River cruises are more focused on long voyages through inland waterways which makes multiple stops at various ports during the entire trip. Each cruise ship have fixed routes to follow but most of the ports they docked to are major city ports in which they will only be docking for a few hours. When they reach port, they usually take in more passengers from that city and then restock the food or even get some important people that will entertain the guests during their mealtime, mostly during the evenings when most of the adults spend time together. The advantage of being in a river cruise is that you get to see multiple major cities at once and enjoy luxurious accommodation aboard highly reputed cruise ships. When mentioning river cruises, most people would think of the European continent because most people there love to travel by the sea but this is not only limited to city ports. It is only an occasional event that you get to see major cities far from the port if the scheduled departure is either several hours from the arrival or the next day.
Here are some of the things to expect on river cruises:
- A number of cruises, particularly in China and Europe, you will be mixed with passengers from around the world and sailing with them for the rest of the trip.
- When onboard river cruising, they feel like the smaller version of the seagoing ships. They are usually limited with amenities and onboard features especially the ones in Europe in which the ships should be low enough to sail through low bridges. However depending on the route this feature can change.
- Itineraries may include a number of major cities but generally a passenger's experience is focused more on smaller villages and towns that is part of the route of the cruise ship.
- There is also the ocean cruises and from the name alone it suggest traveling through large oceans unlike with river cruises. The difference between the two is that river cruises include a shore excursion in their itinerary like guided tours. Some liners charge for this kind of planned tours while others are already included in the overall cost.
- Because the route taken by river cruising is mostly short, a full day river cruise is rarely available.
You can still choose to enjoy ocean cruising rather than the river cruise if you are not prone to seasickness and prefer larger cruise ships.