River Cruise Lines Compared: Viking vs AmaWaterways, Avalon, Uniworld, Scenic, Tauck & More

53 Responses

1. Been on 4 Viking cruises and all have met everything I look for in a river cruise. Outstanding in every detail from start to finish. Outstanding friendly crew.

2. What a shame that you didn’t venture out to enjoy the local fare. That’s 1/2 the fun of traveling abroad! Hope you choose to be more adventurous on your next cruise!

3. Currently on uniworld Main river cruise. Previously taken Viking Rhine and Danube cruises. Prefer Viking on all levels. Food is comparable between both but tour information is much better with Viking. Better communication and information prior to cruise, better history lessons with tour guides. More of an educational tour and less touristy shopping type tour. Viking rooms are cleaner with better use of space. More storage, more room to move around within the room. Better organization overall for the whole trip with Viking. Employees on Viking were friendlier and more willing to engage in conversation. Not unhappy with Uniworld but Viking was better choice for me.

4. I’ve only cruised on Uniworld (twice) and as a “foodie” the meals are so good you don’t have an urge to explore local restaurants – certainly not for dinner. The included wines are local and always excellent – and reviewed nightly by the sommelier. I highly recommend. BTW, I’m booked on my third Uniworld cruise in October.

5. You would not be disappointed with Crystal with regard to food and wine.

6. Hi..does anyone have an opinion on which cruise line offers the best food and wine lists? Thank you!

7. It has been a some years that I have been on a Rhine cruise. I am now looking to possibly lease a vessel for a private group tour. I need to be able to contact Avalon, Scenic, Uniworld, Tauck directly to arrange terms of the lease of a vesssel, crew, with at least two meals per day provided. I could use Scenic’s $379.00 per day per person as a starting point. Cruise would probably be for seven days. I Thank you in advance for your advice.

   Ben Miedema

8. Absolutely.

9. … sounds like I would have insisted on paying my own gratuities on that trip … I certainly would NOT have wanted the Cruise Director to receive an “automatic” gratuity.

10. Having sailed with Viking River in Bordeaux and now Uniworld River Queen European Jewels, I cannot figure out why Uniworld is almost twice as expensive as Viking. If anyone has any idea, please respond. I have not been that impressed with the food and while I appreciate the “fitness center” (small room with cycle, treadmill, step machine and weights) that alone is not worth the extra money. Personally I prefer the more contemporary Viking furnishings rather than the European provincial look of Uniworld. The ONLY benefit for me was no single supplement on Uniworld for my particular cruise. Still, given the price difference I might have still paid less on Viking. I do wish Viking would offer selecter cruises with no single supplement.

11. Just returned from an AmaWaterways trip. Would like to see information about Gate 1 as well (saw several of these river ships on my trip). Also, when comparing river cruise lines, it would be good to know if they provide free WiFi or other internet access in cabins for free (as Ama does). Description of Ama needs to be updated too. They provide free water in your cabin, and now have a second dining option on most ships, for example.

12. Thanks. Have you cruised with Grand Circle? I would like to know how they stack up too.

13. Please include Grand Circle on your updated comparison. Thanks.

14. Hi, I am seeking information from anyone that has sailed with Uniworld for their fall 2016 Nile River cruises. I am trying to determine if ships sailed as scheduled or were cancelled. We are confirmed for early next spring but I have concerns about the number of confirmed travelers and cancellations.

    Thank you in advance for any and all responders.

15. My wife and I just completed a river cruise on River Beatrice with Uniworld. We booked the owners suite and it was a mistake. It is quite a bit more expensive than a regular suite and for about 2,800 dollars you get 75 square feet more and a bath tub. There are no other amenities above what you may get if you just booked a suite. Additionally, the completion of arrangements prior to the cruise were very difficult and not very clear. The pre hotel was very expensive for an extremely small and very noisy room. Overall I do not consider the higher end of Uniworld arrangements to be a good value. I sent a letter to Uniworld and received sympathy, but mostly excuses rather than any attempt at any solutions. I would not sail with them again.

16. After doing some extensive research on the major river cruise lines, I decided to spend a little extra and book a trip on the Scenic Jasper. What a great decision that was. The ship couldn’t have been more beautiful and the staff couldn’t have done anything to add to the experience. The all inclusive features mean that once you’re on board you never have to touch you wallet and you want for nothing. We were blown away by Scenic and highly recommend that others consider Scenic too.

17. Let’s be real, the on ship service is great while the corporate travel booking is a mess. Not only did they incorrectly book our outbound and inbound flights, Viking disregarded the necessity for customer service to correct their mistake they made. When attempting to cover Maria, a supervisor with Viking, stated “this was an agent entry mistake” instead of simply owning THEIR mistake and finding a comparable solution to the problem. When these type of things happen they completely taint the entire experience. Not reccommended!

18. Just finished Bordeaux cruise with Viking Forsetti. Cruise Director was rude to many guests. Frequently said, “As I told you” and “If you had been listening” to guests who asked for clarification (and needed it) of something she said that was vague or confusing. She peppered her speech with “Ladies and gentlemen” the way some people say “Um” or “Like” when they pause. She was so over-the-top in her promotion of future Viking trips that we decided to investigate other cruise lines.

19. Love your site. We have been on two river cruises, the first was with AMA Waterways and we were so disappointed we did not try it again for 5 years. The cruise director was so obsessed with trying to figure out who had money so he could suck up to them ( excuse my language) for a better tip that that the rest of us were left hanging. Extremely unprofessional. Anyway in 2015 we thought we would try it again and our agent booked Scenic, now there is a company that others can learn from. Wonderful, accommodating, the best service. We loved it.

20. Where is Vantage? We have traveled with them 10 times…river voyages and small group travel. Sorry to see you didn’t include them or Grand Circle, which many of our friends have enjoyed.

21. As the mother of 7 grown children, I surely would not want to take a child or children on a river cruise unless they enjoyed quiet time and didn’t mind the lack of space to roam around and loved history. Although I ended up teaching history at a university, at least half of the seven didn’t like to visit the historic sites I was drawn to. I know the brochures show photos of happy children, but they would. Of course they could always text or play video games, but that would defeat the purpose of taking them.

22. AmaWaterways, Uniworld and Tauck have good family programs. See this post: https://rivercruiseadvisor.com/2015/03/which-river-cruise-companies-allow-children/

23. Which river cruise lines allow you to bring children and what is is the minimum age?

24. Give us a little bit of a break. Scenic and Emerald were accidentally deleted during an edit. Crystal is not operating yet, and we don’t have enough information to include them in the chart until the company begins operation in July with Mozart and in 2017 with four of its six new ships.

25. Don’t know/understand why you show Cristal River Cruises – which is NOT in the chart, but missed Scenic – which has a tick in EVERY column and the most dining options as well?! NOT GOOD!

26. As to booking early, I think it depends on what kind of cabin/ship you want and where and when you want to go. We have booked fairly early for all our river cruises but I have seen some really good deals a month or so out on all the lines including Uniworld, our preferred company. However, the deals weren’t at the time or place we wanted to go. So perhaps you do pay more choosing early. On the other hand, if the cruise line doesn’t have many sailings listed for a particular trip, it will fill up, so again booking early the only option. I am such a planner that it is hard to be spontaneous.
    For those looking for travel insurance, you might take a look at the Squaremouth Website. I know it is an odd name, but they are brokers for dozens of companies that sell trip insurance. You plug in your information and a number of quotes pop up. Very easy to use. ALSO, you may find one or two companies that don’t penalize older travelers as much as is the rule.

27. Agree obnoxious folks exist in all societies.

28. All do.

29. Love this chart but I would have liked a column with who provides free wi-fi. Does anyone know which lines do provide Wi-Fi for free. Thanks

30. They should have said NJ/NY Americans. They truly are obnoxious.

31. Judging from your comment “no obnoxious American tourists to deal with,” I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with someone like you anywhere. A sweeping generalization like that showcases your ignorance since there are obviously many delightful American tourists out there as well as “obnoxious” tourists from every nationality. Shame on you.

32. Hi Betty
    I agree. I’m from Australia and have travelled on 3 Uniworld cruises which are very popular with Americans. I have encountered very few obnoxious Americans on these trips, only one couple comes to mind, in fact the majority have been delightful people. We swapped names and addresses with quite a few couples with the view to catching up either when we visit the states or they visit Australia. Believe me there can be some very obnoxious Australians overseas as well!

33. Amen to that! “we have enough bad things said about us”

34. I find your comment “no obnoxious American tourists to deal with” rather unkind. I have sailed on 6 river cruise companies including A-ROSA, 3 times. The purpose of this type of travel is to relax, have fun, explore great historic towns and socialize with likeminded people. It is difficult to have a conversation with Germans who refuse to speak English even though they can. I had such an experience this past July on A-ROSA. Nobody likes obnoxious travelers (you think Germans can’t be obnoxious??) but please don’t pick on Americans, we have enough bad things said about us.

35. That’s great, Judy – really glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise with A-ROSA! We’ll work on getting a profile of A-ROSA Flora on the site. As you can imagine, we’re pretty passionate about river cruising, too. Glad you enjoyed your first one!

36. Hi, RCA! We just returned from an A-Rosa Rhine cruise on their newest ship, the Flora. You don’t have it listed here, although it looks just like the Stella, from your pics. Anyway, we loved it! We’ve only been on one ocean cruise before and probably wouldn’t ocean cruise again, but river cruising is a whole other ball game and we can’t wait for our next one. Just an FYI, most of the other passengers were German and older. This was fine, tho — no obnoxious American tourists to deal with! And all announcements were in both German and English. This was an all-around great experience.

37. I just discovered and love this site. As a compulsive travel planner, who likes to research every detail imaginable from as many sources as possible, I welcome the info that you provide. My wife and I have taken over 30 ocean cruises, but are new to river cruising. I particularly appreciate your info regarding exercise opportunities available on the various lines, especially the availability of bicycles as my wife and I also have taken numerous bicycle trips and are looking forward to being able to cycle across Europe without carrying panniers and un-packing/packing in new hotels every night, as we have in the past. I’d appreciate any info you can provide comparing the quality of the bicycles offered on the various cruise lies, especially Ama and Uniworld. I don’t expect the bicycles to be as good as our own custom touring bicycles or even high-end road racing bicycles, but hopefully they should be relatively new, decently maintained, and with some gearing to allow one to visit hilltop castles and not just pedal on bike paths along the river banks and in town centers.

38. http://www.travpr.com/pr-31944-overland-and-river-cruise.html

39. Hope you will post a review of your extensive experience. Like yourself, we do considerable research in planning vacations and last summer mixed a week with Viking, a week with trains through Belgium, and two weeks visiting Norway’s ports. I basically found the preparation for the Rhine Getaway to decrease our enjoyment of it! The short daily walking/bus tours got us back for lunch (with beer/wine) and seemed to basically fill available time in the least expensive manner). If you are that planner-type that haunts Roll Calls on Cruise Critic, you tend to do port visits by yourself or in private groups. I have found that my Roll Calls for Holland America, Princess, Royal Caribbean and Celebrity include a majority of experienced world travelers who have information and experience to share! It seems that most of our Viking travelers were on their first European vacation and found the morning walks or bus rides just fine, as long as the beer and wine were waiting on their return!

40. Ralph, the next time you prepare a chart, please consider using a “check” mark as opposed to an “X” to indicate the affirmative. An “X” has a very negative connotation to most people. Without reading the fine print below the chart, my husband expressed his surprise that Viking (the line we’re leaning toward for our first river cruise) doesn’t have step-out balconies, a feature that is very important to us. Reading down that category, one sees “some” “some” “some” and then an “X”. A check mark is much more positive, and if you really want to get fancy and even more affirmative, make it green!

41. I am anxious to read about Avalon as that line has been highly recommended to me for river crossing.

42. Thank you, Carol – I am glad you found the Viking Baldur review useful! I started these day-by-day reports a few years back to give people an up-to-date view of what they can expect on their trip, and more importantly, of their ship. Viking Baldur is very comfortable, very stylish, and nicely appointed. You should have a wonderful time on your Grand European Tour – it’s a fantastic itinerary!

    Have fun and Bon Voyage!
    -Aaron

43. I have to stay that I am a huge planner/researcher for my husband and I when we go on vacations. I enjoy reading before hand about the areas, and types of tours etc. Thinking back on the days before the internet and relying on tour books and travel agents to send me in the right direction was a real chore. Now with the internet and the extraordinary capabilities that it gives a traveler to plan, in some cases, for their lifelong adventure is an amazing tool. One I rely on immensely. So with that said, I look for anything I can find relating to a particular trip I may be thinking of booking. I search for ANYONE’S opinion on the subject and weigh what is said for it’s informational purposes. I really don’t care much who or what company is imparting this information, rather using it to gather as much information as I can to help me make the best planned trip that I can. In this case, I was searching for info on the Viking Baldur. We are sailing on her 7/27/14 on a Grand European Tour down the Rhine, Main, and Danube. The review/day by day account that Aaron Saunders posted on his Christmas Market trip was very well done and interesting., full of great information. Again, not reading it for info on the markets but rather for what was said about the ship, cruise line and some of the towns he visited. To each his own for what you garner from the things posted on the internet. I for one am happy to have learned quite a bit from is review and am happy I stumbled upon it. Thanks for your great review and we are very excited to be on the Baldur for our first river cruise.

44. River cruises are in high demand, so yes, it’s important to act quickly, make that deposit and cover yourself with insurance. Planning in advance is key to a good experience.

45. Great site, Thanks. Is it advisable to pay in full 10 months ahead to get all the discounts? Is it better to place a deposit ? Yes, no matter what, need cancellation insurance. Again, Thanks.

46. Larry, While I get where you’re coming from, your reasoning comes from an uninformed point of view about how things actually operate in the media world. For example, I am on a press trip at this very moment in the Mediterranean with journalists from major publications. There are 12 of us, all from US-based media outlets. All of us are guests of the cruise line, and in fact, of the hotel where we stayed last night. The cruise line paid our air and all expenses. This is the way that all travel companies operate. And all media that I know of accepts. No one pays the retail rate of these cruises to write about them or review them. I travel three or four times a year with writers from USA Today, often with writers from major newspapers like the Miami Herald, a lot with Travel Weekly, Cruise Critic and other publications. And yes, I have even traveled with writers from Conde Nast, the Truth in Travel publication. I’ve traveled twice with Conde Nast writers, once in Antarctica and once in the Mediterranean.

    I am a journalist, not using the word in a commercially advantageous way. It is my profession. I’ve won awards from journalism associations, and more than that, I have a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I even wrote a book about a journalist. His name was Charles Kuralt, and my journalistic philosophy is a lot like his. He said, “Most reporters can’t go back to the towns they wrote about. I never wrote that kind of story.” So I am not the Mike Wallace style of journalist, never have been. Don’t want to be.

    As for subscriptions, been there, doesn’t work. NPR exists on sponsorships, and NPR doesn’t call them fees. We chose the NPR model. Without it the digital space that this site occupies would be blank, and 99.99 percent of our readers would not want that.

47. Ralph – with all due respect, your disclaimer fails to address the main flaw in your justification. By you own admission your web site receives what you choose to call “sponsorships”…but most people would call them fees. Fees that your web site receives from cruise companies, in exchange for positive publicity, so in effect you are the owner of some web sites that derives revenue from customers in the cruise industry in exchange for favourable reviews. Most reasonable people would describe your company therefore as a PR firm specialising in digital endorsements.

    The problem, as I see it lays in two areas.

    Firstly you use the term journalist in describing yourself, when inherently journalists are impartial and at arms lengths from the commercial necessities of the publication they write for, so you are using word in a commercially advantageous way, which is not accurate.

    Secondly you claim to write your reviews of the ships as part of a free “press trip”, when actually you are not part of any “press” organization, you are actually a paid supplier of the cruise companies from which you receive “sponsorships” from, and are invited aboard in order to provide positive PR coverage. The fact that the companies choose to add you as a “press trip” visitor actually detracts from the legitimate role that the press play in the description and analysis of a ship and it’s pro’s and con’s, which due to your conflict of interest, are lacking in your reports.

    Your statement “We make all the information on this site available for free”, is curious as it is not free to the advertisers, nor the sponsors, and if you believed it could be charged for via subscription or some other method then why not move to that model?

    I think Ralph you have some issue to work through to make the statements on your web site an accurate reflection of your business.

48. I’ve revised the disclaimer to include it in the main text and I corrected it. It was not accurate that only companies that sponsor River Cruise Advisor were featured. What is correct is that only companies that we have personally experienced were included. The disclaimer now reads (in two places): Note that we feature only the river cruise companies that we’ve personally sailed on and experienced. Your favorite line may not be in our chart. If so, mention your favorites in the comments section below.

    We do our best. We make all the information on this site available for free. Most visitors have only good things to say about what the service we provide. I simply wouldn’t know how to do it any better – and make it worthwhile for us.

49. Right on SFONAN – This page is actually one giant advertorial…get out your magnifying glass and you can just spot: “Note that across the site we primarily include cruise companies that sponsor River Cruise Advisor.”

50. Ralph – Thanks for the disclaimer – couldn’t imagine why one of the very best – Avalon Waterways – wasn’t included until I read that.

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