Vantage offered a great Christmas cruise on the Danube at an excellent price. I had never done a river cruise before, but am an experienced ocean cruiser and travel on my own quite a bit as well. I would definitely cruise with Vantage again. My quibbles are all minor.

Logistics: We arranged our own flights and Vantage would not transfer us from the airport to the ship, as we arrived a few days before the cruise started. I was told that we could only be transferred if our flight arrived the same day as everyone else’s. Not a big problem, but know that if you arrange your own flights, you will need to call the ship the night before the cruise to find out where it was docked. Our cruise was stated as Munich to Budapest, but it turns out that the ship was to dock in Regensberg, not Munich – it would be helpful if this was clearly stated in the cruise documents. Still not a problem, but when we called to find out where the sip was docked, we were told that due to low water levels, the cruise would leave from Passau instead. I called back later to find out exactly where the ship would be docked and was told that it wasn’t in Passau, it was in Vilshoven. Late that night, I received an email with the gps coordinates of the ship, but no address. Fortunately, google maps works with gps coordinates and there was train service to Vilshoven. It would have been a great service for Vantage to transport people who had made their own arrangements once the location changed.

Cabin: We had a lower-level cabin with a window, not the French doors. The windows are narrow and located at the top of the wall (similar to a clerestory window), so don’t think you will be gazing at the scenery through them. The room was adequately sized and it was only difficult to squeeze past one another when the closet door was open – it’s a shame that the hinges don’t allow the doors to open to 180 degrees. We had three burned out lights in our cabin and when the bulbs hadn’t been changed by the second day, I reported it to the front desk staff and they were changed. It was a thoughtful feature to have a light in each closet, but one of them never did work. The cabin was cleaned and serviced efficiently daily; I never saw the crew and we didn’t have a specific cabin steward as you do on an ocean cruise. Good storage in cabin and bathroom. No cotton swabs. The round bathroom mirror was on too short of a stem to look at the back of my head, which was annoying. There were some varied noises coming from the ship while moving (may not be an issue on upper decks), and the bathroom door vibrated in the door frame unless we stuck a washcloth in it. Read more