Two of the 8 port stops were very dissapointing, but otherwise the trip was absoultely wonderful. The staff onboard the ship were professional & very accommodating in every aspect of the trip. The food was excellent & plentiful. One of the two days that could use improving was the 4th day at Heidelberg where we toured the Heidelberg Castle. That was a fantastic tour, but only left us 45 minutes to explore the Old Town, which was not nearly enough time in such a incredible historic German city. After the short 'run' through the city, we boarded for Rudesheim. When we docked there, everything in the tiny town was closed, so there was nothing to do. It would have been much better to either leave Heidelberg later, or bus to meet the ship in Rudesheim later that evening. It seemed like a wasted afternoon.

The second port stop needing improvement was the day in Kinderdijk to visit the windmills. After we docked in Kinderdijk, a tour guide came on-board & gave us an informational session on the Netherlands & their windmills. She was fantastic & did an outstanding job educating us for about 90 minutes. This could have been done during the river cruise, so that when we stopped at port, we could immediately get off the ship. When we finally were able to disembark, the walk to the windmills only took about 10 minutes & the visit itself only took about 30 minutes. We ended up spending the whole afternoon in Kinderdijk with nothing to do (there is one gift shop there with all the same items at the Amsterdam shops). We could have arrived in Amsterdam early enough to spend time there instead of arriving too late to disembark. Others on the trip complained about those 2 days, but every other aspect of the trip was extraordinary!