as the rest of the French balcony rooms) are selling out quickly - e.g. even a year in advance. So my typical advice of waiting for the best deal to come around may not work if you're really wanting that late-September Rhine cruise.

I'm sure that some of you may have other deciding factors that will play into your next river cruise buying decision, but I hope that these ideas will give you fuel for thought.

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¹ all prices discussed in this post are USD or approximated USD equivalent; all rooms compared are French balcony or equivalent