A-Rosa River Cruises - Travel Critique
Published Monday, June 1st 2015 - Updated Monday, June 1st 2015
Categories
Feedback from a client that had recently sailed on a river cruise with A-Rosa River Cruises, and had the following comments regarding her experience.
Overall, she loved the ship and found the food to be excellent, and would highly recommend it.
However...
"The overall service was very good." The service was very good considering....the language barrier. Most crew members did not or spoke very little English. Pointing to and her ability to speak Dutch helped get what was needed. A-Rosa is a German cruise line that has been in service in Europe for many years.
"The price was right". This client was not willing to pay the prices that the more mainframe river cruise lines like Viking was wanting. They were on a budget, but were looking for alternatives that offered lower prices. A-Rosa fit the bill. However, tours are not included in the price. The cruise line offered them a 200 Euro shipboard credit to be applied to tours.
"The tours were very good". However, they were conducted in German, and for this reason limited their tour experience to 1 or 2, and opted to take the hop-on hop-off buses that conducted tours in English and for a lower price. The cruise line requires that a minimum of 20 English speaking passengers taking the same tour were required to conduct a tour in English, or they would have to pay a significant price for an English speaking guide. Beware, A-Rosa's brochure does not disclose this fact. The mainframe river cruise lines like Viking, AMA Waterways, conduct their tours in English because there will be a larger number of English speaking passengers.
"The ship was the most beautiful" compared to the other ships that they had to walk through to get the the shoreline. There are usually more than one ship that docks at a particular city/town/village. They are docked right next to each other. Requiring passengers to walk through the other cruise lines ships. This enables passengers to compare what one ship looks like to another.
A-Rosa is a relatively new product to the North American market, and it is my opinion that there is a lot of things that need to be done to make it more North American friendly. In general, as an agent I was discourged about suggesting this cruise line again. Things were lacking, and communication poor. The American representatives, although very helpful, did not disclose that there could be possible language issues. Not having sailed this line personally, or having had someone sail on this line before, there was no way to know otherwise to be able to advise the client of the possible issues that they could experience.
The cruise line was very good at providing us with booking confirmations at the time of booking and final payment, but that was it. No pre-cruise check in, no boarding passes or luggage tags, no emergency contact numbers. They did not even provide a cancellation confirmation as a passenger needed to cancel, and this too led to problems.
I feel that it is my responsibility to inform the public , especially those who love to book online for themselves, of things that may not meet their expectations.
Please note that we are not in the habit of suggesting cruise lines such as this, but it was an option. We present all options for the customers to consider. We did disclose that A-Rosa is a relatively new cruise line, and that we had not worked with this cruise line or their representatives before. The price was good, and fit their budget, and based on the information available to us (website, representatives, and brochure), would meet their needs. It was up to them whether they would like to take the risk of sailing on this line, and let them know that they could possibly come home disappointed. The client was willing to take the risk because they liked what they saw online.
Again, the customer came home very satisfied despite the drawbacks, and said that they would do it again! They loved the European experience.
Overall, she loved the ship and found the food to be excellent, and would highly recommend it.
However...
"The overall service was very good." The service was very good considering....the language barrier. Most crew members did not or spoke very little English. Pointing to and her ability to speak Dutch helped get what was needed. A-Rosa is a German cruise line that has been in service in Europe for many years.
"The price was right". This client was not willing to pay the prices that the more mainframe river cruise lines like Viking was wanting. They were on a budget, but were looking for alternatives that offered lower prices. A-Rosa fit the bill. However, tours are not included in the price. The cruise line offered them a 200 Euro shipboard credit to be applied to tours.
"The tours were very good". However, they were conducted in German, and for this reason limited their tour experience to 1 or 2, and opted to take the hop-on hop-off buses that conducted tours in English and for a lower price. The cruise line requires that a minimum of 20 English speaking passengers taking the same tour were required to conduct a tour in English, or they would have to pay a significant price for an English speaking guide. Beware, A-Rosa's brochure does not disclose this fact. The mainframe river cruise lines like Viking, AMA Waterways, conduct their tours in English because there will be a larger number of English speaking passengers.
"The ship was the most beautiful" compared to the other ships that they had to walk through to get the the shoreline. There are usually more than one ship that docks at a particular city/town/village. They are docked right next to each other. Requiring passengers to walk through the other cruise lines ships. This enables passengers to compare what one ship looks like to another.
A-Rosa is a relatively new product to the North American market, and it is my opinion that there is a lot of things that need to be done to make it more North American friendly. In general, as an agent I was discourged about suggesting this cruise line again. Things were lacking, and communication poor. The American representatives, although very helpful, did not disclose that there could be possible language issues. Not having sailed this line personally, or having had someone sail on this line before, there was no way to know otherwise to be able to advise the client of the possible issues that they could experience.
The cruise line was very good at providing us with booking confirmations at the time of booking and final payment, but that was it. No pre-cruise check in, no boarding passes or luggage tags, no emergency contact numbers. They did not even provide a cancellation confirmation as a passenger needed to cancel, and this too led to problems.
I feel that it is my responsibility to inform the public , especially those who love to book online for themselves, of things that may not meet their expectations.
Please note that we are not in the habit of suggesting cruise lines such as this, but it was an option. We present all options for the customers to consider. We did disclose that A-Rosa is a relatively new cruise line, and that we had not worked with this cruise line or their representatives before. The price was good, and fit their budget, and based on the information available to us (website, representatives, and brochure), would meet their needs. It was up to them whether they would like to take the risk of sailing on this line, and let them know that they could possibly come home disappointed. The client was willing to take the risk because they liked what they saw online.
Again, the customer came home very satisfied despite the drawbacks, and said that they would do it again! They loved the European experience.
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