I took a river cruise

Interesting trip report and very interesting people. So many people have fascinating life stories, filled with intrigue, determination, luck, and sadness. The passengers you spoke to all had a happy ending. We’ve been thinking of taking a river cruise too and posts like these just nudge us to Yes.
My sister and her family are on one now (Danube) and I can’t wait to get their reports. She and her husband, late 60’s and her daughter and SIL, early 30’s. It will be interesting to get both perspectives.
Oh, and by the way, my sister talks to everyone, especially after just one drink. So she should have most people’s stories by the end of the cruise.

I’m so glad you had a good time. I took my first river cruise down the Danube last summer and one of the nice features is really getting a chance to meet fellow travelers. I signed up for another one the Rhine in June.

What I especially liked was your willingness to try a new way of travel with an open mind.

We took our first river cruise on the Danube back in 2003 and have continued taking these cruises all over the world. My favorite was on AMAWaterways on the Mekong many years ago.
They offered two categories of food choices and we always took the local options. It is an easy and interesting way to travel.

We've taken one River Cruise, one Ocean cruise, both on smaller ships. We've also taken one Rick Steves tour. We take big trips two or three times a year and typically travel independently. The cruises were a nice little "vacation" in the middle or longer trips. We do enjoy meeting people and not having to do the planning work. We will likely do more when we are less able to handle travel on our own.

We have done several river cruises and love them a lot.
If you do Egypt, doing Southern Egypt is best on a Nile cruise.

River cruise passengers tend to be well traveled and savvy, but usually most seniors.

What I did not expect was my impression of my fellow travelers. I expected to meet a bunch of old fuddie duddies- people who would rather take a nice relaxing cruise than figure things out for themselves. Instead, I met the most interesting group of people I've ever met in my life.

When I travel (or even go shopping or get out & about locally), I regularly meet "old fuddie duddies" (of all ages) and also very interesting folks from all areas of the world and walks of life. Oddly, I often find that many of the folks I initially lumped in the OFD group turn out to be quite interesting when I get past the shell of fuddie duddie-ness.

Every person has stories and experiences worth knowing & being shared. Sadly, for a myriad of reasons, many choose to keep those locked inside and unseen by strangers.

It is great to hear that you got a chance to hear those (no longer) strangers' stories and experiences. Human connection and interaction outside one's regular "group" is a great way to expand our minds.

What cruiseline did you use? We were on a Rhine cruise in May and liked, but didn't love it. Like you, the highlight was the friendships made, unlike you, ours had hardly any Americans. The majority were Canadians, followed by Australians and Brits and then a small sampling of Americans.

Allan, we were on Grand Circle.

I took a similar Danube adventure (Bucharest to Budapest) nearly 10 years ago. One of the most interesting people I met was a member of the service staff. As I am an early riser, I would walk to the back of the boat for early coffee. I noticed the same young woman preparing the self-serve coffee machine each morning. This cruiseline had name tags for their crew members with a small flag indicating their home country. The tag "Linh" wore had a Czech Republic flag. In our conversation, I learned she was a Vietnamese refugee.....from North Vietnam. Her story was amazing.