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River Cruise Lines To Steer Clear Of These Days. And Why!
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Oct 8, 2024
As I don’t want to waste my precious time and money on a European river cruise line that isn’t on top of their game, I've been diving into the latest cruise reviews and ratings, to see what lines are doing well and, maybe more importantly, what lines we might need to approach with more caution. There are 5 lines you should be wary of and they include some of the best-known names on the rivers of Europe. I was surprised about the first of the lines on the lower-scoring list as I had expected them to be rated better. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
As I don't want to waste my precious time and money on a European river cruise line that isn't top of their game
0:05
I've been diving into the latest cruise reviews and ratings by passengers to see what lines are doing well
0:11
and maybe more importantly, what lines we might need to approach with more caution
0:16
There are five lines you should be wary of, and include some of the best known names on the rivers of Europe, surprisingly
0:24
I was actually surprised, particularly about the first of the lines on the lowest scoring list
0:29
as I'd expected them to be rated much higher. Just missing out on the top eight, but with a strong four out of five rating in my review
0:37
is a river cruise line that their fans hold a super strong passion and loyalty to
0:42
And this is the river cruise wing of the Taulk travel company. This family-owned company has been running escorted tours all around the world for almost a century
0:52
They're a well-known and highly rated company primarily amongst United States travelers
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However, looking at their river cruise reviews, the high expectation travelers actually have
1:03
of Talc seems to be slightly dampening their ratings because they're not seen as quite delivering
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consistently against the high bar that people set for Talc. Also, they seem to attract many people of their land-based escort tours who are trying
1:17
river cruising for the first time and finding it's not for them which dampens the overall
1:23
scores for Tark River cruising. Now, I have not cruised Tauk, but I have visited their ships
1:28
and their fleets of nine ships look and feel really at market. They carry fewer guests, by the way, than many of their luxury competitors
1:35
with their largest shop up to about 130 guests. Their real strength, which does come through in their reviews
1:42
are the excursions and port side special access entry into iconic sites
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This, of course, is the ability to draw on long-established contacts in countries
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through running all those escorted tours. They also seem to be a growing line for multi-generational river cruisers
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and Cruise Critic also recently rated them as best river line for solo travelers because they
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wave single supplements on the lowest grade of cabins and they reduce supplements for the higher
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grades on quite a number of sailings. So although they just miss out on making the top rated list
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of lines maybe they are a line to consider if you looking for smaller numbers on board solo cruising and you really interested in good historic and cultural excursions The next line is also run by a large toured company and their river cruise operation
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match the 405 score of Tuck but is also one that suffers from expectations that seems to be
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dampening their score. Riviera travel which launched over 40 years ago claims to be the UK's
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leading river cruise and tour operator offering good value escort tours and river cruises
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They were recently rated by the UK Witch Magazine as the best value river cruise choice
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This is a magazine that assesses and ranks brands in different categories
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They have 14 ships in the fleet, mostly named after British literary figures like
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Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen. They are adult only and cover many of the rivers ranging from the Rhine and the Danube
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the Roan, the Duaro and the Moselle. The main reason I can see in the reviews where they get poor scores pulling their overall average
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down is their marketing suggests five star ships and talks about the burlitz cruise guides
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saying their ships are amongst some of the finest. But people once again on board find
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them more basic and they're not as five stars they expect once they're on board. This is
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definitely a more value offering and the ships, the food, the service provide good value but I
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think expectations are probably set too high which dampens their scores. As I mentioned
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river cruising is costly and so even as a value line cabins can start from $250 to
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200 pounds per person a night so people, especially new to river cruising, imagine they will
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get a more luxury experience based on their marketing. Guests tend to be mostly from the UK
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and the line has a British bias and with a 4 out of 5 rating of course they want to consider
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if you're looking for a reliable value cruise lines to try but dampen your expectations. The next
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line also is part of a major travel group and it's interesting that many of these
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lowest scoring lines are wings of travel companies rather than standalone. dedicated river cruise line companies. 2E river cruises gets a 3.8 out of 5 rating by
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travelers. This is part of the enormous 2E travel group, a German-based leisure travel and tourism
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company and the largest of these type of companies in the world. They own hotels, airlines
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travel stores, has a joint venture with Royal Caribbean running ocean cruise lines like
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Apagloid Main Schiff and Morella They too are a value river cruise line covering many of the major European rivers but with just four ships The main reason for their lowest scores recently is the reliability and quality of ships themselves
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with complaints about various aspects, ranging from breakdowns, poor air conditioning, general service issues, overall quality of the ships, along with very average rating of the
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food and kind of logistics of the experience. They've just introduced their first new build
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to the fleet, 2E, Alma. And as they fix the problems with the other ships, of course
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I think we may see their scores improve moving forwards, but they did get a so-so score now
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So I think they probably want to keep an eye on and have a look at what the latest reviews
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and scores are before you actually consider and book them to make sure they are upping their game
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The next two on the list of lower scoring lines both suffer from the same issue and you will see
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that despite having a lot going for them, they just get marked down
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Rosa River Cruises has an interesting backstory. It was created 20 years
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ago in 2001 as a subsidiary of Princess Cruises to serve the German market to match the German
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ocean line Aida, which was also part of the group at that time. After Carnival Corporation
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bought the Princess Group, it was sold off to German owners. And herein lies why this line
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scores relatively poorly with just 3.3 out of 5 by past recent travellers, past English-speaking
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travellers, that is. I've only been looking at what travellers from countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia are saying. And the big
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The biggest reason for their low scores is that the line doesn't seem to cater much for non-German
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speakers once you're on board, with people quoting challenges on everything from the crew
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menus, announcements and so on. It's a pity because this line is the most forward on catering
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to families with many more interconnecting cabins than any other line for what I can see
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and in school holidays, kids 15 and under travel free, they run family programs and tours
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in the school holidays. But unless you're German speaking or want to practice and develop your
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German skills, it's a line you should probably steer clear of or certainly approach with a lot of
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caution. An Austrian-based line also popular with German travellers, though it does not seem to have
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the same German-speaking issue as the Erosa reviews is Amadeus River Cruis, which is run by the
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family-owned Luftner Cruises. This line came into service in 1997. It has a fleet of 14 ships
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I get seen in the reviews that the reason for its weaker 3 out of 5 rating by travelers seems to be driven by two things currently First the ships The fleet has a wide range of ages and while the new ships
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are light, the older ships and the cabins on those get fewer good ratings, and the food
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often gets called out as being pretty average. One thing I could also see in the reviews
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is it seems there are several group charters of the ships, ranging from alumni organizations
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special interest travel groups like gay travelers. And these groups, and these groups, The cruisers seem to get reviewed under the brand and they get much more mixed reviews
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these group cruisers so it pulls the overall score down, possibly unfairly
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Amadeus, by the way, runs several golf-themed cruises each year, so if you're a golf player
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they may be worth looking at, but overall they seem to not really stand out from the other river cruise line options much
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so one to proceed with caution. The next line was the worst performing of all the lines whose ratings are studied
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Saga Cruises is the 50 plus travel company. travel company catering for UK travelers offering their own luxury ocean and river cruise ships
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It was really surprising that their river product gets so poorly rated as their ocean cruisers
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are really good and highly rated. They only got 3.2 out of 5 by recent river cruisers
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They have a small fleet but with new ships, the spirit of Danube, Spirit of the Rhine, Spirit of the
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Dora, Spirit of Marcell. They're costly but their fares include chauffeur pickup and return
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transfers from home to the airport, transfers turned from the ship. and even travel insurance. Now looking at the reviews right now, most of those poor scores
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seem to be driven by factors partly out of the lines control, like water levels disrupting cruises
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But travelers said they weren't dealt with very well, and as they travelers tend to be older and a more cautious traveller, those things weigh heavily in
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their considerations and ratings. So again probably a line to approach with some caution despite
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their overall good reputation. And I would keep checking the latest reviews if you
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are looking at them to see if things have improved before, booking. Now the plus side by the way if you are looking they have a money back guarantee
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if it's your first saga river cruise and you don't enjoy it. If you let them know that you
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want to leave with them the first 72 hours they will give your money back. Now if you
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want to know what the top rated lines right now are those scoring 4.1 or higher out of 5
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Join me over in this video where I was explained why I was surprised where my
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favourite lines were placed and who is at number one? I was really surprised. See you over there
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