River cruising: the hard questions

Stephen Scourfield asks and answers important questions to help you get the ultimate experience on world’s waterways.

Ask yourself this — if you were on a river cruise in Europe, are you the sort of person who’d be more likely to spend your free time socialising in the lounge or revelling quietly in your lovely cabin suite, with its balcony?

And if you were relaxing in the afternoon in your suite, would you be more likely to be gazing out of the window, watching Europe go by, or watching a movie?

And ask yourself this — would you rather be on a ship with Australians, a mix of English-speaking nationalities (but mainly Australians, British and Americans) or a real international smorgasbord of British, French, Italians, Germans and goodness knows who else?

And finally, how would you feel if you got all this wrong?

Given that most ships are really quite nice and that their itineraries are really quite similar, it’s the detail that can make or break an experience.

So let me answer those seemingly odd questions first. If you would prefer to be in the lounge or up on a sundeck, well, any cruise ship will do. But a nice feature of Scenic’s new ships, such as Jasper and Opal, is that both the comfy chairs and the chairs at tables in the lounge swivel, so that you can easily turn and chat with others. (Shifting heavy chairs around on carpet is difficult, and without this you tend to get “set” in one group and conversation.)

While on the subject of these ships, the beds in their spacious and well-appointed cabins are in line with the ship, so you can’t easily lie and look out of the window. But they do face a big screen and good entertainment system, ideal for movie watchers (or those who want to tune into the bow camera).

Avalon’s ships have beds “crossways”, so you can plump yourself up on pillows and watch Europe pass your feet through a 3.35m-wide window. A spokesperson for Avalon explains: “When your bed faces a wall, the view never changes. Which is precisely why our beds, unlike other cruise lines, face a window. Because we think letting you see the incredible views that river cruising is famous for is a darned good idea.”

On the subject of passengers, Scenic and APT ships will probably mostly have guests from Australia and New Zealand (although it is concentrating on marketing in North America, too). Viking Cruises markets to English-speaking countries and will probably have a high percentage of British and Americans; Avalon also markets broadly to English-speaking countries — Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the US and Canada. The passengers with Tauck may be mostly Americans.

So, hoping now that we can understand those around us, the next detail is whether we can actually hear them when we are out and about.

Good river-cruise companies offer guests an audio device to hang round their necks, so that they can hear a local guide through an earpiece, rather than clustering around someone shouting.

The big names in audio-listening devices are Quietvox (the most common), Whisper, Voxtours and Taylormade, which Scenic uses.

Quietvox, which have been used by Viking, APT, AmaWaterways and Uniworld, are small, and Scenic’s are bigger but also have local “self-guide” information, so you can just wander off when the ship is docked and still get information (in English) about the places you are walking past.

All devices should work in some way with hearing aids and most have a 3.5mm connecter, so you can use your own headphones if you prefer. But companies offer disposable earpieces of various designs. The most common is designed to hook over one ear (usually the left), but do not block most hearing aids.

Some people say they find a bit of sticking tape wrapped around the hook makes some, like the Quietvox, more comfortable and grip better.

Guests with a hearing aid can replace it with the Quietvox device.

It is important, then, to understand just what services are included in the price of the cruise.

I’ve just returned from a trip with Scenic on the River Danube, and it was possible for guests to not spend a single euro once they had joined the ship. All beverages, activities, tours and tips (for both crew and local guides and drivers) are included. If you want to cut out of the group and just wander around a city on your own for the day, they’ll pack you a lunch.

Some well-prepared river cruisers even bring a vacuum flask to take tea or coffee on their outings.

There has been an increasing trend to include gratuities (tips) in a one-figure price.

Some companies — for example Scenic, Tauck, Uniworld and Viking (for Europe, Russia and Ukraine, not South-East Asia or China trips) — include gratuities in the cruise price.

Other companies, such as AmaWaterways, make suggestions for gratuities: “Europe: For good service, we recommend $4.20 (€3) per passenger per day for the cruise manager and $17 (€12) per passenger per day for the crew, which will be divided up among the ship’s personnel. It is also customary to acknowledge a particularly good performance of a local guide by leaving a tip of €1-2 (say about $2) per tour. Gratuities on most vessels, but not all, may be charged on credit card as well as cash.”

So, be aware of whether tips are included — and, if not, factor them into your travel budget.

There are constant development and shifts in an industry that’s changing fast, with significant annual growth.

The roots of all this are often attributed to Rudi Schreiner, president of AmaWaterways. He has recalled how, in 1992, the newly finished Main-Danube Canal opened up a 4820km river network between the North Sea and the Black Sea. It was built for shifting freight. But Schreiner is credited with realising it also could be used for passengers.

Most recent figures from Cruise Lines International Association (Australasia), which represents the cruise industry, showed that almost 50,000 Australians are river cruising each year. In 2013 (in figures reported in the middle of last year), that was a 25 per cent rise over the previous year.

Mr Schreiner first envisioned a 14-night scenic river route between Amsterdam and Budapest as a real possibility and began to plan the itineraries, and Amsterdam to Budapest remains the “classic” river cruise in Europe.

In many ways, it is the best bet. But ask yourself one last question.

Are you the sort of person who wants to get off the ship and wander round a small town in the evening, and sit in a local cafe, not worried about the fact you have already “bought dinner” on the ship? If you are, you may look at river cruising in France, which is more this style.

Or are you happy with the idea of the ship moving at night and using the many dining options on board? In which case, you might look more towards the River Danube, for example.

In other words, pay attention to how many nights the ship stays on a wharf in a city, and how close to the centre you will be. It might be that you just want to saunter down the gangplank and wander off to explore the wonders of Europe, just as much as you might want to join the organised and included tours.

And in all of this, I will unashamedly suggest that it’s very wise to sit down with a good travel agent who specialises in river cruising, and really get to the bottom of the detail.

After all, it’s the detail that can make or break an experience.