I often have clients who are familiar with ocean cruising, but are intrigued by river cruising – but they don’t really know the differences.
Last week, I was telling you how expedition cruises differ from ocean and river cruising.
This week, I thought I’d talk to you ocean cruisers who are river cruise-curious. 🙂
Maybe you have taken an ocean cruise with your kids years ago on Royal Caribbean or Disney with the large multi-generational family focus, or maybe you just really enjoy travelling on the big mega ships for your vacation and having as much choice as possible (where the ship is part of the vacation experience), or maybe you really love the experience of ocean cruising but you’ve moved from big ship to the smaller ocean cruise ship experiences (with less than 1000 people).
If you’re intrigued by river cruising, let me share some similarities and some major differences between ocean cruising and river cruising.
There are 10 Similarities Between River & Ocean Cruising.
For both type of cruising, you:
- Relax in a moving hotel room
- Unpack once
- Visit multiple destinations
- Enjoy planned activities
- Have safety briefings
- Have most food & fun in your cruise fare
- Have a cabin with private baths, storage
- Will have access to internet/ wifi
- Will have onboard learning/ lectures, and
- Have access to fitness facilities
But there are differences too.
Here are the 3 Biggest Differences Between River & Ocean Cruising
A. River vs. Ocean
- Oceans take you to Venice, rivers take you to Vienna
- Ancient world was developed alongside easily navigable rivers
- Rivers were main source of commerce
B. Docking/ Location
RIVER cruises
- dock in heart of the world’s destinations
- walk off the ship and be in the middle of where you want to be
- often walking or cycling touring of cities
- easy access to sites, allowing you to do and see more
OCEAN Cruises
- dock in large, sometimes charmless industrial ports
- anchoring larger ships often have tenders to shore
- often hour long bus rides to town
- larger crowds have long lines to get on and off ship
C. Ports
- With shorter distances between, river cruises tend see more ports
- With focus on smaller towns, river cruises can have shorter stops
- River cruises tend to overnight in major city connectors, like Vienna
- River cruises visit ports ocean cruises do not, such as: Amsterdam, Lyon, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Strasbourg, Beijing, Budapest, Avignon, Nile Rive,r Roen, Prague, Mekong River, Paris, Belgrade, Vietnam, Honfleur, Moscow, Amazon River, Magdalena River, Chobe River
Want to take a river cruise, but don’t know where to start?
You can download a copy of my “Beginner’s Guide to River Cruising”.
GET: « Beginner’s Guide to River Cruising»
Or email me, [email protected], and I can send you a checklist to ensure you know ALL the crucial decisions needed to start planning your DREAM river cruise holiday!
Let me know if you’d like to learn more about river cruising, and we can do a consultation to find the best partner, itinerary, and offer for you. I’m here to matchmake you to the right cruise holiday
#AskSheila[email protected]