Laundry Services: Which Cruise Lines Include Them?<\/a><\/p>\n*\u00a0Optional Shore Excursions<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 All river cruise companies include complimentary excursions in most, if not all, ports of call. However, some companies offer optional shore excursions for a fee. Avalon, Crystal, Emerald, Riviera and Viking are among the companies that offer optional shore excursions. On my April 2017 Rhine cruise on Viking, for example, complimentary excursions were offered at each stop along the way. Viking also offered about a dozen optional tours, ranging in price from \u20ac49 per person to \u20ac189, the latter being a full-day excursion called Taste the Best of Alsace. Viking Hlin\u2019s program director, Candi Finkelstein, told me that this was the number one rated tour on the Rhine Getaway itinerary, so sometimes paying for something you would not otherwise experience is not a bad thing. On Crystal\u2019s Danube Dreams & Discoveries, more than two dozen shore excursions are offered, and most of those are complimentary. Crystal\u2019s optional shore excursions on that itinerary range from a complimentary Culinary Walking Tour in Bratislava to Michelin-star dining experiences for $249 per person. On Emerald Cruises\u2019 Danube Delights itinerary, you can pay extra for its DiscoverMORE excursions for such exclusive events as Tastes of Vienna and a Viennese Concert.<\/p>\n*\u00a0Current Incentive (per person)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Riviera does not offer booking incentives, CroisiEurope rarely does. The rest offer a range of incentives, ranging from early-booking savings to two-for-ones and reduced or free air. The incentives are always changing so be sure to check with your travel seller or the cruise company about current offers.<\/p>\n*\u00a0Value of Incentive (per day\/pp)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 I\u2019ve divided the amount of the incentive by the number of nights to arrive at a per-diem value. Calculating the value of the incentives was a bit challenging, especially when it comes to air. One river cruise company, for example, may offer $1,399 toward air while another may offer $1,195. To level the playing field, I have used $1,399 as the baseline for economy air between North America and Europe. How does that play out? If a company is offering $1,399 toward air on a 10-day cruise that equates to an incentive of $139 per person per day.<\/p>\n*\u00a0Per Diem\/Square Foot<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Why provide a square-footage per-diem? Why not? The idea is to provide a guideline of how much space you\u2019re getting for the rate you pay for your river cruise. Though I caution that you should not plan to spend heaps of time in your room. There\u2019s too much to see and do outside of those four walls.<\/p>\n*\u00a0Balcony Upgrade<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Nearly all of the entry-level staterooms feature fixed windows. The exception is Crystal, where even entry-level staterooms on its new vessels feature \u201cPanoramic Balcony-Windows\u201d that raise and lower, and basically function like a balcony (except on Mozart, which does have some fixed windows). CroisiEurope does not offer balconies on the majority of its vessels, but it too has windows that open, and though not as elaborate as those on Crystal, CroisiEurope\u2019s windows provide fresh air and river views. With other cruise companies, you may want to upgrade to a balcony stateroom. I\u2019ve provided price differentials for upgrades to entry-level balcony staterooms. Note that some of the entry-level balcony staterooms may be smaller than entry-level fixed window staterooms.<\/p>\nBe sure to see\u00a0Riverside Chat Episode 2: Rhone River Cruises<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0Video: A Cruise On France\u2019s Rhone River With AmaWaterways<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sample 2019 lead-in per diems on the Rhone during shoulder season range from $288 per person to $669 per person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,258],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rivercruiseadvisor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}