French river or canal cruises for an 87 year old

Hi John, sounds like you are a more experienced traveler than I am but I’d suggest looking at a river cruise to accommodate your mother-in-law. Not a commercial, but Viking has some new ships sailing in France with only 160 people. We’re doing the Christmas cruise, looks nice. Food is good and itinerary interesting.

Canal cruises are often on converted barges with a lot of steps down. They usually have two crew, one a cook. Therefore, I agree to look at the Viking river cruises. Others who have done these can advise.

Thank you both for the replies. Those canal cruises look amazing - we will try that another time.

Does anyone have insight into Viking vs the other lines?

AMA sounds very similar to Viking.

Tauk sounds good.

Are the Uniworld ships as gaudy as they sound in descriptions?

Thanks,
John

Recommend a river cruise on the Rhone/Saone from Lyon to Arles.
We did it with AMA Waterways and it was excellent.
Viking is another good river cruise line, and there are more.

I took my 86 year old mother on a river cruise with Grand Circle. They know how to handle an older clientele.

Our experience with a river cruise on AMAWaterways was much better than our trips on Viking in every way, a higher level of amenities and service. AMA is not similar to Viking, much higher quality experience.

Can I recommend a site for you to check out? Cruisecritic.com is a website dedicated to cruising. If you click on Forums & scroll about halfway down you'll see the words River Cruising. It's an entire segment dedicated to finding the right river cruise/company/itinerary. You can also post questions & get answers-just like this site. Husband & I (early-mid 50's) have done 4 w/ our 5th booked for this August-all on Uniworld. At the top of the forum you'll see a bunch of articles on which line is best for what.

Hope this helps, happy planning!

@ John

My wife and I have done a couple of cruises in southeast Asia.

Friends of mine have devoted their lives to cruising oceans and rivers. Have until last week been under medication due to withdrawal symptoms over the last 2 years or so.
A site they consult is:

https://www.vacationstogo.com/

According to the website they are located nearby to you in Houston. One needs to provide them with an email address so as to be bombarded with advertising disguised as newsletters. Ocean and river cruises are their specialty.

My friends use this website as a point of reference for pricing. The business is a reseller so they do not book through it. They only book direct with the actual cruise supplier.

Maybe useful.

Regards Ron

Thanks for all the responses.

This is what we have learned - as expected in Europe, most of the bus tours and walking tours are not up to US levels of ADA compliance. But, you can pick a cruise that minimizes this (e.g. the AMA Burgundy - Provence river cruise) by stopping in smaller towns where the sights are nearby or simply walking in the town may be enough activity for the day.

AMA partners with Backroads for biking from town to town. So, our mother-in-law can cruise each day while we bike or go on an excursion, then we can meet and explore the next town. Once we lock down the cruise, I am sure we can do some research and make a plan for each day.

The river boats raft up at each port, and the access from the outboard boat to the gangway is across the top of the inboard boats. This is an issue as the top decks do not have elevator access. So, everybody has to go up and down a short staircase.

Finally, there is this from Cruise Critic: Catering mainly to the British market through the tour operator Shearings, the 100-passenger MS Alegria is the only river vessel that offers totally accessible facilities. Cruising on the Rhine and Dutch waterways, the vessel can accommodate up to 10 disabled passengers per sailing.

• John

I recently cruised from Strasbourg to Luxembourg on the French line CroisiEurope. It is second in size to Viking., and it has an American sales office where you could check about assistance for walking. River cruises are the smoothest transport anywhere, with no sensation of motion because there are no waves. Like most cruisers, my boat had cabins on two decks, plus an upper sun deck, so seniors like me faced only limited stairs, plus the gang plank. Some lines do have elevators. We stopped in a number of small towns for walk-around or bus tours. I'm sure everyone put on weight from the sumptuous French meals, served at fixed times. All food, wine, and tours were included in the fare -- other lines have varying surcharges. Canals and bridges impose size restrictions limiting vessels from all lines. Croisi draws French speakers but the crew bent over backwards to translate everything into English.
Here are facts and film from two trusty cruise bloggers that can add to your information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz7qfdHb_Mo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUS3LOU5ZqQ