Hank Schrader

March 19, 2025

River Cruise Reviews

The S. S. Maria Theresa Ship Tour

Hank Schrader

March 19, 2025

River Cruise Reviews

S.S. Maria Theresa Ship Tour

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

This is the first time we have had an opportunity to tour a Uniworld Ship. The Maria Theresa was put in service in 2015. It is a tribute to the only Hapsburg female ruler and in the foyer, is a specially commissioned 10-foot portrait of the Emperess.

2 of the English Trained Butlers posed for me during our visit. Butler service is only for guests in the suites.

Also, in the lobby area there is a stunning Murano Glass Chandelier.

The Murano Chandelier on the Maria Theresa

It is now time to tour the Maria Thersa. We will tour the 3 decks to understand the facilities onboard this elegant rivership. The ship has space for 150 guests and has a crew of 55 onboard. It is a 443 ft longship

Bavarian Deck (lowest deck)

This deck has quarters for the crew and 10 classic fixed window staterooms that are 162 square feet.

Also on this deck is the Lipizzan Cinema Room, a Guest Laundry, a fitness room and the Viennese Café.

The Schönbrunn Deck (the middle deck)

There are 36 French Balcony Suites on this deck. They measure 194 square feet. Here are photos of stateroom 337:

One of the 36 French Balcony 194 square feet Staterooms—this is stateroom 337

Here are 4 photos of the Baroque Restaurant:

The center island area in the Baroque Restaurant

The Hofburg Deck (the top deck)

This deck has the Bar du Leopard in the stern, 3 types of staterooms and Habsburg Salon lounge area.

Here is a photo of the Hapsburg Salon Lounge:

There is one Grand Suite (410 square feet), 10 Suites (305 square feet) and 18 Deluxe Balcony Suites (194 square feet).

On this deck, all staterooms have floor to ceiling windows that use a button to change the height of the glass window.

Here are 3 images of the Grand Suite 401:

Now for a look at the Suite Staterooms. There are 10 of these staterooms and they measure 305 square feet. This is stateroom 407.

Stateroom 407. This is one of the 10 Suites

The next 4 photos are one of the 18 Deluxe Balcony Staterooms:

Our Final Thoughts

It is an interesting ship, as the décor is different from other river ships. Uniworld’s European fleet is “one-of-a-kind” floating botique hotels that are themed in the area of Europe they sail in.

I think it is fair to say there is a lot to like about Uniworld, yet some think the opulent decorations are excessive. You can clearly judge from the ship pictures on which side you fall on. Of the 8 river cruise lines we follow, it is the most formal line but seems to maintain high standards on all ships.

We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.

When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision making process. We think we have all these qualities.

Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@visitdd.com . We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!

ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.

HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 53 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Riverside Luxury Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

February 12, 2025

River Cruise Advice

140 River Cruise Blogs and 116 Travel and Advice Blogs--256 and Counting!

Hank Schrader

February 12, 2025

River Cruise Advice

140 River Cruise Blogs and 116 Europe Travel and Advice Blogs—256 and Counting!

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

As more and more people seek information to make informed travel decisions, there is a lot of conflicting information on the internet. Understandably, they really want unbiased answers to their questions.

According to some experts, a blog is a way to answer prospective clients’ questions and helps them learn. This learning experience could lead them to decide to use our help to plan and book a trip. It really is the way we share our thoughts, ideas and opinions about various travel-related topics.

We have always been big on education. A well-informed traveler has better trips.

Last year we had 57,303 unique visitors with 77,122 pageviews. Already this year (as of 2/12/2025) we have had 7,953 unique visitors, with 10,468 pageviews (source Squarespace analytics data about our website).

So, let’s take another look at our blogs now that we have over 250 published on our website and see if all these visitors found what they were searching for about travel.

Our 4 Purposes for Writing Our Blog

I think there are 4 parts of making you a better-informed traveler.

First, we want to teach about what good value travel is.

Second, we want to inspire you and help you visualize your next trip.

Third, we want to provide objective advice, so you can make wise travel choices.

Fourth, we want to help you decide if you should trust Visit Dream Destinations LLC to plan your trip.

Our Role as Teachers About Good Value Travel—Our First Goal

Good value travel is making the most of your travel dollars. It is about memorable experiences. It is about reduced hassles on the trip. There are 2 important topics of our Blog—River Cruising and Blog Archives.

The River Cruise Blog Archives (this is blog 140) on our website is an excellent place to learn if river cruising is the right trip for your vacation. The topics in this section are Our River Cruise Services, River Cruise Line Comparisons, Europe River Cruise, River Cruise Routes, River Cruise Advice and River Cruise Reviews. Our comparisons of river cruise companies and Europe River Cruise route Guides are especially strong—we are number 1 on Google (or close to number 1) for both topics. Just remember to skip the ads (sponsored content) on Google to get to the real content.

Try it for yourself—just click on the button below and see this amazing resource!

Learn more Click Here to Visit our River Cruise Blog Archives—140 Blogs Arranged by Catagories for Easy Searches

On our Blog Archives Page, we write about, Europe Travel, Europe Destinations, Best Value Travel, Travel Planning, Ocean Cruises, and Veterans. There are 116 blogs in this page.

By far, the river cruise and Europe travel blogs are the best blogs (based on opens), but our blogs about Veterans and the history of American soldiers rank very high in Google searches.

Try this for more insightful travel information—It’s fun and informative!

Learn more Click Here to visit Our Blog Archives

Travel inspiration Our 2nd Goal

We try in our blogs to help you visualize your next trip. We often talk about our experiences during our trips so you can see if that trip would fit into a trip you might like to take. Taking 28 river cruises and traveling to Europe for 53 years is a lot of experience and we try to help you learn from our travels.

There are many pictures in our blogs, most taken by us, to help you visualize the trip in your mind. Many of you recognize the great pictures Anne takes to document our travels and that is perhaps the best feature of our blogs. She really makes the places come alive!

**Schönbühel castle is 40 meters above the Danube River. Its nickname is the “Watchman of the Wachau Valley. It is over 1000 years old.**

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle by Kaub. It originally was a toll station. In the background is Gutenfels Castle. These are 2 of the 40 castles built on the Rhine Gorge and always a highlight of a Rhine River Cruise.

**Trier Old Town Market Square. Photo Anne Schrader**

Objective Advice—Our 3rd Goal

I recently read that 88% of business bloggers outsource their blog (Source Findstack)! I was stunned—their blog(s) may have good content but what that tells me is that they are too busy to provide first-hand information or worse don’t have the content to write a decent blog.

How reliable and objective is that? Trust me, we write our own blogs and the only guest writers are our clients. It’s funny to me that we get requests and offers from others to write about subjects that have nothing to do with travel to post on our blog—it is crazy that we would even consider this, but the pitches will continue.

Should I trust Visit Dream Destinations LLC to Plan My trip? Our fourth Goal

Trust and integrity are valuable traits and, in my judgement, in short supply in our country. Too many make promises they can’t or won’t keep.

My whole life has been devoted to service after graduating from West Point—20 years as a US Army Officer, 20 years as a coach and teacher and 29 + years helping others travel to the right location.

Anne is equally dedicated to trust and integrity, she always thinks about what is best for our clients, every single time. We think trust is the cornerstone of our relationship with you.

We try to under promise and over deliver a great travel experience for you. We strive to make your travel experience better by helping you make wise choices, eliminate hassles, and help you get the best value for your money. You are never on your own when you trust us to help you and every year, we solve complex problems in the planning phase and during the trip. I like to say we are just an email, text, or phone call away.

In short, while working with us, we want to provide a trip that will exceed your expectations. I guess the best thing we can provide you with is some comments by some of our clients. All over the website is testimonials from our friends who we have helped travel through the years.

We are proud to have helped them and look forward to helping as many as possible in the future.

We don’t charge fees, we feel we are adequately compensated by our vendors and since the price is already built in, you basically get our services for free,

One final point—we expect you to be reasonable when you contact us—we have set procedures to ensure that you are properly advised about a potential trip, but some expect instantaneous responses, which is just impossible.

It will be a correct response but not hurried. Great trips require time to properly plan and unless it is truly urgent, we will take the time necessary to do it right.

Our Final Thoughts

We are about great, accurate content and we don’t use the constant annoying pop-up ads, or any ads which are almost insulting to intelligent readers. Never fear--we are not like travel writers or even agents that get paid for ad clicks. We are not desperate for money from our blog—we want to help you understand the confusing world of river cruising and Europe Travel.

We hope our blog is worth your time to read. As you can see, there is much more than these brief thoughts to describe the value of our blog, especially for river cruising.

I think we help you become a more informed traveler by being good teachers, providing inspiration, providing objective information, and developing trust. If our blog has helped you get more knowledge about travel, then we have done our job, and the blog is worth your time to read.

Thanks to the many who take time out of their busy lives to read the blog—we love you folks!

HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 52 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

January 30, 2025

River Cruise Advice

Why We Specialize in Europe River Cruises and How it Benefits You!

Hank Schrader

January 30, 2025

River Cruise Advice

Why We Specialize in Europe River Cruises and How it Benefits You

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

We took our first Europe River Cruise in 2012. It was awesome but as we were building our business it was only part of what we tried to offer potential customers. We did have some moderate success but not anything like now where it is 90% of our business today.

This was a big week for us, as I have been selected to be part of the Travel Institute Professional Educators Program to help other travel advisors improve their professional abilities. It is quite an honor yet a huge responsibility that I am happy to embrace.

I think there is a huge demand for honest information and a lack of clarity that faces the affluent travelers who want to make wise choices about choosing the right river cruise for their vacation. Part of it is ads by the lines, another part is the lack of familiarity with the different line,s and the last part is what you can see and do on each river. There is a lot to know.

So, let’s see if I can help you understand the benefits of accurate information to aid you in the decision process about taking a river cruise with our help.

A Little History About Our Journey to Europe River Cruise Specialists.

In 2016 when we decided to specialize in Europe River Cruises as our number one offering, I was worried about if enough people would want our help to make our business thrive. Boy was I wrong!

Facts always are important as a starting point to explain why we determined that specializing in river cruising was the best for us and for you. I stated earlier there is a huge demand for accurate information about river cruising.

Last year 57,303 people looked at 77,122 pages on our website (stats from our Squarespace analytics website host). Already 6,014 people have looked at 7,336 pages in 2025. 95% of the visitors open our pages with river cruise content. There is only one real reason for this—folks are trying to understand whether or not a river cruise is the right trip for them.

You are missing the whole point if you think we are bragging (I must admit I am stunned by these numbers), the reason folks come to our site, is that they are looking for honest answers to their questions. With the myriad of ads and hype it is really hard to get factual information.

I think it is clear that we have an overabundance of content that helps all understand what river cruising is about. It is logical by river cruise line, has comparisons, route guides, and the river cruise blogs are organized by topic to make the search easier.

Here is another interesting fact about the demand for river cruises. The best-known river cruise line to North Americans, Viking, reports that already 70% of their ships are booked (based on the quarterly stock report to analysts and investors).

Let me put that into perspective for you—with 76 riverships, most carrying 190 passengers per ship, and sailing generally for 9 months, that means about 363,888 folks have already booked a river cruise in 2025 (ok math folks 133 x 76 x 36 = 363,888).

I think we can reasonably conclude there is a strong demand for good info and a lot of people want to take a river cruise on a smaller ship. Now, let us help you learn what you should look for in help planning a vacation. They are the 3 Es—Education, Experience. and Expertise.

Education

We have always been strong believers in travel education and the Travel Institute has the best education programs in the travel profession. Anne is a Certified Travel Counsellor (considered the gold standard for professional certification in our industry), a Certified Travel Associate and we are both Destination Specialists for Western Europe, awarded by the Travel Institute. We have both earned the Accredited Cruise Counselor designation conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). Anne is a Luxury Specialist. We hold multiple river cruise specialist certifications.

Here are Anne’s 5 Major Certifications

If you can’t read the certificate, it says Certified Travel Counselor for having successfully met all the requirements of the Certified Travel Counselor certification, and demostrating advanced knowledge of business, industry and global issues prescribed by the Institute as necessary for expert practice in the travel industry, thereby exemplifing the highest standards of industry professionalsim.
**This is a huge achievenent and Anne deserves a lot of recognition for completing this!**

Here are my 2 Major Certifications

Ok, we are professionals, but our real role is to properly educate you. We do this by the content on our website and these blogs. We have several blog articles which are on page-one of Google (the two most read are Best European River Cruises Route Guide (14,223 views in 2024) and Europe River Cruise Company Comparisons 2024-2025 (14,662 views in 2024). We have written over 100 river cruise blogs.

Perhaps the most unmatched resource on our website is the 162 day-by-day itineraries from the 8 river cruise lines we follow, with our pictures showing what potential river cruisers will see and do on their cruise. This includes what the rivership is like, pictures of scenic cruising and port visit pictures--we have over 5,000 pictures on our site, most taken by my wife Anne, who is an awesome photographer.

Experience

Taking 28 river cruises does count for something—we speak from experience. If we haven’t sailed on a route, we probably have sent a client there. On our 28 river cruise trips, all except one, we have paid to go on instead of accepting a free cruise to learn more about the routes and cruise lines. We are very specific on our reviews and blogs if it is our opinion or an actual fact and, if any outside sources are used, to cite them. We hope you find the content informative and trustworthy.

Without overwhelming you, here are 24 picture on each 9 river sytems we have sailed or guided clients to during our career (it was just too much to add all the land extensions!). I hope you enjoy them and it just might get you thinking about where to river cruise in the future.

Rhine River

Main River

**Rothenberg ob der Tauber Germany—a wonderful walled city**

Upper Danube River

**Watchman of the Danube near Melk Austria**

**Bratislava Slovakia Christmas Markets**

Lower Danube River

Moselle River

**Old Town Trier Germany Market Square**

Seine River

**Soldier Statue near Omaha Beach Normandy France**

Bordeaux Estuary River System

**Old Half Timbered Building St Emilion France**

Saonne River

Rhone River

Expertise

I think there is no doubt we are river cruise experts. Our best skill is matching you to the right cruise for your trip or even to decide if river cruising meets your desires for a vacation. To accomplish this, we have to have in-depth knowledge of the cruise lines, ships that sail the route, what the experience will be onboard, and the experience of the trip included excursions.

We are unaware of any other travel agency that has personalized river cruising to provide potential clients with a real sense of the included value of river cruising from as unbiased an opinion as possible.

Another factor is our ability to be your advocate if something goes wrong and our strong relationships with the cruise lines. Instead of you trying to do it on your own, we usually can solve your concern or problem with one well placed phone call or email.

Since we don’t charge fees, you basically get our advice for free, as the price is already built into the cruise fare. We should be able to get any advertised perk or price for any river cruise line you might want to book with.

In short, we can optimize the experience by taking the guess work and stress out of planning a river cruise that often turns into the trip of a lifetime.

Our Final Thoughts

Sometimes it is hard to put into words how much we care about you having a successful trip. If we can build a relationship with you, learn your needs and wants, we can usually find the best trip that meets your expectations.

Not everyone will see our value, want to do it on their own, and that is ok. We prefer to help those who really want a better experience. Also, we hope we can help others in our profession learn how to help others have better trips. We love the challenge and how you will love our results as a team working together to let you have better vacations.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

January 23, 2025

Danube River Cruise Ports

Castles on the Upper Danube

Hank Schrader

January 23, 2025

Danube River Cruise Ports

Castles on the Upper Danube

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

If you are a long-time reader of this blog, it will come as no surprise that I like castles. On the upper Danube, from Passau to Budapest there are some interesting castles that are on or near the Danube, so I thought I’d tell you a little about the 10 that are most visible while sailing on the Danube River and show you some of our pictures.

Burg Oberhaus

Overlooking the town of three rivers (Danube, Inn and Itz) Passau, this strong fortress guards one bank of this river town. It was designed to protect the Bishop of Passau. The numbers on the castle are 1299 not 1999. At one time Passau was famous for sword making and considered as good as Toledo (Spain) and Damascus (Syria).

Today it is a museum and restaurant.

Krampelstein Castle (KM 2215)

This castle dates to 1171 and is privately owned today. The tower and residence were surrounded by a wall that only partially remains. Anne took this picture in 2015 and the mist makes it look spooky.

Linz Castle

Linz Castle has only part of the walls remaining today as the original castle was destroyed. It was built between 1364 and 1388 by Heinrich von Virneburg, who was the archbishop of Cologne to collect tolls. It was badly damaged during the Neuss War in 1475 (a war between several religious leaders trying to gain more territory under their control). It now is a museum and restaurant.

Schonbuhel Castle (KM 2032)

Known as the “watchman of the Wachau”(the part of the Danube River between Melk and Krems), it is built on the right bank of the Danube 40 meters above the river. It was built in the 12 century as a defensive fortress. In the 1600s it became an abbey.

Aggstein Castle (KM 2025)

The original castle was the fort of the Kuenrings but fell in disrepair after 1358.

By 1429 the castle was rebuilt. This was the start of the most infamous robber-baron’s fortress on the Danube. They used iron chains stretched over the river and the wonderful views of the river from the castle prevented merchants and others to escape detection without paying a toll or even having all their goods plundered. The area was so bad it earned the nickname “Schrekendwald” which is translated to mean “forest of terror.” The Turks later burned down the castle in 1529.

It is now a tourist site.

Hinterhaus Castle (KM 2019)

Hinterhaus was built by the Kuenringers as a stronghold for their rule of the entire Wachau valley and overlooks the town of Spitz. The ruins can be toured today.

The Fortified Church of St. Michael (KM 2017)

Although very small, it is easily visible during sailing through the Wachau. It was built to protect from the invading Turks. The roof ridge is decorated with 7 animal figures known as rabbits by the locals, but the origin of this term is unknown.

**St Michael’s Fortified Church. Photo Anne Schrader**

Kuenringberg Fortress (Durnstein Castle) KM 2009

This castle ruins are famous for holding in captivity Richard the Lionheart in 1193.

This is the story of his capture and release. During the Third Crusade, he offended the Babenberg Duke Leopold V by tearing down the flag of Austria from the walls of Acre, a Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. On his way back to England, as he tried to travel in Austria, he was recognized and held captive.

His exact location was not known, and legend has it that his minstrel Blondel searched for him by singing Richard’s favorite songs at each castle. When Richard joined him singing, he let the English royalty know where he was held. He finally was released after the English paid a huge ransom of 23,000 kg of silver! Raising this enormous sum, fell upon all of the English subjects and some say led to the rise of the legend of Robin Hood.

In 1645, during the 30 Years War, Swedish soldiers destroyed and burned the castle, leaving it in ruins. The castle is a 20-minute hike up from Durnstein and often offered by river cruise lines as an active excursion option to see the awesome views of the Danube and parts of the Wachau Valley.

Part of the main castle that was destroyed overlooking Durnstein

Bratislava Castle Fortress

The massive Bratislava Castle, is located on a hill that has been populated as early as in the Stone Age. The Celts built a fortified stronghold here in the 1st century BC. The Romans, the Germans, the Slavs, the Hungarians and the Austrians have ruled the area in the later centuries. Bratislava Castle became the residence of the Hungarian Kings and was repeatedly rebuilt in various styles. Today it houses the exhibition of the Slovak National Museum and serves as a state function venue.

The castle dates back to 907, but the stone fortress was completed in 1437. It was rebuilt in the Renaissance style and later in the baroque style. During the reign of Maria Theresa, she had her son-in-law live in the castle as he served as governor of the region.

In 1811 the fortress was destroyed by fire and not rebuilt until 1953.

The grounds also have an excellent Baroque Gardens. Often river cruise companies offer this as an excursion and an active hike up the hill to the grounds.

Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion

The castle district of Buda includes the castle, Fisherman’s Bastion and the Matthias Church.

Bada castle was completely destroyed during WW II. It has been fully restored and houses 2 very good museums today. The Budapest History Museum tells the story of the city from the Bronze Age to present. The Hungarian National Museum has art displays from the Middle Ages to present.

Fisherman’s Bastion is built on the old medieval fish market area. Its name comes from the mission of the fisherman to defend this area in times of conflict. The cobblestone streets of the Fisherman's Bastion is on the Buda side of Budapest. The series of seven neo-Gothic towers represent the 7 Hungarian tribes and their chieftains who founded Hungary in 895. The south part of the bastion, facing the Danube river is about 140 meters. They provide a breathtaking panorama of the Danube River, the Parliament building and the Pest side of Budapest.

**Fisherman’s Bastion The Statue is Stephen I of Hungary**

**Another view of the Fisherman’s Bastion showing the defensive positions. This is part of the 140 meter long structure that runs parallel to the Danube River.**

**Budapest parliament in the fog as seen from Fisherman’s Bastion**

Matthias Church

This church was the coronation church for kings of the Hungarian kingdom.

Our Final Thoughts

Castles were built to defend territory. With the advancement of modern weapons, especially cannons, they became relics of the past. They also cofirms the constant struggles of power, greed and religion that faced Europe. Sometimes, it is plain cool to see sites that are interesting to you and learn a little about the turbulent history of the era. Try and imagine what it was like during those times and realize castles while impressive looking, were really not very comfortable and often dark and damp for the inhabitants living there. Protection outwayed comfort and are not as romantic as we might think

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

January 15, 2025

Europe River Cruise

AmaWaterways European River Cruise Bingo

Hank Schrader

January 15, 2025

Europe River Cruise

AmaWaterways European River Cruise Bingo

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

As the new year starts, I thought it might be fun to play Bingo with AmaWaterways. They have created a Bingo Card list of experiences, and it is a great reminder of how many unique things you can expect from taking AmaWaterways river cruises.

Instead of calling out numbers, you get a square for each experience. This is a challenging list, and I will play based upon either an experience or if a client has achieved the square on the Bingo Card. To show and get credit, we will post a picture of the experience on the square and a brief explanation of why we should get credit for the square. We will go from the top left by row to the bottom right.

So, let’s Play Bingo.

Here is the Bingo Card

# 1 Glide Past Fairytale Castles Along the Rhine

We crushed this one—5+ trips along the Rhine during all seasons. Here is my favorite photos of the castles (we actually have all twenty-eight (28) of the 40 castles you can see from the Rhine River in the middle Rhine Gorge in a blog)

**Some of the 28 Castles visable in the Rhine River Gorge**

**The toll station in the middle of the Rhine River**

#2 Taste Local Wines in a Charming Vineyard

This hard part for this one was to select the best example of these unique experience (we like wine and visits to wineries). Here is our selection:

**Rhone River Wine Tasting with Cruise Manager Kris**

**Domaine des Averlys Vineyards in France**

**Our Wine host and owner of the Domaine des AverlysVineyards**

# 3 Capture a Photo with New Friends on Board

Lots of choices but we have to go with our travel chums Denise and Mark who we meet in 2013 and now sail with regularly:

**Mark and Denise in Vienne, France. They are our travel chums. We met in 2013.**

#4 Explore the Historic Canals of Amsterdam

At least twice for me—here are some cool pictures:

**The distinctive Gabled roofs of Amsterdam**

# 5 Celebrate a Special Milestone on Board

Several, but best ones are members of groups we had led.

**One of our many Groups we have hosted celebrating the finish of our D Day Trip in 2019**

**Part of the 71 River Cruise Reunion Group**

Denise celebrates her birthday on the Secrets of Egypt and the Nile—Ok a little cheating here but this was such a cool picture I couldn’t resist and we have posted others of her birthday on other blogs!

#6 Visit Monet’s Gardens in Giverny

No square for us—sadly, we have never been. Several of our clients have gone, but we won’t claim credit here. We are planning a group cruise in 2026 to get this Bingo Square Block—maybe you like to join us?

#7 Learn how to say Good Morning in Another language

**We always try to say good morning to all the waiters in their native language. From Serbia Dobro Jutrol and of course Dobar dan—Good Morning**

#8 Experience a Traditional Dance Performance

**Classical Dance Performance during a Provence AmaWaterways Cruise Photo Anne Schrader**

#9 Cruise Through the Stunning Iron Gates

The Iron Gates are a gorge on the lower Danube that forms part of the boundry between Serbia and Romania

**Mraconia Monastery in the Iron Gates**

#10 Sample Gourmet Cheeses in France

**Cheese and Wine in Vienne, France prior to taking an AmaWaterways Cruise**

#11 Take a Bike Ride in Durnstein

We have not done this—no Bingo Block for us!

#12 Visit a French Chateau on an Excursion

Several French Chateau count here (we add a few others to my pick) but on a Bordeaux cruise this castle stands out for me as both a fort and a spectacular interior:

**Roquetaillade Castle near Cadillac France—it had a nice interior but no pictures allowed**

**Chateau Cormatin and grounds. Photo Anne Schrader**

**Interior of Chateau Cormatin** Photo Hank Schrader

**The Grandest Chateau of all time Versailles, France**

# 13 Enjoy an Evening of Classical Music on Board

Always a treat—maybe 4 times or so. Most famous are the Gypsy Kings group.who we have enjoyed. But I think this picture is a perfect classic concert—maybe not in the traditional sense, but our all time favorite entertainment on board

**Classic Concerts are fun but our favorite was the Black Cat Kids who came to sing to us in Zell Germany in honor of the famous German Black Cat Wine prior to our excursion there!**

# 14 Share This Bingo Card with a Travel Partner

Fairly sure a blog counts here—what do you think?

#15 Explore the Medieval Town of Regensburg

Visited at least 6 times—great all seasons long but especially for the Christmas Markets!

**Watch Tower guarding the Old Stone Bridge, Regensburg, Germany**

**The Old Stone Bridge Regensburg, Germany**

#16 Participate in a Guided Art Tour in Paris

We can’t get credit for this Bingo square but have visited 3 art museums in Paris. Here are some photos>

**Entrance to the Orsey Art Gallery Paris, France**

**Monet Painting in the Orsay Art Museum**

Gates of Hell Scupture, Rodin Gallery Paris, France

#17 Attend at Least 3 Wellness Classes on Board

Our clients helped get this square—since I taught at West Point in the Phys. Ed Department, and have observed and participated in the classes, we get double credit here but never 3 sessions in one cruise! Just think--where else could you get Champagne Yoga?

**AmaWaterways Bike Tour in the Wachau Velley**

#18 Join a Local Market Tour in Provence

Seasonal eating in Provence is legendary.

**Truffle Dog, Provence Cruise—we then got to sample some truffles**

**A little stretching here—Lyon Market is on the border of Provence**

# 19 Taste Fresh Waffles in Belgium

Nothing quite like it—enjoy this picture in Antwerp, Belgium

**This were the waffles they served—awesome Belgium Waffles**

#20 Experience the Magic of Christmas Markets

We have been on 6 Christmas Markets cruises and leading a sold out group on the AmaMagna in November 2025.

**Heidelburg** Christmas Booth—in the background are the castle ruins,

**Making Kasespatzle in Stasbourg, France during the Chroistmas Markets**

**Huge Candle Latern in Basel Switzerland**

**Christmas Markets Schornbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria**

# 21 Enjoy Sunset Views from the Sun Deck

Probably everyone who sails on AmaWaterways gets this square!

# 22 Take a Photo at Keukenhof Gardens

We had a great visit there in 2012. Best garden in Europe!

**Kuekenhof Gardens Pavilion Display. Photo Anne Schrader**

# 23 Enjoy a Spa Treatment on Board

We have never taken a Spa Treatment—no square for us!

Nothing like a message to brighten your day!

# 24 Extend Your Journey with a Land Package

We often add these to our clients’ trips.

**Covered Bridge Lucerne, Switzerland. This is part of a 4-day visit to both Lucerne and Zurich and avilable on many cruises that start and end in Basel Switzerland**

St. Peter Church, Old Town Zurich, Switzerland. The clock is the second largest clock tower in Europe.

Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva—Part of the Land Extension on the Essence of Burgundy and Provence AmaWaterways Cruise.

**Prague Castle Tour on the Land Extension on several Danube Cruise routes.**

Our Final Thoughts

What a fun way to learn about the many experiences you could have during a sailing. By my count, we get 20 of 24–maybe you can get more! Try the list yourself and if you want to get closer to a full card (Coverall in Bingo lingo), reach out to us for help.

We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.

Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you with high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@visitdd.com . We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

January 1, 2025

Europe River Cruise

Confusion About Europe River Cruises--Now AI is Involved!

Hank Schrader

January 1, 2025

Europe River Cruise

Confusion About Europe River Cruises—Now AI is Involved!

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

I have often blogged about consumer confusion about which Europe River Cruise to take and which company to use, as many face when searching for the right cruise for their vacation.

In 2024, we have written two blogs about this confusion which help educate our readers about this problem. Both these blogs have links, so just click on the red words if you would like to read them

Some Internet Articles Spread Confusion About Europe River Cruises

Sometimes travel writers focus on the lovely staterooms but don’t tell the full story of the cruise. This is a Avalon Panoramic Suite with the large glass windows. During the article about this cruise the author ignored the excursions. We used this picture in the blog cited above.

Another River Cruise Rating Article—No Wonder There is So Much Confusion

In the Another River Cruise Rating Article, we disagreed with the ratings by Conde Nast Traveler for Best River Cruise Lines. We made 2 key points: First, river cruises are good vacations and most folks rating a line have only traveled on one line. Second, these rating have little value for us—it is much better to match your travel style and don’t be swayed by rankings articles. This is a picture of the lounge on the AmaCello rivership from AmaWaterways.

There now is a new player writing about this confusion if you do a Google search—Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). It pops up as the first response to the search. We and you now have to evaluate the summary generated by AI and the sponsored (paid advertisements) before you arrive at the information from other sources.

This fundamentally changes searches on the web, and it has drawn my interest and scrutiny.

So, let’s see what AI generated and compare it to some of our thoughts.

How AI Came Up with the Response

I googled “Confusion About Europe River Cruises”. Google provided me with a response that began with an AI summary of this topic.

The main point, according to AI, is that the confusion “stems from the sheer number of navigable rivers and canals across the continent, combined with numerous companies offering seemingly similar itineraries.”

AI scanned three articles as the primary sources to summarize the one sentence response. The Articles used were ABCs of River Cruising (River Cruise Advisor), 15 of the Best River Cruises in Europe (Travel + Leisure) and Best Times to Take a Cruise on the Rhine, Danube and Main Rivers (Adventure Life).

Now The AI Results: Key Points Causing the Confusion

The summary described 4 areas responsible for the confusion. They are “1) Multiple River options, 2) Variety of cruise companies, 3) Itinerary variations and 4) Considerations like time of year”. For each of these 4 areas they gave a brief explanation of these topics.

The AI Solution: Actions Recommended You Should Take

The summary suggests 4 solutions. They are “1) Identify your priorities, 2) Research different companies, 3) Read reviews and compare itineraries and 4) Consult a travel agent”. Again, a sentence or two explanation was provided.

My Response to the 4 Areas Causing the Confusion

I have no problem with the sources of the confusion about river cruising in Europe. All four reasons do add to the confusion, and we have written extensively about these topics. I think the AI summary does not go into enough depth to really eliminate the confusion, as it emphasizes the difficulty of understanding river cruising without providing the upside to this type of vacation.

River cruising, while seemingly complex, is really a great option for most and the confusion stems from not really understanding the advantages and disadvantages of river cruising. Some folks new to river cruising always seem to not really see the value of this type of vacation and worry if they are going to get the best cruise. Also, river cruising is not for everyone—if you like sea days, nightlife or casinos, they are non-existent on river cruises.

Let’s start with my first premise—THERE IS NO BAD RIVER CRUISE! I really mean it—all the companies we follow offer great options that should fit all different styles of travel, as long as you can afford these luxury vacations.

My second premise is—THERE ARE DISTINCT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE QUALITY AND EXPERIENCE BETWEEN RIVER CRUISE LINES ALTHOUGH THEY SEEM SIMILAR! Now it becomes evident that just skimming the surface for answers is not enough to really understand these sometimes-important differences.

The AI Solution Only Has One Good Solution

AI offered 4 solutions to this vexing problem as enumerated above. I think only one was adequately handled by AI and I will defend this assertion, point by point (the AI responses are undelined).

Perhaps the most difficult item for new to river cruising is identifying their priorities. Most have vague ideas that confuse the process. To help resolve this problem, we figure out priorities by asking a lot of questions. Here is a small sample: What do you expect you will do and see on the cruise? What level of comfort do you desire? What type of stateroom do you want or need (think about hotel rooms you prefer as a starting point)? How much are you willing to pay to get what you desire? Perhaps the most often asked questions is What route should I take and why? (This question also had us write What is the Best Europe River Cruise Route? —please click on the red text if you would like to read our thoughts—it consistantly ranks #1 on Google)

As you can see, the list seems endless—already confusion. Most folks we talk to are unsure what they want, what is possible or what even to ask. If there is any confusion here, you need professional assistance.

AI next suggests you should research different companies. My responses is simple—one of the reasons we have a page-one item on comparing different river cruise companies (it bounces between 1 and 3 on Google) is there are not enough independent resources you can trust to help differentiate between river cruise lines. So we wrote our own comparisons of the different companies—at 86 slides in a PowerPoint, it is unmatched in depth of even more well-known travel writers (here is the link if you want to check it out 2024 2025 River Cruise lines Comparisons). I study river cruising almost daily and it is hard to know everything about these differences. I just can’t figure out how, without endless hours of research, you can determine what is best for you.

As their 3rd solution, AI recommends that you should read reviews and compare itineraries. I’m always a little skeptical of reviews, even ours, as what we like may not work best for you. I always think the excursions are most important, and while Anne generally agrees, it is the ship and food that is often most important to her. Who is right? We both are!

Let me give some other thoughts on comparing river cruising, using D Day experiences on a Seine River cruise as an example. We led 2 tours on the 70th and 75th Anniversary of D Day, which we created and contacted with travel suppliers to get a customized experience at an unmatched price. We started our tour in London, as most of the planning was done there. Our background makes us uniquely qualified to examine 2 cruises that start in London.

**Part of our 2019 Tour Group in Ste. Mere Eglise at the Airborne Musuem 6 June 2019.**

If you would like to start your tour in London, you have 2 choices—Tauck and Viking.

Tauck will spend 2 nights in London, with tours starting on day 2 with an overview of London sights and then adding an exclusive after-hours of the Churchill War Rooms. This is an excellent choice before taking the Chunnel to meet up with your tour boat. They then continue this to 2 other D Day experiences—a tour of the Caen Memorial (dedicated to the WW II experience of the whole war and the peace afterwards) and on the next day a tour of historic Normandy Beaches. All tours are included in this luxury river cruise line. It is a very good option. Here is our slide pdf PowerPoint of the day by day activities on this cruise:

Learn more—Cruising the Seine Plus Paris and London Route Guide

**One of the displays in the Churchill War Rooms that you can see on an after-hours tour on your Tauck river cruise**

You could also take a Viking River cruise that starts in London (it is new for 2025). There are 3 days of tours in London that focus on the Portsmouth D Day Museum, the Churchill War Rooms, the Imperial War Museum and then learning about the codebreakers before taking the Chunnel to Paris. All are included, which is often not the case with Viking River cruises, as there is only one included tour per day. The start is excellent.

**Imperial War Museum, London England. These are a pair of 15-inch guns from HMS Ramillies and HMS Resolution naval vessels. The museum has displays from WW I to present. Photo Anne Schrader**

Sounds like a great trip but then the entire two different options to tour the D Day beaches come at an extra cost, and there is no way to determine exactly what these will cost beforehand as Viking uses a dynamic pricing model that changes. It is amazing—the best 2-day tours including staying at a hotel near the beaches are not included in the cruise price. The other less costly option is a one-day tour to the beaches and that is also not included. If your priorities are to see most of the D Day area, the Viking itinerary is not up to my expectations, or I would guess yours unless you are willing to pay extra and not know the exact cost. Here is the Day-by-day route guide for this new 2025 cruise:

Learn more—London, Paris and D-Day Route Guide—New for 2025

**On the Tauck River Cruise you visit Omaha Beach on an included tour; on the Viking cruise you would pay extra and not know the cost until onboard,**

**The somber American Cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach in Normandy**

Can you see how difficult comparing itineraries can become? By now, you might be able to grasp how much detail you should know to make the best decisions for your river cruise trip.

You might have guessed I totally agree with using a travel agent (number 4 on the AI list), but a huge warning here—knowledge among travel advisors varies greatly.

Here is the minimum knowledge we believe a travel advisor should know to earn your business providing you with sound advice on river cruises:

1. They must know the difference between river cruise lines (almost all clients or potential clients ask us this).

2. They must know sailing routes in France (3 different river systems); Rhine; Rhine Tributaries; Danube and Portugal for Europe; and at least 2 or more key ports (what clients will see or do there) on each primary route (we can probably tell you in detail over 50 port stops in Europe and if the starting port or ending port will have adequate time for you to explore).

3. They must have taken a least one trip on a river cruise—nothing sells like personal experience—their trust level goes up instantly! (we now have taken 28).

4. They must be able to match you to the best cruise line for your travel style (this is one of our best value added abilities—we excel at matching clients to the best route and company).

5. They must have a website that tells potential clients their river cruise qualifications, how they can best help you, it should be easy for you to navigate, has a lot of good river cruise content, and lets you know they specialize in river cruising.

Having a good content plan for our website is one of the keys to our success. Our site clearly states what we do on our home page:

“Our Specialty: European River & Luxury Ocean Cruises & Luxury Europe Tours”

On our River Cruise section of our website, we have a massive amount of content. There is no other site that has 155 day-to-day route guides from 8 different companies (AmaWaterways, Avalon Waterways, Emerald River Cruises, Riverside River Cruises, Scenic River Cruises, Tauck River Cruises, Uniworld River Cruise and Viking River Cruises) and over 100 blogs about river cruising.

So, our advice, ask these types of questions if you decide to use a travel advisor (you could save yourself a lot of trouble and just use us).

Our Final Thoughts

Is AI the solution here? Not really, as they were only able to clearly define the problem. The solutions were weak and not really very good, in my humble opinion.

Sometimes, we seek simple solutions that don’t solve the problem. Our advice—for now seek a professional to sort it out for you and do some research but don’t waste your time when a real person can best meet your needs.

As Anne pointed out to me, AI learns by scanning material and can answer easy questions and summarize, but it has no emotional attachment to your trip—How is that going to get you a better trip? Emotion and experiences are so critical to an outstanding trip, and at present and perhaps never, will AI translate your emotional desires into a great vacation.

We will add the passion and excitement combined with judgment to get you the best value that is presently missing from AI. The results will be amazing!

ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 29 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

December 19, 2024

Europe River Cruise

Exciting Offers

Hank Schrader

December 19, 2024

Europe River Cruise

Exciting Offers

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

Happy Holidays to all—we sincerely want to thank you all, for your support, business and most of all the friendship and bonds we have developed. It has been an amazing ride as always and we look forward to what is in store for us in 2025.

This is our last blog of 2024.

This is going to be a slightly different blog this week (19 December 2024)—we have a couple of offers that are time sensitive (marketers would say hurry, these deals won’t last but we don’t want to insult your intelligence!).

Holland At the Heart of Tulip Blossom on Riverside Luxury Cruises 2025.

If you have never experienced the tulips in the Netherlands, although I don’t go crazy about gardens like some, this is an amazing experience! The tulips only bloom for about 6 weeks in the spring and they are all gone.

We are going to join this cruise from 23 April 2025 until 30 April 2025 and we would be delighted to share this sailing adventure with you, so come sail with us!

This is an 8-day cruise, round trip from Amsterdam. The ship is the Riverside Debussy, which only sails with 110 guests (all staterooms are suites, and above the waterline). After sailing on many 135-meter ships, many who are excellent and true luxury, we think that the Ravel and the Debussy are the 2 best designed 135-meter ships sailing in Europe.

Since the Ravel and Debussy are almost identical except for décor, let’s focus on the ship first.

**Bow of the Riverside Debussy in Cologne, Germany**

**Pop-up Bar on theTop Deck, Riverside Debussy**

To get a better idea of what you might experience on the Riverside Debussy, here is a blog I wrote about its sister ship the Ravel which has an identical setup:

https://www.dreamdestinations.com/blog-main/riverside-ravel-ship-tour

Now the route of this cruise

After arriving on the first day, you will get settled in your stateroom, later after the safety briefing, eat some great food and remain in Amsterdam ported overnight. The next day, on 24 April 2025, you have 3 options for tours--Keukenhof Gardens or Amsterdam Street Art & Graffiti Museum or Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Here are some photos of these excursions:

**Flower display in one of the pavilions in Kuekenhof Gardens**

**During our visit to Kuekenhof Gardens. there is a theme—it was England and a display of Notting Hill along with 007 James Bond and Elton John and other really interesting displays**

On Day 3 (25 April 2025) of the cruise, you are off to Nijmegen, Netherlands. Here are 2 possible tours: A Walking Tour of Arnhem including Eusebius Church or Nijmegen City Walk and some photos.

**Nijmegen, Netherlands Old Town Square and Market**

On Day 4 (26 April 2025), we now will travel to Antwerp, Belgium. There are 4 tours in Antwerp and one in Brugge (sometimes called Bruges). Your choices are: Antwerp City Walk & Chocolate Tasting, or Antwerp Pub Crawl, or Antwerp, Cathedrals & Diamonds, or Bierolade—Beer & Chocolate Tasting, or Highlights of Bruges. Perhaps some of these pictures might pique your interest in one of these tours.

**Barbo statue**. According to the legend, a terrible giant, called Druoon Antigoon, lived on the banks of the river Scheldt. He demand tolls, when refused he cut off the hands of offending sailors. A Roman soldier, Silvius Brabo, killed the giant and by cutting his hand off, he ended his reign of terror.

**A chocolate display in an Antwerp shop.**

**Burg Square in Brugge, Belgium. This is the Basilica of the Holy Blood and St. Basil Chapel**

**Brugge Canal at dusk. In the background is the Belfry Tower**

Day 5 (27 April 2025), we are still in Belgium, but now get to experience Ghent on the Panoramic Ghent by Canal Cruise.

**The Graslie Quai part of old town Ghent that is lined by Guild Buildings.**

**A boat tour of Ghent. In the background is St, Michael’s Bridge**

We return to the Netherlands on Day 6 (28 April 2025) to visit 2 places in this small country—Middleburg and Veere. We will have 4 tour choices—the Charms of Middleburg, or Middleburg Bike Tour & Cheese Farm Experience, or Delta Works Discovery, or Taste of Veere.

On our last full day of the cruise on 29 April 2025 on Day 7, we will visit Dordrecht and Rotterdam. Our 5 tour choices are: Discover Delft with Factory Tour, or Windmills of Kinderdijk, or A Walk Through Dordrecht, or Architectural Wonders of Rotterdam, or For the love of Gouda.

Kinderdijk windmills. These 20 windmills were built to keep the low-lying land dry by pumping water out of the area

Learn more—Holland at the heart of Tulip Blossom day-by-day route guide

We finish up on 30 April 2025 in Amsterdam.

Last, let’s consider the unique pricing model this cruise line offers. Riverside Luxury Cruises has 4 levels of pricing. They are:

Premium All-Inclusive, including Excursions
Premium All-Inclusive
Full Board Including Excursions
Full Board (meals Only with Limited Beverages)

This model allows you to pick the package that best supports your desired style of traveling.

There are several reasons why you should consider this cruise—it will be good for those who want to try a new cruise line; foodies and wine folks will really appreciate their cuisine, service and high quality wines; those looking to jump into luxury river cruising and folks who never have been to the Netherlands and Belgium in the spring or just want to see it again like us.

I want to go—here is my travel Rquest

2026 Paris & Normandy Cruise on Amawaterways 9 July to 16 July

We also plan to sail in July 2026 on the Seine with Amawaterways on their Paris and Normandy route. Although we have been in Normandy several times and led 2 anniversary tours of the 75th and 80th anniversary of D Day, this is one of the few river routes in Europe we have not taken on the 28 river cruises we have experienced.

We will be sailing on the AmaLyra, a 110-meter rivership. This is a round-trip from Paris-to-Paris sailing for 7-nights.

Along with a new route for us, there is an exceptional deal that is time-sensitive (OK hurry or you’ll miss it!). The best deal must be booked by 31 December 18, 2024.

Here is the deal:

SUMMER TRIPLE SAVINGS

$1,000.00 per person discount on this 7-night cruises –
Combinable with the $250 per person group discount) if booked by December 31, 2024.
Complimentary one cabin category upgrade (like-to-like category only, subject to availability) – Not applicable to Suites, A+ and AA+ cabins
$100 Onboard Credit per Stateroom on this cruise

The Summer Triple Savings promotion is valid to all new bookings made and deposited by January 31, 2025. Once the promotion expires, any new bookings made thereafter will receive the standard $250 per person group discount on this 7-night cruise.

Now that we have your attention, let’s learn a little more about this route and the experience you can expect.

Now a quick overview of the cruise-- Starting at Paris, you will sail the historic Seine River. You will visit Giverny, Monet’s Garden & Home, where he created many of his most famous paintings and Honfleur, the charming harbor town, also scene of many impressionists’ paintings. Also, you will visit Rouen, a great medieval city, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. The highlight of the cruise is an all-day excursion to the Normandy Beaches.

Day 1 you will board the ship in Paris. On day 2, in Les Andelys, here are your tour choices and schedule: Château Gaillard, or Les Andelys bike tour, or Château Gaillard hike. In the afternoon, you will enjoy scenic cruising on the way to Le Harve.

On day 3 in Le Harve, your tour choices are the Honfleur excursion, or Le Havre city tour in the afternoon, or a Bike tour.

Day 4 options for most will be the D Day sights in a full day tour. Here are the options: Normandy US Landing Beaches, or Normandy British and Canadian Landing Beaches, or Seine Museum, or Full-day Honfleur & Pays d'Auge tour.

**The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy**

Soldier Statue dragging his wounded comrade near Omaha Beach. This is located on the boundry between Charlie and Dog Green sectors from the invasion plan of Omaha Beach which were assigned to the units making the beach land assault.

Pegasus Memorial in the British Sector of Normandy. This museum documents the British 6th Airborne Division assaulr on the Pegasus Bridge. A small force of 181 men landed in 6 Horsa gliders to capture this important bridge after a fierce 10 minute battle. The orginal bridge has been replaced by a larger bridge, This is one of the many exceptional stories of bravery and resolve of the allied forces during the Normandy invasion.

On Day 5, we cruise to visit Rouen. Our tours are: Medieval Rouen walking tour, or Rouen bike tour, or Tastes of Normandy.

Our last cruise stop, before returning to Paris, is Vernon. Here we can visit: Monet's home and gardens in Giverny or Château de Bizy Tour or Giverny bike tour.

We finish off in Paris.

To get a better idea of the ship, the wonderful food and drink, and more detail, we encourage you to open this powerpoint:

Learn more—Paris and normandy day-by-day route guide

I want to go—here is my travel request

Our Final Thoughts

We hope you like these two ideas—we sure look forward to these awesome adventures. Hope you can join us on one or both. Please remember if these don’t fit your plans, we know many other river cruises trips that might better match when and where you can travel to Europe.

You should go on this cruise as an excellent way to explore Normandy in your floating, luxury stateroom, with awesome food and wines. Paris is an easy gateway, and the city of lights never disappoints! For most, the Normandy Landing Beaches are a moving place, where the sacrifice of many soldiers reminds us of the price of freedom. We will be proud to escort you during your vacation.

The triple savings is a real deal, and you can save an additional $500 if you book by 31 December 2024.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

December 12, 2024

Travel Planning

Overmarketing

Hank Schrader

December 12, 2024

Travel Planning

Overmarketing

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

We seem to be in a world of constant offers and often annoying companies pushing their products. It has become so pervasive; I started to wonder if we are violators of this phenomenon. I think not, but a little self-examination never hurts and with the Christmas season approaching, it is a good time to reflect on the year and our efforts to help you.

So, let’s examine our thoughts about how and why we contact you.

A Christmas Toast to You From one of our 28 River Cruises—we are in Tournon, France

Awareness

All businesses struggle to maintain proper contact with potential customers. We all face the same problem—not enough potential clients know who we are and how we can provide a benefit to them.

Here are some of the thoughts we have about solving this problem. We build awareness from our weekly blog, and excellent content on our website which results in high SEO results--all which helps us find new clients. We have a sign-up form so folks can sign up for the blog on our website—it is important that they op-in to avoid violating spam regulations, as well allows an option to unsubscribe at any time in the future.

Our Website

Without a doubt, this is our primary method of contact with our clients. By far our best aspect in building awareness is the excellent content on our website. Over time we have built a great SEO ranking for 2 important areas—we are #1 on Google for Best River Cruise Routes in Europe and bounce between #1 to #3 on Europe River Cruise Comparisons. SEO ranking takes time, but excellent content usually rises to the top, especially if it is unique. Two other blogs are rising quickly “Another River Cruise Rating Article—No Wonder there is so much Confusion” and “Comparing All-Inclusive River Cruise Companies—Riverside, Scenic, Tauck and Uniworld”.

Our river cruise section of our website has over 100 blogs about river cruising and 155+ day-by-day itineraries of 8 different river cruise lines. Building content is crucial and doesn’t happen overnight—adding good stuff to our website takes time and energy, as well as research to provide clients with something worthwhile. This is a win-win because we have become subject matter experts,. and you learn, so everyone benefits.

There are two items we do not have on our website—pop up ads and chat boxes.

Marketing experts love pop up ads—statistics I found on seo.co says that pop up ads have a 3% to 10% conversion rate. They would say since we have 5,000 who visit our website monthly, we would get 150 to 500 new subscribers to our blog list. This totally ignores the other 90% to 97% who are looking for good content. We would rather use the old-fashioned idea of signing up after viewing what we have to offer.

Another common idea is chat boxes. They can be with AI, or I guess with us typing a response, comment or question. According to an article published in Forbes, 44% of online consumers think a chat box is beneficial. I guess if we were selling low-cost products and had a lot of employees, it would be great, but why not just talk on the phone directly with us? Marketers would argue it provides fast answers when a customer is considering a purchase, but this is totally contrary to our philosophy—buying expensive luxury river cruises is never best when our potential clients feel pressured.

The bottom line--we will stand pat on our website and emphasize well researched and professional content.

Our Weekly or Bi-Weekly Blog

This is our primary method of contact prior to a client phone inquiry with our clients and potential clients.

We use MailChimp RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) to send to our client list our weekly or bi-weekly blog for free and do no other advertising—it goes out each time we write a new blog. Many in our business do not see the huge value of blogging—it creates a new page for every blog on our website and unlike social media doesn’t disappear—sometimes folks will contact us after reading a blog we wrote 5 years ago—amazing! Last year 54,837 folks visited our website based on the analytics from our Squarespace website. This year there are 62,520 visits (on December 12, 2024), with 73,809 page views. What this means is that folks spend some time on the website. Never will you see ads or pop-up ads—now you understand why.

Email

We do sometimes market by email, but we use email for responses and to clearly explain offers from our vendors. It is the best way, we feel, to offer precise detailed information that is a requirement to make sure what services we provide, what is contained in an offer and to answer questions and concerns.

The whole idea of this blog came from some emails I got this morning—apparently, we have the worst website that needs immediate attention (5 emails today offering to help us), we should be selling vacations to Mexico, the Arctic Circle, and great villas on some islands (6 emails today) and we need to join host agencies who will make us a lot of money (3 emails today). These folks wasted a lot of time and energy because they violated the most important rule of good marketing—provide a service that we want or need, and we clearly don’t need any of this!

Text Messaging

We use text often, but not as a primary marketing technique. The Forbes article states text messages have 98% open rates and 45% response rates. When you compare this to email with 20% open rates and 6% response rates, the benefits of text are quite apparent. We do try to avoid lengthy text messages and will stay vigilant to make sure this is as safe as possible.

We always ask before using text as a method of communication. Respect of your time and sending too many messages just hurts us all. We never accept personal financial card numbers or data that is confidential in a text

What Needs Improvement

Sometimes our response time is too slow—in a 2-person office it is hard to get it all done and I sometimes over estimate our response time. We probably should provide a little more information about great sales, but we tend to call folks when we see something they might like based on their past travels or based on their personal bucket list. This sometimes is a good example of overmarketing—our past clients often receive email offers and ads directly from the vendors, so we may be just adding to the aggravation. Balance is important—just the right number of messages goes a long way! Also, it is important to understand some items are urgent and if your travel is 9 months ahead, it probably can wait a while.

I think our current ideas are correct. We contact our best clients just to see what is going on in their lives—seldom is our contact about a great cruise idea unless they have opened the door expressing interest from our contacts. We are never, never pushy!

Our Final Thoughts

We hope you liked this and continue to support our efforts to stay in contact with you with just the right amount of good content and are responsive to your needs.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

December 4, 2024

River Cruise Advice

Waiting to Book Your Next River Cruise in 2025 Might Be a Mistake!

Hank Schrader

December 4, 2024

River Cruise Advice

Waiting to Book Your Next River Cruise in 2025 Might Be a Mistake!

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

We hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday and got a chance for some down time, rest and rejuvenation. We certainly did! Now, to this week’s blog.

While it is really hard to pin down the exact trends in the river cruise world, there is one trend that stands out to us. Folks are booking earlier than ever before and some of the best staterooms and dates are filling up quickly.

So, let’s examine what we are seeing based on our booking results and how this might affect your decision of when to book, if you are considering taking a river cruise in 2025 or 2026.

River Cruise Lines Had Record Sales in 2024 and 2025 is Booming

All lines we follow have reported in travel publications higher sales than in the past. While it often is difficult to really know the exact numbers, now that Viking has gone public on the stock market, it is a good indicator of what is happening in the river cruise industry.

They reported that 70% of their inventory is sold for 2025 in a recent earnings statement to investors. Considering that they have about 90 total river cruise ships in their fleet of over 100 total ships and about 76 in Europe with 45% of the total river cruise sales to North America for Europe, this is an excellent indicator that river cruise sales are booming and booking windows are growing longer. Their other competitors lag behind in total sales (AmaWaterways is next with 15%) but remember it is not the quantity of sales; it is the quality of the experience and there are many differences, and all lines have far fewer ships than Viking.

What Does Our Data Say?

We have had a record year with 55 river cruises sold in 2024 (this is an exceptionally high number of sales for a 2-person operation, and even many larger agencies don’t have these high numbers of sales). There seem to be several reasons for this increase.

First, there is a lot of pent-up demand when just a couple of years ago no one could travel due to the world-wide pandemic. Second, a lot of new folks are entering retirement age, as the last of the baby boomer generation are retiring, giving them the time and resources to afford a river cruise vacation. Third, most folks find satisfaction from experiences rather than buying things with their disposable money.

While these are good reasons for the increase, it is, in our opinion, not the key reason.

Our Key Factor for Increased Demand from Our Clients—the Great Value of a River Cruise

We have written so much about why a river cruise is such a great value, that I will just try to summarize the key points.

· One consistent factor cited by our clients is the upfront price, as almost all is included (the accommodations, great food and drinks, and excursions). This helps to make river cruising a special, hassle-free vacation.
· Our clients like the luxury floating hotel concept where you pack and unpack once, on a smaller ship, causing the vacation only to get better.
· They also enjoy the luxury travel style, paring this with exciting excursions. The excursions are often so carefully crafted, in the most efficient way to get a great sampling of ports you want to see, or places that are difficult to reach on your own, or sometimes new places you never knew existed, and you have scored a touchdown in travel experiences (sorry the old football coach always seems to throw in a football reference in his writing!).

What Are We Seeing For 2025?

We clearly see an increase in earlier booking windows for river cruises.

Perhaps, to us, the most interesting trend, is increased bookings in Spring (April and May) and Fall (September and October). There are not many cruise sales or inventory remaining during these months, as more desirable staterooms are sold out. This is relatively new, as in the past the shoulder season was a great value.

We anticipate about the same level of bookings as we had last year or perhaps slightly more—maybe a new record number of bookings for 2025. Our current sales are on track for these results.

Many river cruise lines report that folks are taking longer cruises (14 days instead of 7 days). Most of our clients prefer 7 day cruises with a pre and post, either on their own, or with the land packages available from the river cruise companies. Our more seasoned clients have expressed a preference for longer cruises. Clearly, most folks think that spending 2 weeks in Europe is about right, but they differ in staying with the ship or taking a land extension. We find airfare costs are driving this trend.

Our past clients seem very loyal, taking a river cruise again about every 2 years and we have a good mix of new clients, most who have never taken a river cruise before. One item is consistent—both our new and past clients highly value our advice and often ask in-depth questions to ensure they are getting the best value for their money and the vacation matches their expectations.

While many travel advisors report challenges finding new clients in surveys, we seem to avoid this problem. We are firmly convinced it is due to extensive knowledge of the river cruise industry, routes, and company differences, but more importantly our ability to match potential new clients to the best trip for their river cruise. We really care about the quality of your vacation and not how much money we make.

Our Role to Help You Get the Right River Cruise for Your Next Vacation

We can play an important role in your vacation planning by matching you to the best river cruise route and line for your travel style.

The top concern of travel advisors is competing with our suppliers, where people can book directly with the river cruise companies. While a slight concern for us, you will never get the same unbiased advice we provide or take the time we do to help you. The river cruise companies’ top priority is to get the sale as quickly as possible, while we can take all the time necessary to help you make sure you get the best value for your money. Their products are sometimes limited, and we have other vendors which can enhance your overall trip, if a single vendor is not the best solution.

When you consider we do not add any fees to the advertised price (we are paid on commission and earn every penny of it), so if you don’t chose to use our expertise, the river cruise companies just keep the commission they had planned to pay us. If you find this a little unbelievable, Viking in their second quarter earnings statement said they were working to increase profits by eliminating travel advisors, if possible, in their distribution channels and they emphasize direct bookings. I’m sure you can figure out why this was not well received in the travel agent community.

A recent report in an industry publication cited that 61% of travel advisors do not have any certification (I have 2 major certifications, and Anne has 3 major certifications), we have 155 day-by-day routes from the 8 different companies on our website and have written over 100 blogs about river cruising—will a direct call to a specific cruise line, tell you about other options? Here is a sample of what you will find our our website (this is from the AmaWaterways page):

Essence of Burgundy and Provence

Chalon-Sur-Saone to Arles 7 Nights AmaCello

We have been on 28 different river cruises (paying for 27 out of our own pockets) unlike those in the press who go for free or create so many categories in awards, that all lines will win something, it’s just hard to find impartial thoughts about a company or route when your revenue comes from an advertising vendor company—it is only natural they tend to represent them in the best possible manner in their publications. There are no restrictions on us at all or even thoughts about this for us when we state our opinions.

Our Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about the trends going on in the river cruise world for 2025. There is one primary trend that is true—the inventory is going quicker than any other time than we have seen in the past.

We strongly advise you, if you are considering a river cruise trip in 2025 or 2026 (we already have bookings for 2026), it would be to your advantage to book sooner rather than later. Your cabin options and preferred route depend on this!

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

October 29, 2024

River Cruise Comparisons

Comparing All-Inclusive River Cruise Lines--Riverside, Scenic, Tauck and Uniworld

Hank Schrader

October 29, 2024

River Cruise Comparisons

Comparing All-Inclusive River Cruise Lines—Riverside, Scenic, Tauck and Uniworld

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

In 2024, we had 3 exceptional experiences sailing on Riverside, Scenic, and Tauck. All are amazing, fall in the all-inclusive river cruise category, and will provide you with a great vacation experience. We would like to share what we have learned about these 3 river cruise lines and tell you about the other all-inclusive line, Uniworld.

Our opinions are based on extensive knowledge of the river cruise industry, but please remember they are only our opinions, so please use your critical thinking skills to evaluate what we write and look for any biases we might have in this comparison blog.

Let us be clear--the only thing that matters after reading this blog, is to match your personal travel style to the experience provided by these lines, not our opinions.

Full disclosure, we paid full fare on Riverside and Scenic, were invited for free on the Tauck cruise (our first free sailing in 30 years in the business) and have never sailed on Uniworld, so these observations are only a starting point for your consideration of which line to choose.

All 4 lines are all inclusive and have great features, but there are some important differences, and we would like to talk about our experiences and the vibe we got from each of the 3 cruises we took this year and provided information on Uniworld based on selling them to clients, their feedback and our industry knowledge.

To help organize my thoughts, I chose to put them in alphabetical order, and it has no other meaning than a consistent organization method. We are also only comparing their product in Europe.

So, let’s examine these 4 lines in detail, so you can see which one might be right for you.

The Fleets

One reason the comparison between these 4 lines is valid, is that all these lines have a relatively small fleets of ships sailing in Europe, which is a smaller number compared to other lines we follow. Also, 3 are family owned and one is owned by a corporation/equity fund which may create differences in their approach to river cruising.

Here are some facts about their ships, for a good starting point.

Riverside Luxury Cruises

Riverside has only 3 ships sailing in Europe and this is a real challenge for you to get a route that matches your desired itinerary, as they offer a large number of options and sailing days and may not repeat a cruise for a while. We still believe they should be considered even with this limitation for your vacation river cruise.

Riverside has two 135-meter ships and the double wide Mozart. Riverside started their entrance into river cruising by acquiring the double wide Mozart. Here are some pictures of the Mozart from our 2023 River Cruise Expo tour:

Palm Court Riverside Mozart. Photo Anne Schrader

Wine Storage Area Riverside Mozart. Photo Anne Schrader

With the bankruptcy of Crystal River Cruises, their four 135-meter ships were purchased by Riverside. Then, Riverside (a German Company), added 2 of these ships to their double wide Mozart, which can only sail the Danube. The Ravel sails the Rhone, and the Debussy sails the Rhine, Main Moselle and part of the Danube. The other 2 ships have been leased to Uniworld and are charter ships only.

Here are some pictures of the 2 135-meter ships, which hold 110 guests:

The Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

The Riverside Ravel in port in Viviers. Photo Anne Schrader

The next 3 pictures are the Riverside Debussy in port in Cologne:

The Riverside Debussy in port. You can see the Pop-up Bar on the top deck. Photo Hank Schrader

The bow of the Riverside Debussy in Cologne. Photo Hank Schrader

Bikes ready for the guests of the Riverside Debussy. Photo Hank Schrader

Scenic

Scenic has 11 Ships in the Fleet. The nine 135-meter Ships are: Sapphire, Diamond, Ruby, Pearl, Jewel, Jade, Jasper, Opal, and Amber. These ships carry 149 to 163 guests.

Their 110-meter ship the Gem sails the Seine and has 124 guests.

The 262 feet Azure sails the Douro and has room for 96 guests.

Scenic ships have a modern, sleek feel and look. Scenic owns their ships. Here are some pictures:

The Scenic Opal we sailed on in 2015. They use differnt ebikes now. Photo Anne Schrader

The Scenic Jewel and the ebikes they use in 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

The Scenic Jewel we sailed on in 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

The Atrium Area of the Scenic Jewel. Photo Anne Schrader

Tauck

Tauck has 9 ships sailing in Europe. There are four 135-meter ships: MS Inspire, MS Savor, MS Joy, and MS Grace. These 135-meter ships sail with room for 130 guests.

The Atrium Area of the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

There are four 110-Meter Ships: MS Emerald, MS Sapphire, MS Esprit, and the MS Treasures. These ships all have space for 98 guests.

The MS Emerald in port in Macon, France. Photo Anne Schrader

The reception area of the MS Emerald. Photo Anne Schrader

The newest ship is the MS Andorinha which sails the Douro and has room for 84 guests.

Tauck leases their ships from Skylla—they crew the ship. Tauck has 4 contract employees aboard to conduct the tours and provide other services for the guests that do not relate to meals, cleaning the cabins and sailing the ship.

The Tauck sailing we just took on the Savor had an elegant and refined feel. Here are some pictures of the ship:

The Compass Rose Dining Room. Photo Anne Schrader

The lounge bar on the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

The lounge area Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises

Uniworld has 12 ships that sail in Europe.

The 5 considered 135-meter ships are SS Beatrice (Danube, Rhine and Main), SS Maria Theresa (Danube), SS Antoinette (Rhine), SS Catherine (Rhone and Saone) and the SS Joie de Vivre (Seine). These ships have space for 150 to 159 guests, except for the SS Joie de Vivre which at 410 feet falls into the 135-meter class, although it is shorter than the standard 443 feet and only has space for 128 guests.

The six 110-meter ships are River Queen (Main, Moselle and Rhine), River Duchess (Danube, Rhine and Main), River Princess (Danube, Rhine and Main), River Empress (Rhine), the SS Bon Voyage (Bordeaux) and the SS la Venezia sails the Po only. These ships have capacity for 128 to 130 guests. We do not recommend sailing the Po, as it a difficult river and most tours involve long bus rides.

The River Royale in port in Bordeaux in 2015. It no longer is part of the Uniworld fleet and has been replaced by the Bon Voyage..

The SS Sao Gabriel sails the Douro with space for 120 guests and 60 staterooms (some of the larger suites can have more than 2 per cabin).

Each of these ships are one-of-kind ships that are “inspired by their destinations” according to their brochure. It is fair to say, our clients either love the ship designs or don’t care for them.

Cabins/Facilities

All ships on these 4 lines have a main restaurant, reception area, fitness room, spa facility, and lounge and bar area. I will highlight any additional, unique facilities,

Riverside

All staterooms in the two 135-meters ships class are above the waterline. The cabin suites range from 194 sq feet to 258 sq feet. There are 2 large suites of 506 square feet. They can be expanded to 764 square feet with an additional on an adjacent connecting room and are reserved as an owner’s suite. Riverside is the only line with king-sized beds, small walk-in closets and double sinks (the majority of the cabins).

The bathroom area on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

Many staterooms have a unique open-air feature, which allows it to open halfway and it has a screen to keep bugs out. There is no extra seating, and our stateroom had a small chair and a larger chair to enjoy this area. Here are a couple of pictures about this feature.

The French balcony closed in our stateroom. Photo Anne Schrader

Inside the desk area drawers. Photo Anne Schrader

Riverside has a pool, a pop-up bar on the top deck (it is very cool) and a guest laundry. There is no gift shop on their two 135-meter ships.

The pop-up bar on the top deck on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

Scenic

The Scenic Space-Ships have a sleek, modern feel. Scenic has waterline staterooms (11 of 82).

Most Scenic staterooms (71 of 82) feature the Sun Lounge by my count. Their balcony staterooms have a glass feature that allows the upper part of the glass window to lower with the press of a button to the halfway point and you can actually sit in balcony area, unlike the other 3 lines in this report who do not feature a dedicated sitting area.

Our bed on the Scenic Jewel in 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

The balcony are on the Scenic Jewel 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

The staterooms are very nice, with a comfortable bed and we like it except for the closet. The closet area was the most awkward in any stateroom we have experienced. Even the butler seemed to wrestle with it during our orientation to the room.

A good view of the sliding door closet from our 2015 cruise.. Photo Anne Schrader

Three ships have a pool.

Tauck

The 135-meter ships have a unique design at the water level. The Emerald Deck (lowest deck) has crew quarters and 14 fixed window staterooms. Unique to all river cruise ships, the 8 loft cabins (225 sq feet, category 3) actually have an innovative seating area on a raised loft that extends up to the second deck. It gives the usually small, cramped staterooms on the first deck, a very spacious and open feeling. The other 6 staterooms are only 150 sq feet and do not feature this loft concept (Cat 1 staterooms).

The bed area of the Loft Stateroom. Photo Anne Schrader

Other stateroom categories are Cat 2 (150 sq feet but on an upper deck), Cat 4 (190 sq feet), Cat 5 (190-225 sq feet), Cat 6 (225 sq feet) and Cat 7 (300 square feet). There are no outside balconies, but upper deck staterooms have a French Balcony set up.

Cat 7 Stateroom Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

Lounge area, Cat 7 Stateroom Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

The 110-meter ships follow the same stateroom size (some may be slightly smaller than the 135-meter ships), but none have the innovative loft cabins on the lower deck

Uniworld

It is hard to provide exact features on each ship, but some general stateroom features are consistent throughout the line. All ships have waterline staterooms, that they refer to as classic staterooms. Deck 2 is usually French Balcony staterooms. The upper deck has Royal Suites, Grand Suites, Suites and Deluxe French Balconies. None have walk out balconies but use either a sliding glass door or an open-air concept, where the upper part can be lowered halfway.

All have a guest laundry except the ship sailing in Portugal on the Douro.

Standard Cruise Features

Since all these lines are all-inclusive, this is a good topic to note what is and is not included in the cruise fare.

Itineraries/Destinations

All lines except Riverside sail the Rhine, the Main, the Moselle, the Danube, the Seine, and the Rhone and Saone. We have many of these day-by-day itineraries on our website.

Riverside has a unique model—there are 4 levels of fares and only 2 include all the excursions. This a-la-carte approach is unique and often confusing, even to us who study riving cruising daily. I will explain this in more detail in the excursions portion of this blog. Regardless of the package, gratuities and transfers are included. Our pickup at Avignon was by private sedan and transfer to the train station in Lyon was by a taxi.

Riverside only sails in Europe and only in select areas of Europe (no sailings on the Seine, the Bordeaux area and the Douro) so it is hard to pin down the exact number of routes offered, but the model includes 4-,5-,6-,8-, 9-, and 10-day routes in France (11 total), so it is safe to assume that around 33 different sailing routes are available. Part of the problem identifying the number of routes and excursions included, is that the website does not clearly identify the number of excursions but lists the same data about the city to be visited and you have to go to another place on the website to figure out the exact tours offered on that particular route.

Riverside carries e-bikes onboard.

Visit our website Riverside Page to Learn More About Routes

Scenic has 22 different routes in Europe and we have completed 19 of the 22 offered on our website. Gratuities and transfers are included. Our transfer was a taxi arranged at no cost to us to the train station.

Scenic has e-bikes onboard and usually has a couple of guided bike tours during a typical cruise.

Visit our website Scenic Page to Learn more About Routes

Tauck has 26 different routes in Europe and sails 6 summertime family cruises, called Tauck Bridges Family River Cruises. Tauck does not sail in the Bordeaux region. We have 23 of 32 day-by-day routes on our website. Transfers and gratuities are included. Our transfer was in a private sedan from Regensburg to Munich airport.

All Tauck ships have bikes onboard for guest use.

Visit our website tauck page tp Learn more about Routes

Uniworld has 23 routes in Europe, 2 interesting cruise and rail options (they have partnered with Golden Eagle Danube Express in Europe), and 7 Christmas Markets Cruises. We have 9 of 23 on our website. Transfers and gratuities are included.

The “Let’s Go” features hiking, cycling,, kayaking, and they carry bikes onboard.

Visit our website Uniworld Page to Learn more about Routes

Food and Wine

All 4 lines include most drinks but have varying packages. They all have buffet style breakfast and lunch concepts with a sit-down, order off the menu dinner. There is not much difference between the breakfast and lunch menus offerings, except for the lunch special item or perhaps an outdoor cookout. All have some form of a welcome dinner and farewell gala dinner. Some lines have better food than others, in our opinion.

Riverside

On Riverside, where you can upgrade from the full board package to the premium All-Inclusive package (most people who book with Riverside choose this package). Riverside claims they spend more on food and beverages than other river cruise companies and the large kitchen staff and space of the galley tends to support this claim (there is no way for me to verify this). Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style meals with dinner a sit-down order from the menu style.

The dessert Area Riverside Ravel at lunch. Photo Anne Schrader

My first lunch meal on the Riverside Ravel—roast chicken, safforon rice and a tatesty salad. Photo Anne Schrader

During lunch and dinner, unique among river cruise lines, is a pasta station (all made from scratch onboard) available for every lunch and dinner meal—you can see the chef ready to make the pasta in the middle of the hot service buffet area in the attached photo. Typically, there were a couple of meat or fish dishes, and a vegetarian option.

Anne particularly liked the 2 salad bars on both sides of the hot line buffet area. One side of the salad bar was a traditional area with your choice of salad ingredients that is quite common on all lines. The other side had specialty “premade” salad options that changed daily and were quite unique.

The usual salad bar with all the ingredients for creating a custom salad. Photo Anne Schrader.

the special salad area with pre-fixed salads and cheeses. Photo Anne Schrader

Riverside does have the best wine options of any of the all-inclusive river cruise lines.

The Bistro is a more informal area to eat during your cruise. It serves late-risers breakfast, and a light lunch.

The Bistro Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

A nice coffee break and late afternoon treat in the Bistro Cafe. Photo Anne Schrader

Among the items offered is a range of specialty coffees and teas and a selection of sweet treats. But the showstopper was the expensive Jamon (a dry-cured Iberian ham on the bone that is considered a delicacy and considered by most as the tastiest ham in the world)!

The dry-cured Iberian jamon. Photo Anne Schrader

Another cool feature is to get up late one day and still get eggs benedict instead of just some bread or sweet rolls as a late riser!

The café area is more a snack venue.

They try to have an outdoor cookout each cruise and it was awesome (the photo shows: On my plate a prawn, pork, sausage, steak, chicken, grilled baked potatoes and mac-n-cheese. Also, bearnaise sauce). Without any hesitation, the best outdoor grill experience on any all-inclusive line.

The Pantry are on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

On a windy day, the chefs grilled outside and created a great meal. Photo Hank Schrader

On my plate a prawn, pork, sausage, steak, chicken, grilled baked potatoes and mac-n-cheese. Also, bearnaise sauce. Photo Anne Schrader

Riverside has the Vintage Room area at an extra cost. It is a 7-course meal with high quality, expensive wines. It is only available if enough guests sign up for the meal.

The Vintage Room on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Anne Schrader

The food is exceptional on Riverside, in our opinion.

Scenic

There are 5 possible dining options onboard. They are 1) the Crystal Dining Room. 2) Portobello’s (or L’Amour in France) Specialty Restaurant, 3) the Riverside Cafe, 4) the Table La Rive and 5) Room Service.

4 of the options are available to all guests. The Crystal Dining Room serves breakfast, and lunch buffet style and a sit-down served meal for dinner. During both breakfast and lunch, there are options to order off a menu. I will say after 27 river cruises, my favorite breakfast was an order of French Toast and 1 Egg Benedict on our recent Scenic cruise.

The busy chefs creating a great meal. Photo Anne Schrader

Scenic Buffet desserts. Photo Anne Schrader

The Riverside Cafe—a good place for a light lunch meal. Photo Anne Schrader

Dinner is a 4-course meal. Scenic has a set wine offering at lunch and dinner with 6 whites, 6 reds and a champagne and Rose option. Wines are suggested for the meal menu of the day.

A starter salad for dinner. Photo Anne Schrader

A nice salad for me. Photo Anne Schrader

The always available steak and fries. Photo Anne Schrader

Wiener schnitzel dinner entree hunter style. Photo Anne Schrader

A carrot cake with a scope of vanilla ice creasm. Photo Anne Schrader

The specialty dining room is Portobellos (most routes), or L’Amour on French routes. It is for 32 guests and each guest will be provided an opportunity to try this excellent option—since I really like Italian food at the Portobello’s, it is my favorite meal during the cruise. I would have to assume L’Amour would be equally good.

The Portobello’s staff in 2024 explains the meal. Photo Anne Schrader

A great dessert Portobellos 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

The Table La Riva is a 6-course meal with paired wines for 10 guests in the evening. It is exclusively for Diamond Deck guests cruising for 10 nights or more and since we were sailing for 7 days, we were not eligible for this culinary experience. There is no extra charge for this culinary experience, if there are enough guests who meet the 10 night or more sailing requirement.

The food is very good but sometimes inconsistent in our opinion.

Tauck

The main dining room is the Compass Rose. In the Compass Rose, you can select from the buffet or order off the menu.

Breakfast is excellent choice of order off the menu and buffet items. Here are some pictures:

Breakfast Buffet Tauck Savor. Photo Hank Schrader

My French Toast on the Tauck Savor. Photo Hank Schrader

My Egg Benidect on the Tauck Savor. Photo Hank Schrader

Lunch is offered in two forms. There are items from a buffet line, or some items can be ordered from a menu. There’s a featured suggestion from a special preparation area/carving station.

Carbonara lunch—it was excellent. Photo Anne Schrader

Dinner is a 4-course meal. The menu provides choices of a starter, soup, entree and dessert.

Onion soup for the 1st course. on the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

A shrimp salad 2nd course. Photo Anne Schrader

Tenderloin with mash potatoes ans carrots entree course # 3 on the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

A chocolate dessert final course on the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

The chefs from the speciality cook station. on theTauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

Each night there are 2 wines, a white and red selection to pair with the meal. They are regional wines. Sometimes, I found the daily wine not to my liking, and the staff was quick to offer another choice.

During our cruise, they offered an outside barbeque that was good and fun.

Arthur’s Specialty Venue

Arthur’s is a more casual dining venue compared to the Compass Rose. It features more American style cuisine, as compared to the European style cuisine of the Compass Rose main dining room.

The chef in Arthur’s. Photo Anne Schrader

Anne’s cheese sandwich lunch in Arthur’s. Photo Anne Schrader

A wonderful steak medallions, baked potatoes and bernaise sauce in Arthur’s. Photo Anne Schrader

Each Tauck cruise has an onshore dinner at a special venue—usually at a castle. This is a set menu (it could offer 2 main course selections but on ours it was a fish course only and not my favorite) and is a special event.

Our special dinner venue. Photo Anne Schrader

The wines were from the vineyards on the estate. Photo Anne Schrader

A great ending dessert. Photo Anne Schrader

The food is very, very good, in our opinion.

Uniworld

Uniworld touts its “delicious farm to table cuisine”. Breakfast and Lunch are buffet-style. Breakfast offers the typical choices of baked items (bread and Danish rolls). Bacon, sausage, eggs. Cold cuts and cheeses—the typical continental or full English Breakfast options.

The lunch buffet offers a variety of starters, salads and homemade soups. There is a sandwich of the day, often a pasta dish and usually 3 selections of entrees. As you would suspect, desserts and fresh fruit complete the meal wonderfully.

Dinner is a served meal as you would expect in a fine dining establishment, consisting of 4 courses. It includes an appetizer to start, a soup course, then the main dish (typically a pasta, or seafood or seafood or vegetarian option). The meal ends with great desserts

Specialty dining options vary by ship, and it is not consistent in the fleet. Some ships offer an al fresco options and the Joie de Vivre has several dining options. In their larger ships, there is often a intimate dinner in the Leopard Bar or Captain’s Club for suite guests only, with a set menu, served by the butlers. Normally, the venues serve as a snack area.

Uniworld is considered a member of the Chains des Rotisseurs, as several executive chefs are members of this invitation-only food society. To my knowledge, the entire line is not a recognized as members.

It is unfair for us to rate the food and wine without sampling it.

Service

All have butler service except for Tauck.

Riverside

All staterooms have butler service. They describe them as polite, discrete, and professional and we found that was true during our cruise.

Scenic

Scenic butler service varies by stateroom category. In each stateroom that comes with butler service, a card describes their services. The 4 butlers cover 67 staterooms.

Tauck

Tauck does not have butlers.

Uniworld

The butlers on Uniworld dress the part—full tails, white gloves and are superb according to all I have read. They are full-time and do not have other duties that are common on other lines. They are only for the suite category staterooms. For example, there are 2 butlers serving 11 suites on the Maria Thersa.

Excursions/Activities

This is probably the most important category for me—the whole reason to go on a river cruise is to see and experience places and new cultures.

Riverside

Riverside has a unique model—there are 4 levels of fares and only 2 include all the excursions. This a-la-carte approach is unique and often confusing, even to us who study riving cruising daily. On our recent cruise on the Ravel, we were able to use this approach and only pay for the excursions we chose, but I was surprised at the cost of an individual tour. For example, I returned to visit Les Baux (we had been there on another river cruise line excursion) and the cost was $108.00 US dollars per person. We did have one excursion cut from our recent cruise, as not enough signed up for the one we wanted that day.

Here are some pictures from the tours I went on during our Riverside cruise:

Les Baux Excursion on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Hank Schrader

Light show that was part of the Les Baux excursion on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Hank Schrader

Tarascon Castle excursion on the Riverside Ravel. Photo Hank Schrader

There is always an included extra excursion, even if you don’t select any excursions. Ours was a wine and cheese tasting at the village of Chateauneuf-de-Pape winery.

The included wine and cheese tasting in Chatueaneuf-du-Pape. Photo Hank Schrader

The wonderful wine and cheese tasting. Photo Anne Schrader

Scenic

On a normal cruise, all excursions are included, but in some limited cases, if not enough people sign up for the excursion it will be cut. Scenic uses local guides—usually very knowledgeable, but on our last cruise, twice on excursions, the meeting time and location to leave changed. We were almost left once and had to run back to the bus. Our complaint and very angry reactions were dismissed by the cruise manager, despite others telling us the guide left early, and we were right. Other than this, the tours were fine, but we almost always go off on our own unless it is too difficult to get the excursion destination on our own and we have to take the bus. Bus transport is excellent.

Scenic always has an Enrich feature on their cruises. On our Danube cruise it was a special concert in Vienna and the was a special concert in Trier on our latest cruise.

Palais Liechtenstein Enrich excursion in 2015 for a wonderful concert in Vienna, Austria. Photo Anne Schrader

Ceiling painting of the Palais Liechtenstein which was the venue for our Enrich excursion on the Scenic Opal 2015. Photo Anne Schrader

Here are some pictures of the tours from our Scenic cruise in 2024:

Berg Eltz excursion on the Scenic Jewel. Photo Hank Schrader

Colmar, France excursion Scenic Jewel 2024. Photo Anne Schrader

Tauck

Tours and activities are a little different than other lines in one respect—there are 3 Tauck tour guides on the tours. They use local guides which are accompanied by the 3 tour guides. All tours are included, and they always have a special meal prepared at a unique land location (usually a castle dining venue) for an extra treat (there are pictures of this event in the food section). They call these features Uniquely Tauck.

Here are some pictures of the tours from our Tauck cruise:

Frankfurt excursion on the Tauck Savor. Photo Anne Schrader

Old Town Cologne, Germany. Photo Hank Schrader

Wurzburg Residenz Palace on a Tauck Savor excursion. This is the largest ceiling fresco in the world. Photo Anne Schrader

The tours are generally good but sometimes limited by the ship schedule. If you are out on an excursion over lunchtime, you will probably get 20 Euros to cover a meal, and even coins if necessary to use the bathroom. I certainly would have enjoyed more free time on some excursions on our voyage.

Tauck prides itself on bonus gifts, designed to be surprises and not included in tour descriptions, it is a cool touch!

Uniworld

Although they claim they are all inclusive, there are some optional tours at many port stops that cost extra and are not included in the fare. In my opinion, this is excessive for a line that says all is included in its marketing materials.

They do excel in Jewish Heritage Special cruises, which often sell out quickly. These are not the only themed cruises—they have a Connoisseur Collection of culinary cruises in France and a Monarch Collection which allows you to visit private castles and even royalty in some cases.

Company Dynamics

This category rates their policies, treatment of guests, and booking policies. Since all 4 lines accept direct bookings from clients (not our recommendation, since we can get you same prices and much better service), I think it is important for you to know how they deal with travel professionals, so you know what to expect and if there are potential problem areas.

Riverside

So far, they seem to be very responsive, but this is a limited sample of one booking. Riverside is owned by the Seaside Collection, a family-owned business.

Scenic

Compared to other lines we follow, Scenic is the hardest company we have to deal with-- it isn’t even close to any others, but they are getting better. A key problem is refunds, as they do not keep credit card information on file and send out checks which takes a long time. Scenic is family owned.

Tauck

Tauck is super easy to deal with! The staff is very knowable and eager to help. Tauck is family owned and celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025.

Uniworld

We have sold Uniworld and find them an easy company to deal with. Uniworld is owned by the Travel Corporation but there is a pending sale of the Travel Corporation to Apollo Equity Fund which is planned for finalization in the 4th quarter of 2024. Apollo has promised to improve all the Travel Corporation products.

Value

Riverside

There is no doubt this is a luxury experience, first class in every aspect.

Scenic

Excellent product, and their 2 for 1 sales are their best value but they want their total money upfront for these sales—I’m not a fan of this technique, as your money could be tied up for a year or more.

Tauck

Probably worth every penny—great product.

Uniworld

Solid value but may be a little too costly for the inclusions and too many extra charges for optional tours.

Our Final Thoughts

This is a really long blog, but a good starting point for you. As you read this, think about your travel style and the higher cost of travel on all-inclusive river cruise lines. It is often an elevated experience and makes travel seamless.

We hope you enjoyed this blog—it was a challenge to write it in a comprehensive manner.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

October 24, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

The Vintage Room on the Riverside Ravel

Hank Schrader

October 24, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

The Vintage Room on the Riverside Ravel

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

Among river cruise lines, the Vintage Room on Riverside Luxury Cruise Lines is unique.

Why is it unique? There is a significant charge for the dining experience which Riverside justifies due to the premium wine selection for the 7-course meal. No other river cruise line that has a specialty dining option charges for the experience that I am aware of based on our knowledge of the 8 river cruise lines we follow.

So, let’s experience the Vintage Room Dining Experience as we did recently and evaluate if it is an experience you desire to have.

The Vintage Room on the Riverside Ravel venue that is set up for 10 guests. Photo Anne Schrader

As a little bonus, during the 2023 ASTA River Cruise Expo, we got a chance to see the double-wide Mozart. Here are 2 pictures of the Vintage Room and a sample menu.

The Vintage Room on the Riverside Mozart. Photo Hank Schrader

A Sample Menu for the Vintage Room on the Riverside Mozart. While the menu items are different, the 7-course meal and excellent wines mirror the concept of the Vintage Room. The wines on this sample menu are exceptional. Photo Hank Schrader

The Vintage Room Concept

This small venue on the 3 Riverside ships is only available if enough guests sign up for this extra-cost meal (my best guess is at least 8 are required). The exact meal is not known beforehand—the chef and sommelier plan the menu on the day of the event.

The meal is a combination of a tasting menu with a larger main course entrée, served with premier wines. Our meal started with an excellent Bollinger Champagne (Grande Anne—a true hit with my lovely wife Anne—even the spelling of Anne was correct!).

Each course was served with wines, starting with the 2 whites and switching to the reds—each course is paired to the wines to enhance the sensations on your palate.

Our Menu

Course 1 Crayfish & Cucumber in a gin and tonic sauce

Course 2 Compressed Watermelon with Goat Cheese |Mint |Arugula |Basil

Course 3 Dark Fish Veloute Huitre Bretonne | Bruschetta

Course 4 Raspberry Sorbet in Cassis Spheres | Sparkling Wine

The Sorbet to cleanse our palates. Photo Anne Schrader

This is how they added the champagne to our sorbet—cool technique with the twisted napkin! Photo Anne Schrader

Course 5 Venison with Young Vegetables |Peach | Plum

The Main Course—Venison. Photo Anne Schrader

Course 6 Millefuille with Fig | Blue Cheese

Course 7 Petit Gateau Au Chocolat Noir Chocolate Mousse | Cassis Sorbet | Royal Almond Glaze

Wines

The real emphasis of this meal was the premier wines. To help understand this, I researched the average cost per bottle retail in an online search, just to get a sense of the cost to put on the meal without the food. For our 11-person group, they used about 2 bottles of each wine.

My best guess is that the wine cost Riverside somewhere around $1,624 total for the meal (using my 2-bottle estimate), so it was about $148 per person. I do want to emphasize there was plenty of wine, so no one was limited—it was just the right amount for fine dining.

The reason this is important is the meal cost us 580 Euros per couple (I have seen reports of 295 Euros per person for this experience, making the cost 590 Euros per couple) and as smart travelers, we want to know if the experience was worth the cost of 290 to 295 Euros per person.

Campagne

Bollinger Grande Anne Champagne France 2014 ($144 per bottle)

White Wines

Chateau Carbonnieux Sauvignon Blanc Bordeau France 2017 ($60 per bottle)

Olivier Laflaive Les Folatiers, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru, France 2020 ($140 per bottle)

Red Wines

Chateau Hossana, Merlot, Pomerol, Bordeaux France 2018 ($182 per bottle)

Chateau Figeac, Premier Grand Cru Classe, St Emillion, Bordeaux France 2018 ($215 to $295 per bottle)

Dessert Wine

Karcher Trockenbeerenauslese, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee, Austria 2003 (retail $71 per bottle)

The Meal Experience

The venue is very elegant, and the service exceptional. Each course was explained and the wine accompany it was explained in greater detail. A cool feature was the menus printed for each guest by name and detailed descriptions of the wine and were delivered to our stateroom to help us remember the experience.

The chef (right) explaining the meal with the sommelier looking on. Photo Anne Schrader

The experience was exactly as described to us, the wines excellent, but personally I was disappointed in the meal. The quality was excellent, but the choice of food just didn’t send me raving afterwards about the meal. Some of the courses called for a refined palate to appreciate the taste and flavor and although the Venison was superbly prepared, it is one of my least favorite meat dishes.

The wines were awesome, so overall it was a good experience.

We did get a lttle special treatment—it was just before my 75th birthday. Thay made me a cake and all got to share and celebrate with us.

The awesome cake on my plate—it was really good! Photo Anne Schrader

Our Final Thoughts

This optional meal is a truly fine dining experience. It was a highly unique experience, and far exceeds a Captains Gala on other river cruise lines.

Anne feels it is the best dining experience she has had on a river cruise line. Anne’s impression of the meal was very high and worthy of the cost—even though Venison isn’t a meat she likes, the other dishes were excellent. Her take on the evening: quality food, beautifully presented plating, timing of the courses to allow full enjoyment without excessive waiting, and truly white glove service by the staff.

I would encourage you to read the courses and wine in detail, as it will help you decide it the experience was worth the cost. Since the food and courses are decided at the last minute, you also need to factor that into your decision. We did provide some feedback to the Riverside staff that the exact menu would encourage more guest to try the experience, especially if the courses were more to their liking.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

October 8, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

Riverside Ravel Ship Tour

Hank Schrader

October 8, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

Riverside Ravel Ship Tour

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

With the bankruptcy of Crystal River Cruises, their four 135-meter ships were purchased by Riverside. Then, the German Company, Riverside, leased 2 of these ships to Uniworld and add the other 2 to their double wide Mozart, which can only sail the Danube River

With only 3 ships sailing at present, it might seem that you could just ignore this cruise line, but we believe it has a lot to offer and recommend you take the time to read this blog to see if they offer a good match for a future vacation.

The Ravel, one of these leased ships, sails on the Rhone River. So, let’s take a look at this ultra luxury rivership.

The Ravel

The Ravel was built in 2018. It holds only 110 passangers (55 staterooms—fewest in the industry on 135 m cruise ships). All staterooms are on the upper 2 decks—these ships are the only ones built I know of that do not have staterooms at the water level

At the bow, right above the name of the boat, is the wheel house. Most other ships have a collapsible wheel house that is in the center of the top deck. The top glass windows on the right are the Palm Lounge and directly below is the Waterside Restaurant.

Restaurants

There are 4 possible eating venues.

The Waterside Cafe is the main dining area.

Breakfast and Lunch are served buffet style in the Waterside Cafe. Here are some pictures of the setup:

During lunch and dinner, unique among river cruise lines, is a pasta station available for every lunch and dinner meal—you can see the chef ready to make the pasta in the middle of the hot service buffet area in the photo above. Typically there was a couple of meat or fish dishes, and a vegetarian option .

The salad area on the lunch buffet.

The dessert area on the lunch buffet

This is my first lunch—a roasted chicken from the carving station, saffron rice and a salad. The food was wonderful!

The next pictures are of a typical dinner meal. It is served at your table after you order from the menu.

There are tables for two.

This is grilled asparagus with a poached egg and cheese sauce—Anne really liked it!

French Onion soup

My pasta dish

My steak with pepper corn sauce

A Cheese plate

Dessert

The Bistro is a more informal area to eat during your cruise. It serves late breakfast, and a light lunch.

Among the items offered is a range of specialty coffees and teas and a selection of sweet treats. But the show stopper was the bone in ham!

Another cool feature is to get up late one day and still get eggs benedict instead of just some bread or sweet rolls as a late riser!

The coffee preparation bar is well stocked

The bone in ham—a true delicacy!

This was my late riser eggs benedict.

Here is part of the seating area of the Bistro.

The salad area

The dessert area

You can order a hamburger in the bistro or have one in the Waterside cafe.

The specialty dinning room is the Vintage Room. It is only available if enough guests agree to pay the extra charge (we had the experience and paid 580 Euros for both of us). We will blog about this later.

There is room for 12 in the Vintage Room.

This is the wine storage area in the Vintage Room.

The Outdoor Grill Area

Weather permitting, once a sailing, they try to have an outdoor lunch. It was too windy to eat outside, but the chefs cooked a wonderful meal (the next 2 pictures).

The top deck has a pop up bar. This lowers to go under low bridges during sailing.

The outside covered area and tables on the top deck during a less windy day.

This picture captures how windy it was, so we had to eat inside

It was quite a good spread. On my plate a prawn, pork, sausage, steak, chicken, grilled potatoe and mac-n-cheese. Also bernaise sauce. Awesome!

Common Areas

Among the shared areas on the ship are the Plam Court Lounge. a swimming pool, guest laundry, a fitness room and spa treatment room. Here is the Palm Court Lounge (the next 3 pictures):

Here is the swimming pool area on deck 3:

On the first level, here are photos of these venues:

Fitness Room

The next picture is the guest laundry, that is free for guests.

Here are some of the spa services available in the above photo.

On deck 2 there are some small common areas outside the Waterside main restaurant.

This is the pantry snack area with a gourmet coffee machine (above).

When returning to the ship, we were often treated to wine and a cold towel to refresh ourselves. This is the entrance area on deck 3.

Our Stateroom

We were in stateroom 316.

Our bed faced the French Balcony stateroom.

The above photo shows the open air French Balcony partially open from inside our stateroom.

To let fresh air in, the glass window sticks out. as you can see in the outside picture of our stateroom 316. (upper window ). These must be closed while in the locks, as they stick out too far to avoid being damaged when transitioning locks.

The shower area in stateroom 316. It has a rain shower and a hand-held shower faucet. There are clear buttons to start and stop the shower.

There are twin sinks in stateroom 316.

This is the small walk in closet

A welcome bottle of champagne; fresh fruit and 2 small chocolate pastries were there to greet us at check-in.

The desk area

Glass ware for our use

Coffee cups for us

The coffee maker and a small bottle of Cote du Rhone wine for us.

Our Final Thoughts

This is an all-inclusive, luxury experience! We really enjoyed our vacation onboard and would recommend this line for a good time on the Rhone River. It is luxury in every aspect of your vacation and you will experience the same great food and services we did.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

October 3, 2024

French River Cruise Ports

Tarascon Castle

Hank Schrader

October 3, 2024

French River Cruise Ports

Tarascon Castle

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

This is a tour of the magnificent medieval Tarascon Castle. It was constructed to protect the Provence region from attack.

Outside the Castle

Inside the castle gardens, here is a good view of one of the round towers in the picture below.

This is what you would expect from a medieval castle built between 1401 and 1433. The entrance to the castle is over a moat bridge. The 4-foot-thick walls have two round towers on the east side and 2 square towers on the Rhone side.

Inside the Castle

There are 30 rooms that could be toured on my excursion. For many, there are not many furnishings inside the castle, and it may appear a little bland.

This is a picture of the herb gardens inside the castle.

The castle was created for protection of this region to protect the lands of King Rene. King Rene held the titles of King of Naples, Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence.

In one of the display cases, the round picture just a little left of center below the overhead picture of the castle is King Rene.

After King Rene’s death, the castle and lands become part of the kingdom of France and no longer was necessary to defend this area of Provence.

The castle later became a prison and also a hospital in the 1700s. One of the first rooms on the tour was the apothecary, used by the nuns to treat the sick. Here are 2 photos:

The next room we visited was the Dungeon. Here are 2 photos:

Next was an inter-courtyard area:

Next was the chapel:

The next room was the banquet area. The red floor coverings were added within the last ten years as part of a art project to add some interest to the interior.

King Rene made the castle an important place for social gatherings. Many festivities happened in this room of the castle.

The roof beam construction is solid and interesting. There are beam roofs in most large rooms of the castle.

In the Great Hall, there were displays of the wall decorations. These decorations added color to the stark walls of the castle. Here is a sample of the displays:

Here in this room is a large image of the entire castle:

Next, in another room, were some artwork of life in the middle ages and life in and around the castle:

Across the river, there was another castle in ruins. It is called Beaucarie Castle. It was a Cathar stronghold. This castle was under siege during the Cathar Religious wars in France in around 1209–1229. The Cathers believed in 2 Gods and were defeated by crusaders under orders of the Pope and the castle was destroyed.

There were also some wall carvings in another room that were quite impressive.

These date back to 1480, and were engraved into the walls by a prisoner enemy of King Rene.

And with our interest in how folks handled daily living , here is one of the bathrooms in the castle:

From the top of the castle, the Tarascon Collegiate Church of Saint Martha is an impressive Gothic church.

Our Final Thoughts

Castles have always fascinated me. It is fun for me to try and imagine what it was like during that era. We hoped you liked this article and learned something new about the castles of Provence.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

September 19, 2024

Our River Cruise Services

Character, Competence and Content

Hank Schrader

September 19, 2024

Our River Cruise Services

Character, Competence and Content

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

September is always a busy month for river cruise travel for our clients, as we have 10 couples in Europe right now or about to travel or who have finished their vacation..

It has not been an easy ride for 4 couples, as historic rain has flooded the upper Danube this week in September 2024. 4 of our clients’ travel was affected by the floods. We have managed to help all, and these situations don’t last long.

After the scramble, and successfully sorting it all out, it got me to thinking, as I often do, about the purpose of our business. Are we as good as we say we are in helping folks have exceptional river cruise vacations?

Anne often emphasizes we are not just order takers; we need to add value to the folks who trust their travels to us;

So, lets take a critical look at the foundation of business and our 3 guiding principles, Character, Competence, and Content and what it means for you if you decide to use us to help you travel better, especially if you are deciding to use us a a resource to plan a river cruise..

Character

Character for me is what we do and why we do it. We believe that we must be trustworthy, respectful and reliable. Character is a relationship building process, as you search for the right person to advise you about river cruising. We must be loyal, supportive and helpful. A more fancy way of saying this is we must provide personalized customer service.

Our class motto for my West Point Graduating Class of 1971 is “Professionally Done”. We also strive to provide you travel services that are “Professionally Done”.

Perhaps the best way to describe our business character, is to evaluate us as we advise you about your river cruise travels. Here are some questions you might ask yourself as you evaluate our services

Evaluation overall is simple—are we the right person to help you?

It is judgement time—do you think we will find you the best option for your river cruise trip?

Do we deliver timely, accurate answers to your questions and concerns?

Are we easy to work with?

Can you trust us to do what is best for you, not us?

Will we solve your pain points about traveling?

We think we check all these boxes with a resounding yes, but do you?

Maybe a little evidence is important here, so this might provide some back up to these questions, based upon past and present clients and other agencies, as we we think we are you best option to help plan a river cruise for your vacation.

Testimonials--We have a Traveller Hall of Fame page on our website along with testimonial quotes on various pages of our site and good reviews help—we use both, as well as A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau to help demonstrate we are the real deal..

The Hamlins on a Bordeaux River Cruise 2024

It is no surprise that we end almost every communication we have with folks with “Thanks for your trust in us”. It is not just a saying, it is a sincere reminder to us we must earn your trust every day.

Competence

To be a good travel advisor, it means we must understand how to best design a trip that hits all the items, or most of the items, that our clients desire in the trips we help the plan and execute.

You could call this discovery. Discovery is simple—do you, as a prospect, think we can help you get the best possible river cruise for your vacation?

After you become aware of our business, you now want to discover how we can help you. You want to know if we have the experience, knowledge and qualifications to help you, how we operate and what it costs to use us, and do you trust and like us.

It is no different than what you want when you buy something someone is selling—we all make these judgements. Here is where our website comes in—we must highlight how you will have a better trip by using us and how we talk with you in person or on the phone—our confidence and knowledge will help to set us apart from others in our profession..

We also emphasize this in our telephone calls—often spending up to an hour or more teaching and answering questions.

Ok, evidence time—we have taken 26 river cruises, have 3 more upcoming this year and next year, so our first hand knowledge is exceptional. We hold specialist designations from all major river cruise lines, so they know we have been properly trained about their products and services. We have been in business for 30 years. We have helped hundreds enjoy river cruises that match their travel preferences.

We also don’t charge extra fees for our services—we get paid by commissions only, and since the fee is already built into the price of the river cruise, you basically get our services for free, as you will pay the same price whether or not you choose to use us.

When something goes wrong, just like it recently happened to 4 of our clients, we become your adovate to help resolve and reduce problems that may make your vacation less than you expected. We make sure you are not alone.

Content

We believe we must become the best available resource to educate our clients about their upcoming travel. Since no travel advisor can be all things to each travel specialty, we focus on European River Cruising. While we know we are among the best possible river cruise agants in all of America, you may not be aware of the level of competence and respect we hold from past clients and industry companies.

So, how do we build awareness, that ultimately may lead you to use us as your trusted travel advisor? It is our outstanding content on our website and these blogs.

Here are some statistics from the analytics portion of our website (all are from 2024 only):

1) 42,391 unique visitors in 2024.

2) By far our best aspect in building awareness is the excellent content on our website. Over time we have built a great SEO ranking for 2 important areas—we are #1 on Google for Best River Cruise Routes in Europe ( 10,886 visitors) and bounce between #1 to #3 on Europe River Cruise Comparisons (10,873 visitors).

3) We are also rank # 1 for Europe River Cruise Ratings (3,150 visitors)

SEO rankings takes time, but excellent content usually rises to the top, especially if it is unique. As you can see, ours has.

Our river cruise section of our website has over 100 blogs about river cruising (we rank #2 or #3 for river cruise blogs) and 140 day-by-day itineraries of 7 different river cruise lines. By my count there are about 186 day by day routes of these 7 companies listed for sale in 2025, or stated another way, we have 75% of the offerings with our pictures of what you will see and do.

Here is a list to prove this point

Amawaterways 33 routes 33 completed
Avalon Waterways 36 routes 22 completed
Emerald River Cruises 22 routes 18 completed
Scenic River Cruises 22 routes 19 completed
Tauck River Cruises 32 routes 23 completed
Uniworld River Cruises 23 routes 9 completed
Viking River Cruises 18 routes 17 completed
Totals 186 routes 141 completed

We don’t know any other agency who has such a massive number of routes, using their own pictures. We could have only done this by taking 26 different river cruises since 2009—it is a huge investment in time and money to benefit you.

Building content is crucial and doesn’t happen overnight—adding good stuff to our website takes time and energy, as well as research to provide our clients something worthwhile. This is a win-win for all—we are subject matter experts on river cruising and you learn, so everyone benefits.

Our Final Thoughts

Character, Competence and Content—all benefit you when we help you plan your river cruise vacation. Isn’t it about time to: Savor life,,,Make Memories… Visit Dream Destinations…Your River Cruise Journey starts here!

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

August 22, 2024

River Cruise Routes

Sailing on Three Rivers with Tauck River Cruises

Hank Schrader

August 22, 2024

River Cruise Routes

Sailing on Three Rivers with Tauck River Cruises

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

In August 2024, we got the chance to learn more about Tauck River Cruises. We were invited to sail on the Three Rivers Cruise with Tauck River cruises.

Full disclosure: for the first time in 30 years, we were invited to experience the Tauck product for free—every other of our 26 river cruises, we have paid to go on the cruise. We want to emphasize that this in no way influences our opinions. We will write two blogs, one focused on the excursions (this one) and one devoted to food, as one day or so of food is not enough to fully rate this area

Due to some train maintenance and construction problems, we were only able to join the tour in Cologne on Day 3, despite being in Hamburg on the starting day of the cruise. It should have been a 5 hour trip but turned into a two day delay.

So, let’s take a 10-day trip on Three Rivers—The Rhine, Main and Danube to learn about their excursions and our experiences. We sailed with 73 guests.

Route Map and Overview

Here is how Tauck describes in its overview of this route the highlights you will experience and see (this route sails in two directions and we were to embark in Amsterdam (going south).

• Explore three glorious rivers on this very exciting cruise.

• Travel Germany's Romantic Road, visit the famed Nürburgring motorsports complex, savor the tastes of Frankfurt, and fully immerse in the historic beauty of towns like Nijmegen, Rothenburg and Cologne.

• Embark your riverboat in Regensburg, Germany, cruising the Danube to Nüremberg for tours above and underground.

• Make your way into the countryside to visit Bayreuth, Bamberg and Rothenburg along the Romantic Road. Artisan crafts and passions add local color to your cruise along the Main, where you'll enjoy a hands-on visit to a historic paper mill or be privy to a private piano collection during a visit with your eclectic host.

• Frankfurt's name alone evokes images of the all-American hotdog that took its cue from the sausages that are made here; discover the city's local specialties on your foodie tour, before a sparkling dinner at Schlösshotel Kronberg raises the culinary bar.

• Set a course for the racetrack at Nürburgring or slow your pace on a bicycle ride.

Day 1 Embark in Amsterdam

• Tour begins: 4:00 PM. A transfer is included from Schiphol International Airport or Amsterdam Centraal Station to your riverboat.

• Check-in time aboard ship is 4:00 PM for all guests.

• Join us for a welcome reception followed by dinner onboard your riverboat tonight and an evening cruise on Amsterdam's storied canals, after-dinner drink in hand.

Day 2 Pursue your interests in Nijmegen

• You have a choice of sightseeing adventures today.

• Join our local guide for a walking tour into the heart of Nijmegen, the oldest town in the Netherlands and vibrant with medieval sights that straddle streets from the 16th-century Lower Town by the banks of the Waal River to the older Upper Town.

• Alternatively, learn about the Dutch passion for horticulture during an expertly guided visit to the Gardens of Appeltern and a water pumping station,

During conversations with other guests, many liked this garden tour. One person, knowing we missed the first part told us Tauck also paid for beverages at the end of the tour. This is one of the perks of an all-inclusive cruise line.

• or venture to the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek, chronicling 20th century history in the Netherlands.

• Your ship sails this afternoon, bound for Köln, Germany.

Here are some of the great sights to see in Nijmegen had we selected this tour:

Day 3 Köln (Cologne) & Bonn

• Spend a leisurely morning aboard the riverboat, arriving in Köln before lunch for a walking tour with a local guide.

• Founded by the Romans in 38 BC, the city is like a living textbook of history and architecture, with Roman ruins, medieval churches, avant-garde buildings and the famous filigree-towered Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

St Martin's Cathedral and the Old Fish Market in Cologne

Day 4 The Middle Rhine Valley

• Dock in Koblenz for your choice of excursions.

This was the original docking location provided online, but we actually docked in Boppard, which is 12 miles south of Koblenz. To compensate for this change, Tauck offered a walking tour in the small village of Boppard, an old walled city.

Boppard--the church in the center of the picture are the Saint Severus's Church.

The Electorial Castle. It now houses the Thonet Collection, who is a famous furniture maker Michael Thonet and was born here. It also houses the Boppard Museum. An unusual place for a castle so close to the river, it was used to collect tolls in the Middle Ages.

• Drive to the Nürburgring racetrack that was featured in the movie Rush; see its Grand Prix racetrack built in 1984, and a long Nordschleife "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel Mountains.

We talked with several that went on this tour and they liked it but said the was no free time and no cars were being tested during their visit.

• Or, go at your own pace as you ride a bicycle along the Rhine from Koblenz to Boppard.

There was a bike tour that departed from Boppard. The time we were ported in Boppard was a little over an hour and we stopped briefly to pick up the riders later after they finished their ride.

• Enjoy head-turning scenic beauty this afternoon as your riverboat charts a course through the picture-book landscapes of the Middle Rhine Valley, designated a UNESCO World Heritage for its history as an important transport route and its castle-crowned hilltops.

Now the most scenic groups of castles in Europe, as we sail the Middle Rhine. Most of us were on the top deck during this phase of the cruise and like many cruise lines, one of the cruise directors added in-depth commentary about these scenic castles. It was the best, detailed commentary I have heard from any river cruise line. Having sailed this perhaps 10 or more times, it never gets old.

Lorelei—this tree-covered cliff inspired the legend of a love forsaken siren who lures sailors to their death by her enchanting song in this swift flowing, narrow part of the Rhine.

Schönburg Castle on the rock massif above Oberwesel

I always wondered about these small castles on this route. I learned they were fake castle built by the Nazis to make it appear the tunnels and bridges were important castles and avoid bombing by the Allied Forces during WW II

• Arrive in Wiesbaden this evening where a Tauck Exclusive dinner at Schlosshotel Kronberg, built in 1893 under the commission of Empress Victoria Friedrich and sparkling with antiques and paintings from her private estate.

In a constant theme of this cruise, we actually ported in Mainz. After about a 10 minute walk, we arrived at the buses.

We arrived at Schlosshotel Kronberg after about a 50 minute bus ride on one of Tauck coaches (buses). 3 buses followed us during the entire trip and they were excellent and comfortable. Here are 2 photos of the outside of the venue for tonight’s meal.

The Castle Hotel where we had the special dinner.

The castle hotel is stunning and we were greeted with champagne before the start of the meal. The wines were excellent and from the vineyards on the estate. They served a white and a red with the meal.

The menu was a soup, sea bass main course and dessert. The menu was fixed with no options, and not being a fish lover, was not my favorite meal during this trip. That being said, the fish was properly prepared and I did enjoy it. Several other guests told me that they would have preffered a different meal, but most seemed to enjoy the quality food and setting. The service was a five star experience.

These wines are produced on the estate and were excellent.

Day 5 A Taste of Frankfurt

• While its name evokes images of the famous sausage that inspired modern-day hot dogs, Frankfurt is home to one of the most impressive skylines in Germany, with world-renowned museums, historic cathedrals and ornately gabled half-timbered houses lining its streets and squares.

• Join a local guide for a walking tour of its landmark sites or whet your appetite for some of the city's most tempting culinary specialties on a tasting walk.

• Return to your riverboat for an afternoon of cruising, followed by dinner at leisure onboard.

Old Town Frankfurt The Fountain of Justice in 2022

Old Town Frankfurt Old St. Nicholas Church during the Christmas Markets in 2022

Old Town in 2024 during this cruise. This building is the Historical Museum of Frankfurt.

Wertheim House is the only original half-timbered house in the Old Town. We ate in the restaurant here in 2022--the German fare was very good.

Old Town Frankfurt main square preparing for a festival.. In the distance you can see the Fountain of Justice (compare it to the previous picture during our visit in 2022 during the Christmas Markets to see the detail of this fountain).

Our tasting tour--the Frankfurt hot dog and the special green sauce which is a specialty of Frankfurt.

This is the store that provided us the taste of Frankfurt

Day 6 Paper or Pianos in Middle Main

• Dating back to the 7th century, Wertheim is located where the Main River meets the Tauber River in southwest Germany in a fairy-tale setting.

• It is crowned with a hilltop castle that reigns over the city with delightful views, is renowned for its Franconian wine and glass making – and is home to a paper mill and piano collection that are yours to experience on a choice of excursions.

• See how paper is made on an interactive visit to a working paper mill

• or meet the owner of a private piano collection as your host shows you his prized musical instruments.

They also added a tour to a Blacksmith Workshop and Museum.

We learned also that at the end of these tours, there was a wine tasting not listed on the website, which many enjoyed.

We did not take any of these tours, as they all incuded long bus rides. I really couldn’t understand why there was not a tour of the pretty village of Wertheim, but it soon became apparant—once the tours departed , we were sailing again. You either took the tour, or stayed onboard. This cruise did not really allow any independent walking time and there often seemed to be be little free time.

Day 7 Bavarian Beauty on the Romantic Road

• Arrive in Würzburg this morning, set on the banks of the Main River in the heart of Franconian wine country along the Romantic Road for a choice of shore excursions.

• Join a local guide for a walking tour of Würzburg, known for its lavish Baroque and Rococo architecture, including the 18th-century Residenz Palace.

• Or visit the walled Bavarian town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber at the north end of the Romantic Road, resplendent with medieval architecture, half-timbered houses and a cobblestoned Old Town.

The fresco shows paintings of 4 continents--Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

Staircase leading to the impressive fresco painting. It is the largest ceiling fresco ever painted. It was painted by Giovanni Basttista Tiepolo in 1752/53.

Detail of the Imperial Room. Some say the dog (shown at the lower right) eye's will follow you while you are in the room, as they seem to move--an interesting optical illusion..

There were excellent tapestry displays in many of the palace rooms

Sadly, this was a rushed tour. We were bused from the docking location, spent an hour and half viewing the palace with the extensive fresco explinations by the tour guide and there was not time to view the magnificant gardens. I often felt the sailing schedule was rushed and shortened tour time.

Here is another great choice the walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. These photos are from a past visit to this awesome city. The tour was all day (7 hours) and Tauck provided money for lunch (25 Euros per person) and bathroom tokens during this tour. This was my choice for the best tour on this cruise.

Plönlein Square, This is probably the most famous picture of Rothenburg . Translated from German, Plönlein is actually "the small square at a fountain”.

Burger Gate (Castle Gate) Rothenburg. This gate was built around 1460 and is the western gate entrance. It is the highest gate tower of the town fortifications.

Day 8 Bamberg or Bayreuth

• Your riverboat docks in Bamberg this morning, located on the River Regnitz close to the Danube Main Canal, for a day of Bavarian discoveries.

• You can choose to join our local guide for an in-depth tour of Bamberg, spread over seven hills that earned is nickname, "Franconian Rome."

• Explore its medieval old town, surrounded by Europe's largest intact wall and discover the special smoked beer it is famous for.

New Residence Rose Garden, Bamberg, Germany

Bayreuth tour

• Or drive to nearby Bayreuth to see its Baroque opera house, charming palaces, historical gardens and museums on a locally guided tour.

• At its center is the former home of composer Richard Wagner, whose music is featured every year at the Richard Wagner Festival, Germany's most important opera event.

We saw some pictures of the opera house—it is absolutely gorgeous. Others told us it was well worth the hour drive by the Tauck buses.

Dinner is at leisure onboard the riverboat.

Day 9 Choices in Nuremberg

• An important commercial hub from the Middle Ages onward, Nuremberg, the second largest city in Bavaria, is steeped in a rich historic legacy that can be seen and felt today, both above and below ground.

• View its well-preserved landmarks, including the imperial castle and the walled Old Town on a locally guided walk that provides insights about this Franconian capital

• or go underground with a local guide to learn about centuries of history both above and below ground.

• Explore the historic rock-cut tunnels that were cut into the rock starting in 1380.

• Their main uses were beer storage for local breweries but in the 1940s, they were also used as air raid bunkers.

• Enjoy time to discover the sights on your own before returning to the riverboat for a farewell cocktail and dinner.

Nuremburg Watch Tower. There are 4 km of walls and 67 defensive towers that ring the old town

Day 10 Journey Home

• Tour ends: Regensburg.

• Disembark ship in Regensburg this morning.

• A transfer from your riverboat to Munich's International Airport is included, approximately a 90-minute drive away. Most of these were private cars or vans.

• Flights should be booked after 12 noon. Allow a minimum of three hours for flight check-in at the airport.

• For additional nights in Munich, ask at booking.

I have no idea why this cruise sailed all the way to Regensburg and we did not tour this wonderful city. Here is some what you would have seen:

Watch Tower Gate on the Old Stone Bridge Regensburg, Germany

Porta Praetoria Gate from the Roman ruins that are used in a new building in Regensburg

Our Final Thoughts

This is a very interesting tour, with some unique items included that are not offered by other river cruise lines. Since we have sailed these routes on different lines, some of the port stops were very familiar and some new.

We enjoyed this trip and would recommend it to all, but it is only happening in 2024—it will not be available in 2025. I think I know why—it is just too ambitious and too dependent upon the sailing schedule, but that is just a guess. One thing was clear—Tauck does an awesome job on the provided tours.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

August 15, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

Tauck ms Savor Ship Tour

Hank Schrader

August 15, 2024

River Cruise Reviews

Tauck ms Savor Ship Tour

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

By the time you read this, we will have expanded our knowledge of Europe River Cruising by sailing on one of Tauck’s newest river routes—Three Rivers Danube, Main and Rhine. Our ship will be the 135 m (443 ft) ms Savor.

Full disclosure: for the first time in 30 years, we were invited to experience the Tauck product for free—every other of our 26 river cruises, we have paid to go on the cruise. We want to emphasize that this in no way influences our opinions and it is especially true of this first report on this ship tour. We will write two more blogs, one focused on the excursions and one devoted to food, as one day or so of food is not enough to fully rate this area.

So, let’s take a tour of this ship and learn about its facilities and staterooms.

Overview of the Savor and the Tauck Fleet

The Savor has 67 staterooms for 130 guests, the second fewest guests on any 135 m rivership in Europe (only 4 former Crystal ships, 2 with Riverside and 2 with Uniworld only have 110 onboard).

This standard 3 deck ship has 45 crew to look after the guests. Three other sister ships, the ms Inspire, the ms Joy and the ms Grace have almost the exact same lay out with different color schemes. There are 7 different categories of staterooms on these 135 m ships.

Here is a picture of the ms Savor, docked in Frankfurt, Germany.

Tauck has four 110 m ships (361 feet) in their fleet. They are the ms Emerald, the ms Sapphire, the ms Esprit and the ms Treasures. These ships carry 98 to 104 guests with 36 crew members. They have 49 staterooms.

The Swiss Emerald rafted next to the AmaCello

The other Tauck ship, the ms Andorinha, sails on the Douro River in Portugal. As with ships on the Douro River, it is a smaller ship, 80 m (263 feet) that holds 84 guests in 42 staterooms. It has a 36-person crew. This ships are smaller due to the smaller locks on the Douro River.

Tauck leases their ships from the Scylla company—only the Tauck 4 onboard tour guides are Tauck independent contracted employees, yet they feel overwhelming happy with this relationship. It is evident Tauck treats them well—they have a 20 year successful partnership.

The crew are members of Scylla organization. In talking with members of the crew, they really like the partnership with Tauck. It seems quite beneficial for both companies.

Decks and Staterooms of the Savor

The Emerald Deck

The Emerald Deck (lowest deck) has crew quarters and 14 fixed window staterooms. Unique to all river cruise ships, the 8 loft cabins (225 sq feet, category 3) actually have an innovative seating area on a raised loft that extends up to the second deck. It gives the usually small, cramped staterooms on the first deck, a very spacious and open feeling. The other 6 staterooms are only 150 sq feet and do not feature this loft concept.

These next photos are of Stateroom 102, a loft stateroom :

This is the loft area. The large windows make this area seem more open than most fixed window staterooms on every other river cruise line.

The Ruby Deck

The Ruby deck (2nd deck) has 29 staterooms. It has 3 small (150 sq feet category 2) staterooms; 16 large (225 sq feet category 5) staterooms; 8 large (225 sq feet category 6 staterooms); and 2 190 sq feet staterooms.

These next photos are of our Stateroom 220 (category 6):

The beds face the French Balcony (sliding glass patio style windows). This ship has only French Balconies in staterooms that has balconies. To my knowledge, only Avalon does the same for all staterooms, as does Tauck.

There is a nepresso coffee maker and a small refrigerator in the stateroom.

This is the sitting area in our cabin. In a nice touch, Tauck welcomes guests onboard with a bottle of champagne. The single flower is real, with a small water tube attached to the stem of the flower to keep it alive.

There are 2 shower heads in our shower —the traditional European spray head which with tube so you can be set or removed to use up close while showering and an overhead rain shower head.

This is a seat in the shower for those who might need to sit while showering.

The Diamond Deck

The Diamond deck (3rd deck) has 22 large staterooms (300 sq feet category 7) and 2 smaller staterooms (190 sq feet, category 5).

These first photos are of stateroom 301, a category 5 angled 190 sq feet cabin:

The shower in this room is noticeably smaller in the triangler shaped shower room as compared to other shower areas in other staterooms on the ship.

One nice feature of all stateroom sink areas onboard is good storage space for your grooming items inside the mirror cabinets above the sink.

This is a 300 square feet stateroom, # 304 (there are 16 similar rooms on the third deck):

The couch can be made up to a sleeper sofa and the category 7 cabins can sleep 3.

There is no bath tub in this category 7 stateroom.

The walk in closet is very spacious.

Onboard Facilities

On the first deck is the fitness room, the hair salon, massage room, and a spa area.

This is the Hair Salon

This is the Massage Room

This is the Spa Area

The fitness room has 2 exercise bikes, free weights, and 2 treadmills

2nd Deck Facilities

On the second deck is reception area, Tauck Desk for tours and excursions and the gift shop.

The Reception Area

The Atrium View from Deck 3.

The Gift Shop

The Tauck Desk

The Panorama Lounge

As with all river cruise ships, the Panorama Lounge is where most of the guests hang out, when not in their stateroom, or on tour.

The Dining Facilities

There are 2 dining facilities on the ship. The main dining room is the Compass Rose. The stern dining room is Arthur’s, named in honor of the founder, Arthur Tauck.

Here are some pictures of the Compass Rose:

Breakfast

In the Compass Rose, you can select from the buffet or order off the menu.

Here is the breakfast menu. I selected eggs benedict and French toast. Both were excellent!

The breakfast buffet area

The juice bar area

The picture above and below are of the special featured breakfast area. It is a very similar full English breakfast station.

My breakfast choices above and below in these 2 pictures.

Lunch

Lunch is offered in two forms. There are items from a buffet line or some items can be ordered from a menu. There’s a featured suggestion from a special preparation area/carving station.

Here was a lunch meal, selected from the featured lunch item—carbonara.

The carbonara was very good, the noodles were properly cooked and the pancetta excellent. Although I usually am not a fan of a creamy style sauce, this was well prepared and did not overwhelm the dish, as we have experienced with one of our favorite dishes while in Europe, so well done!

Salads, other lunch items and desserts were available from the buffet area. I chose the berry cobbler and black forest cake. Both were very tasty!

Dinner

Dinner is a 4 course meal. The menu provides choices of a starter, soup, entree and dessert.

Each night there are 2 wines, a white and red selections to pair with the meal. They are regional wines.

Executive Chef Salad

Potato Mustard Soup

The Veal dish

Chocolate Lava Cake

The cheese plate

Arthur’s

Arthur’s is a more casual dining venue compared to the Compass Rose. It features more American style cuisine, as compared to the European style cuisine of the Compass Rose main dining room.

Here are 4 pictures of Arthur’s :

Breakfast at Arthur’s

I could have selected items from the small breakfast buffet pictured above but I chose the ham and cheese omelette pictured below, which was quite good.

Arthur’s Lunch

Arthur’s Dinner

The Top Deck

The top deck has a small pool, putting green and seating area (some are shaded). Here are some photos:

They also use the top deck in good weather for a barbecue. They served grilled brats and hamburgers, barbecued ribs, salads, sauerkraut, and fried potatoes.

I decided not to provide a photo, as I overload my plate with the meats and potatoes. It was good fare but a little cumbersome to eat as my eyes were bigger than the optimum space on my plate.

For dessert there were 7 types of homemade ice cream.

Here is a picture of the event:

Our Final Thoughts

This is a very good river cruise ship. It is elegant, comfortable and has all one needs for a luxury river cruise. The food so far has been tasty (we will provide a much more detailed report in a future blog) and drinks are plentiful, as it is an all-inclusive fare.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

August 8, 2024

Europe Travel

Sanssouci-Fredrick the Great’s Palace (Without Worries)

Hank Schrader

August 8, 2024

Europe Travel

Sanssouci—Fredrick the Great’s Palace (Without Worries)

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

The Palace of Sanssouci, located in Potsdam, Germany, was the summer retreat of Fredrick the Great to get away from the pomp and ceremony of Berlin, the capital of Prussia.

The original palace has only 10 rooms with 2 common areas and was built between 1745 and 1747.

So, let’s visit Sanssouci, and learn about the palace and the ruler Fredrick the Great.

Fredrick the Great

Fredrick the Great was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until 1786. He is known as both a capable monarch, but more so as a brilliant military leader. His extensive battlefield experience and writings gained him fame as an influential military theory and doctrine figure during his reign and afterward. His favorite topics were strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

He also believed in enlightened absolutism—trying to distinguish his rule from ordinary royal rulers to rule for the well-being of his subjects. Among his accomplishments were modernizing the civil service in Prussia, reforming the judicial system, and allowing freedom of the press and literature.

When Fredrick came to the throne at 28 in 1740, Prussia was the 12th largest country in Europe, but had the 4th largest army (France, Russia and Austria were larger) and a staggering 86% of Prussia’s budget was devoted to funding his army. Fredrick doubled the size of his army and fought a series of battles known as the Silesian Wars (there were 3) against Austria.

His soldiers were highly disciplined and won several decisive battles against Austria. The result of these conflicts gained control of the territory of Silesia and the Saxon capital of Dresden and he annexed these lands into his Kingdom of Prussia. After 1745, Fredrick became known as “the Great” due to his success against the larger Austrian army. So influential was Fredrick in military theory, often as a result to personally leading his men in battle and using his 2 favorite tactics of speed of march and speed of fire, that his writings (all were written in French) became the model for other national armies such as Russia and France. His structure of military organization; the strict training regimens he demanded of his leaders and soldiers; and the autonomy he gave his commanders were the standard for the best armies of the world in the late 1700s and became the model used later by the German General Staff for WW I and WW II.

Fredrick the Great was ambitious, ruthless, a confident military genius who often defeated larger armies he fought and served as an enlightened monarch in an era when the various rulers of Europe vied for power and wealth. He doubled the size of his kingdom and eventually lost half of his army during the constant wars he either started or was drawn into to defend his kingdom and war territory gains.

His legacy is enduring yet controversial.

Sanssouci

The exteriors of the Sanssouci Palace are quite contrasting.

On the North side of the exterior of Sanssouci Palace, there is a double row of 88 Corinthian collonades in a half circle. Here are 3 photos of the north exterior, which is majestic and commanding and designed to impress visitors to his palace:

The west side of the quarter circle of double row of columns. This is the north side of the palace.

This is the palace entrance. Only the slight change in the roof line identifies the palace entrance.

The east side of the double columns.

Here are some pictures from the garden side of Sanssouci Palace which is serene and peaceful;

This is the view of the palace from the first terrace.

The grilled enclosed gazebo on the right side of the place (kings apartment side).

There is another very similar gazebo on the guest side of the palace.

There can be little doubt Fredrick’s favorite palace was Sanssouci. He is quoted as saying even before construction started, “Once I am there, I shall be carefree”. It was his sanctuary in difficult times and an escape for him. He was completely involved with the design and decorations of his palace. His vision was a place where he could relaxed in an atmosphere of refined culture. Fredrick II was a music lover, played the flute skillfully, and admired French arts and culture. French was the language of Sanssouci, and some historians say his French was better than his native German language.

The palace is built on a hill in the middle of a large park. The original building that was completed in 1747, has only 10 rooms all on the first floor—it is more a grand villa instead of a grand palace. 20 years later he expanded the building with the New Palace as a display of his power and strength. It was used to impress guests and Fredrick seldom used it and referred to the new construction as “fanfaronade” when translated from French means “showing off”.

An easy way to understand the organization of the main rooms of the original palace is to think of them as 3 distinct areas. The center of the Palace are the Entrance Hall and Marble Hall, which functioned as the common areas of the palace. On the east side of this central area are the King’s Apartments—his bedroom and study; the audience and dining rooms; the circular library; and the gallery. On the west side there are 5 guest rooms.

We took a self-guided audio-vox tour. It had good descriptions of the rooms but since there are so many framed paintings and statues on the walls, along with the decorated wall paintings, it was hard to grasp how opulent and detailed the palace is in a short room-by-room visit.

The common areas are The Entrance Hall and The Marble Hall which were used for receptions and celebrations.

The next pictures are the Entrance Hall. It is a dignified and elegant. The Corinthian order of the columns signals Frederick’s rank as a important royal.

The statue in the east corner is Ares, the Greek god of war. In an unusual depiction, he has his shield, helmet and weapon on the ground signifying peace and concord. Many have speculated that a man so involved in war wanted peace, as he placed this gift from the French King so prominently in the Entrancr Hall.

The Marble Room

This is the most dramatic room in the palace. The dome is richly guilded and represents Frederick’s love of architecture, music and poetry, painting and sculpture, and astronomy and geography.

The theme for the Marble Room is a recreation of the Roman Pantheon. The Marble Hall was the place for celebrations and parties.

The Kings Apartments

This is the retreat where Frederick spent most of his time while in Sanssouci.

First, the Small Gallery where Fredrick displayed some of the collection of his paintings and statues. He favored French artists and paintings, changing the selection often, to allow visitors to view his impressive collections.

Here are some pictures of this narrow room:

The Audience and Dining Room

The audience room and dining room were the first areas of the kings side of the palace. It served 2 purposes. This room functioned when a more formal area was needed to meet with his subjects as an audience room but served more often as a dining room.

Towards the end of his reign, Fredrick often held long lunches with 7 to 10 invited guests. He favored officers and scholars where he learned through the conversations more about his kingdom and his interest of a variety of subjects.

The King’s Study and Bedroom

Frederick did most of his work in the study by meeting with his counselors and ministers. He used these meetings to issue edicts, decrees and orders to rule his Prussian kingdom.

The screen on the right is where the king slept on a simple soldier’s cot.

This is the chair where Fredrick died on 17 August 1786 with his physician, 2 valets and a servant present.

The Circular Library is almost hidden and can be entered by a narrow passageway. It has a collection of over 2,100 books and manuscripts with Greek and Roman writings and a significant collection of the writings of Voltaire in French.

During the tour, this room is closed and we had to take pictures through the window on the door.

On the west side of the palace, there are the 5 guest bedrooms. The Guest Bedrooms were only for those important enough to be invited to Sanssouci.

Two of these rooms were used so frequently by Fredrick’s guests, they became known by the Guest’s name. These are the Rothenburg room, named for the Count of Rothenburg and the Voltaire Room, named after the famous philosopher who lived there for 3 years.

Here is the First Guest Bedroom:

Here is the Second Guest Bedroom:

Now the 3rd Guest Bedroom

The famous 4th Bedroom, the Voltaire Bedroom.

In this bedroom, it was much easier to see the painted wall detail and decorative theme. The black vegetation and stork are clearly visible. There is even a monkey on one wall.

There is a 5th Guest Bedroom, but it is not available to view during the self-guided tour with the autovox.

The Gardens

The gardens are a series of terraces landscaped in the baroque style. Among the features of the gardens are the Neptune Grotto, the temple of friendship (dedicated to memory of his favorite sister) the Great Fountain and the Chinese House.

This is the great fountain.

The statues on either side of the great fountain are of various Greek gods and goddess.

Fredick’s original idea was to cultivate figs, plums and vineyards in the park on the terraces. But he soon realized he also wanted a retreat here and only a year after his original idea, construction of the palace began.

Fredrick II The Great is buried in the gardens. It is a fitting place for a monarch that once modestly said “A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.”

The potatoes on the grave symbolize a clever idea Fredrick had about potatoes. While most of Europe readily eat potatoes, the Prussian population avoided them. Realizing he couldn’t force his subjects to eat potatoes, he posted guards around his potatoes fields and decrees stiff punishment for theft. This worked—his subjects began to think potatoes were rare and valuable and began to eat a food they previously shunned.

This the small grave area of Frederick the Great.

Our Final Thoughts

Sometimes, it is plain cool to visit sites that are important in history and try and imagine what it was like during that era. Perhaps more than most other royal palaces, this is an intimate look into the life of Fredrick the Great, his tastes, and the escape mechanisms he sought from the pressures of ruling and constant warfare that characterized his reign.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

August 1, 2024

River Cruise Routes

2025 AmaWaterways Best of the Danube River Cruise

Hank Schrader

August 1, 2024

River Cruise Routes

2025 AmaWaterways Best of the Danube River Cruise

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

AmaWaterways has a new cruise for 2025 called the Best of the Danube. It is inspired by the Godfather of River Cruising, Rudi Schreiner, who was born and raised in Austria.

So, let’s learn about this new route.

Overview

Here is how AmaWaterways describes this new route:

• Capture the imperial history of Old-World Europe along the Danube River as it flourished beneath towering fortresses and inspired legendary artists and musicians.

• With an abundance of scenic cruising, a focus on grand cities and popular landmarks, and the ease of traveling roundtrip from Budapest, this special itinerary is our Co-Founder Rudi Schreiner’s top-choice itinerary for 2025 – be among the first to experience it!

• Begin your journey with our pre-cruise land package in majestic Budapest, during which you will immerse yourself in some of the Hungarian capital’s lesser-known heritage and historic sites.

• After embarking on your ship, discover the luxury and beauty of river cruising as you glide through the scenic Wachau Valley, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Throughout your journey you will visit the river’s legendary capitals: Bratislava and Vienna – where AmaWaterways’ Co-Founder Rudi Schreiner, the visionary “Godfather of River Cruising,” was born and raised.

• Encounter fascinating architecture from Melk’s golden-hued Benedictine abbey to Vienna’s magnificent Schönbrunn Palace.

• Plus, follow The Sound of Music through sprawling Salzburg, the incomparable birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Day-by-Day on this route

The route begins and ends in Budapest on this 7-night cruise. The first and last days are like all AmaWaterways cruises, with embarkation time 3:00 PM (1500) where you can look forward to cocktail-hour, safety briefings and the cruise manager explaining upcoming excursions. Then an awesome meal that will make you look forward to more good dining experiences to come during the rest of your trip.

On the last day your departure time off the ship should be 9:00 AM (0900), so the crew can get ready for the new guests. It is very important you are out of your stateroom to ease this transition. If your transportation transfer is not ready by 0900, you can always wait in the lounge until it arrives.

Day 2 Bratislava

• Take your time this morning as the ship cruises from Budapest to Slovakia.

• Host to the crowning ceremonies of 11 Hungarian kings and queens between 1536 and 1830, Bratislava certainly has earned the title “Coronation City of Kings,” as you’ll discover during your walking tour.

• If you prefer exploring the world through your tastebuds, join a special “Tastes of Slovakia” tour to sample traditional flavors from the region, including local beer.

• For a more active adventure, hike up to Bratislava Castle, offering magnificent views of the city, or journey further from the seat of your bike on a guided cycling tour. (B,L,D)

Here are some of our photos to help you see your options here:

Bratislava Castle. There is an option to hike up to the castle as part of the active excursions

St Martin’s Cathedral, Bratislava. This is the coronation church of the Hapsburg Royal Line

Day 3 Wachau Valley and Melk

• Spend your morning reveling in the postcard-perfect landscapes of Austria’s picturesque UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Wachau Valley.

• Later in the day, arrive in Melk. Located above the city on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Danube, Melk Abbey is one of Europe’s largest and most revered Baroque monasteries and a breathtaking UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Originally founded in the 11th century, the magnificent abbey now houses a museum chronicling its history and a famous library with countless medieval manuscripts.

• During your tour you will see some of Melk’s musical manuscripts as well as frescoes painted by Johann Michael Rottmayr and Paul Troger.

• If you prefer a more active tour, you may hike to Melk Abbey or pedal around town on a guided bike tour.

• Alternatively, venture to the neighboring town of Dürnstein for a walking tour along its charming, cobbled lanes, taking in the beauty of its brilliant blue Stiftskirche tower. (B,L,D)

More of our pictures, to get a better feel for this day’s activities. First, let’s sail the Wachau Valley.

After this scenic cruise you have 2 options. The first is to visit Melk Abbey

The other option is to visit Dürnstein, Austria. This option will require a coach (bus) ride to this walled village of 600.

Dürnstein, Austria. These ruins above the village is where Richard the Lionhart was held for ransom.

Dürnstein, Austria. There is an optional walking tour along its charming, cobbled lanes, taking in the beauty of its brilliant blue Stiftskirche tower. The blue Stiftskirche tower.is a monestary in this tiny village of 600.

Dürnstein, Austria. This is a gate into the walled city.

Day 4 Linz

• Arrive in Linz, where you’ll have two choices for full-day excursions.

• Venture to Salzburg where you’ll tour the historic center, lovely Mirabell Gardens, Residenz Square and the Old Market.

• You will also visit the museum at the famed yellow building known as Mozart Birth House and residence where the legendary composer was born in 1756 and lived until 1773.

• En route to Salzburg, stop at Mondsee, home of the Basilica St. Michael where the wedding scene from The Sound of Music was filmed.

• You may alternatively choose to join a full-day excursion to the charming Czech mountain town of Český Krumlov, where you can stroll its cobblestone streets; marvel at the city’s picturesque Baroque and Renaissance-style buildings; and tour Krumlov Castle, one of Europe’s largest castle complexes. (B,L,D)

This will be the hardest choice for this cruise. Along with our pictures, here is our blog about these 2 options, to help you make your choice (don’t worry, either will be great!)

2 Great Options

The winding Valtava River in Český Krumlov

Day 5 Vienna

• Enjoy a full morning of scenic cruising, taking some time to sit back, relax and delight in the ever-changing views.

• Sleep in late, participate in a complimentary wellness class, treat yourself to a massage and get to know fellow cruisers while exploring all the amenities on board.

• In the afternoon, enjoy an overview of Vienna’s history and all its famous landmarks on a city tour showcasing all its regal splendors, including the majestic Opera House, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the former Imperial Palace of the Habsburgs.

• Alternatively, take a thrilling guided bike ride along the romantic Danube Canal and through the city, traversing a bridge, cycling across a meadow and heading to Vienna’s famous Ringstrasse Boulevard. (B,L,D)

Here are some photos of what you can expect to see on this first day in Vienna:

Day 6 Vienna

• Following your overnight in the “City of Waltzes,” visit the UNESCO-designated Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens, the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers.

• Built in the 18th century as an imperial summer residence, this magnificent 1,441-room Baroque palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural and historical monuments in Austria.

• If you prefer to connect with nature, journey to the town of Cobenzl where you will embark on a hike through the famed Vienna Woods that inspired a waltz composed by Johann Strauss II.

• Later in the day, explore Vienna at your leisure. (B,L,D)

The summer palace is special, but sadly does not allow photo inside:

Day 7 Budapest

• Your cruise last full day starts this morning in Budapest, Hungary, which is split into the sections of Buda and Pest by the Danube River.

• A guided tour of the city begins with the Pest side and a drive along Andrassy Avenue to Heroes’ Square and a drive by Parliament and other sites.

• Explore the Buda side with a drive-up Castle Hill, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; see Fishermen's Bastion with its Neo-Romanesque design and admire the stained glass windows and centuries of history in Matthias Church (may be closed on some days due to services).

• After lunch, spend the rest of the day and evening pursuing what interests you most in this historic, and artistic, city.

• Join us this evening for a farewell toast followed by dinner as your Danube cruise ends.

Some great sites on the Pest (flat) side of Budapest are in these photos:

Our Final Thoughts

For an important look at the best sites near the Danube from Melk to Budapest, this is the cruise for you. Sometimes, it is plain cool to visit sites that changed the world and try and imagine what it was like during the Hapsburg era. We think it does an awesome job and with the chance for a pre or post cruise extra 2 nights in Budapest, you will have seen and experience the Best of the Danube!

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

July 18, 2024

River Cruise Comparisons

Travel + Leisure World Best River Cruises--the Confusion Continues!

Hank Schrader

July 18, 2024

River Cruise Comparisons

Travel + Leisure World Best River Cruises—the Confusion Continues!

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

Every year numerous travel publications send out their lists of what their readers say from a survey or by their own ratings. While I always find their results interesting, they should have little meaning to you. Why? The pie-in-the-sky lists seldom match what matters to you most for a river cruise trip.

As we always say (the caps are intentional) ALL RIVER CRUISES ARE A GREAT VACATION!

Perhaps the range of scores of Travel + Leisure for their list of the 10 best river cruise lines between #1 and #10 is 98.85 to 90.09 supports this statement—90% is an A or 5 star in most rating systems.

Instead of providing our take on the ratings, I decided to provide you with some background information on the lines we do not follow and report on the scores provided.

It is critical thinking time—let’s explore the results together.

Travel + Leisure World Best Lists

Travel + Leisure just came out with their annual World Best Lists last week (12 July 2024). Best lists always rank high in readership, as folks seek the best and often turn a blind eye to the results. This is especially true for travel ratings. So, I just can’t resist examining the results with regard to our specialty—river cruises.

Methodology

According to the magazine “Over 186,000 T+L readers completed the 2024 survey. A total of more than 700,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).”

For the cruise category, respondents were asked to rate individual ships; the results were combined to generate scores for cruise lines in different categories based on number of cabins.

Ships were specifically rated on the criteria: 1) Cabins/facilities; 2) Food; 3) Service; 4) Itineraries/destinations; 5) Excursions/activities; and 6) Value.

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

I must admit, for the life of me, how they got such precise mathematical scores from 6 rating categories with 5 possible scores and convert them into a 100 based score with 2 decimal places is beyond me. I’m sure a mathematician who specializes in statistics knows the answer, but it does make me wonder how the results were tabulated. A second factor is the lack of transparency about how many actually voted in the overall category of river cruises.

Please remember, all these lists have no actual peer review as you might see in scientific articles but I realize this will never happen as it would add to the complexity of the survey and it really boils down to an opinion survey from individuals who may or may not experienced many river cruise options—these great vacations just rate so highly, it is no wonder the comparisons are biased by limited experience with all available options.

Still, they are fun to read, vendors love them, and it does created increased readership and ad dollars. So that is why every year we get a new list to consider.

The River Cruise Ratings

There sure were a lot of possible rating categories the readers could report their ratings. Here is the list of their results for river cruise lines:

1. Aqua Expeditions 98.85

2. Avalon Waterways 95.91

3. Le Oberoi Cruises 95.75

4. Tauck 95.71

5. Grand Circle 95.61

6. Uniworld 94.83

7. Viking 94.73

8. Riverside 94.62

9. Scenic 91.00

10. AmaWaterways 90.09

Since we cover AmaWaterways, Avalon, Scenic, Tauck, Uniworld, and Viking (the only one we also follow is Emerald, which did not make this list) and have provided our take and rating on each line, I won’t rehash it here again. The game plan is to provide you with some background on the 4 other lines that made their list.

# 1 Aqua Expeditions 98.85

Aqua Expeditions has 3 ships that sail on the Amazon (32 guests), Galapagos (16 guests) and in Southeast Asia on the Aqua Blu (30 guests). The hype seems to be the 30 crew to 30 guest ratio on the Aqua Blu and the Travel + Leisure pointed to this—the service was over the top according to one example a survey respondent provided in the survey, as well as many more cited their exceptional service.

It is probably easy to understand why we don’t follow this line—it is really in the expedition niche, and we specialize in Europe River cruises.

How is it possible that a line with only 3 ships and so few guests gets enough votes to make it to number one in their list? Either the minimums are quite low, or customer comments pushed the line up. It is hard to evaluate this rating objectively.

# 3 Oberoi 95.75

Oberoi is a luxury hotel operator with 32 luxury hotels and 2 river ships. Both ships, the Zahra (27 cabins) and the Philae (22 cabins) sail only on the Nile River. It is hard for me to believe that with only 2 ships and limited staterooms, that many folks would rate it so high—makes you wonder how many votes it would require to be considered.

I don’t doubt it is luxury, but most newly built Egyptian River ships are equally luxurious, and these ships were built in 1996 and refurbished in 2015. I’m not exactly sure of how many newer ships have been added to the Nile River fleets of other lines, but it is more than 4—AmaWaterways and Viking have had their newer ships in service since 2015 and AmaWaterways just added a new Nile River ship in 2024.

# 5 Grand Circle 95.61

There is a good reason we don’t follow this line—they only allow direct bookings. Since they do not advertise at all and cite this as a reason they can provide lower cruise fares, they are often described as a less expensive way to enjoy the river cruise experience. In Europe, they offer routes on 5 different leased river cruise ships. Several river cruise lines use leased ships which are configured slightly by the operating cruise lines, but it does call into question maintenance of the vessels.

Grand Circle originally was founded by AARP (American Association of Retired People) and was purchase in 1958 by Alan Lewis and now is owned by a private equity firm Court Square Capital Travel. The line caters almost exclusively to North Americans.

Reviews online cite their education experiences during the cruise and rate them very high on this factor, but the reviews are all over the place about comfort and food.

The cabins are rather sparse compared to other lines. It is the only line to my knowledge that uses fold up beds (murphy beds)—not really my idea of the luxury experience that other lines who we follow provide their guest.

# 8 Riverside 94.62

Riverside has been in business for less than 2 years and has 3 ships sailing in Europe. Their first ship is the double wide Mozart which used to be part of the now bankrupt Crystal River Cruise line. The Mozart (162 guest cabins) can only sail on the Danube because of the size of the ship and locks on the Danube. They also leased from Uniworld two 135 m riverships that used to belong to Crystal. We got a chance to tour the Mozart in 2023 at the ASTA River Cruise Expo and eat dinner on the ship (I will expand on our experience this shortly in subsequent paragraphs of this section of the blog). The other two 135 ships are the Debussy and the Ravel (both 110 guest cabins). The Debussy sails the Rhine, the Main and the Moselle. The Ravel sails the Rhone and Saone.

The Riverside model is different in pricing as compared to other lines who we follow. The all-inclusive fare includes accommodations, meals & drinks and one excursion per destination. They also offer a full range of a la carte services which allows guests to pick only what services they desire to tailor their trip to their preferences.

It is interesting to me that in the Riverside brochure, 70 of the 112 the pages are about the ship and the onboard experience (they cover the staterooms, cuisine & dining, spa & fitness, and extensive descriptions of the Mozart and the other 2 ships). It has more large pictures of the 3 ships than any other brochure I have seen about river cruise lines.

All three ships have a Vintage Room specialty dining for an extra expense that is limited to 12 guests for evening dining pair with fine wines.

Some travel writers and travel professionals claim Riverside has the “best food on the rivers”. This certainly was not our experience in 2023. The dinner meal was not as good as other lines we have sailed on.

My steak meal on the Mozart—the meat was very tough

I wrote a blog comparing meals on various lines during the 2023 River Cruise Expo in Budapest last year. If you would like to learn more about our experience (visit our river cruise blog archives on our website). I was told by one of their representatives the meal we had was somehow overbooked and that was the reason for the generally poor showing that many of us travel professionals experienced.

We later learned that the onboard chefs have complete autonomy in their menu planning without corporate input or mandates, so maybe they have overcome this first poor showing we experienced.

One of the other revelations about the line is that it is struggling to fill their ships—one writer stated there were only 28 aboard during her 4-day sailing. I just can’t help but wonder how it is included on the list—only 3 ships, not sailing at capacity, and only has been in business for a little under 2 years; how did it receive enough votes to be included on the 10 Best List?

For us, this new line may deserve future inspection from us to cover them. Later this year we will get this chance to sail on the Ravel and provide you with more details on our experience.

Our Final Thoughts

I hope you find this interesting and informative. Part of the problem is that all river cruises are good vacations, and readers often only have the chance to sail on one line and tend to rate it highly as a result.

This just goes to show how little value these ratings have for us—it is so much better to match your travel style to the vendors—don’t be swayed by these reports. We hope you enjoyed this report—it was fun and challenging writing it.

Even cruise lines and vacation recommendations from friends and family should not be your sole reason to choose a certain line—everyone has certain travel expectations and just because they enjoyed it, you may not. You should use a seasoned travel professional like us, with in-depth knowledge to help you find the right cruise for you that matches your travel style

Sometimes, it is plain cool to visit sites that are important to you and try and imagine what it was like during that era.

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Hank Schrader

July 11, 2024

Best Value Travel

Caring and Our Travel Business

Hank Schrader

July 11, 2024

Best Value Travel

Caring and Our Travel Business

Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

We got hit with 90+ winds from Hurricane Beryl and lost our fence on the east side of our house, lost power for about 13 hours and had some damage to one of our trees with a broken limb dangling over 20 feet in the air. This early July hurricane caused over 2 million to lose power—as I write this (11 July 2024), there over 1 million in the greater Houston area are still without power 3 days after the Cat 1 Hurricane hit early Monday morning. It is a very dangerous heat situation, and we hope it gets resolved quickly.

Not all get how serious this event is in our area. In an internet article on Fansided two days ago, the author was trying to make the point the Astros professional baseball team were playing the Marlins Tuesday after the hurricane hit and were offering $5 entrance tickets and dollar dog night because the Marlins are struggling to win games. To me, this was totally ridiculous—it wasn’t about a bad team so much as a way for struggling folks to escape the oppressive heat in the air-conditioned stadium—it is an act of caring instead of greed. Many here will have a lot of unforeseen expenses, spoiled food and damage to their homes.

We are some of the lucky ones—quick power restoration in about 13 hours. This our 5th hurricane since we moved here and our first property damage other than the power loss that is almost a given anytime a significant wind event hits this area. We are safe and sound but worry about others in the area who are not so fortunate.

A Small Gesture of Help from a Caring Neighbor

Luckly for us, there are many who still do care and have empathy for others. During the yard cleanup, I was struggling to cut down the rather large dangling limb high enough to reach with my hand-held tree trimmer and try to saw the dangerous branch down. As I always believe I can solve any physical task even though I’m 74, a very nice young worker from Center Point Energy stopped and wanted to check if we had any energy problems. We told him no and as he watched me trying to solve the dangerous situation with a manual pole saw, said he lived nearby and could get his small chain saw (a pole mounted tool), which would make quick work of the damage limb. Realizing I was stubbornly still working, he drove off and returned shortly with his motorized tool. Soon the branch was off with his help, and he drove off. The point of this story—he cared we were overmatched, had an easy solution and went out of his way to help. Yes, he cared!

So, he inspired today’s blog—caring in travel.

The 3 elements of Building a Good Relationship with Potential Clients

We are all overwhelmed with ads and offers daily. We also meet many folks who are selling to us. This is especially true in the world of Europe River Cruising. Since it is such a good vacation and so many have been inspired by the Viking ads on PBS that put river cruising on the map as a great way to see the heart of Europe, there is a lot of confusion about which line to select and which route is best for their vacation and some wisely reach out to us for help.

I’ll bet that most of us are thinking about 3 questions when they search for a travel salesperson and are evaluating them while listening to their pitch. They are 1) Can I trust this person? 2) Do they know what they are talking about? 3) Do they care about me and what I need?

Although not all travel professionals know enough about river cruising, many do. Most who find us, already have done a lot of research and will quickly know if we are knowledgeable enough to help them.

The trust element comes from action, not words. My favorite way to say this is “will we do what is right for you when no one is looking”. We trust you will be honest with us, and you trust we will be honest with you. Trust is earned, not given. We hope our actions earn your trust.

Perhaps the most important fact that builds the relationship is the care factor. I recently talked with a potential client, and he remarked since I was a retired military officer and 74, we probably were not desperate for the income of our travel business and that made him more comfortable using us—he trusted us since we seemed to him more concerned about getting folks a great trip than making money. He was right!

Do they care about me and what I need?

When I was a young second lieutenant, I read some advice from a Sargent Major to young officer leaders. He emphasized many things leaders needed to do, but one stuck out in my mind— it was caring.

In the military, we are going to get the job done regardless of the difficulty. However, instead of just ordering soldiers to perform without any regard to their welfare, leads to dysfunctional units and destroys unit morale and cohesion. I took this advice as a principal for me—before I gave an order, I tried to think if there was a better way to get the job right and still care for the soldiers I was leading. Sometimes there was no way to make the situation better but just telling the truth was enough. Soldiers know quickly if you care,

So, why is all of this in the blog—Anne and I think caring and trying to match you to the best solution for your trip is our mantra—your welfare is vital to our relationship. Just like my former soldiers, our potential clients know quickly if we care.

We treat each of our clients as friends, because we don’t sell travel to clients—we sell travel to friends. There is a big difference—how your trip goes makes a world of difference to us. We would like to say we are small enough to deliver personalize service but big and experience enough to get you just the right trip.

We try to match you to just the right river cruise experience and make it logical, realistic and affordable in your price range. Don’t get us wrong—we do not sell on price—we sell on value. We try to demonstrate how valuable you are to us in many ways but how many other travel professional have a Traveler Hall of Fame? We are proud we could help you and want to share with others your joy and satisfaction.

Here are some of the folks who we have or will shortly added to our Hall of Fame this year.

Barb and Mike on the start of Tauck Galapgos Trip 2024—the famous Machu Picchu in the background

Our Amawaterways group on the Gems of the Danube April 2024—the wonderful lower Danube

Janice and Curtis with the Captain on AmaWaterways A Taste of Bordeaux river cruise 2024

Ruth and Joe on an Anniversary well spent on Amawaterways Tulip Time Cruise in the Chef’s Table 2024

Our Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed this blog--sometimes, it is important to share with you our thoughts about your travel challenges. Shared hardships cause folks to bound together to try and get thru the hard times. It also reminds us we need to care more, listen actively and respect your travel desires and dreams. We hope the many we have helped in the past think of us as friends first and then travel professionals second. Trust us, we do care!

AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent

Chalon-Sur-Saone to Arles 7 Nights AmaCello

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