River Cruises

If a river cruise sounds slow to you, or a little stuffy, I understand. I thought the same thing until I actually did one. A river ship is a floating hotel that happens to tie up in the middle of everything you came to see. You are not bused in from a port an hour away. You step off and you are already there, in the old town, at the market, on a bike heading out past the windmills before the day trippers arrive.

Depending on the line it can feel genuinely luxurious, but it is a relaxed kind of luxury. Nobody is rushing you. I have sailed Avalon, Riviera, Scenic, Amadeus, Tauck, AmaWaterways, and Viking, down the Rhine and the Danube, through Bordeaux, from Amsterdam all the way to Budapest, from Amsterdam into Belgium, from Basel up into Germany, and from Cambodia into Vietnam along the Mekong. Each line has its own personality, and matching the right one to you is most of my job.

What stays with people is the time. More hours on shore, fewer hours in transit, and the quiet luxury of unpacking once while the scenery changes outside your window.

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Luxury Ocean

When people picture luxury ocean cruising they picture something formal and a little cold. My experience has been the opposite. On Regent’s Seven Seas Splendor I took a cooking class as we sailed into Istanbul, which tells you most of what you need to know about how I like to travel and how little that ship resembled the stuffy thing I had expected.

These are smaller ocean ships, so they reach harbors the megaships cannot, and they are built around being all inclusive in a way that genuinely changes the trip. Your laundry is handled. Your drinks are poured without a running tab. The activities are not a string of upcharges. That freedom from being nickel and dimed is a real part of why it feels like a true vacation. And for a smaller ship there was always something happening, an ABBA tribute band, karaoke, a dance party that ran later than I planned.

I have also sailed Azamara, which carries the same small ship spirit into ports like the Bay of Naples in the shadow of Vesuvius and the quiet harbors of the Greek islands.

Not every luxury cruise has to start at the very top. Celebrity is one of my favorite ways in, especially their club room categories. What makes them genuinely clever for a group traveling together across different budgets is that everyone shares the same ship and the same days. Some book the standard staterooms while others choose Concierge class for the more elevated touches and experiences, and the two still spend all their time together. For a family or a friend group spread across price points, that matters more than people expect.

At the very top of this category sits the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. This is one I place clients on rather than one I have sailed myself, and the feedback comes back the same way every time, a private yacht feel with the service standard the name implies. When a client wants the most intimate end of luxury at sea, this is where I send them.

This, in all its forms, is the category for the traveler who wants the polish without the pretense.

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Expedition Cruising

Expedition cruising is a different animal, and it is not for everyone. If your ideal day is a lounge chair by the pool with a cocktail in hand, this is not your trip. But if you are the kind of traveler who is still going strong when the ship comes back into view, you will love it.

I sail Lindblad and National Geographic for one reason above all others, the experts on board. You are not simply taken to a beautiful place, you are taught it, by people who study the sea life and the landscape and the history while you are out hiking and kayaking and exploring it yourself. You come back to the ship having actually learned something, and there is a good snack and a better cocktail waiting.

It surprises people that this works so well for families, but the active ones love it. I have sailed expedition ships with family more than once, to Alaska and to Greece, and watching kids who normally cannot sit still get completely absorbed in a place is its own reward.

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Disney and Multi-Generational

Here is the thing almost everyone gets wrong about Disney Cruise Line. They assume it is only for families with small children. In my experience Disney takes even better care of the adults than it does the kids, and that is saying something given how well it treats the kids. There are adult only spaces, adult only dining, and a level of service that has nothing to do with characters and everything to do with people who are very good at their jobs.

My husband and I have sailed Disney as a couple, no children along, including a Baltic itinerary, and we were far from the only adults traveling that way. It is a wonderful family cruise and a genuinely good adult one, which is a rare combination.

When it is multi-generational, though, something else happens. Watching my granddaughter meet Cinderella in a matching gown is the kind of memory that does not fade, and it is exactly why families come back. If you are traveling with three generations and you want everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, looked after at the same time, this is the ship.

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Ready to find your ship?

I do not believe there is one right way to cruise. There is only the right way for you, this year, with these people, for this reason. A river or an ocean, a small ship or a Disney deck full of grandchildren. Often a cruise is the taste that tells you where you want to go back and stay a while, and that is the part I love most, helping you read the menu before you order. Tell me who is coming and what you are hoping to feel, and I will point you toward the water that fits.

We’ve used Charity for a European family trip and a group trip with friends, and she made both extra special. For the group trip she put together skiing in Austria, exploring Prague, and a river cruise to the Christmas markets. Definitely recommend.
Rose S. · Italy family trip and an Austria Christmas-markets cruise