We had a close friend living in Oxford that was interested in going on a river cruise with us. After much research, I discovered the Saga line, with one of its newest river boats, Spirit of the Rhine. One appealing aspect was the fact that Saga offered VIP transportation so that we could get door to door service. I ignored the negative reviews. If you live in the US, the website doesn't help you. I went through an agent in Blackpool. The ship was beautiful and the cabin was one of the nicest ones I had. It was our first river cruise. Transportation from Oxford to Heathrow was excellent. People were all British and extremely friendly. Food was fair and portions were very skimpy. The ship was aware that we didn't eat meat or poultry. Since I don't eat friend foods, I asked for salmon to be broiled and it came boiled. I questioned it the next day and the hotel manager was arguing that I should have insisted that it be "grilled." When I told him the menu said "fried salmon" he continued to argue, pulled out the menu, saw the error and said "it will be changed". No apology. The hosts were wonderful and performed numerous duties. Some of the excursions were disorganized. Entertainment was terrible. It would have been helpful to have a representative talk about the ports that we would be visiting. Many passengers had never sailed on a river cruise and thought that ocean cruising was much better. On the first day, when we met someone who asked where we were from and we said from the United States, she responded "and you came all the way from there to this." Well I get it now.