European river cruising-which one?

[mrspask]

Does anyone have experience of river cruising in Europe-how was it?Which is best trip?Which is best company?How doe it compare with Ocean experience?

[jno]

I've cruised in Russia and am going to do it in Germany soon, both with Viking. The first one was fine. Much smaller boats than ocean vessels, but pretty similar otherwise. It's nice mooring in the middle of towns - you never know where you'll end up on a sea cruise, maybe not at a wharf at all.

[Mr Veritas]

We have been on this cross Europe cruise with Scenic Cruises twice (once each way) and the quality of the cabins(most with private balconies,which no other company has) the food,and the general standard of the staff & facilities cannot be faulted.
Have a look at their video here:~
http://www.scenictours.co.uk/View-DVD/
Just scroll down to
Scenic Tours – Luxury Europe River Cruises
and do enlarge the image to get the full feel of the journey!
You can view their Europe brochure here:~
http://www.scenictour...rochure/ERC_GBP_2010/
Just clico on the magnifying symbol(bottom) for larger pages.
This is the cruise we took(and then the following year in reverse)
http://www.scenictour...er-Cruise-STC.1-1011/
but they do do other Europe cruises too.
They ARE more expensive than other Europe River Cruises,but worth every penny of the difference.
Now I have plugged them SO much,do you think they will give me a free cruise?LOL

[Mr Veritas]

PS:~
The video is in 3 parts,when the first part has finished (9minutes) just go back to the original (small) picture,and you will see the click on link for parts two and three under it.The whole video is well worth watching,even if you don't go with Scenic,the video shows you the towns and cities etc on the European River/s that you can visit with most cruise companies.

[auntiebertie]

My mother cruised with Viking last Christmas and said 'never again'. The food was terrible, the boat was shabby and they both came down with Noro, as did most of the ship. They booked flights with Viking too but on arrival at the airport in Munich Viking claimed not to know of their reservation, despite them having just got off the flight that Viking had booked for them, and the rep was about to leave two elderly ladies at Munich airport 2 days before Christmas. Disgusting customer service.

[handygran]

We did a Rhine Cruise a few years ago and it was great. You cruise during the day and stop at teatime where as on an Ocean cruise which we have just booked our 11th, you sail at night and dock for the day. I am sure though that you will like a river cruise as they are very relaxing.

[handygran]

I forgot to add that we were on a Dutch boat and the food was fantastic.

[mrspask]

thanks everyone-plenty to look at!!

[paddywak]

Not exactly a cruise, but when I was a lad in 1965, my auntie who is Dutch arranged for me and my mate to work on barge on the Rhine for 6 weeks in the summer and it turne into one of the most enjoyable holidays I've ever had. Once the loading/unloading was done, mostly by crane all we had to do was a bit of cleaning up and watch the scenery go by.Every night we moored up, quite often in villages that were off the usual tourist tracks and every couple of days there would be a 2-3 day stop over waiting for cargo one especially memorable one being 3 days in Rudeshiem, during the september wine festival, happy days