Many river cruises, especially the longer ones, start and end with hotel stays in major cities. We might not see more of the interior of a country, but our river cruises have always been culturally enriching, both on and off the ship.
There is nothing more relaxing in my opinion than watching the shoreline of a country go by while sipping a glass of wine on the top deck or in the privacy of our room.
How we travel is a personal choice. The only “right” way is what works best for the individual.
There are smaller ocean cruising ships, but they have perhaps 750 guests, not 100 as you might have on a river cruise.
I've done a number of ocean cruises on small ships and enjoyed them. They are very stable - don't rock and roll unless you get some very rough seas - as you might encounter in the Drake Passage.
My personal choice is not a ship with 750 people either. The Tauck small ships are the perfect size for me. But I’ve experienced rough seas on them a couple of times. My personal choice is to be on the land and land tours while I have the energy to take them,
I’ve taken a number of specialist river cruises lately with lots of friends and opera entertainment each night and I love that, the tours and food have been exceptional at a much better price point for us, two more booked. Not in the summer.
I'm trying to track the Ms. Joy on the Danube as much as possible. It appears to be approaching Bratislava after departing Munich several days ago. Unfortunately, I cannot tell if there were river problems en route but it should be possible to tell if it stops in Bratislava for busing to Budapest, which seems likely.
In terms of Land vs River Cruise, I am in the fortunate situation where I will do both and appreciate the difference. This is not a pick one and you can never do the other situation.
Thank you to KateMossNJ for updating us on the Aug 10th departure and Tauck providing the option to guests to cancel if the modifications are not to your liking. I will keep looking for updates on Aug 17th departure and track this until my mid-September departure approaches.
We've taken about as many river cruises with Tauck as land tours in Europe. Rivers and ports were for centuries the transportation hubs and therefore there are plenty of interesting cities and sights to see. Where I think land tours have the edge is the ability at the end of the days planned excursions to go see other sights in the town your hotel is located. With cruises that time is often when the ship is getting underway for the next port. For people who want to be sightseeing from sun up to sundown that can be an issue. To each his own. I think we're pretty much done with land tours. The hotel moves, the random assignment of rooms, and the meals that have become a much smaller subset of a restaurant's menu than before. On a cruise I can pick the cabin type I want spending how much makes sense for us and I've always been happy with the meal variety offered. Not sure how many more years of international travel we have in us but I want to enjoy what we do choose.
I tend to alternate - I do a land tour and then a cruise - not a huge fan of river cruises but I love the ocean cruises...I find pluses and minuses for each - I love unpacking once and having my room go with me on a cruise and sometimes find the packing up every other night and having my suitcase ready for a transfer to a new hotel kind of annoying, but I also love seeing places more in-depth on a land tour -- I find it is a happy medium for me alternating. If you do a cruise in one country like Greece or Norway and every city or town you stop in is in the same country you actually do get to see quite a bit of the country and get a real feel for the country.
I see August 10th at Westbound (Budapest to Prague) on the Blue Danube cruise, and August 17th as the next Eastbound (Prague to Budapest). So I hope this thread can track what is going to happen on the Aug 17th Cruise.
Earlier in this thread KateMossNJ reported: " My understanding is that the August 10 departure (Blue Danube) is running, but with modifications and the Aug 10 cruise participants have been given the option of cancelling."
We have only done one River Cruise with Tauck - it was nice, to Normandy but we much prefer land trips! Reading all the mess this year with river cruises, glad we go land based. We are headed to Singapore in 2 days! We also don't do cruises but do go with another company on small ship eapeditions - largest ship only holds 140 people and most are smaller and they are large enough ships so you don't feel crowded! Good luck to all on River Cruises this year!
Aug 17 Blue Danube Prague to Budapest running per notification on 8/11/2026. 3 days on MS Joy (room for room swap from MS SAVOR), other nights in good hotels. Obviously much more motorcoach time. Some modifications to itinerary but all in all still seems like a great trip.
Comments
Same here......................been there, done that!
Many river cruises, especially the longer ones, start and end with hotel stays in major cities. We might not see more of the interior of a country, but our river cruises have always been culturally enriching, both on and off the ship.
There is nothing more relaxing in my opinion than watching the shoreline of a country go by while sipping a glass of wine on the top deck or in the privacy of our room.
How we travel is a personal choice. The only “right” way is what works best for the individual.
There are smaller ocean cruising ships, but they have perhaps 750 guests, not 100 as you might have on a river cruise.
I've done a number of ocean cruises on small ships and enjoyed them. They are very stable - don't rock and roll unless you get some very rough seas - as you might encounter in the Drake Passage.
My personal choice is not a ship with 750 people either. The Tauck small ships are the perfect size for me. But I’ve experienced rough seas on them a couple of times. My personal choice is to be on the land and land tours while I have the energy to take them,
I’ve taken a number of specialist river cruises lately with lots of friends and opera entertainment each night and I love that, the tours and food have been exceptional at a much better price point for us, two more booked. Not in the summer.
I'm trying to track the Ms. Joy on the Danube as much as possible. It appears to be approaching Bratislava after departing Munich several days ago. Unfortunately, I cannot tell if there were river problems en route but it should be possible to tell if it stops in Bratislava for busing to Budapest, which seems likely.
In terms of Land vs River Cruise, I am in the fortunate situation where I will do both and appreciate the difference. This is not a pick one and you can never do the other situation.
Thank you to KateMossNJ for updating us on the Aug 10th departure and Tauck providing the option to guests to cancel if the modifications are not to your liking. I will keep looking for updates on Aug 17th departure and track this until my mid-September departure approaches.
We've taken about as many river cruises with Tauck as land tours in Europe. Rivers and ports were for centuries the transportation hubs and therefore there are plenty of interesting cities and sights to see. Where I think land tours have the edge is the ability at the end of the days planned excursions to go see other sights in the town your hotel is located. With cruises that time is often when the ship is getting underway for the next port. For people who want to be sightseeing from sun up to sundown that can be an issue. To each his own. I think we're pretty much done with land tours. The hotel moves, the random assignment of rooms, and the meals that have become a much smaller subset of a restaurant's menu than before. On a cruise I can pick the cabin type I want spending how much makes sense for us and I've always been happy with the meal variety offered. Not sure how many more years of international travel we have in us but I want to enjoy what we do choose.
I tend to alternate - I do a land tour and then a cruise - not a huge fan of river cruises but I love the ocean cruises...I find pluses and minuses for each - I love unpacking once and having my room go with me on a cruise and sometimes find the packing up every other night and having my suitcase ready for a transfer to a new hotel kind of annoying, but I also love seeing places more in-depth on a land tour -- I find it is a happy medium for me alternating. If you do a cruise in one country like Greece or Norway and every city or town you stop in is in the same country you actually do get to see quite a bit of the country and get a real feel for the country.
Has anyone heard what, if any modfications have been made on the Prague to Budapest danube river cruise taking place THIS WEEK?
I see August 10th at Westbound (Budapest to Prague) on the Blue Danube cruise, and August 17th as the next Eastbound (Prague to Budapest). So I hope this thread can track what is going to happen on the Aug 17th Cruise.
Earlier in this thread KateMossNJ reported: " My understanding is that the August 10 departure (Blue Danube) is running, but with modifications and the Aug 10 cruise participants have been given the option of cancelling."
Aug 28: westbound
Sept 4: eastbound
Sept 8: westbound
Sept 15: eastbound & westbound
We have only done one River Cruise with Tauck - it was nice, to Normandy but we much prefer land trips! Reading all the mess this year with river cruises, glad we go land based. We are headed to Singapore in 2 days! We also don't do cruises but do go with another company on small ship eapeditions - largest ship only holds 140 people and most are smaller and they are large enough ships so you don't feel crowded! Good luck to all on River Cruises this year!
Aug 17 Blue Danube Prague to Budapest running per notification on 8/11/2026. 3 days on MS Joy (room for room swap from MS SAVOR), other nights in good hotels. Obviously much more motorcoach time. Some modifications to itinerary but all in all still seems like a great trip.