Travel With Us | Live Voyage Reports
Aaron Saunders (left) and Ralph Grizzle (tall) in Porto, Portugal aboard Viking Hemming, cruising the Douro River.
Live Voyage Reports allows you to follow the river cruise adventures of two avid cruisers, who also just happen to be professional journalists and photographers, while we are on our river cruises.
This allows you to cruise with us, virtually, and to engage with us during our cruises. If you have questions about a particular stateroom, the food being served and whether the ship caters to special diets, all you have to do is ask. It is a lot easier for us to answer those questions while on board than it is to answer them once we are back at our shoreside desks.
Check out the calendar for our upcoming voyages and follow along!
Also be sure to check out our OCEAN CRUISE Live Voyage Reports.
Our Current & Upcoming River Cruises
Upcoming River Cruise Voyage Reports
| Ship | Sail Date | Destination | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
Past River Cruise Live Voyage Reports
Past River Cruise Voyage Reports
| Ship | Sail Date | Destination | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barging Burgundy | April 2012 | On Horizon II | French Country Waterways |
| A-ROSA Silva | December 3-10, 2013 | German Christmas Markets | A-ROSA |
| AmaLotus | September 22 - 30, 2013 | Riches of the Mekong: Cambodia and Vietnam | AmaWaterways |
| AmaVida | July 22 - 29, 2014 | Cruising the Douro River with St. Francis Winery & AmaWaterways co-founder Kristin Karst | AmaWaterways |
| Botticelli | June 20 - 27, 2014 | The Seine Valley roundtrip Paris with CroisiEurope | CroisiEurope |
| Emerald Star | July 12 -19, 2014 | Danube Delights - Budapest to Nuremberg | Emerald Cruises |
| ms Inspire | April 7 - 16, 2014 | Maiden Voyage of Tauck's MS Inspire - Amsterdam to Brussels | Tauck |
| S.S. Catherine | March 26-March 30, 2014 | Christening Ceremonies in Lyon, France | Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection |
| Viking Baldur | December 10-17, 2013 | Rhine Christmas | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Baldur | November 30 - December 7, 2014 | Danube Christmas Markets - Budapest to Passau | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Forseti | November 22 - 29, 2014 | Chateaux, Rivers and Wine - Roundtrip Bordeaux, France | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Longships | March 17-23, 2014 | Christening Ceremonies in Avignon & Bordeaux, France | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Longships | March 22 - 25, 2015 | 2015 Christening Ceremonies in Amsterdam | Viking River Cruises |
| Loire Princess | April 9 - 14, 2015 | Sailing the Loire River roundtrip Nantes. | CroisiEurope |
| Scenic Jasper | April 15 - 22, 2015 | Budapest to Vienna with Christening | Scenic |
| S.S. Maria Theresa | May 3 - 17, 2015 | European Jewels - Amsterdam to Budapest | Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection |
| S.S. Legacy | June 6 - 13, 2015 | Columbia & Snake Rivers Roundtrip Portland, Oregon | Un-Cruise Adventures |
| Anne-Marie | June 17 - 26, 2015 | Barging Arles to Sete | CroisiEurope |
| Viking Vidar | July 13 - 27, 2015 | Grand European Tour: Amsterdam to Budapest | Viking River Cruises |
| ms Savor | July 15 - 26, 2015 | Danube Reflections: Prague to Vienna | Tauck |
| Viking Torgil | September 28 - October 8, 2015 | Portugal's River of Gold | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Mandalay | November 19 - December 3, 2015 | Myanmar Explorer | Viking River Cruises |
| Viking Longships Inaugural | February 29, 2016 | Amsterdam | Viking River Cruises |
| River Voyager | March 18 - 22, 2016 | Christening Preview Cruise from Basel to Amsterdam | Vantage Deluxe World Travel |
| AmaDolce | March 25, 2016 | Taste of Bordeaux | AmaWaterways |
| Emerald Star | April 5, 2016 | Enchantments of Eastern Europe | Emerald Cruises |
| Elbe Princesse | April 14, 2016 | Christening Preview in Berlin | CroisiEurope |
| Crystal Mozart | July 10, 2016 | Vienna Christening | Crystal River Cruises |
| Viking Embla | July 6, 2016 | Passage to Eastern Europe: Bucharest to Budapest | Viking River Cruises |
| AmaSonata | August 8, 2016 | Backroads Bicycling Program from Prague to Budapest | AmaWaterways |
| AmaSonata | September 12, 2016 | Magnificent Europe: Amsterdam to Budapest | AmaWaterways |
| Cyrano de Bergerac | October 17, 2016 | Bordeaux | CroisiEurope |
| AmaLegro | October 28, 2016 | Paris & Normandy | AmaWaterways |
| American Empress | November 19, 2016 | Columbia & Snake Rivers | American Queen Steamboat Company |
| Mistral | December 28, 2016 | Provence | CroisiEurope |
| Crystal Mozart | March 22-27, 2018 | Danube, Vienna roundtrip | Crystal River Cruises |
| Viking Hild | April 8-19, 2017 | Paris to the Swiss Alps | Viking River Cruises |
| Avalon Visionary | April 11-18, 2017 | Amsterdam to Paris | Avalon Waterways |
| AmaCello | April 20-27, 2017 | Lyon to Arles | AmaWaterways |
| Viking Hlin | May 7-14, 2017 | Amsterdam to Basel | Viking River Cruises |
| Scenic Diamond | June 9-16, 2017 | Bordeaux Affair | Scenic |
| AmaLyra | August 3-17, 2017 | Paris & Normandy | AmaWaterways |
| MS Sapphire | October 9 - 18, 2017 | Rendezvous on the Seine | Tauck |
| Avalon Expression | September 12 - 19, 2017 | Amsterdam to Nuremberg | Avalon Waterways |
| Raymonde Barge | September 12-18, 2017 | Paris to Joigny | CroisiEurope |
| Emerald Radiance | November 4-11, 2017 | Porto & the Douro River | Emerald Cruises |
We took an Avalon Danube river cruise in December – Vienna to Prague. Unfortunately our ship, the Panorama, was rammed by a Russian barge while still tied up at the dock in Vienna. We were all on board but the trip hadn’t even begun. We were able to begin the cruise but the ship was not allowed to go into German waters so a different ship was taken out of dry dock and rushed to meet us.
Later in the cruise, an accident in a lock prevented one day of our “scenic cruising” and caused us to miss one of the towns we were scheduled to visit.
Neither of these events were the fault of Avalon and the cruise line went out of their way to ensure that we still got to see everything by setting up bus tours, arranging meals when we couldn’t get back to the ship, providing free access to events in the towns we were visiting, etc. In addition, we were given a small rebate on the cost of our trips as soon as the first accident occured.
We were not happy cruisers because we really didn’t get a river cruise, more like a series of bus tours, and having to pack and move to a different ship for the last night negated the only-unpacking-once advantage of cruising. However, when we got home we received another sizeable cash rebate and a reduction on a future cruise that we were able to apply to a spring cruise already booked.
Avalon really went out of their way to keep us as happy as possible on the cruise and their compensation was more than fair. We will definitely use Avalon again.
How many river cruises on the Elbe River were cancelled this year?