Our travel agent recommended this cruise which most closely matched our desires and price range. It was very high quality (we got to compare when we walked thru others that double docked with us in ports), the crew were top notch and always going out of their way to ensure each passenger’s happiness, the food was 5 star quality at every meal using produce, herbs, wine and beer from all the areas we traveled through. There were so many choices of meal items to choose from at breakfast and lunch and then dinner was a 4-5 course meal every night. There was also a lighter choice option meal served in the upstairs lounge area for most meals as well. Loved the always open coffee bar area with snacks that were available in the lounge area at the back of the boat 24/7. Cabins were kept impeccably accommodating at all times. Our cabin maid, Katie, even decorated our cabin for my birthday which fell during trip time as well as the chefs preparing a special birthday cake for dinner and crew and passengers sang Happy Birthday! I loved that the whole wall of windows in our cabin slid completely open. Since there was not a porch area it made the cabin room much larger but you could still enjoy the feel of being outside in the room. The cruise director, Niko, was most knowledgeable about all aspects of every town and castle along the way and presented information in informative but humorous stories every day as we were cruising. The shore excursions were always led by guides who actually lived in the areas we were visiting and could actually present history mixed with present every day experience. We did all of the included shore excursions in the bigger cites but what we Really enjoyed were the bicycles that were available to check out from the ship at certain smaller ports. We took off on several biking excursions on our own in some of the smaller ports and went for miles on the trail along the river’s edge through multiple towns. We did abandon the shore excursion in Vienna when we found out during the excursion there were tickets available to purchase for the Viennese Lipizzaner Stallion show! There was so much history presented about the castles and Catholic cathedrals in every town plus of course adventuring out on our own. You could do as much or as little as you wanted to on this cruise. There is even a very small gym (cabin size) with a couple of treadmills, stationary bikes and free weights. We met and made so many new friends from around the world on this cruise. You don’t have assigned seating at meals so you are able to meet as many people as you want. Some of the in port times were short but the overall European river cruise experience allows you to explore as many towns/areas as possible and decide where you might like to come back and spend more time. Overall an equally high quality experience at more affordable price as some of the other advertised river cruise ships. We had included embarkation/disembarking in the trip so the whole trip was a great experience-no problems.