Understanding Extra Charges on 7 River Cruise Lines

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

Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist

www.dreamdestinations.com

One of the most confusing items in river cruising is understanding what the extra charges are for a river cruise. For some, it is all about price. However, for us, it is always about value.

Although it is sometimes difficult to understand the different pricing methods of each line, without a doubt, there is so much more included in a river cruise by almost all companies as compared to most ocean cruises, that river cruising is an excellent overall value.

I will be first to admit that advertised prices sometimes do not reflect the reality of what the actual end charges will be on the final bill. Since this may cause confusion, I will attempt to explain the extra charges on each line and provide our opinion on which charges are the most aggravating to us.

This blog does not address incentive offers, which often add great value to cruises or optional pre and post land tours.

So, let’s explore together and learn pricing methods and charges on the 7 river cruise lines we follow.

How Base Prices are Determined on each River Cruise Line

All 7 lines we follow (AmaWaterways, Avalon, Emerald, Scenic, Tauck, Uniworld and Viking) list their starting price at the lowest priced stateroom. For all, this means a cabin with a fixed window on the first level of the 3-level rivership. With the exception of Tauck, which has an innovative loft stateroom on some of their ships, it is a smaller stateroom with a fixed window space that varies in size. It is on the same level as the crew quarters, and usually has the fewest number of staterooms on each ship.

Most riverships are designed to hold 2 persons per stateroom. There are few single passenger staterooms. Some of the large staterooms can hold 3 passengers. Single cruisers often pay a supplement for their stateroom.

The prices increases on the top two decks for staterooms. These may or may not include a balcony or French balcony, but even some older ships have fixed windows on the top levels. River cruise ships, for the most part come in 2 similar sizes—a 135 meter ship (443 feet) and a 110 m ship (336 feet). The size limitations are due to the constraints of the lock system on most European rivers.

So, the most significant cost increase for most when taking a river cruise is their stateroom choice. It is not uncommon to see a price range of $8,000 or less for 2 at the lowest priced stateroom to $15,000 or more for the largest stateroom.

Those new to river cruising might be shocked by these prices, but included are meals, excursions, free wi-fi, beverages, and the luxury of packing and unpacking once. The transportation feature is the key—we have arranged many land trips and train and plane costs are expensive. It is a hassle-free vacation which maximizes your opportunity to experience Europe with sights you could seldom visit easily on your own (or may even not know about) in the most efficient manner possible,

So, with this basic starting point, I will now explain charges by each river cruise company and start with the charges I find most aggravating.

Excursion Extra Charges

To me, this is a charge that should be included in the fare, although some charges are understandable and reasonable, in my humble opinion. Only Scenic and Tauck do not charge for any tours available to their guests. AmaWaterways only charges for the Vienna concert (I was told that they were losing money by making reservations for the night time concert when too many folks decided not to attend after signing up to go either from being too tired or having a bit too much to drink with dinner). To me, that is reasonable. These 3 companies get our best rating for quality and quantity of excursions.

While not a subject of this blog, the quality of the excursions offered and the quantity at each port is also a key factor in selecting your river cruise company and is also as important as the price. When you see charges that seem high for more exciting tours, it causes one to muse that the price is not what it seems to be on the advertised cruise fare,

Uniworld and Viking make my worse offenders list. Uniworld, which promotes itself as an all-inclusive line, has some significant charges on its Rhine Route for example, but at least they are up front and specify the charges online.

Viking, however, is the worse offender in my opinion—on each cruise they include only 6 excursions and the rest result in extra charges. To make matters worse, it is extremely difficult to ferret out these charges early—most guests receive a printed sheet in their stateroom of the optional charges which can add as much as 500 to 1000 euros to a fare.

Avalon and Emerald do charge extra for some tours, but most seem reasonable if you accept the fact that they will charge extra instead of including them in the fare. On Avalon for example, I read an article in Travel Weekly that there were 31 options and 23 were included on a Rhone River Cruise and they were priced between $58-$69. They seem very strong in Active and Discovery tour offerings.

Emerald charges extra for their DiscoverMore program. Some may have to be pre-booked prior to departure on the cruise. Examples are a beer festival in Passau, a guided tour to Pont du Gard or a concert in Vienna.

Beverages

During mealtimes, all lines offer complimentary soft drinks, their specialty coffees and beer and wine. Beverages are included on Scenic, Tauck and Uniworld all the time, but even these lines sometimes have a higher level package of premium drinks that are usually very high end.

AmaWaterways has a “Sip-n-Sail” cocktail hour that includes most drinks and features the drink of the day. Every day on your cruise with Amawaterways they offer 2 different wines, a red and white, that are from the region you are sailing through for lunch and dinner . There are 2 special wines are included with the Chef’s Table are excellent which is complimentary on every cruise in Europe.

Wine offerings on our Gems of SE Asia river cruise on AmaWaterways

Pouring the Chef’s Table Wine AmaWaterways

Avalon has recently added a free cocktail hour which will start in 2023.

Viking has a Silver Spirt package that costs 300 Euros per cabin. They often use the same 2 wines for the entire cruise. Beer and wine are included at meals.

One could easily argue that beverages should not be the second most problematic extra charge, but for most of our clients the quality of food and wine is extremely important.

Gratuities

Emerald, Scenic, Tauck, and Uniworld include their gratuities in the fare price

AmaWaterways, Avalon and Viking do not include gratuities.

Some clients are very worried about the extra cost of gratuities, but for us this is a not an issue. Our experience on river cruises, is that the crew earns their gratuities, and we always tend to pay the suggested amount and provide a little extra to folks that we have multiple contacts with such as the bar staff and waiters. I like to say the crew becomes your friends and you will want to take them home with you.

Port Charges

This is pretty straight forward. Emerald, Scenic, Tauck and Viking include port charges in their fares.

AmaWaterways, Avalon and Uniworld do not include port charges in the basic advertised cruise fares. One item to note—port charges are per person, not per stateroom.

All river cruise companies have expenses to use the locks and ports. We don’t see this as much of a big deal.

Laundry, Massage and Hairdressing Services

If available onboard, all lines charge extra for Massage and Hairdressing services.

Laundry is a great perk. Free laundry is offered in some of the higher cost staterooms on each line.

AmaWaterways, Avalon, Emerald, Tauck and Viking all charge for laundry service.

Scenic, in their staterooms that have Butler service, has a one-time 2-pound courtesy laundry service. Some Uniworld ships have free washers and dryers, as does the AmaMagna from AmaWaterways.

For us, the laundry service is reasonable and welcome—I use it to help reduce the amount of clothes I bring and Anne loves the fact that when we come home, it reduces the amount of washing we need to do after the trip.

In the laundry room on AmaWaterways—I’m holding my laundry request and this is the laundry guy between Anne and me

Our Final Thoughts

Money, Money, Money—we all want the best value we can get for the price we pay.

We hope you enjoyed this report and it sheds some light on our most frequently asked questions about costs.

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@dreamdestinations.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 50 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

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