ABD Rhone River Cruise

[Calfan]

Surprised not to see anything about this yet here on the ABD DIS forum, but ABD announced a couple of days ago that it will be rolling out Rhone River cruises in 2020. Apparently more details will be coming on Jan. 24.

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/adventures-by-disney-announces-new-rhone-river-cruise-for-2020/

 

[msec]

I am anxious to hear more about this river cruise - looks like a lovely part of France to visit.

 

[Lulu27]

I look forward to seeing what's on this itinerary! Southern France is beautiful!

 

[tgeorge]

I was set to book the Danube, but this one will be the winner as long as the itinerary is similar to what AMA does now. I’m excited to learn more about it.

 

[OhanaCuz]

I love that the Disney-AMA partnership has been so successful.

 

[Donalyn]

I'm really curious how they will make this trip family friendly. What I was seeing for other examples of this river cruise seems more empty nester focused.

 

[canadakath]

I'm really curious how they will make this trip family friendly. What I was seeing for other examples of this river cruise seems more empty nester focused.

Tauck has a family river cruise on the Rhone that starts with 2 days in Paris before taking the TGV to Lyon. I looked at that and the current AMA Rhone cruise and although I would love it, I'm not sure it's the right trip for my teenage boys! I'm also curious to see if ABD does anything different.

 

[Jess_S]

I am really excited that the river cruising seems to be doing well -- and I am much more excited about this option than the Seine. Looking forward to the full itinerary. I think it will be a hard choice when we finally get around to booking one of these trips. (We are now planning trips 3 years out, so who knows when we will actually go. Unless we come into vast sums of extra vacation days and cash somehow).

 

[sayhello]

I'm really curious how they will make this trip family friendly. What I was seeing for other examples of this river cruise seems more empty nester focused.

Tauck has a family river cruise on the Rhone that starts with 2 days in Paris before taking the TGV to Lyon. I looked at that and the current AMA Rhone cruise and although I would love it, I'm not sure it's the right trip for my teenage boys! I'm also curious to see if ABD does anything different.

What about the itineraries you're seeing makes them seem non-family friendly?

Sayhello

 

[BluesTraveler]

I think ABD's Seine itinerary looks great, and better than Tauck's. Their sailings were so limited for this summer that it didn't work for our schedule, and I am a little gun shy now about doing a trip the first year out after Iceland. I'll be interested to see the Rhone itinerary, and really interested to read a trip report of the Seine cruise, if someone here will do one (seems trip reports have fallen off recently??).

 

[tgeorge]

I didn’t realize Tauck did two days in Paris prior to their Rhône. That’s interesting. I wonder if ABD will do something similar

 

[canadakath]

What about the itineraries you're seeing makes them seem non-family friendly?

Sayhello

I didn't say they weren't family friendly, just that I don't think it will be right for MY active teenage boys! We had the Rhine river cruise booked, which has lots of great excursions with canoeing, winter sports park, etc but have since switched to ABD Costa Rica because of the whitewater rafting and bigger ziplining, followed by a few days surfing on our own. They want thrills! The area for the Rhone cruise is breathtakingly beautiful, but I just don't see enough in the Tauck itinerary to keep my boys from being a bit bored. We are definitely going back to Europe in 2020 so I am looking forward to seeing ABD's spin on this itinerary!

 

[Donalyn]

I agree with PP - while my DDs are excited about the Rhine river cruise (hoping to do that in 2022), I'm just struggling right now to see how the Rhone will have things that they will find as interesting. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised - I know ABD can do amazing things. (Or maybe this is just an option to explore when we have an empty nest.)

I'd also like to see them with a river cruise outside of Europe.

 

[OhanaCuz]

I agree with PP - while my DDs are excited about the Rhine river cruise (hoping to do that in 2022), I'm just struggling right now to see how the Rhone will have things that they will find as interesting. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised - I know ABD can do amazing things. (Or maybe this is just an option to explore when we have an empty nest.)

With the Danube cruise the place they drove us to in Germany with the treetop walkways was something you would never had thought of for a river cruise but it was fun. It will indeed be interesting to see what they think of.

 

[sayhello]

With the Danube cruise the place they drove us to in Germany with the treetop walkways was something you would never had thought of for a river cruise but it was fun. It will indeed be interesting to see what they think of.

I was on one of the first ABD Danube cruises, and during the treetop excursion, I spent a little bit of it walking and chatting with the owner. He said that ABD was the first English speaking group they'd ever had there (none of the signs were in English yet, although they'd printed some pamphlets in English). I'd assume that place was suggested by a local. So it's altogether likely that ABD could come up with something like that for the Rhone, also.

Sayhello

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

This sounds interesting! Looking forward to the details.

 

[OhanaCuz]

I was on one of the first ABD Danube cruises, and during the treetop excursion, I spent a little bit of it walking and chatting with the owner. He said that ABD was the first English speaking group they'd ever had there (none of the signs were in English yet, although they'd printed some pamphlets in English). I'd assume that place was suggested by a local. So it's altogether likely that ABD could come up with something like that for the Rhone, also.

I can totally see that. I kept having to pull out my iPhone to use Google Translate on signage when I was there.

 

[canadakath]

I was on one of the first ABD Danube cruises, and during the treetop excursion, I spent a little bit of it walking and chatting with the owner. He said that ABD was the first English speaking group they'd ever had there (none of the signs were in English yet, although they'd printed some pamphlets in English). I'd assume that place was suggested by a local. So it's altogether likely that ABD could come up with something like that for the Rhone, also.

Sayhello

Those are the best kind of places - the locals have teenagers too, I'm sure there are great places to be found! As a kid I lived in Switzerland and we did a school trip canoeing and kayaking through rapids in the Ardeche Valley in southern France, so I know there are great options along the Rhone. I just haven't seen anything in the other river cruises currently out there that would bring that thrill factor for this region. Fingers crossed ABD finds some gems because I really want to go!

 

[OhanaCuz]

Those are the best kind of places - the locals have teenagers too, I'm sure there are great places to be found! As a kid I lived in Switzerland and we did a school trip canoeing and kayaking through rapids in the Ardeche Valley in southern France, so I know there are great options along the Rhone. I just haven't seen anything in the other river cruises currently out there that would bring that thrill factor for this region. Fingers crossed ABD finds some gems because I really want to go!

I did the Danube with ABD and Rhine with only with AMA. While there were sever similarities with the excursions (for example, the Mechanical museum) there were things from the Disney itinerary that were off the wall that I was sad we didn't do (spaghetti ice cream and toboggan run for example).

 

[Donalyn]

Interesting whether pre-days in Paris would make this easier or harder to sell. Also, it seems that would compete too much with the Seine cruise.

Oddly enough, I'd be more interested in the Seine cruise if it didn't have Paris days. So easy to do that on your own.