River Cruises - All Cruise Reviews

I live in Florida so cool weather options are always great in summer. I had been to the area before and loved it, so this cruise was a great way to see the San Juan Islands. I have cruised on American CruiseLine several times before and love the intimacy of a small ship. There were less than 100 passengers. Every one of the stops were fabulous. Friday Harbor, Paulsbo and Port Angeles were my personal favorites. The flowers were so abundant. We also went to Victoria, Canada by ferry on an excursion. I loved it. Such a beautiful city. I am pretty fit for 72 but I was totally impressed with the care that the entire staff took to help those who needed it. The entire ship is American made and staffed. The entertainment was also great. Such variety. Hard to say who was my favorite. Often, we were all singing along. I highly recommend this cruise. I hope you get an opportunity to go on it. You won't be disappointed.

I love this cruise line- I've taken several of their cruises and plan to go again.

We took two cruises recently, one on a "monster" ship holding more than 4000 passengers and this one on American Cruise Lines. There is no comparison as to which is far superior: American Cruise Line (ACL) is better by a mile! There are many reasons: traveling in the US makes us feel safe and close to high quality medical facilities; the American crew is wonderful - sweet, attentive, and they go out of their way to help if you have difficulties; small ship sailing eliminates the endless walking from one end to the other on the "monster" ships if you have difficulty walking - you always seem to be on the wrong side of the ship for all activities; no waiting on endless lines for embarkation/disembarkation or excursions; great excursions and most excursions are included; no "nickel and diming" on the ship - put your wallet away, there are no extra charges; ALL drinks are included and no outrageous charge for water bottles like we had on other lines; fabulous high end food (no cutting through tough tendons on so-called "prime meat" like other ships; a sense of intimacy with both fellow passengers and crew since you see the same familiar people again and again and get to know them. The itinerary is great, and you see the development of modern music from Elvis and WC Handy's blues and jazz in Memphis to down home country and country cross-overs along the way to Nashville. Grand Ol Opry included. The towns along the way gave us a great feel of the south and of the rivers we traveled on. We learned a lot about the history of the region, as well, when we learned about the civil war battlefields and development of the area.

A great cruise line and a great cruise. We have been on the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, and now the Memphis to Nashville experience. All were A1, and all were all-American.

We thoroughly enjoyed Viking and the Rhine! It was a pleasure meeting people on a smaller ship and Viking went out of their way to accommodate the guests. I can't complain about any part of this cruise!

We've been on 50+ cruises over the years, and lately we have very much enjoyed the small ship ambience found on American Cruise Lines. I think what keeps people coming back is the friends is the ease with which you can travel to unique American destinations. Also, it's so easy to meet fellow travelers and share the journey together.

In summary, our trip was everything we expected and more! If you haven't ever visited that part of our country , you should plan on it. Sailing on ACL Song was such a pleasure. Excellent food, service, atmosphere and the entire ship! New

ACL has this approach to cruising figured out. The ships match the ports, the shore and sea excursions match the guests interests, and the staff provide a complete support program to ensure all guests expectations are met. The ACL staff was remarkably competent and compatible, The guest lecture and artist were highly talented and professional. The entertainers fit into the overall concept as did all the shore excursion people we met. We had a similar experience on ACL's 2019 Hudson River Cruise, so it is our hope we will find this everywhere ACL goes.

My Viking journey began with a booking number. From the moment my reservation was confirmed I was able to log into myvikingjourney.com and start getting excited about my upcoming trip by viewing and reserving various shore excursions as long as I first completed my Guest Registration Form. There is a free excursion available in every port we visited and there were also extra optional excursions that could be purchased for a reasonable amount. Some of the optional excursions were planned around the free one so a guest could book more than one outing in a day, where others took the entire day or would conflict with the timing of the free ones so choices had to be made. Outside of browsing excursions the only other thing I needed to do was get familiar with the travel protocols for each of the countries that I was going to visit. The Viking website made it easy to navigate to the different countries’ websites to fill out various forms. I was taking the Rhine Getaway from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It’s a tour that visits four different countries throughout the 8 day, 7 night itinerary. Once I had registered with the countries I was going to visit and picked my shore excursions, the only thing I had to do was wait for my flights to be scheduled and purchased. I had a few weeks from the time I received my flight information and the time I was to leave. My flights were favorable with only one stop in Paris on the way to the ship and a non-stop flight home from Amsterdam. It felt as though most of the passengers on the plane were on their way to a Viking vacation, and I was able to make some friends who would be on the same ship as I was before I even left the ground in Atlanta! The flights were smooth and we were greeted at baggage claim by Viking representatives who instructed us to take our bags to the bus where we would wait to get to the ship. It was around 11:30 am when we arrived and the rooms weren’t made up yet, so we were given a laminated piece of paper with our room numbers on them and told that we could go to The Restaurant where we could grab some lunch and wait for them to finish making up the rooms. By the time we finished eating lunch all of our rooms were ready. It was perfect timing since there was a walking tour at 1:30 or 3:30 and we were able to go to our staterooms long enough to freshen up before leaving for the excursion. I knew it would be tough after such a long day of traveling, but the shower upon our return was going to feel so good! Little did I know until I was ready to take that shower that I was going to love stepping into the bathroom just for the heated floor. The cities along the Rhine all have so much history and character. The guides that provide our tours throughout the itinerary were all excellent and were able to put a personal touch on their stories to help us gain a better understanding of what it is like to live in or near those regions. The fact that excursions were all staffed by people wearing Viking logoed shirts and the transportation was always in a Viking branded bus made me feel that there was a lot of thought and care in selecting what we experienced. I’ve taken other tours through other cruise lines and it was obvious that they just hired an outside company instead of investing their own resources to make sure that the guest would have the best possible experience. The ship didn’t have a lot of extras, in fact there was only one lounge and one restaurant. On the top deck there were many chairs for relaxing and watching the scenery as we went up the river along with a walking track. For games there was only shuffle board and a putting green. The library was small, but every day was so full that I never felt like taking out the book I had brought with me. We were usually off the ship early in the morning for the first tour and wouldn’t get back until dinner time. Depending on the city we were in and how far we had to go next we would either stay in port late or leave during dinner. There was always nightly entertainment on board, but the days we were in port late I opted to explore the towns on my own. I always slept great since I was so busy each day! I should have opted to stay in Amsterdam for at least a day at the end of the cruise. My flight was at 8:00 AM so I disembarked at 4:00 AM to head to the airport. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see much of Amsterdam so it was a good thing that I was at least able to see the windmills in Kinderdijk the day before. Leaving as early as we did, the kitchen wasn’t open for breakfast yet, but they did have hot sandwiches and coffee for us. The transfer to the ship was smooth and I was lucky to not have any issues on my return flight either. We landed a bit before noon so I was able to still have a full day to get ready for regular life.

This was our second cruise on the beautiful Columbia River. The cruise was excellent and we enjoyed the relaxed pace.

Flight Scheduling was Awful! Lost our Luggage & Viking was of no help getting it back! Too much time spent on hot busses to the tour sites and to the airport! The Ship wasn't prepared for injuries. No medical staff, dressings or help getting what was needed. We had to take a cab to a pharmacy. Entertainment consisted of one Show the night before we left. Tours were Great, but too much walking in the heat! The room, Shower & Balcony were cramped! Meals were OK and plentiful. Waiters, Stewards and Staff were very attentive. I did not like their refund policy which required us to spend the refund on the ship or lose it. All in All, I didn't get my money's worth as compared to other cruises I have taken.

This Viking cruise was our first river cruise. We can’t wait to do another. The ports were great. It was very relaxing. The food, staff and the clientele were great.

We had a great experience with American Cruise Lines on our trip to Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. Their staff went out of their way to make sure that we really enjoyed ourselves. The excursions were informative and fun (especially Hurricane Ridge - Olympic National Park, the Seattle city tour and Victoria, BC)! A special shout out to the cruise line staff - director, wait staff and housekeeping for making this a memorable and enjoyable trip! There were great menu options for every meal. The sunsets from the top of the ship were unbelievable. Also, the onboard evening entertainment was a plus. Because it was a small ship experience and the dining style was open, we were able to meet and make many new friends from all over.

Booking #2530155 Booking #2530146 My family and I were thrilled when we learned that Uniworld was going to be doing a Generation cruise. We had always wanted to do a River Cruise in Europe but were restricted because we had children, and most River cruises do not allow Kids. Silly rule anyway. We finally had a cruise line and boat we could book and were so excited. For almost 2 years we counted down the days til we hopped on a plane and crossed the ocean for an adventure of a lifetime. Boy were we wrong. Let me start by saying my family and I have been on probably 10+ cruises in our short lifetime and have had bad, good, and great experiences. The Uniworld experience was one of the worst. I had done my research and found Uniworld to be one of the best, if not the highest rated cruise line for our purposes so I felt confident in booking this trip for my family. As we departed the plane, collected our bags and found our Uniworld representative to take us to the bus, our excitement grew. We had traveled almost 15 hours and couldn't wait to get on the River Princess. As we drove into downtown Vienna, we were informed of a change of plans. Our cruise would be delayed a couple days because the water level in some parts on the Danube were low. Ughh. So the new plan was to stay in a hotel for 2 nights, then travel by bus(3-4 hours) to a future city port. Not what we signed up for. There was also no childrens programs that we expected with the Generations cruise in Vienna. We finally arrive at the boat on day 3 only to learn that the boat would not be sailing for another 2 days. That's 4 of the 8 total days did not get to experience the boat. We also learned that our cruise would miss 3 of the small town ports we so wanted to explore. We would take more buses to backtrack the Danube to visit Passau. What a Disaster! I will now just list the other disappointments with this trip as to not just ramble on: 1. Rooms are the smallest of any oat we have ever been on. Expected more for the price. Hair in sink when we first opened room. Room had an odor of sewage and we could hear every flush of other rooms toilets. 2. River Princess was severely understaffed and undertrained. Dinner took almost 2 1/2 hours to complete. The dining room staff did their best, just not enough staff to go around for a boat that was only 75% capacity. 3. Captain and his staff were not very friendly or helpful. Many times sitting at front desk on phones, paying no attention to travelers waiting patiently to ask questions. My wife once went to front desk to ask how far a bike ride it would be from the boat into town and was met with the reply from the Captain, " You can find it on google." Wow, not what we expected from the highest rated cruise line and from the Head of the Ship. 4. Viking Cruise line was in all the ports our ship seemed not to be able to get to. There were some pros to the trip. Unranked staff were nice and pleasant. They were trying to do their best, just not enough of them. Food was pretty good. Overall ship was aged but still pretty in common areas. I was wanting this trip to be a once in a lifetime vacation that my wife and children would always remember. A trip for the Generations!! Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype or expectations we had expected. Uniworld cruise line might never get past my generation for a repeat trip. wrote to cruise line and never got a response

Not only was this a beautiful cruise, but we had so many great opportunities, both on and off the ship! All of this - and learning about the river and the Lewis and Clark expedition along the Columbia and Snake River! Wow! What a fun and memorable learning experience.

American Cruise Lines is a great way for older cruises to feel safe cruising without thousands of people around. Time to get out and see the USA.

If the summer heat is getting to you, I can think of no better way to escape. American Cruise lines is the best at small ship cruising and Maine is just a fabulous destination in summer. Do you like Lobster and small quaint towns? any interest in Wyeth or Steven King? How about ship building? If you say yes to any of this, then I would check out this cruise.

Loved learning more about the Lewis & Clark expedition; local Indian tribes; the history of the areas - including what use to be their main income and the changes over the years. Amazed at the number of locks that we went thru and the dams. What they've learned over the years re the water diversion and how they're trying now to correct some things.

We choose this cruise for the weather. We live in the high desert and cooler temps were beckening for this time of the year. We enjoyed the mid 70's to low 80's during the day and 50's at night. We might have choose this cruise for the weather but was very impressed with American Cruise Lines.

Wonderful small ship intimate experience. This cruise gave us an insight into the history and development of the US through its included excursions. Excellent crew, beautiful ship, great food and service, wine and liquor included. Safety is a prime concern in this era of pandemic.