Why River Cruising Is Better Than Ocean Cruising

I know that it is a shocking headline, but it can be argued that River cruising is BETTER than ocean cruising. I can think of numerous advantages.

Please see my article: HERE

On the other hand, given the millions of people that take ocean cruising, the global preference is the latter. I can also think of many advantages of ocean cruising.

However, I wonder how many ocean cruise passengers have been river cruising too. I guess it is only a small fraction.

The numbers of people taking an ocean cruise is currently at the 30 million level, believe it or not. Much of the worlds river cruising takes, place in Europe. Up to date figures are not easy to find, but I believe 1.5 million people took a river cruise in 2023.

Ocean cruising is of course highly developed, with a long history. For example, carnival ocean cruising was formed in 1972. There are around 300 cruise ships in the world. River cruising is still younger, growing and evolving. Viking river cruises was only formed in 1997.

However, it is worth noting that today one cruise ship can often accommodate more passengers than twenty river boats can. This must in part, account for the dramatically higher passengers numbers of ocean cruising. I also assume that the fact that rivers have a limited capacity, compared to the worlds ocean, this automatically restricts river cruising growth. The high fares of river cruising, partially due to small boats (no economies of scale) does not help, either.

Malcolm

Q: Have you done both? What’s your thoughts?