River Cruise 101 (ish)

                        River Cruise vs Ocean Cruise.

                        It sounds like a WWF Big Match-Up.

                        But it isn’t.

                        It is only because these two entities are way too different to even try and compare them. But they do have one thing in common…. the boats float on the water and bring you to some really cool places that would be hard to get to on one trip if you did not go by boat.

                        I am going to assume that most of you have been on an Ocean Voyage, be it the 7-Day out of Miami to a few Caribbean Gems or the 111-day Behemoth that goes around the World. No matter, the experience varies slightly depending on your Ports, motives, and of course, the Umbrella Drinks.

                        Since we now are on a River Cruise I can speak with (very little) authority and try and give you some comparisons. This will pertain to a Viking Cruise as that is the Line that we are presently on. There are many more, AMA, Tauck, Avalon, Emerald, and Bill’s River Cruises. And when we speak about River Cruises, it’s William’s Cruises, they use Bill’s for their Ocean boats.

                        Maybe that is one of the key points of a difference…… Ocean Cruises are a bit less sophisticated only when it comes to the clientele or passengers. River Cruises seem to be a little more genteel in that department but only whilst aboard. You see, there are no Umbrella Drinks on a River Cruise. No pools either. We do have an Herb Garden that the Chef lovingly looks over on a daily basis but oddly (a juxtaposition) there are no Formal Nights on a River Cruise, attire is “Use Your Heads” don’t come to dinner in your cut-offs please. But nice shorts are allowed. I can’t wear shorts to dinner in the Dining Room on a Princess Cruise.

                        I hope you can sense my quandary here, trying to compare different items that obviously have their differences but not necessarily in the areas that you may expect! Now even I’m confused!

                        The next obvious difference comes in the size of the ship. This affects everything! Nowadays it’s not uncommon to be aboard an Ocean Cruise with 3500 to 7000 of your new best friends. Not on a River Cruise. The most that these boats can accommodate is around 190 passengers and some set out with around 150 or so. This is obviously a much more intimate setting and your familiarity with both your fellow passengers, and the ships complement, has been made easier. There is also no 24-Hour Food available unless you count the Cookies offered by the 24-Hour combination Coffee/Espresso/Hot Cocoa/ Tea/Frozen Daquiri Machine. (only kidding on the Daiquiri part, just checking to see if you were paying attention…. it’s really a seismograph to help with the roving detection of a Plate Tectonic Event!) But the Cookies are real.

                        Accommodations are nice, albeit just a little smaller than what you get on an Ocean Cruise…. Smaller ship equals smaller staterooms, check with your local River Cruise, results may vary, but not by much! When we booked this one the only accommodations left were some of the Veranda Suites. More expensive, but more room too! We figured that since there were four of us that the extra Living Room space would give us some room to play cards, Happy Hour, etc. plus it gave me some room to use for ‘communicating’ with all of you without having to go down to the lounge or somewhere else to write.

                        Dinner and lunch while aboard are at set times, 12:30 and 7:00 PM, and don’t think that you’re going to get that cozy port-side table for two overlooking the Cathedral! Well, you may get that view, but you’ll need to share it with your tablemates because unless you come with a group of six, you will be sharing! Six-tops are the smallest table available unless you go up on top to the Aquavit Café (more on that later). We had the four of us, Rick, Pat, Paula and me and luckily, we teamed up with an awesome couple from Delaware. Rose and Jack (only kidding! No Titanic references on a River Cruise!) Rose and Mike could not have been nicer and were an absolute pleasure to get to know. This is actually part of Viking’s modus operandi, they want you to mingle, and they know that you’ll end up with someone nice (most of the time!) We had most lunches and dinners with Rose and Mike, and we had a good time comparing both real lives and present excursions at our mealtimes. And it seemed that we always bumped into them on shore! Mike even mentioned that he could provide a 50amp service for the motorhome if we ever sauntered into Delaware….. hmm… be careful what you mention Mike! 😊

                        The ship is 135m or 443’ long and only 11.58m or 38’ wide. Remember the ultimate size comparison from the Ocean Cruises, the Gross Registered Ton? The largest being almost 300,000? Well our little slim-line babies come in at little over 3000 tons! Almost a hundred times smaller! But there is no seasickness here as the Rivers rarely get any kind of tumultuous action going !

                        And they are ‘propulsionized’ by some tidy little mechanisms called “Azi-Pods”. These guys are all the rage now and were first introduced into the Cruise Industry back in 2004 on the Queen Mary II. Think of them maneuvering like an outboard motor does. The propellor itself moves almost 360 degrees, so there is no need for a rudder. The “thruster” in the bow is the same sort of mechanism so the captain ‘steers’ the ship with a tiny ‘joystick’ lever and this setup is far more maneuverable because unlike a big ship with a rudder that swings the stern around, this ‘fore and aft’ propulsion configuration is like having four-wheel steering on a car, both ends are used when turning! We know this because we received a Pilot House Tour. It’s not called the Bridge on this kind of vessel; it’s a Pilot House and has been for over a hundred years… just ask Mark Twain!

                        This maneuverability comes in handy on the river because there are tons of traffic on the Rhine! Countless ships and barges ply up and down this waterway like it was I-80 in rush hour. In fact, we went through eleven locks on our way down to Amsterdam and the North Sea. Where we started in Basel the River is roughly 250m or 750’ above sea level. So that means that the river drops that much over 450 miles or about three feet in 2/3 of a mile on average in the navigable places. That’s too much for normal shipping unless you are White-Water Rafting outfit delivering coal downriver! So, the locks and side canals were constructed mainly in the middle of the last century and as you may imagine, these locks are narrow! Most of our Lock Transits are done at night because that’s when most of our traveling is done.

                        Many of the barge/boats are privately owned (and lived on) as you can see their vehicles strapped down on deck, waiting for their own on-board crane to lift them ashore. Kind of like an Independent Trucker minus the water!

                        That hopefully helps sum up a few of the differences and maybe highlights the attributes of a River Cruise, so compare as you may!

 We here at P&D Travel Consultants are always here to assist you in trying to find the perfect Cruise for you! Just call 1-800-Fix-Ruin (oops! That’s our Real Estate/ Castle Finding subsidiary!) well, you all have one of our numbers so call away!