This was our first-ever river cruise experience. We did a lot of research and watched a lot of videos about the experience so we felt pretty well prepared for the trip. What we found is most people's pros/cons experiences were pretty consistent with ours. Knowing what we know now we also would have planned our trip differently. I'll explain.

This journey started in Budapest with one night onboard, and ended in Passau with one night onboard. We went to Budapest a day earlier and would choose to do that again, given the choice. We had a nice hotel right in the heart of the city and it was the ideal place to begin exploring the city. Once we boarded the ship we quickly found our bearings (river vessels are not like ocean). We had a French balcony stateroom and they're definitely snug. We had ample space for our belongings as the cabins are well-designed and functional, but they really are pretty tiny. The bathroom was a good size, though.

A few notes, then I'll give a list of pros and cons. River vessels often park in a stacked format side-by-side, putting you just a few inches from the vessel next door. This was the case during our first full day in Budapest and also during the final day in Passau. Our only view was of the ship next door. The other thing I'd note, in general, is that river cruise vessels don't have the common space that ocean vessels have. There is a small atrium with a few areas to sit, and the rest of the common space is the top deck. There were only a couple of days when they set out the umbrellas on the forward part of the ship, so that left only the area under the sunshade in the center for seating. There is also nowhere to exercise, no yoga mats for use on the top deck or any sort of recreation aside from a few board games, a library of books, and a spare lecture here and there. Read more