All About River Cruising (LIVE!)

 Hello and welcome to All Things Travel! This week it's everything river cruising. We're going to join our April live episode that we do on Facebook every month.  Julie and Ryan discuss river cruising in general and specifically his recent river cruise in Europe. 

On this episode, you'll hear all about this amazing way to vacation. 

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Transcript

0:00

Hello, and welcome to all things travel this week. It's everything river cruising. We're going to join our April live episode that we do on Facebook every month where Julie and I discuss river cruising in general and specifically my recent river cruise in Europe. You're the end of the show. I'm also joined via Facebook by several of the people that were on the river cruise with me. And you're going to hear all about this amazing way to vacation. All right. Let's join the live.

Ryan: 0:37

We are live for all things travel for our April live episode. So, how are you Julie?

Julie: 0:45

I'm good. And this is kind of funny because Ryan and I just recorded a couple hours ago

Ryan: 0:50

And that's not our time, right? Like, we are

Julie: 0:52

It's not our time.

Ryan: 0:54

evening, we record, we try to record two episodes at a time, so we're a little ahead, and you threw me an audible, you're like, I've got a meeting later tonight, so let's do Sunday afternoon, and I'm like, okay, that's weird.

Julie: 1:08

And for the life of me, I just cannot be on time to anything. So that's what happens when you have three kids. Ryan just sits in the room waiting for me.

Ryan: 1:18

right, you, you have people Who are depending on you?

Julie: 1:21

So today's a fun one. We're talking about river cruising. I'm excited to talk about it.

Ryan: 1:26

we are so

Julie: 1:28

You know a lot.

Ryan: 1:29

Well, I know more than you because you don't know a lot. So if folks are watching online and you want to make comments, please make comments, ask questions. We'd love to hear from you. Julie has some good questions for me. But we want to hear from you. Have you taken a river cruise? What's been your experience, all that good stuff. So just to give you Brush up for those of you who did not see my trip on Facebook or hear us talk about the River Cruise conference a few episodes ago. I was at a River Cruise conference in Amsterdam in the middle of March and as part of that the second part, their group of us sailed on the AmaMora, which is one of AmaWaterway's ships, and we did a tulip time cruise. So this was a seven night cruise, mostly in the Netherlands, but two days in Belgium. Going kind of all over the place seeing canals seeing tulips going through lots of locks, which was really interesting and cool I will talk a little bit about the specific cruise tonight But primarily julie and I just want to talk about river cruising in general. So julie, I know you have some questions prepared

Julie: 2:41

I do. And, but first, can you back up? What is a lock?

Ryan: 2:46

A lock. Okay it's a way to control the level of the rivers. So, basically, you're going through and you're either moving up to the water or down to the water. So, basically, you sail into this metal. Encasement and they close it around you and they either fill the water up or they lower the water level so that you can then continue through the rest of the the river. I will actually the week that this episode comes out, I will put up, I took a video of us going through one of the locks. It's a fascinating process.

Julie: 3:21

that's cool. See, this is why you are the travel professor,

Ryan: 3:25

There you go. Ha

Julie: 3:26

teaching us everything we need to know about vacations. Okay. So first thing, when people think of a cruise, they think of the big commercials that we see on our TVs, right? Royal Caribbean is everywhere. You see maybe Disney Cruise Line, maybe Carnival. Every once in a while you'll see Celebrity or some of the other lines. But you don't always think of river cruising. Tell us what makes river cruising unique because it is becoming really popular. So tell us what makes river cruise different than An ocean cruise other than the obvious, you're on an ocean or you're on

Ryan: 4:09

Well, that is part of what makes it different in a couple ways that I'll talk about. First and foremost, the ships are so much smaller because they don't need to be as big and they can't be as big. You're talking about 150 passengers. You know, I haven't seen a river cruise ship, I don't think, Okay. That's over 200 passengers versus, the 7, 000 that they can now have on Icon. So, it's very, very different. It's much more laid back. Now that being said though, since it's smaller, there's one restaurant. Well, sometimes there's a special, there's usually a, a main dining area and then a specialty restaurant or a club. Type thing there's one lounge. There's a very small pool, it's very different than what you would expect from an ocean cruise but it doesn't need to be that big

Julie: 5:01

On an ocean cruise, I would say sometimes the ship is the destination, whereas on the river cruise, it's very destination

Ryan: 5:08

Correct you have a very nice floating hotel, but the destinations are why you're there Also with a river, people talk a lot about, I don't want to go on a cruise because either I'm worried about getting seasick or I don't like to not be able to see land. Well, I can always see land. In fact, you could see cars driving by or people jogging by. I there were times where you were that close to the edge of the river. And there's there's very little movement. I don't want to say there's no movement, but gosh Even when the water was moving it did not feel In any way like what an ocean? Cruise does when you can feel the water. There's

Julie: 5:47

you're going pretty slow then?

Ryan: 5:49

we were going pretty slow we were going pretty slow, but there were definitely times the the engines were running I mean, it wasn't like we were just kind of sailing along. There's no inside rooms on river cruises So you can have a balcony you can have a french balcony You can have a window.

Julie: 6:06

A French balcony, can you explain the French balcony?

Ryan: 6:09

a French balcony is basically the window opens, but there's no balcony to step out on. Which actually, to be honest, for a river cruise. Is probably the ideal room to have people want to have a balcony on an ocean cruise But oftentimes you are rafting which means you're parking right up next to another ship and you really don't want to have a Balcony where you're looking at another ship. So I would say having larger windows is better than having a balcony.

Julie: 6:38

Okay.

Ryan: 6:40

I would also say too, because it's so much smaller, you really have an intimate experience with the crew. You get to know them, they get to know you, even more than an ocean cruise. Not that an ocean cruise can't do that. I would walk into the lounge with my whiskey from my room and the bartender he would just hand me a glass of ice because he knew that's what I was going to come up and ask for. Or, the waitstaff would know us even if we had different waitstaff, the time.

Julie: 7:11

That's awesome. I have not seen Ryan recently, but I did see your agency owners recently, and they were on the same cruise, and they were telling me stories about how you would kind of I'll hang out in the lounge together. And from what you're saying, there's only a certain number of lounges on it. It's not like the big

Ryan: 7:27

Now, the lounge is actually big enough for everyone on the ship to have a seat in the lounge at the same time. The outside space on the top of the ship, where the pool is, where the patios are, there's enough space for everyone to have a chair. So, you know, it's just a very different kind of low key, relaxed way to travel. Yeah. Yeah,

Julie: 7:51

So is there a best time of year to go on a river cruise?

Ryan: 7:55

Really that depends what you want to see and what the weather in that destination is like That's kind of a vague answer. But let me give you an example So for instance the tulip time cruise I was on the tulips were just starting to come out I would say if you went on that cruise right now, it would be absolutely perfect if you want to go on an octoberfest cruise, obviously you're going at that time sometimes it's based around what you want to do and also, much like Cruising to Alaska there's a shoulder season With cooler weather, but then there's the summertime is obviously still very popular But as we're seeing with river cruising, it's not just europe, It's not the danube or the rhine or the sin anymore

Julie: 8:41

That's what people think

Ryan: 8:42

There are tributary rivers, you know, like I was on for the week. There are rivers in Africa. There's rivers in South America. There's rivers in Asia. There's rivers in the United States that people are so, so really, it depends. Where you want to go and what you want to see so for instance A new england cruise would be gorgeous a new england cruise in the fall would be more than gorgeous one of my bucket list trips is a christmas markets cruise So obviously on the danube that's going to be in a very different time I don't think there's a bad time to go as long as it's right for the destination that you want to go

Julie: 9:20

Okay. That makes sense. So this is the next big thing is, I think when people, if they've heard of river cruising, they've heard of the Danube, they've heard of the Seine, they've heard of the Rhine. Like you just said, there are so many rivers out there. How do you know what river to choose?

Ryan: 9:37

It was interesting because this cruise I went on was made up primarily of travel advisors, and so we had some training on board from some of our seasoned river cruise specialists and they actually talked about that. We had a training about the different rivers. And so really, like most vacations, Julie, it's figuring out what do your clients want to do? So, yes, they may want to go to Europe, but is it that they want to see, World War II history? Or is it that they're wine buffs? Or, do they want to go see a specific part of the Mississippi River rather than the entire Mississippi River? So really it's just like any other vacation, it's what are you wanting, what's the reason, what's the why for that vacation? And then what's the river? And time of year that makes the most sense for that.

Julie: 10:29

Yeah, I love that. And I like how you mentioned that there are options in the U. S., in Africa, in South America, that's not really what comes to mind when you think

Ryan: 10:38

it, and so for instance, when, when we were talking with Ama waterways, they were talking about their Africa cruise. And it's, it's essentially half land safari, half river cruise. And it's very, very small. They have one ship that does this. It holds a small amount of guests. So it's even more intimate if you will. And you get that safari fix along

Julie: 11:04

Yeah. That is so cool. That is so cool. So you already talked a little bit about this, but one of the questions I had was, what are the ships like? But you did do a pretty good overview of that. Is there anything you would add about the, the

Ryan: 11:17

so one of the things I really like about it is it's small. So to give you, for instance If, if I had to use the dinners are long, right? Cause that's kind of your time to decompress. You're done for the day. You've got a good amount of time. If you wanted it to dinners could be a couple hours long, you know, you're relaxing, you're having drinks things like that. So I get up to go to the bathroom instead of using the public restroom. I just walk back to my room. If I wanted to leave my stateroom and go to the lounge and get a cup of coffee, I mean, we're talking about a two minute walk. So, so first of all, very, very small. Secondly, very relaxed on board. So if you're sitting in the lounge during the day, it's peaceful, it's relaxing.

Julie: 12:01

And that's because people are out

Ryan: 12:03

People are out and about yeah, and so we'll talk about yeah, we'll we'll talk about the schedule and in a little bit you can kind of really find your space to relax On on a river cruise. The one thing I will say is boy. They're not pretty From the outside. They're basically a floating rectangle with windows on it. so the decoration, the wow moment is really inside the different ships. And I will tell you from being at the conference and looking at 12 different ships, spending time on 12 different ships, everyone has kind of a different personality, a different taste, a different aesthetic, except for Viking. Viking ships are identical in how they are. Now, you and I chuckle as travel advisors. We know why they're identical because they're the biggest and they also have the smallest rooms and they pack people on there. But anyway, I digress. The inside is really where you're going to feel that. Yeah.

Julie: 13:01

That's awesome. You keep saying the ship was small, the ship was small. Did you feel like your room was a lot smaller than your ocean cruise

Ryan: 13:07

I stayed on 2 different cruise lines. When I was at the conference, docked in Amsterdam, I was on Riverside. The Riverside Debussy. Riverside is a luxury brand and it was very, very nice.

Julie: 13:20

We do know that you're a luxury. You are pretty

Ryan: 13:23

Well, I, I, I

Julie: 13:24

doesn't

Ryan: 13:25

a lot. I liked it a lot, let's just put it that way. And I would say that, that was, that was the same size as my Ocean State room. Maybe a little smaller, but, but, but not, not

Julie: 13:35

It wasn't cramped.

Ryan: 13:37

it was not cramped. It was not cramped at all. When, when I was on the Amemora, because I was traveling by myself, I didn't split the room cost with somebody, I actually chose the lowest category which still was not cramped. It was just smaller. They are small, but not undoable, if that makes sense. If that, yeah.

Julie: 13:59

It's, it's not the same scale down from the size of the ship for an ocean ship to the size of a ship for a river cruise ship for the

Ryan: 14:06

No. I didn't feel that. But I would also say too, at least for me, on a river cruise I spent very little time in my room. Because there's a lounge,

Julie: 14:17

that, that's where we're going to go. That's where we're going to go next. So next, tell us what a typical day on a river cruise looks like. Because I know, and some of our listeners might know that on an ocean cruise, you've got a whole plethora of activities going on. You probably have a port that you may dock in that you're going to get off and do something, but a lot of times it's about the activities on the ship. So tell us about what your typical day on a

Ryan: 14:42

There are no sea days or river days, if you will. Every day is a port, at least one port, sometimes two. And

Julie: 14:49

So wait, hold on. Sometimes two ports

Ryan: 14:51

sometimes, yeah, sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And oftentimes you will wake up at the port that you're spending the day at. Sometimes they'll have to go for a few hours before they get there, but oftentimes you're waking up and you're there. Which also means you could open up your window and there's another ship sitting right next to you. There are times you're going to have gorgeous views out your windows and balconies. There's also going to be times where you won't, and that's just part of river cruising. So you get up, you have breakfast, have a beautiful, wonderful breakfast. And we can talk about food later if you want to. And then You'll have, you'll have an excursion if you want. You don't have to have an excursion. Sometimes excursions are included. Sometimes you pay for each excursion. With AMA Waterways, all of the excursions are included in your cruise fare. So sometimes you have one excursion for the length of the day. So, for instance, when we were docked in Ghent, Belgium, there was a group of us that went to Bruges for the day. And so we had one excursion and that was a day long excursion other places. We had two different excursions so you may have a city walking tour in the morning and then in the afternoon you do a short food tour or something like that. So in antwerp, that's what we did There was a short walking tour you come back to the ship you have lunch there And then a few hours later you leave for the afternoon. So you would have some sort of excursion at that time. If you want to. You don't have to. There are people that stayed on the ship. Sometimes I stayed on the ship to do work or just relax and that's a very

Julie: 16:25

mentioned like if the weather wasn't nice,

Ryan: 16:28

Yeah, so one morning I decided not to do the excursion because I'm like, it's not great weather. And I have some work to do and I'm kind of tired. It was near the end of our

Julie: 16:38

take a

Ryan: 16:38

So I just want to take a break. So I, I relaxed in the lounge and I worked.

Julie: 16:43

When you say that the excursions are included. So as we mentioned this brand earlier, the only river cruises I have booked so far are Viking river cruises. My parents go on those. And they have loved them. They have

Ryan: 16:56

Yeah, oh, yeah, I I have I have clients who love biking. I i'm not i'm not bashing them I'm, just saying I got a real education in the river cruise differences

Julie: 17:36

absolutely. I know from booking their cruises that they also include excursions, but they include one excursion per port. You're saying that AMA includes all the excursions? Like, could you add extras on or was it that you felt that the ones were included were what you wanted to do?

Ryan: 17:54

that there were three options at each port.

Julie: 17:57

Oh, wow.

Ryan: 17:58

and you chose amongst that.

Julie: 18:01

I would say that going back to what we talked about earlier, ocean versus river, that's a huge difference is that you're a lot of times the excursions are going to be included to a degree. I know for my parents on biking, we did add a couple of extra ones.

Ryan: 18:16

There were not any to add for Alma waterways. You always had the option for an active excursion. So that could be a hike, that could be a bike ride, that could be a faster walk. You know city tour they also had what they called gentle tours So for folks that were not as mobile or maybe they would use a taxi service for part of it but I would say there were always three to choose from for the most part.

Julie: 18:43

Have to pick them in advance?

Ryan: 18:45

Yes, you pick them in advance now and there were a few that were sold out and and our cruise manager would always say Because she had before dinner every night Miriam was the cruise manager she would talk about the next day and she would say If you want to do this one, I need to know by this point or this one is already sold out. And then basically what they would do is sometimes if there were really popular ones You might be in the a b or c group. So the a group may leave it to 215 then 230 that that kind of thing. So you would do the excursions and and you and then also you could stay off the ship at your leisure if you wanted to as long as you were back on the ship by the the ship time posted, you were fine. If you wanted to, do no excursions, but you still wanted to go out and explore Rotterdam, let's say, you could do that. Nobody cares. Once you're on the excursion, they know you're there. But if you don't go to the excursion, it's not like they're looking for you.

Julie: 19:45

It's like the same process as getting off an ocean

Ryan: 19:47

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. You, you can, you can really do whatever you want. So what's happening on the ship? If you don't want to go on there's really not a lot to be honest there are some wellness things there was a there's a wellness director on the amiships and he would lead stretching yoga cardio classes he would often do the bike excursions so there were a variety of those things but there really wasn't much going on. It was really at your leisure Now if you stayed on You could certainly have lunch have snacks, things like that, but there weren't activities going on like there are on a, on an

Julie: 20:23

You weren't going to bingo and trivia and going down slides to your pool. No, very

Ryan: 20:28

not, you were not. And then you would come back from the excursions. And then at six o'clock there was happy hour. So on ama and i'm using them as an example Beer and wine were served with meals And and were complimentary with meals Drinks were served during happy hour and there was always a drink of the day And there were there were certain liquors that were part of the happy hour certain ones that were not I will say no drinks were served I mean, they were normal drink prices. If you wanted to pay for drinks, that wasn't an issue at all. You could also bring alcohol with you. So if you had a bottle of wine, we actually got bottles of champagne from Riverside. So we brought those on board with us. And the,

Julie: 21:17

say that you got cocktails at happy hour, were those included or no?

Ryan: 21:20

Yep, those were included.

Julie: 21:21

nice.

Ryan: 21:22

Yep. And then you would go to dinner and like I said, dinner could last a while if you wanted it to, you didn't have to. Before dinner, like I said, Miriam would get on and kind of talk about the next day or give any announcements. The first day, the captain and the hotel manager to welcoming everybody on the cruise. The last night was really special because the captain got on and they had the entire staff come walk out and everybody could give them applause. For, for their hard work and that was, that was really neat. Then there would be some sort of something in the evening. So it might be local entertainment would be on board. The one night there was a trivia night that my team did really, really well with. I would say the lounge, I think the latest I was in the lounge was about midnight. That and then it's pretty quiet. I people are ready to go to bed and, and, and that's the day. That's the river cruise day.

Julie: 22:18

Lovely.

Ryan: 22:19

What do you think about that? Is that kind of what you thought it was going to be like?

Julie: 22:24

Yes, from planning my parents trips. Yes, but that will lead me into my other questions. Who is River Cruising for? Who shouldn't go? Who should go?

Ryan: 22:35

So, is river cruising for children? There are certain River Cruise lines that do programming for families. Alma Waterways, for instance partners with Disney. We know about Adventures by Disney. They have River Cruises specifically with that. They also have connecting rooms where most River Cruise lines do not. Another one I'm thinking of is Tauk. Has family oriented programming. Viking, for instance, 18 is the youngest you can be on a cruise. So, I would say it is, it is mostly for adults, almost exclusively for adults. However, that age of adult is going down, it's skewing less gray, if you will than it used to be. Who else is river cruising

Julie: 23:24

gray, do you mean gray hair?

Ryan: 23:26

Gray hair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm 46. I love river cruising. I would be on the younger side on most cruises, however. But I would still feel very comfortable going on it.

Julie: 23:41

Okay, that's good to know. And I will say I have friends my age that just got back from a river cruise. They did say 100 percent they were the youngest people on

Ryan: 23:49

yeah, and that's

Julie: 23:50

didn't go

Ryan: 23:51

and that's not bad there are some cruise lines specifically that are trying to buck that trend even more spending time on riverside talking to the president of riverside Her goal is to make Riverside the virgin voyages of river cruising. That's kind of her vision who else is river cruising? Maybe not for somebody who has mobility issues Because you are up and walking the ships themselves have elevators on them however When you're docked and you're rafting next to another ship It's not uncommon for you have to have to go up to the top You walk across the deck, walk onto the other ship, walk down the stairs to get into your ship, or vice versa. So I would be leery of that.

Julie: 24:43

Right. So even if the excursion was mobility friendly, the ship getting to the excursion might not be, or you know, there might be other

Ryan: 24:52

You would have to make some accommodations. Absolutely.

Julie: 24:55

That's good to know. That is good to know.

Ryan: 24:57

There are no army of electric scooters on a river cruise ship like there are on ocean cruise ships.

Julie: 25:03

right, right. Okay. I hear you. Okay. Kind of led to my next question, which was fairly blunt. Is everyone old? But we went over that. I

Ryan: 25:14

No, no. No,

Julie: 25:16

old. Yeah. And I love that. And I think also when we talk about who is a RiverCruise for, I think it's also just something that we talk about at our conferences. A RiverCruise is for someone who wants to be. Transcribed you know, immersed in culture and, and learn and be educated and is curious and has those attributes. Yes, it's relaxing, but you're also taking in so much more knowledge about that destination

Ryan: 25:41

Absolutely. Let's back up. So what is the advantage of river cruise? The advantage of a river cruise is immersion. You are seeing that destination in a very special way. You are You're not sailing and this is kind of, you know, the river cruise marketing verbiage, but it's fairly true. You're not sailing to a destination. You're sailing through a destination. You're really seeing a country or a region in a very different way than just going and seeing if that makes sense.

Julie: 26:16

Saying that you can see lands at all times, when you do go to do your excursions, do you feel like you can cover a good portion of the port or the country? For example, when I think of doing like a Mediterranean cruise, the thing that holds me back is, Well, you're only docked for so long, you're not really going to get too far into the country. So when you're doing the river cruise, because you're really going through it, do you feel like you do really get into the ports? Or are you still a little bit limited with the time?

Ryan: 26:46

I mean, you're still limited with the time to an extent but you're oftentimes doing multiple things. So that gives you several different experiences. Over the course of those seven nights, two days in Amsterdam plus five different ports in the Netherlands. And then two ports in Belgium. I mean, I really felt like I really felt like I got my money's worth when it came to that part of Europe.

Julie: 27:14

Yeah. Okay. That's good to know. I have a couple more things.

Ryan: 27:18

Sure. Absolutely.

Julie: 27:19

What surprised you about river cruising? Anything? You would love it, so it can't be that. Like, we knew you'd love it. But, did anything surprise you? The ship, your room, the food the overall experience. I got him. I caught him off guard. Mm hmm. Mm

Ryan: 27:38

don't know because I know a lot about river cruising because of my training and I had just been to a conference about river cruising and I've also done small ocean cruising. So I don't know if I was surprised. I, it was more that my expectations were confirmed, if that makes

Julie: 28:01

Oh, okay.

Ryan: 28:02

I'm like, yes, this is what I thought it would be. This is the level of service that I expected.

Julie: 28:07

Like a, like a pleasantly surprised, almost,

Ryan: 28:10

It's kind of an occupational hazard for us, right? Like we're looking for the problems. Yes.

Julie: 28:15

It's terrible.

Ryan: 28:16

so, when do excursions not go quite right? When are things not handled appropriately? And, you know, we were one of the first cruises of the season. So, things weren't a complete oiled machine yet. But it was pretty darn close. And so, I think for me, I wasn't surprised by anything. It just confirmed that, yep, this, this is me.

Julie: 28:38

Okay. Okay. This one's a two parter.

Ryan: 28:42

Okay.

Julie: 28:44

What was your favorite thing about this cruise, specifically?

Ryan: 28:49

I had not been to the Netherlands or Belgium before. I've been to a good variety of places in Europe, and so I was really excited to spend time there, because I thought I would like it, and I fell in love with it. So that specific cruise. It was also, I think, was a good first taste for me I don't know if this is the cruise that I would recommend everybody takes for their first cruise because it's very technical Meaning you're not in the prettiest of rivers. You're going through a lot of locks It's not the wide sweeping vistas that you think of But I

Julie: 29:30

Could you post some pictures on the group? I know you said that you were going to post about the lock, but could you post, like, the view from the ship?

Ryan: 29:37

Absolutely. So I like that specifically because there's a lot to be honest and they said this at the beginning this is a very excursion heavy Itinerary and so I like that because I want to I want to get out and explore as much as I can

Julie: 29:53

You're traveling all the way over there. You do not want to stay on the ship. You want to see the country. So

Ryan: 29:58

But at the same time I have a luxury hotel. That was my floating home

Julie: 30:03

right? That's the real advantage of river cruising, is that you get to see so much of the country without packing and unpacking and The transportation all around the country which could take a whole day if you weren't doing it overnight, like you are on the cruise. So that was your favorite thing about this cruise. What was, what was your favorite thing overall about river cruising if someone said, why do you like river cruising? What's your number one answer going to be?

Ryan: 30:28

because I pay one price and everything's taken care of. So for instance,

Julie: 30:38

Wow.

Ryan: 30:39

I did a week long river cruise and the only thing on my folio at the end of the week was a was a fleece jacket that I bought in the gift shop and my gratuities for the crew.

Julie: 30:52

Wow.

Ryan: 30:54

I also, I didn't drink all the times that I could have, cause I chose to drink for free or, like I said, I brought a bottle of whiskey on, we brought some champagne on. But just to know, I don't have to worry about anything, it's all taken care of. There are other vacations that are like that, but this one just, it really felt that way.

Julie: 31:16

Yeah, that's awesome. So you mentioned food earlier, and the big thing that you mentioned was that there's only one main dining room. And on a lot of cruise ships or resorts or other destinations, one of the things people look for a lot is, well, what are all the restaurants I can go to? Did you feel like that was limiting to you? Did you feel like you got tired of the

Ryan: 31:37

feel that way. Let me back up a little bit. I'm speaking about Ama specifically. I'm not going to talk about Riverside because I didn't cruise with them. I just stayed on their ship. So on Ama, there's a main dining room. Which has a buffet, has a, an egg and omelette station, and has a full menu. And you can have a variety of whatever you wanted. You could sit down, be taken care of just like any normal restaurant. Up in the lounge, they would have more of like a quick service dining. They may have a pan of eggs and bacon and pastries and fruit. And coffee and stuff like that. And so you could eat there. Also, another thing I haven't mentioned yet is on Ama, when you are a guest on the ship, you are given a reservation one night to the chef's table, which is the specialty restaurant. That's a much smaller venue, and it's a more elevated menu, if you will. So, so there's that. Wendy Korn, who was on the cruise with us, says, And pizzas and burgers. Wendy always jokes that she eats like a teenage boy. So she was happy to see her, her pizza and burgers,

Julie: 32:45

Her pizzas and burgers.

Ryan: 32:46

Her pizza and with lunch It was more and so there was anything for lunch from salads to sandwiches to regular entrees

Julie: 32:54

Was it like buffet or was it order off a

Ryan: 32:57

lunch was sit down. So breakfast was had a buffet with it and then lunch and dinner were off the menu And then, and they would also have salads of the day with lunch, so basically appetizers at the table. And then dinner was full dining where they had a chef's recommended menu, but then they always had steak, chicken, fish, they, they would always have two appetizers.

Julie: 33:23

it changed every night, the offerings for

Ryan: 33:25

Correct. And a lot of times there would be local touches, if you will. There was different wines every night to go along with the meals. In each category there were two options. So you have two salads, two appetizers, two soups, two entrees, two desserts to choose from. Just like any cruise, you can mix as match as much as you want. In fact I, people kind of rolled their eyes at me near the end because when I would order my food, I'd tell the wait staff, I'd say, okay, now I want you to bring both desserts and I'm, I'm gonna act surprised when you bring it. So, you know, at the end I'd have to, and I'm like, what? Oh, wait, no, this is way too much. Okay, I'll eat both of them.

Julie: 34:02

I'm not even surprised. I'm not, and I'm sure the people with you were not surprised either, Ryan.

Ryan: 34:07

But the food was, food was very good. Food was, was very, very good. The, the,

Julie: 34:13

Oh, Wendy.

Ryan: 34:15

Facebook user says, Hi, guys. Hi to you. Oh, yeah. So Wendy says we rolled off the ship. That is true. I am. I am I'm doing one of my post vacation detoxes before I even step on the scale to start more because I'm like, I got to get a little bit of traction here before.

Julie: 34:34

Well, we joked earlier that when Ryan was telling me a little about the cruise earlier today, we joked that you have to wear your, bring your stretchy pants.

Ryan: 34:42

Boy, I tell you two weeks of travel, one of them being a river cruise. That's that that can be a little rough. On the on the diet and Wendy says, yes and you know, part of it was, it's just this, anything you want, you know, I mean, it's just, it, it's that level of inclusion, with what you want to drink, what you want to eat, one night we were, we were dining with our With our connection to I'm a waterways. So a person that works with our agency. And she said, now you guys have tried the potato wedges, right? And we're like, no. And then she's like, all right, we need three baskets of fries and three baskets of potato wedges for the table. And then we went around and we tried the fries and the potato wedges and to have a taste test.

Julie: 35:32

That's so fun. I love it so much. Oh. So, Ryan, my last question is what's the next river cruise for you?

Ryan: 35:40

Oh

Julie: 35:40

Brand, river. Brand and river.

Ryan: 35:44

I really liked I'm a waterways so I can definitely see doing that again. I

Julie: 35:49

like it was affordable? You don't have to tell us the number. Did you feel like it was affordable?

Ryan: 35:53

Yes, now I will say because it was connected to the conference, I paid a different rate. But even looking at Alma waterways when I price it out for folks, it's, it's very, it's very reasonable, especially now that I know everything that's included. So I'll, so, so Alma waterways, I'll definitely cruise on again. No, no doubt. I really want to get on a more traditional river like the Danube. Because of that Christmas markets, gosh, that's just in my blood. I can also see doing a, a cruise in the United States, either out west, like the snake or Columbia rivers or up into new England.

Julie: 36:30

What you should do is you should do the the Chesapeake Bay and then you could come just see me

Ryan: 36:35

could, yeah, you can just wave, you can wave at me from, from shore.

Julie: 36:40

I can wave at you from shore. Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan: 36:43

I I think that oh right windy. Oh, that's right The the doro in portugal is definitely on my list too. That just seems you've got spain. You've got portugal That just really I I love spain and so that just really is interesting to me So I i've got a list. It looks like wendy and I are going to go river cruising together

Julie: 37:04

I was gonna say, you were on the cruise with Wendy, or Wendy was on the cruise with you as well. Is Wendy also a big River Cruise fan now?

Ryan: 37:13

I don't know. We'll have to see what I as as she's typing that out What do you think about this julie? This is a very different type of vacation than what she says. Yep, and i'll be right there and I bet robbie corn would love to go on river cruise That just feels like him. So, what do you think, Julie? It is river cruising for you? I mean, I know this is very

Julie: 37:38

think it's for me

Ryan: 37:39

on.

Julie: 37:40

in the future. Not right now. Not right now. Not with the kids.

Ryan: 37:46

that, totally. It's definitely, I've got teenagers. I'm a single guy. I can travel the way that I want to travel. River cruising feels good. But I could

Julie: 37:57

I

Ryan: 37:58

know, five, ten years ago, Yeah, the value is high. The value is super high. There's no doubt about that. Hey our good friend Rick says hello, and I want to say hi back to him because I know he's a good supporter of the show.

Julie: 38:11

Hi, Rick! Yeah, I I would not hesitate to sell a river cruise. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a river cruise for the right family for the right a client and what they're looking for You know in that option. I think that's awesome. This was so fun to learn about it. I learned So much. i've learned about river cruising from a lot of our travel partners But after you having gone on it's just so cool. We knew you'd love it. So i'm just so glad to hear about it Yeah.

Ryan: 38:39

was a great experience and it's definitely something i'm excited to share with folks reach out to Julie or I, Julie at CreatingMagicVacations. com or Ryan at CreatingMagicVacations. com. We would love to talk to you about a river cruise. And I would love to share my experience even more with you. If you have questions about that. All right, Julie. We have talked for a good bit tonight, so I think it's time for us to wrap up our live. The week that this episode comes out, I will reignite the Facebook feed with some pictures and videos from my trip.

Julie: 39:12

Fabulous. I can't wait

Ryan: 39:13

Bye, folks. See you later.

Julie: 39:15

Bye!