Seeking Recommendations on US River Cruises

[IngridN]

DH and I want to do something special for his mom for her 90th next summer. Unfortunately, her mobility and stamina are limited so Disney World is out.

She has suggested a US river cruise. Any recommendations for either companies or specific itineraries that would take the following into account:

1. her limited mobility
2. one week max cruises (DH hates cruising and would go nuts with a longer cruise)
3. lots of port time...we are not gamblers
4. no night-time port time. She has macular degeneration in both eyes and has extremely limited night vision.

DH and I have never taken a US river cruise or ocean cruise for that matter so don't know what to expect. Are there things to think about, similar to ocean cruises, when looking for and booking a river cruise?

I went online last night and was surprised at the number of cruises available. I was thinking about New Orleans area, however, the ones I saw were 12 days long and some were expensive as $3K/pp so need to do much more research.

Ingrid

 

[Passepartout]

All river cruises are more expensive than ocean cruises- especially American ones because (a) all the shore excursions are included and (b) they have to comply with U.S. labor laws which ocean cruises with 'international' crews don't and (c) smaller vessels with less passengers don't have the 'economies of scale' that large ocean cruise ships have.

Other than that, I have no suggestions as all I've done is about have a coronary when seeing the price. We do ocean cruises instead.

Jim

 

[IngridN]

All river cruises are more expensive than ocean cruises- especially American ones because (a) all the shore excursions are included and (b) they have to comply with U.S. labor laws which ocean cruises with 'international' crews don't and (c) smaller vessels with less passengers don't have the 'economies of scale' that large ocean cruise ships have.

Other than that, I have no suggestions as all I've done is about have a coronary when seeing the price. We do ocean cruises instead.

Jim

I've done a bit more research this morning wrt pricing, and coronary is right! Now how to tell his mom that we really don't want to spend $10K+ on something that neither DH nor I have any interest in! But then, it's about her, not us.

Ingrid