Hints On Booking Cruises

I reckon you could! Though given your already packed schedule ...

 

personally, i use only small ones, about 50 passengers.

 

We’ve done two ocean cruises this year, and enjoyed them both. Haven’t yet found a perfect ship, but we know what we like! A cabin with a balcony where we can enjoy the scenery, and hide from the other passengers. A nice coffee shop, where we can relax, read or people watch, and a well laid out buffet restaurant. We are both picky eaters, especially OH, and rarely eat in the dining rooms, unless we can get a table for two. The bigger ships do provide the anonymity that we prefer, and it’s fun to wander round looking at all the entertainment and activities on board, even if we have no intention of participating!
We just enjoy waking up in a new city, and wandering ashore for a stroll round town. I love not having to cook for a week, and coming back to a tidy room. It’s a perfect way to visit Norway, the fjords are best seen from the water, and we only have to unpack and pack once.
I’d love to do a river cruise, but the more restricted menus and the proximity of the other passengers would not appeal to OH at all.

 

I was reading today about a couple who booked a river cruise with TUI. They are due to travel towards the end of November to visit 5 Christmas Markets in 5 days. That is the whole advertised purpose of the cruise. They have just been informed by TUI that one of the markets won't even have started when they are booked to travel and another won't be open on the day they are due to visit due to a German festival. TUI are saying that losing 40% of the purpose of the trip isn't a 'major change' to the itinerary and are refusing to refund. When contacted by a newspaper they said they weren't aware of the date issues when the brochure was prepared. Apparently the start date of the non-existent market has been published for over a year and the other is on the same Sunday every year and the dates through to the early 2030's have been know for a long time.
TUI is also a German company so you would think they would be aware of a national event.

 

That looks very pretty, and peaceful, @shiney. Which ship is that?

 

We always picked a cruise based on where we wanted to go. All have drawbacks and advantages. With riverboats there is no escape from fellow passengers when on the river especially if raining.but they do go to interesting places which is the same with small ocean ones. Large ones have great facilities on board where you do not see the same person twice and the shows are amazing.