River Cruise Lines To Steer Clear Of These Days. And Why!

As I don’t want to waste my precious time and money on a European river cruise line that isn’t on top of their game, I’ve been diving into the latest cruise reviews and ratings. This is to see what lines are doing well and, maybe more importantly, what lines we might need to approach with more caution.

There are 5 lines you should be wary of and they include some of the best-known names on the rivers of Europe.

I was surprised about the first of the lines on the lower-scoring list as I had expected them to be rated better.

Tauck

Just missing out on the top 8, but with a strong 4 out of 5 rating, is a river cruise line that their fans hold a super-strong passion and loyalty to.

This is the river cruise wing of the Tauck travel company. This family-owned company has been running escorted tours around the world for almost a century. They are a well-known and highly rated primarily amongst USA travellers.

However, looking at their river cruise reviews, the high expectations travellers have of Tauck seems to be slightly dampening their ratings. They are not seen to be quite delivering consistently against that high bar.

Also, they seem to attract many people off their land-based escorted tours trying river cruising for the first time and finding it is not for them, which is also dampening overall scores.

I have not cruised with Tauck, but I have visited some of their ships. Their fleet of 9 ships look and feel upmarket, and carry fewer guests versus many of their luxury competitors, with their largest just up to 130.

Tauck’s Strength

Tauck’s real strength, which does come through in the reviews, are the excursions and port-side special access entry into iconic sites that draw on their long-established contacts in countries running escorted tours.

They also seem to be a growing line for multi-generational river cruises, and Cruise Critic also recently rated them the Best River Line for solo travellers, as they waive single supplements on the lowest grade cabins and have reduced supplements in the higher grades on many sailings.

So, although they just miss out making the top-rated list, maybe they are a line to consider if you are looking for smaller numbers, solo cruising, and good historic and cultural excursions.

The next line is also run by a large tour company and their river cruise operation matched the 4 out of 5 score of Tauck, but is also one that suffers from expectations that seems to be dampening their score.

Riviera River Cruises

Riviera Travel, which launched over 40 years ago, claims to be the UK’s leading river cruise and tour operator, offering good value escorted tours and river cruises.

They were rated by the UK Which magazine as the best-value river cruise choice. This is a magazine that assesses and ranks brands in different categories.

They have 14 ships in the fleet, mostly named after British literary figures like Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen, are adult only, and cover many of the rivers ranging from the Rhine and Danube to the Rhone, Douro and Moselle.

The main reason I can see in the reviews where they get poor scores, pulling their overall average down, is their marketing suggests “five-star ships” and talks about the Berlitz Cruise Guide saying their ships are amongst some of the finest, but people find them more basic and not five-star once in board.

This is a more value offering, and the ships, food and service provide good value, but expectations are probably set too high.

As I mentioned river cruising is costly and so even as a value line cabins can start from $250 / £200 per person a night and so people, especially new to river cruising imagine they will get more luxury based on their marketing.

Guests tend to be mostly from the UK and the line has a British bias and with a 4 out of 5 rating one to consider, if you are looking for a reliable, value river cruise to try.

The next line also is part of a major travel group, and it is interesting that many of the lower scoring lines are wings of travel companies rather than stand alone and dedicated river cruise line companies.

Tui River Cruises

Tui River Cruises gets a 3.8 out of 5 rating. This is part of the enormous TUI travel group, a German-based leisure, travel and tourism company and the largest such company in the world. It owns hotels, airlines, travel stores, and has a Joint Venture with Royal Caribbean, running ocean cruise lines like Hapag Lloyd, Mein Schiff and Marella.

They too are a value river cruise line covering many of the major European rivers with 4 ships.

The main reason for their lower scores recently is the reliability and quality of the ships themselves. With complaints about various aspects ranging from break downs, poor air-conditioning and overall quality, along with average rating of the food and logistics.

They have just introduced their first new build to the fleet, TUI Alma, and as they fix the problems with the other ships, we may see their scores improve moving forwards.

But one to keep an eye on the latest reviews and scores before considering and booking.

The next two on the list of lower scoring lines both suffer from the same issue, as you will see despite having much going for them.

Arosa River Cruises

Arosa River Cruises has an interesting back story. It was created over 20 years ago in 2001, as a subsidiary of Princess Cruises, to serve the German market and to match the German ocean line AIDA, which was also part of the group at that time. After Carnival Corporation bought Princess, it was sold off to German owners.

And herein lies why this line scores relatively poorly, with just 3.3 out of 5 by past recent travellers. Past English-speaking travellers that is!

I have only been looking at what travellers from countries like the USA, UK, Canada and Australia are saying, and the biggest reason for low scores is that the line does not cater much for non-German speakers. With challenges obvious on every aspect from crew, menus, announcements and so on.

It is a pity, as this line is the most forward on catering to families, with many more interconnecting cabins than any line from what I can see, and in school holidays, kids 15 and under travel free. Plus, they run family programs and tours.

So, unless you are German speaking or want to practice and develop your German skills, a line you probably should steer clear of.

Amadeus (Luftner) River Cruises

An Austrian-based line, also popular with German travellers that does not seem to have the issues in the Arosa reviews, is Amadeus River Cruises, run by the family-owned Luftner Cruises.

This line came into service in 1997, and has a fleet of 14 ships. I could see in the reviews that reason for its weaker 3.7 out of 5 rating seem to be currently driven by two things.

First, the ships. The fleet has a wide range of ages and while the new ships are liked, the older and their cabins get fewer good ratings, and the food often gets called out.

One thing I could also see in the reviews is it seems there are several group charters of the ships ranging from Alumni and special interest travel groups like Gay travellers, and these get reviewed under the brand. They do seem to get more mixed reviews affecting the overall score. Possibly unfairly.

Amadeus run several golf themed cruises each year, so if you are a player they may be worth looking at but overall, they seem to not really stand out from the other river cruise line options much.

The next line was the worst performing of all the lines whose ratings I studied.

Saga River Cruises

Saga Cruises is the 50+ travel company catering for UK travellers offering their own luxury ocean and river cruise ships. It was very surprising their river gets so poorly rated as their ocean cruises are very good and highly rated. They only got a 3.2 out of 5 rating.

Saga has a small fleet but with new ships: Sprit of the Danube, Sprit of the Rhine, Spirit of the Douro and Spirit of the Moselle. They are costly, but fares include chauffeur pick up and return transfers from home to airport, transfers to and from the ship and even travel insurance.

Looking at the reviews right now, most of those poor scores seem driven by factors out of the line’s control with water levels disrupting cruises, but travellers saying they were not dealt with well, and as their travellers tend to be older and more cautious, that weighs heavily in their consideration.

So, probably a line to approach with some caution despite their overall good reputation and check the latest reviews to see if things have improved before booking.

On the plus side, if you are looking, they have a money back guarantee if it is your first Saga River Cruise and you do not enjoy it. Though you must let them know you want to leave within the first 72 hours.

Be sure to check out my blog on the river cruise lines that everyone is raving about right now!