Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

The wife (no pics) found a river cruise in Europe that she wanted to try.  I was skeptical because I'm not 85 years old.  However, I was wrong.

She found a cruise on Avalon that started in Le Havre and worked its way down the Seine into Paris over an 8 day period.  The key here is to find a cruise that labels itself "active" or something.  The demo is active retiree types.  The other cruise are people that are so old they can barely get on the boat.  (True.)

We flew into Paris and spent 4 days there before the cruise line drove us via bus out to Le Havre.  (About 2-3 hours.)  The first day was a trip out to the Normandy beaches, which was a bucket list trip for me.  From there we worked our way down the river with some daily excursions into the various towns.  What I liked about the cruise was that once we got on the ship, we were done moving around for 8 days.  Basically a floating hotel.  Food was great the entire time.  People were great, too.  We're 50 and while we were still the youngest ones on the ship, everyone was friendly and outgoing.

I'm someone who never wanted to go on a cruise for a whole list of reasons but we really enjoyed the river cruise and wondered if anyone else had done one...?

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Posted

I have an uncle that went on one with his wife, when they were about 60. Both are in great shape and active. The enjoyed it, but one thing he said was really annoying was they would tie the cruise barges together, at port, and you would have to crawl over, or through the 4-7 other barges to get to shore.

CHIEF

Posted
14 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

I have an uncle that went on one with his wife, when they were about 60. Both are in great shape and active. The enjoyed it, but one thing he said was really annoying was they would tie the cruise barges together, at port, and you would have to crawl over, or through the 4-7 other barges to get to shore.

CHIEF

They do that sometimes but it takes literally 10 seconds to walk through the other lobby.  It's not that much of an imposition.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
51 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

They do that sometimes but it takes literally 10 seconds to walk through the other lobby.  It's not that much of an imposition.  

I know he went when river cruises were becoming a "thing", about 8-10 years ago. I bet the tour lines got the message. He talked like hardly any of them had a walk through. You had to keep walking around the bow or stern. 

CHIEF

Posted
48 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

I know he went when river cruises were becoming a "thing", about 8-10 years ago. I bet the tour lines got the message. He talked like hardly any of them had a walk through. You had to keep walking around the bow or stern. 

CHIEF

I could see that if you have to walk all the way around the ship.  I liked walking through the lobby.  I got to look at the other ships and cruise lines.  Avalon's ship designs are more modern/contemporary.  The other lines look like your rich grandmother's living room.

Posted
2 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

The wife (no pics) found a river cruise in Europe that she wanted to try.  I was skeptical because I'm not 85 years old.  However, I was wrong.

She found a cruise on Avalon that started in Le Havre and worked its way down the Seine into Paris over an 8 day period.  The key here is to find a cruise that labels itself "active" or something.  The demo is active retiree types.  The other cruise are people that are so old they can barely get on the boat.  (True.)

We flew into Paris and spent 4 days there before the cruise line drove us via bus out to Le Havre.  (About 2-3 hours.)  The first day was a trip out to the Normandy beaches, which was a bucket list trip for me.  From there we worked our way down the river with some daily excursions into the various towns.  What I liked about the cruise was that once we got on the ship, we were done moving around for 8 days.  Basically a floating hotel.  Food was great the entire time.  People were great, too.  We're 50 and while we were still the youngest ones on the ship, everyone was friendly and outgoing.

I'm someone who never wanted to go on a cruise for a whole list of reasons but we really enjoyed the river cruise and wondered if anyone else had done one...?

We are not cruise people either, but we did sign up for a Viking river cruise in December 2026, with first class travel and accommodations all the way through, (so I doubt we'll be suffering).  Cruise runs from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland.  We expect to be hanging with the olds (we'll be 55 and 41, by the way), but not planning on it interfering with our enjoyment of whatever excursions we book or our ability to just fuck around in the various Christmas markets.  Really just going to soak up some atmosphere and scenery, regardless of whatever speed or activity level we're forced to move at.  

Wife's French is damn good, and I've been brushing up on my German, so, we're hoping not to be the average dumbass 'Murican tourist.  Should be interesting...

Your vacation sounds amazing, by the way.  Seems like you did it right.  Thanks for sharing.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...