River cruises are an average of 120 passengers with about 40 crew. Uniworld, which is my favorite cruise line because of the way they treat singles, is my favorite cruise line. They offer a variety of routes where they waive the single premium. Granted they are usually during the down season in the spring, I enjoy it because it is generally cooler and easy to get flights from the US. Even on the cruise that had a single premium, I paid about 1/3 more as a single and I was allowed to upgrade to any level and room type I wanted.
My first river cruise included wine and beer at lunch and dinner and all the tours, but it did not include tips for the crew and for the tour guides. Since then, Uniworld has gone 100% all inclusive so all of these things are included (including wifi). On both cruises I upgraded to the top level and had a room by myself. The cabins on a river cruise are about 2/3, maybe even 1/2 the size of a cabin on an ocean cruise. There are daily tours that are included in the cruise plus there are periodic additional tours that are an extra cost, but those generally are under $75.
My favorite things about a river cruise:
- Number of passengers
- Size of ship
- Quality of food
- Lite lunch option in bar
- All inclusive bar, food, tours
- Daily tours
- Gentle walker, Regular Walker and Active Walker (bicycle) tours
- Local talks and/or entertainers both during tours and on board
My least favorite things about a river cruise:
- WiFi in and out (not anything anyone can control)
Ocean cruising is new for me so I didn't know what to expect. We were on level 6 out of 15 near the middle of the ship. We had a room with a nice balcony, two single beds, a couch, chest of drawers, TV, closet and nice sized bathroom. It was really quite a nice room and very comfortable for two people. What I learned during the cruise that being mid range on decks and in the middle of the boat reduced the impact (feel) of waves. Since we skirted a cyclone, there were a couple of days I was very thankful for our location.
The ship had about 2,200 passengers so there was a huge buffet area along with a snack bar on deck 14, a "healthy" restaurant on deck 12, three specialty restaurants on deck 5, a nice coffee shop on deck five and two dining rooms on decks 3 and 4.
The buffet was open for all three meals plus late night for "after the bar" snacks. The food was on a buffet, which really tells it all. Breakfast was nice because there were eggs to order. Lunch was OK and I only ate in the buffet once for dinner and that was enough.
The snack bar had hot dogs and hamburgers that had been cooked until they were like cardboard. They advertised hamburgers cooked to order - as long as they were cooked well done. Their argument was the risk of food borne illnesses and the supervisor finally told me no hamburgers to order. My comment was - if you don't intend to do it, don't advertise it. The hot dogs weren't too bad, but the hamburgers were just plain terrible. French fries were fried ahead and held and tasted it like it.
The coffee shop was my favorite place - great coffee and lovely snacks although I only ordered one time - donuts filled with custard.
We ate at two specialty restaurants and they were very good but they were not good enough to warrant how much extra we paid. I also was put off by the hard sell to go to the restaurants.
The main dining rooms were open for menu service breakfast, lunch and dinner. Suzan ate breakfast in the restaurant the day I went snorkeling and said it was only OK so she ate breakfast he rest of time at the buffet. Neither of us tried it for lunch and we ate there most nights for dinner. The service was good during dinner but somehow they kept forgetting our after dinner coffee. I think once we were served the focus was on the next service at 8:30.
I ate once at the "healthy" restaurant. Apparently they considered healthy just smaller portions of things served at the buffet but pre plated along with fresh fruit. It would have been nice to include a small salad bar. Over all a disappointment.
There were bars scattered all over and essentially offered the same thing.
Excursions were offered daily and all were extra. Even the shuttle bus into town had a charge, anywhere from $20 to $28. For all the excursions I selected my cost was about $1,100 and I didn't do an excursion every day. The most expensive were the snorkeling of which I did three. The excursions were very nice but booked up fast and were from 60 to 200 people.
Entertainment and lectures were offered throughout the cruise. There was also a casino. I went to several shows but I have to say that except for the Oz Boys of Motown, the shows were OK
I enjoyed being on the ocean more than I thought I would and it was beautiful to look out over the ocean. Looking out over the water to see squalls ahead or the sunrise/sunset was quite beautiful. I really enjoyed watching the waves especially when the weather was rough, they were just amazing.
My favorite things about ocean cruise:
Nice sized room
Excellent service
Variety of bars and restaurants
Coffee shop
My least favorite things about ocean cruise:
- If I wanted to travel alone, I would have to pay for 2 people
- Quality of food - OK
- Sell mentality - every time we turned around someone was trying to sell us on a special restaurant, stop by a store and buy something, etc.
- Excursions - everything is extra*
- The number of people - we stood in line for EVERYTHING.
- The number of people - dinner felt like "get 'em fed and out" for the next round of people
*I should note that the cost of my excursions, the premium drink package plus the cost of the cruise equaled about what I paid for my first river cruise of 14 days in a room by myself on the top level.
Would I do another ocean cruise? Possibly but I would consider one of the lines that has the smaller ships. My biggest issue with ocean cruises is how they treat those of us who like to travel alone. We pay for two people to have the privilege of a private room. Uniworld charges from 50% more to 0% depending on the route and time of year.
I do want to give a shout out to my travel mate who put our cruise together. Suzan made sure we really had a nice trip and really helped me navigate the world of cruising. She is so knowledgeable as well as fun to travel with so she really made the trip nice.
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