River cruising

Hope you have fun. We did a river cruise up the Rhine and certainly didn't dress up- just smart casual.

Many many thanks for all your helpful information, and I'm glad that it's not only me who will have been helped out! Now I can go ahead and book our holiday with confidence, and my DH is very grateful too. I'll let you know how we get on, we should be away in May.

We have had experience of Riviera Travel Viking RT and CroisiEurope . For the last one we booked through a UK travel company and did not realise we , English speakers , would be in the minorty . We found ourselves with about a dozen Brits and load of very noisy Spaniards . On one trip we did and paid for there was no English translation at all all day . The two ladies we had gone on the trip with kicked up such a fuss about it when we got back to the ship that the purser returned all our money for the day . We found that buying a bottle of water at dinner was more expensive than beer but you were allowed to take you bottle to you cabin . We just bought large bottles of water onshore and refilled our bottle to take back to the dining room.
I would say Viking were a posher set than Riviera travel but both were great for the cruises we did . I love river cruising and no need to dress up . The Danube Rhine and Seine were all spectacular cruises .We met some lovely people and I have fond memories of them still . One chap was 90 and had been the assistant director on the Dambusters film .

VRC are not exclusively seniors, 95% seniors. The gratuity on VRC; envelopes are passed out with a reminder noting VRC suggested tip scheme. We tip as we feel inclined, to our chamber maid and servers in the area where we dine, totaling 5-7% of the overall cruise expense. The crew tends Eastern European, thus tips are a lovely way to give back.

We found Viking were not exclusively seniors. We even had a young honeymoon couple on one!, but they are not for children certainly. As regards tipping, a few years ago Viking started giving out a separate envelope for the cruise host person. If you think about it, if everyone put something in that, then that person would walk off with thousands every week, at the expense of the galley maid who works just as hard. So we usually discard that envelope. On the trips we have done, the gratuity is in an anonymous envelope. we find the Americans want to know exactly how much a day they should put in, whilst the Brits seem to want to put a meaningful amount that reflects the wonderful service, but won't be dictated to by the company! We usually give a separate note to our cabin maid and maybe a favourite waiter who has been on hand all week to fill DH's glass up, lol. The good thing is that on cashless cruises, you don't have to worry about tipping all the time, unless you want to give a coin to the guide or bus driver etc.

We have done a few cruises with Riviera and can highly recommend them. All British passengers - you might like that or not - smart casual in the evening, sparkly top for the Captains dinner, good food, drinks are not free and tipping is at your discretion. The staff are great, often Eastern European and the passengers aged 60 upwards.

I river cruised with 'Avalon' a fantastic experience from aAmsterdam cruising the Rhine and Danube , only 6 Brits on board remainder , mainly American And Australian, it was a retirement ' Gift ' for my widowed friend on her retirement, and she asked me too go with
her , the experience was amazing , great service. Great food, and we as you wondered about Dress, but smart casual was all that was needed , just enjoy xx

The Aussies on our river cruises don't tip nor were they expected to. However, the Americans just expected to and were absolutely ripped off as far as we could see. Us Brits seemed to be offered more discretion. We drew our own conclusions.

The gratuity bit is tiresome. We devised our own scheme.

Wow thank you all for this! We have booked our first ever river cruise for this April and it suddenly occurred yesterday to me that there may be a dress code and now you have all put my mind at rest! I will relax and enjoy it ?

I did my first river cruise with Viking in May last year - fantastic trip on the Danube, Budapest to Passau. Regarding dress code it was stated as smart casual but I have to say a few of the mainly Americans (95%) on board totally disregarded this and used to turn up for dinner in shorts and flip flops, but it was the wearing of hats/caps at the dinner table that really used to wind me up! Anyway, that aside I found every aspect of the cruise absolutely brilliant and have never felt so pampered in my life. I thought the food was outstanding and yes, very easy to overeat. I thoroughly enjoyed the regional food, in particular the Taste of Austria evening. The included daily tours were wonderful and the local guides were brilliant. I was a single traveller but soon made friends with a mix of other passengers. I think river cruises are great as by their very nature there are not hundreds or even thousands of passengers.

We did a Rhine cruise with Saga for our 40th anniversary. Small ship - had about 120 passengers on board so you knew everyone at least by sight. Thoroughly enjoyed it, our first attempt at cruising as I'm not a great lover of being on water. We didn't have to dress up unless we wanted to so we didn't. I tend to go for black trousers, a strappy summer top and an overshirt or light jacket to dress it up a bit. Husband took a jacket but didn't wear it.
The only "problem" we found was the vast quantity of food on offer - you could have 4 courses for breakfast, lunch and dinner and afternoon tea and late night supper if you wanted it ( a bit like Hobbits)! It's very easy to put on half a stone in weight in 2 weeks.
We loved seeing different places without having to live out of a suitcase. We've been on 2 sea cruises since so it certainly didn't put us off.

Cabin, doesn't matter which side of the boat, there are interesting sites on both sides and always the upperdeck. The excursions are after breakfast and after lunch. Some of the excursions are difficult for some, but the upper age seems to be 85 and the youngest 60.

Thank you everyone, and I hope you don't mind my joining in on your post "dahlia".

Can I ask, if we're going to be travelling north to south down the Rhein, Amsterdam to Basel, does it make a difference which side we choose to have our room? I'm thinking about getting maximum sunshine, but assume it's not so important in the morning because that's when the excursions might be?

Very good point moobox. They really can't count on sitting on their balcony or even a view other than directly into the boat moored next to them. We certainly had a few frights when opening the curtains in the morning -and vice versa for the unfortunate occupants of the cabin we looked directly into! You are warned!

I've river cruised with saga in the past, but have seen the Viking boats and the dress code is pretty similar. Smart casual is the order of the day. I've never taken an evening dress, preferring smart skirts or trousers and sparkly tops. Men prefer jackets with or without a tie or if it's really warm, shirt sleeves. River cruises are not like the black tie big ship sea cruises. Enjoy yourtrip

Another point - balconies and French windows are good to enjoy, but not when moored immediately adjacent to another ship, and would need a blanket or two wrapped round you if it is out of the main season. We paid a lot more for an upper deck cabin on our first cruise, but since have always been happy with the lowest floor

I suggest you might try Amawaterways. We have been on 3 cruises with them including the Rhine. Very few Brits, so is preferable for us!

Don't worry about a dress code, I have seen "cruisers" turn up for dinner in dirty, ripped jeans.

We are going on our 5th Viking cruise this year. I like to change for dinner to feel fresh, but with the Americans we find absolutely anything goes - Harley Davison sweatshirts, Nordic jumpers, anything at all. Certainly no need to worry about being formally dressed. We find flowing wine and beer at both lunch and dinner, with pre-dinner drinks on certain nights, is more than enough alcohol for us, but they will uncork your own purchases if you want. You can even get the tiny cheese course at the end of the meal, and take it and a red wine up to the bar! Still and sparkling water are free together with hot drinks and snacks. We spend nothing when on board. We usually go for the cheapest cabin we can, as we have been most years recently so minimise the expense, so no balcony, but the lounges are very comfortable, and dinners tend to be sociable, whether you sit with different people each night or get a group of regulars. The food is very much to my taste, and I much prefer it to buffet eating. Breakfast has a buffet, an omelette chef and a la carte. Lunch has a buffet, a pasta chef, and a la carte, and dinner is a la carte , by which I mean from a set menu with several choices. You can ask for as many of the courses as you fancy e.g. starter and soup, dessert and cheese, or two main courses!! DH often chooses from the regular plain food offerings of chicken, salmon or steak or Caesar salad, but those are just extra on the menu. I agree with the poster who said the regional nights have poor food - one night only, as they are usually very meat based. The wine provided is fine, unless you are a real wine buff and go for the drinks package. The French cruise has the best wine of course. They have afternoon talks or cooking demos sometimes. Enjoy!

Thanks Persistantdoner for your much appreciated reply,it always seems that the miles involved determin whether you refer to it as a holiday or not,is an hour up the road far enough for some maybe not.

Good for you Knitting Gran, there may be lots of places in the world I have not visited, but there are so many places I still need to see within the U.K.

Last summer I stayed for a week in the next county, and visited lots of NT properties.

When my children were small we always stayed fairly close to home; I used to joke that I might pop home to feed the cat.

A change is definitely as good as a rest, and I am sure you will feel like you are having a holiday. Hopefully you will have plenty of . Have a great time.

Would love to do a river cruise,in a couple of weeks we are going really mad and travelling twenty two miles to holiday near home yorkshire coast,does anyone else ever holiday near to home.Will it still feel like a holiday.

We bought local wine and a bottle of brandy. Wine and beer are served at lunch and dinner gratis.

Can you buy a bottle of local wine to drink in your stateroom when you stop off or do you have to buy if from the bar on board?