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European River Cruise Watch Outs. 14 Things The Brochures And River Cruising Lines Don't Warn You About! There are may unusual and quirky aspects to doing a river cruise along European rivers like the Danube, Rhine, Seine, Rhone and Loire. It is very different to an ocean cruise and so before you consider doing one there are at least 14 things that i think you need to be aware of and know about. They are not things you will see in the brochures or be warned about. This video explores these.
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I'm going to tell you 14 things that I
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think you need to know about river
0:02
cruising that are watch outs or things
0:04
you need to know before you go that the
0:07
cruise lines probably won't tell you and
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certainly the brochures won't warn you
0:10
about hi I'm Gary Bainbridge and this is
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another of my tips for travelers the
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goal of this is not to put you off river
0:16
cruising but it is a very different way
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of traveling and there's a whole bunch
0:20
of things that I think you need to know
0:21
to make sure that if you decide you're
0:23
gonna reduce you make the most of it
0:25
first of all you can only cruise a
0:27
relatively limited part of the year so
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the season really runs normally from
0:30
April through to October in Europe and
0:34
although there might be some Christmas
0:36
cruises or New Year's cruises like
0:38
Christmas market cruises the ships are
0:40
normally put into harbor and basically
0:42
retired for at least the first three
0:45
months of the year so there's only a
0:46
relatively limited period of time that
0:48
you can go cruising the second and
0:51
really important thing to note is that
0:53
it's very possible and sometimes almost
0:55
likely that your itineraries will get
0:57
adjusted because of water levels so
1:00
either to high water levels or to low
1:02
water levels so you might often find on
1:04
a cruise that quite close at the time
1:05
you booked to 7th at Terry and it might
1:07
get changed or even when you're on the
1:09
cruise you might find that you end up
1:10
staying on one place and getting bused
1:11
to excursions now what's very important
1:14
on river cruises you don't actually
1:15
travel that far so you might only be
1:17
traveling maybe 20 miles or 30 miles so
1:20
it is relatively easy for the river
1:21
cruise lines to then just bus you to the
1:23
different excursions in some seasons
1:25
that can be pretty bad so for example in
1:26
2018 there was huge big problems
1:28
particularly on the Danube and arteries
1:30
were constantly being changed river
1:33
cruising ships are basically all the
1:34
same because they have to be a certain
1:36
length or certain width and a certain
1:38
height to be able to cruise the rivers
1:39
of Europe so send from the outside
1:41
you'll find that all river cruising
1:43
ships look the same therefore if you
1:45
really want to understand the
1:46
differences you need to look inside so
1:47
that's why video size are really
1:49
important so you get a chance to look
1:50
inside the ship so when you're going to
1:52
go on a river cruise you can't really
1:54
tell by the outside of the ship you need
1:56
to really look inside also it's very
1:57
important to note is river cruise ships
1:59
have relatively limited facilities so
2:01
you normally find there's a very big
2:03
large lounge area with a bar you might
2:05
find at the rear of the ship there's
2:07
either another lounge or a separate
2:09
little special dining restaurant there's
2:11
a main dining
2:13
there's maybe a small fitness center
2:15
maybe a small hairdresser massage area
2:17
and a Sun Deck so facilities are very
2:20
limited and choice is very very limited
2:22
you don't have a lot of choice of dining
2:24
options so you normally find actually
2:26
particular for dinner you have to eat in
2:28
the main restaurant and there's no room
2:30
service or no alternative and that is
2:33
really important to note because it
2:34
tends to be a sit-down dinner with
2:36
multiple courses so you're gonna find in
2:38
the evening you have to commit to going
2:40
to dinner which is going to take several
2:41
hours so if you one of those people that
2:43
like some evenings just have a
2:44
relatively easy evening like if you're
2:46
an ocean cruise you might just go to the
2:48
buffer restaurant that's not an option
2:50
on river cruise boats you have to go for
2:52
a full sit-down dinner on most ships
2:54
another thing which is a big surprise
2:56
for our people on river cruises is that
2:58
the ships will normally Park parallel to
3:01
each other sometimes three or four deep
3:03
so you'll often find that you are
3:05
surrounded on all sides by another ship
3:07
so if you're in your cabin for example
3:09
you're basically looking straight into
3:10
another cabin and can be quite dark and
3:12
actually to get onto land you either
3:15
have to go through or climb up and over
3:17
the sundeck the five six on the big busy
3:19
rivers you're going to be docking in
3:21
many places multiple deep the places and
3:24
excursions you call on are extremely
3:26
similar across all river cruise lines so
3:30
you'll find they tend to stop at the
3:31
same places they're often the same
3:33
excursions now historically the
3:34
excursions have tended to be much more
3:36
historical so you're going to see lots
3:37
of cathedrals walking tours of the town
3:40
here the history now more more cruise
3:42
lines are trying to diversify that more
3:44
so you'll find a lot of them will start
3:45
to have a more active hiking or a
3:47
bicycle tour that you'll find wherever
3:50
you go to they are calling on the same
3:52
places and doing pretty much the same
3:54
excursion so there's no real big
3:55
difference in excursions importantly
3:57
most cruise lines include at least one
4:00
excursion on port of call that's true
4:02
across most cruise lines there are one
4:04
or two exceptions to that but generally
4:06
speaking cruise lines include an
4:07
excursion and they will be very similar
4:09
across cruise lines now other things
4:12
that surprised me a lot when I started
4:13
going river cruising is just how
4:14
regimented it is now having been used to
4:17
ocean cruising with as much more
4:18
flexibility you can get up when you want
4:20
to die when you want as lots of
4:21
different choices
4:22
river cruising is very regimented so
4:24
you'll find that there's no
4:25
announcements waking up at a certain
4:27
time to have breakfast at a certain time
4:29
because you need to get out of on
4:30
excursions at a certain time you need to
4:31
be back because the ship might be moving
4:33
a little bit along the river and then
4:35
going to more excursions lunches at the
4:37
same time very tight narrow window of
4:39
time again with limited choices and as I
4:42
mentioned earlier dinner will be at a
4:43
certain time and be a multi-course
4:45
dinner so it's very regimented they'll
4:47
be port briefings
4:48
paultalks maybe some local entertainment
4:50
it's a very regimented and set
4:52
experience now of course you can decide
4:53
not to go on the excursions and
4:55
basically building more flexibility that
4:57
way but barring a month at most of the
4:59
times you will have paid with the
5:00
excursions within your fare so by not
5:02
going on them you're actually paying for
5:03
something that you're not using so
5:05
you'll find a lot of the river cruising
5:06
lines have developed out of his score to
5:09
tour companies or a lot of the people
5:11
who go on river cruising are people who
5:13
enjoy a score two tours and that sense
5:14
of regimented way of traveling so it is
5:17
quite a regimented and strict way of
5:19
experiencing a region the other thing
5:22
you need to know is that River cruising
5:23
is quite an expensive travel options
5:25
certainly versus ocean cruising so even
5:28
if you take a look at say July on the
5:30
Rhine even on a budget more budget end
5:32
of the side you're probably paying about
5:33
200 $250 per person per day so that's
5:37
about 190 pounds about the same in euros
5:39
the premium lines you're probably
5:41
spending 300-400 dollars per person per
5:43
day so again about 300 pounds per person
5:45
per day so it's a relatively expensive
5:47
option certainly when you compared
5:49
verses ocean cruising now that is partly
5:52
because the ships are much smaller so of
5:54
course they can't amortize the costs
5:56
across so many people and also because a
5:58
lot of things are included within the
6:00
fare one thing you'll notice on river
6:03
cruising is that pretty much all of the
6:04
cruise lines will say that they're
6:06
all-inclusive however you need to
6:08
understand what that means
6:09
because every River Cruise Line has a
6:11
different definition of what
6:12
all-inclusive means so generally
6:14
speaking of course your accommodations
6:16
included your meals are included maybe
6:17
things like a certainty but some cruise
6:20
lines particular more premium lines will
6:21
include all of your drinks and premium
6:23
drinks at all times of the day so for
6:25
example uni world will do that others
6:27
will include beer wine and soft drinks
6:30
at lunch and dinner only all the river
6:33
cruise lines will offer free Wi-Fi most
6:35
of them will offer an excursion at least
6:38
one excursion in
6:39
all the places that you call one
6:40
exception for example is cross Europe
6:42
which is a more value with a cruising
6:44
line where you can actually buy a
6:45
package of excursion so your fare
6:47
doesn't include excursions also what's
6:49
important is when you're looking at
6:50
all-inclusive is it will also differ
6:52
based on where you're coming from so for
6:54
example using the cross europe example
6:56
if you're booking across europe from the
6:58
united states you'll find that
7:00
excursions are included so it depends a
7:02
lot on where you're traveling from
7:04
gratuities are included in some lines
7:06
not in others so it's very very
7:09
important that when you're looking at a
7:11
river cruise line and it says its
7:13
all-inclusive that you do understand
7:14
what that really means because it is
7:16
different pretty much buy every single
7:18
cruise line another thing which is very
7:20
important river cruising is river
7:22
cruising in my mind is not suitable for
7:24
people with accessibility issues so
7:26
particularly in a wheelchair river
7:27
cruising is something that is not likely
7:30
to work because first of all you'll find
7:32
most of the room cruise ships don't have
7:34
facilities for people in wheelchairs or
7:36
with limited mobility some of them will
7:38
have elevators which go between some or
7:40
all of the floors but what's very
7:42
challenging is when you're docking in
7:44
some of these small towns particularly
7:46
on the Danube in the Rhine there may be
7:48
very narrow ramps which have to go up to
7:50
there'll be cobbled streets there may be
7:52
very steep inclines so it's not really
7:54
suitable for people with wheelchairs and
7:56
there's not that many cruise lines that
7:58
have accessibility cabins so if you are
8:00
in a wheelchair if you have
8:01
accessibility issues check very
8:03
carefully with the cruise line what's
8:05
that link to that is you do need to be
8:06
relatively active and fit because most
8:08
of the excursions are walking tours on
8:10
cobblestones upstairs so although most
8:13
cruise lines will have a gentle Walker's
8:15
option where they may have a little mini
8:17
bus which moves you around it is a quite
8:20
an active way of traveling because
8:22
there's lots of walking involved river
8:25
cruising has an image of being for an
8:27
older traveler and in practice it still
8:30
is mostly an older traveler who goes on
8:33
river cruising so people in their 50s
8:34
60s and 70s and above now real Cruise
8:37
Lines are trying to track more families
8:39
so you'll find in the key school holiday
8:41
periods you'll find some cruise lines
8:43
we'll have more family or
8:45
multi-generational cruises where they
8:46
try and build in more activities and
8:49
features for kids in my view river
8:51
cruising is much more of a baby
8:52
boomer product and a much more of a baby
8:54
boomer way of traveling because those
8:56
are who most of the people on board are
8:58
going to be a lot of the tours and
9:00
excursions because they're going to
9:01
historical places will have a historical
9:03
or sightseeing bend to them the whole
9:06
structure the facilities the way of
9:08
dining it is a it is a much more adult
9:11
experience and certainly a slightly
9:12
older adult experience solar travelers
9:16
are one of the traveler groups that are
9:19
very drawn to river cruising however it
9:20
can be a very expensive way for solar
9:22
travelers to cruise because you'll find
9:25
most cruise lines certainly in the
9:27
season will charge double to occupy a
9:31
cabin now what increasing the cruise
9:33
lines are doing which I do the shoulder
9:34
periods are sort of out of season is
9:35
they're doing more and more solo deals
9:37
so if you're a set of travel and want to
9:39
go river cruising it is a very social
9:41
way because the small groups you get to
9:42
know people is very easy to dine with
9:44
people you get to know people so it's a
9:46
great way of traveling as a solo
9:47
traveler but it is a relatively
9:49
expensive option so your main thing to
9:51
do is to look at the out of season or
9:53
the beginning the season and the end of
9:55
the season when cruise lines are funnier
9:56
slightly harder or more challenging to
9:58
fill cruise lines and therefore will do
10:00
more deals couple of cruise lines are
10:02
looking at trying to choose smaller
10:03
cabins more solar cabins but again this
10:05
still tends to be a premium on those the
10:08
other thing to bear in mind is when
10:09
you're cruising down the rivers and
10:11
particular places like the Danube is
10:13
you're going to go through a lot of
10:14
locks and you're fine as you cruise and
10:16
you might be sleeping in there sort of
10:18
noise and bumping as you go through the
10:20
locks personally I love locks up an
10:22
absolute fascinating there technology
10:23
but it's one things that people don't
10:25
really think of they're just they're
10:26
going to be winding up long rivers for
10:28
miles and miles and miles but you will
10:30
find you go through a lot of locks and
10:32
it is again slightly odd when you're in
10:33
your cabin because suddenly you might
10:35
find you just got this big concrete wall
10:37
up against your cabin the other thing I
10:40
would say with River Cruises is they are
10:42
slightly noisier than ocean cruising
10:44
just in terms of people walking around
10:46
and talking a noise because they're much
10:48
smaller vessels and there's not sort of
10:50
the ambient noise of the ocean and
10:52
whatever behind it so I certainly never
10:53
gonna River cruise I always take air
10:55
plugs with me I find that much easier to
10:57
sleep it is a little bit noisier and I
10:59
have had some experiences where I can
11:00
hear the people in the room next door
11:01
snoring for example or televisions or
11:04
whatever so if you are lightly
11:05
take some earplugs is always a good tip
11:08
the intention of these things that I
11:10
think you need to know and aren't gonna
11:11
be taught about river cruising is not to
11:13
put you off river cruising is just so
11:14
you're better armed better understand
11:16
the whole process of river cruising so
11:18
that when you go on a river cruise you
11:19
know what to expect because there are
11:21
some surprises and some differences I
11:23
love it if you watched many more of my
11:25
tips of travelers videos I have lots
11:27
about river cruising and lots of tips
11:30
and also ship tours and reviews of river
11:33
cruising lines
11:34
[Music]
11:38
[Applause]
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