In this episode of Luxury Cruising, Dr. Krystal Sodaitis welcomes first-time cruiser Andrea Moore, an OBGYN and mom of two who finally took the plunge on a Viking River Cruise after years of watching the longships on PBS. Andrea shares her decision to sail the Danube Romantic itinerary aboard the Viking Jarl, her impressions of the ship and balcony cabin, the standout food and service, e-bike adventures, the realities of low water levels, and why she’s now a convert to river cruising, but still not to big ocean ships.
What happens when a lifelong non-cruiser finally books a Viking River Cruise?
In this episode of Luxury Cruising, host Dr. Krystal Sodaitis talks with Andrea Moore, an OBGYN and mom of two who had never set foot on a big cruise ship but was captivated by Viking’s longships on PBS. She and her husband chose the Danube Romantic itinerary aboard the Viking Jarl and found it lived up to the hype. Andrea walks listeners through the clean Scandinavian design, the surprisingly spacious balcony cabin, the popular Aquavit Terrace dining, excellent food with regional menus, thoughtful service, and the joy of e-bike tours through the Wachau Valley. She also candidly discusses the impact of low water levels that forced a change in itinerary, the thrill of watching the ship rise through locks at night, and practical tips for first-timers. Whether you’re considering your first river cruise or already hooked, this honest firsthand account offers valuable perspective.
Episode Highlights:
About the Guest:
Andrea Moore is an OBGYN, mom of two, and first-time cruiser who had long admired Viking’s river longships on PBS. She recently completed her first river cruise, which is the Danube Romantic itinerary aboard the Viking Jarl, and is now a convert to the river cruising experience.
About the Host:
Dr. Krystal Sodaitis is a pediatrician, executive, and life coach for neurodiverse physicians—and the passionate host behind Luxury Cruising. She brings expert insight and honest excitement to every interview, helping curious travelers elevate their adventures at sea.
📍 Website: luxurycruising.net
📧 Email: luxurycruisingpodcast@gmail.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/krystalsodaitis
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Speaker: [00:00:00]
Welcome back to Luxury Cruising. I'm your host, Crystal Sodaitis, and today we have Dray with us. Dray is not a cruiser, but she decided she wanted to take a summer Viking River cruise. I'm so excited to hear all about it. Dray, please tell the audience anything you want them to know about you.
Speaker 2: well, I am a mom of two, an OBGYN, and like you said, I've never been on a big cruise ship. I've never wanted to go on a cruise ship, but I'm, a big PBS fan, so every time I saw the Viking long ship cruises, um, I was like, "I wanna do that." And my husband wanted to do that, too. So, we finally decided to pull the trigger and go this year, and it lived up to the hype, so I'm glad we did it.
I'm probably not a convert to big ship cruises for it, but, um, [00:01:00] definitely a convert to the river cruising. It was fun.
Speaker: Awesome. Tell us, what made you decide... I know why you chose Viking, but what made you decide to do this ship, this itinerary? Take us back to that decision.
Speaker 2: Well, So when I pick vacations, I like to pick big vacations.
You know, the 14-day European cruises, that's what I wanted to do. But, um, my husband really wanted to pick the itinerary, so he was in charge of picking it, and he wanted to do the Danube Romantic cruise. So That's how it was picked. And it's a part of Europe that I've never really been in, and so I was all for it, and I was like, "Yeah, let's do that."
And in the end, I think it was a great choice for us. We saw some am-amazing places that we would not have gone to without the river cruise. So, My husband's been to Vienna before. I had not been, but [00:02:00] there's a good possibility in my lifetime I'd make it there. But the smaller places, the smaller ports, um, especially the port that we landed in when the water was low I mean, that's really what made our trip.
I love seeing the small town, the small villages, um, and all the countryside. It was just perfect.
Speaker: Awesome. Yeah. I love it. Viking is known, most of their ships all look almost exactly the same witha clean Scandinavian design. What did you think of the ship when you got on it?
Speaker 2: I was very excited. When we got in it, clean is a good word, not in the sense of dirty versus clean, but just clean lines. It looked like a ship and it looked like it was gonna be a comfortable ship. And, we were taken to our rooms immediately, and they were really actually big for what I thought they would be.
We opted to do the balcony because I love a good balcony, and my favorite part of it was [00:03:00] gonna be, like, moving on the river. So I wanted a place where we could sit and have coffee and read and so I was very happy with that choice. and even though it's a ship that you know, by the end I realized how many people actually do these cruises,
And it was an older boat, it still looked brand new. So, I was like, "I wonder how often they change out the decor," 'cause it really looked new. so that was nice. I don't have anything to compare it to. I've been on one, like, private fancy boat in my life, and it was comparable. So I don't have a lot of experience with, fancy, but it definitely was up to par and I was very pleased with the room.
and I like efficient spaces and, um, even the cruise director, I don't know what they actually call him, but he was talking about how if you get in the shower, he's such a big guy, when he lathers up, he spins [00:04:00] around, he can get clean. That's probably true for him, but I found it plenty big enough andjust the right size for us.
Speaker: Awesome.
Oh, do you remember which Viking ship you were on, what the name of the ship was?
Speaker 2: I do. It's the Jarl. And I probably would not have remembered that, but I was just looking at a credit card statement and it popped up and I was like, "Oh yeah, that's the name of our ship. I'm so glad I saw that."
Speaker: Yeah, and that is not a ship that I have heard of that we've had on the podcast before, so that's fantastic.
So the room was efficient. Any amenities that came with the room that you were surprised about?
Speaker 2: I felt like there was a lot of talk before the trip about access to plugins and, last year I had a huge snafu with a plugin in Oxford, England, so I was a little worried about that. No big deal We didn't need any sort of adapters.our cell phones [00:05:00] worked, all of our electric stuff worked.
I don't know if that's considered an amenity, but having spent a week in Oxford, England, trying to figure out how to get things charged up, it was an amenity for me. Um, I think we had a coffee pot, like a nice one, but There was like two-section coffee bar. Um, and that was very popular with the guests and with us.
But like, you know, you could get a cappuccino, and you could get it 24 hours a day. And my favorite is were the cookies that were available all the time, and they really were good cookies And everybody thought they were because they were gone by the evening, and you would see people around drinking their tea.
They had also lots of tea. And we'd be with our little cups and our cookies. So Oh, amenities. they had really nice, I think it's called Freya products like shampoo, conditioner, body wash. And they replaced them, like, often. Like, I'm like, "We will never use this [00:06:00] much body wash ," I can assure you.
So I took it home, and I'm still using it. I mean, that's how much ... We've been home for, six weeks, and it's still... I mean, they're like big size, so that was really nice.
Speaker: Wow, that is nice. And I love a good bath product.
Speaker 2: Yeah. A nice bath
Speaker: product on a cruise goes a long way for me.
Speaker 2: Me too. Um, and you know, we had the robes Which was nice to sit early morning on our balcony and drink coffee
Speaker: Nice. And in the early morning, was that a coffee that you made yourself? Did you use- Mm-hmm ... room service?
Speaker 2: They did have room service, which we never used. Mostly because, you know, I get up at the crack of dawn, and I sleep train myself for when I travel to Europe, so I still get up at the crack of dawn. Nobody is up making coffee when we're up, so it's self-serve for that part. But, starting at, like, 6:00 or maybe even 5:30, you could go and they would make you coffee and it was good too.
It was not funky [00:07:00] coffee that you'd be like, "Ugh, really?" So I drank a lot of coffee. More coffee than I should have. It's
Speaker: good to know the Europeans can make a good coffee.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That's something you kind of expect.
Speaker: So yeah, let's segue to the food. You talked about the coffee bar and the great cookies.
How about the other meals? Was there a main dining room?
Speaker 2: There's a main dining room that was sort of lovely. You know, white tablecloths. anywhere you sat in the room you could actually see on the outside. They had tons of tables lining the windows. And every time I went to the main dining room, uh, like I got a great table.
Like I had just watched the world go by while we were eating. And the food in the main dining room was excellent. But I only had two meals there. So they have a front area that I think, at least on our ship, and I assume everywhere else, it was called Aquavit. And so it was open air dining at the front.
And we ate all but two meals [00:08:00] there. Because my favorite part is actually being on the boat moving. And so, um, it was lovely, and if it was super hot or if it rained they could cover it and close it a little bit. But That was the other thing, we had amazing weather. So we did all of our dining out there.
And The food there was a regular kind of menu that changed some, but there were some staples every day. But then like at night they'd have kind of a regional menu for wherever we were.
and I chose to do most of what the chef recommended. And that was fun. So, you know, we had like Bavarian night and, all the stuff that comes with that. And so I thought that was well done. And for the number of people and how much they have to get out at one time, I think they did an amazing job.
There was no complaint with the food whatsoever.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker 2: our chef was treated as kind of a celebrity. I found this amusing, [00:09:00] like They have the 4:00 o'clock like you get together and they talk about what's coming up and what you can do. But they always, like, brought out the people, like the cruise director and the party director
But the chef always got to make a round and, like, tell what he recommended to eat, and I found it amusing ' cause we were like, you know, everybody's clapping for him I don't know.
Speaker: They're
Speaker 2: pretty happy
Speaker: about their food.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I didn't hear a single complaint about anything.
There was plenty of it, too. There were no small portions. So, I had no complaints about food. It was good.
Speaker: That is awesome. And was the menu in the Aquavit the same menu as in the main dining room, or did it vary?
Speaker 2: Mostly, I think it was. I think there were a few more options in the main dining room.
Um, especially for, like, lunch because you could order and then they had, like, a, [00:10:00] I don't wanna call it a buffet, but a buffet where there were more options for, like, self-service items. Um-
Speaker: ...
Speaker 2: but-
Speaker: Kinda like you could sit down and maybe order a hot item, but then if you wanted to get up and get some pastries or-
Granola or whatever, that was more self-serve.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. And I ate breakfast there once, I think, or maybe lunch for the first day, and I was like I don't need all this choice. You know? I don't need to try 18 things. I know all of these foods. Like, I don't really need to try them. again, the smaller menu Aquavit was more in line with what I liked.
And by the end, the head waiter, you know, knew what we wanted, He didn't assume that we would order something, but he knew what we wanted. So- Yeah ... and that was fun. That's probably the person that we got to know the best and felt the closest to.
I don't know if that's the right word, but [00:11:00] like you felt like you had- kind of a rapport with one person.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And he was our guy. I
Speaker: love it. Any standouts on the service in general?
Speaker 2: Our room steward... Well, first of all, the waiter, and I was desperately trying to remember his name.
my husband would know his name 'cause They were buddies. He was amazing. He was just such a nice person and they won't save you a spot, but they made us a spot one day when there was not a table. So it was a service table that they quickly made into a place that we could sit, so.
And then our room steward was also amazing. We had an episode where I had to clean up a little bit on the carpet. And he just came in and I guess they just shampooed the carpet because I'd put towels down to, blot up the coffee or whatever I'd spilled. And it was already clean when we came back.
And it was a little disconcerting because they knew, like, obviously if you have excursions, they know when you're gonna be gone. [00:12:00] But, I think he learned very quickly what our general schedule was because, like, I never saw him go in or go out. We were in the room a lot, or my husband was in the room a lot.
And they never came in while we were there, but it was always clean when we got back.
Speaker: love that.
Speaker 2: I'd like that at home. Somebody follow around and pick up after me.
Speaker: Yeah, Exactly. Wait, walk into the bedroom. Wait, it's not made up.
What happened here?
Speaker 2: Any other dining other than, like, the c- cookie coffee bar, the Aquavit main dining room?
No, but we probably were outliers as far as the food goes, just because I'm the only person eating. and the bar scene seemed to be really a big deal. Like, it was always packed when the 4:00 thing came around, and in the evening there were lots of people. And the bartenders appeared to be super busy.
And, so I can't really comment on that, but I feel like if you're gonna be drinking the alcohol, the package is probably the good plan. That was my takeaway that if I [00:13:00] commence to drinking alcohol, I'm gonna get the Silver Spirits package. But they had, you know... Anything that we wanted, and they would make for us, oh, okay. This is such a weird thing, but I do have to say this. So they had iced tea, and they had it in a container. And, you know, being Southern, I like my tea a certain way, and I was like, "Oh, this is gonna be just not good tea." And it was so tasty.
And I asked them, I was like, "Do y'all put sweetener in this?" Like, I tried to get an idea. And I'll tell you what it reminded me of, and this is not gonna sound like a selling point, but it should be a selling point. So when I was growing up, that Lipton instant tea that had lemon in it, it was like a powder, but it was really good.
That's a little bit what it tasted like, but I don't think it was powder. I think they brewed it. I don't know what else they put in it, but I was [00:14:00] well-caffeinated on that trip.
Speaker: It was a little nostalgic. I was like, this is like what I remember my..." You know, You go to somebody's house, and they have a pitcher of this instant tea in it. and several people commented too-
Awesome ...
Speaker 2: um, about how good the tea was.
Speaker: That's awesome, especially for a European crowd.
I don't know how many of them actually drink iced tea, but for the Americans- Yeah ... on board, it works.
Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. And they were mostly Americans. We did have a run through at some point where they were asking where people were from, and I would say 80% of us were Americans, but...
Speaker: Yeah. Viking is also really known for their, cultural experiences.
So tell us about the Viking sponsored... Did you go on any Viking sponsored excursions, and how were they?
Speaker 2: Yes. So the answer is yes, I did. But I didn't go on a lot of the big excursions, like to the [00:15:00] abbey or to the winery, or I didn't step foot in any art museum.
But I did go, and I'm so glad I did. So we arrived in Budapest, and they had an introductory tour, and it was raining, and I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna go on this because I wanna just get a general layout of the land." And that was fun. Like, he took us to the market, and even though it was Sunday, there was still stalls open, and he did a lot of history talking to us about, you know, how long the market had been there and things to do.
And I'm so glad because I had booked a private tour for Budapest the next day because I had read that if the ship took off, you could catch up using like an Uber or something. Well, I found out later on that evening that no, our ship was leaving at 8:00 a.m., and we were going like four hours away. Like, there was no way to catch [00:16:00] up.
The only part of Budapest that I saw was that original tour, and then I did a little bit of walking in the morning when I realized that I wasn't gonna be able to see. so I wish I had done the evening tour because, like even at the top of the ship, it was beautiful. It was just gorgeous, and I did kick myself for not doing that. Now, we did do some tours on down in the later part of the cruise. My husband went to an abbey, and he really liked that. He enjoyed seeing that, and I think they had like some apricot dumplings or maybe some wine making. I don't know. They did some stuff like that, and he really enjoyed that.
I fell in love with the e-bikes, because I signed up for an e-bike tour, Where was it? It was beyond Vienna, so it was like the Wachau [00:17:00] Valley Oh, maybe I did leave actually out of Vienna. Yeah, I did do the Vienna countryside. That was the first one. And we had amazing guides. Like, they were two older German women
Well, one was American but had been living there for 30 years. And they were like mother hens. Like, we followed rules, we did hand signals, we stopped. nobody was getting hurt on this tour. And it was lovely. It was so much fun, and we stopped, and we saw the vineyards that were on the hillside.
It was just great. It was just a lot of fun, Like, I'd never been on a e-bike, so I was like, "Ugh, how's this gonna be?" No, it's amazing. I was like, "I gotta get one of these. These things are awesome." It was so much fun that I signed up for the next day's e-bike tour.
Um, and the third day when we were we had to turn around and stop in a small town. a woman that I met on the, previous e-bike [00:18:00] tour, We rented e-bikes and just went out in the countryside, and we found this cool resort and we took this ferry that was being driven by a 12-year-old, and that was probably the most amusing thing.
We were so American. We pull up at this, like, ferry place, which is, like, a sign. And so we're asking questions, and we're like, "When does the ferry take off?" "How often does it run?" Like, "Are we gonna get back?" "How far? How long?" The guy's like, "Ladies, it's across the river. Like, you can see it.
It's 250 feet." And we're like, "Well, how do we get back?" He's like, "That metal post up there, you just ring it twice. I will come. I promise then we got on this little ferry with our bikes, and this family got on, and we got across. And by the way, they were also selling shots for, like, 1.5 euros on the boat.
I was like, "It's a 250-foot boat thing . I don't think we need a shot," but good to know that we have [00:19:00] that. But when we got there, we were trying to be polite and let the family get off, and then finally the guy goes, "Are you all gonna get off?" And we're like, "Well, should they not get off first?" And he's like, "No, they're riding back and forth.
They've got a pass." Anyway, that was the kinda great stuff that I loved, the villages are super quaint and old and lovely and have free samples of chocolate,
Speaker: That's on my list, too. Tour with a free sample of chocolate.
Speaker 2: Yes. And free samples of, like, apricot schnapps in this one store.
That was a big hit for a lot of people. Butthose were the things that I like to do. we did take a private tour in Vienna. We did one of those little tuk tuk tours, and that also was awesome because our guide was, like, this crazy Viennese guy. I mean, he was a hoot. I don't know if he was really, like, sanctioned, but we had a ball.
I was like, "I didn't know it could be this much fun." We had a great time with that, and we saw a lot of stuff in Vienna. So that was fun.
I'm not [00:20:00] really saying a whole lot about the Viking, supported excursions because I didn't do a whole lot of those.
But I think the people that we talked to that did really enjoyed them. I will say I kind of felt bad towards the end the water was really low and so we couldn't go to Regensburg. Um, well, you could bus to Regensburg, but it was two and a half hour bus ride, and then you had your stuff, and then two and a half hours back.
I was like we're not doing that." We didn't sign up for it anyway. But there were people that were gonna go to a Holocaust memorial and some other things, and so they didn't really get to do that. And I was like, "Ooh, that would be really disappointing." So the one tip I would tell anybody is to take a couple of days on both ends.
Like, even if you don't do the Viking-sponsored extensions, like, go ahead and get there two days early. You know, get a hotel and explore on your own. And [00:21:00] start your trip in the city that you wanna see the most, and plan to spend time there, 'cause you might not make it to where you're going.
Speaker: Yeah.
that's a good tip. And there is a lot of talk right now in sort of like the cruise community about the rivers, especially the Danube is pretty low. So what was that experience like where the river's low, they can't make it all the way? How did they handle that? Was that your last stop?
Speaker 2: Um, yeah,
So we went through the Wachau Valley, and we stopped can't remember exactly. And then we were supposed to leave for Regensburg the next day, and we took off, and we actually turned around and backtracked before Wachau or Passau. that was where we were going.
So we went to Passau, and then we took off, and we came back. Now, I was perfectly happy because the Wachau Valley is the most [00:22:00] beautiful place that we cruised through. But we stopped in a town that was not on the cruise path. Uh, they don't get cruise traffic. They had a dock, so we docked.
And again, that was where we rented the e-bikes and went on our adventure. The town is a big thoroughfare for bikers And There were, like, three guys that were training for the Tour de France and, like, people actually recognized them.
And so they stopped and ate, like, five, six feet from us 'cause it was, like, a beer garden, so everybody ate there because that was the only place you could eat in town. And so that was a lot of fun, too. Just seeing the locals blending with everybody. And I had an amazing German couple that were cruising through on a motorcycle, and they had lunch with me
Or at my table, but with me. And that was fun, too. That's the part that I like the best is getting out and hanging out with the local people.
Speaker: Yeah. I love that river [00:23:00] cruising lets you stop in these smaller towns that you never would have planned to go there on a land vacation.
Mm-hmm. You're not driving from Vienna to this little town. But the fact that you got there and got to experience, like, the real life in those countries is so fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Besides the sailing down the river and seeing that, that was my second favorite. and for that reason, I would consider doing another tour.
You know, I know a lot of people do do the excursions but before I started looking into it, I didn't really realize that that was a big part of it. I don't know, I just thought I was gonna get on a boat and just go from
Speaker: all the way down the river.
Speaker 2: I don't know exactly what I was thinking.
But I discovered that, you know, the excursions. And I got into kinda that rush of, we gotta get the best one, we gotta get this, we gotta get that. And in the end, it didn't really matter ' cause the best part was sitting on the boat, watching it go by. Um-
Speaker: Yeah. I love that, too ...
Speaker 2: on top deck.
Speaker: Yeah.
I love that, too. Anything [00:24:00] else about Viking or this particular ship that we haven't covered that you wanted to share?
Speaker 2: Um, I think they're very organized. So, you know, they pick us up at the airport. They transport us. they really had the system down for when we couldn't go on, and they had to bus people and bring them back and, um, they were very transparent about what was going on.
So I think they do a really good job of that. And then I will say one more weird thing that I never would've expected. when we left it might have been Budapest. But we entered this lock at night, and I've been through locks on like the Ohio River you know, a small...
Never one where two big boats pull in, and we were raised up. It was an engineering feat like, it was magnificent. Like I didn't have my [00:25:00] phone on me, and I was kind of sad about it, but I didn't wanna miss a minute 'cause I mean, when we started, and it was dark, but it was lit in the lock.
we went up 50 feet in no time, and it was just freaking amazing. Everybody was out on the top deck watching. Like, it was just so cool that every time we got to a lock, like I was out, like I was on my balcony, I was looking, like that, I think I nerded out on that part. But- ... the engineering to do that is so crazy cool.
Um-
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker: Okay. Mm-hmm ... and I'm gonna ask you some questions that I ask everybody.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker: And the first question is, how do you define luxury?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good question. I define luxury as
Having somebody that meets my needs before I know that they're needs . And I think Viking does a good job
Speaker: of that. Awesome.
Speaker 2: Um, and [00:26:00] like I know sometimes... there are different ways Of like the space being luxurious that's not that important to me. Um, but just really the way they treated everybody I thought was top-notch.
They anticipated lots of needs that I don't think that we would recognize. The other thing that they do that I think is probably luxury it shouldn't be luxury, but it is luxury, is they take into account a lot of different levels of mobility.
And the tours kind of had it broken down into easy, moderate or hard.
Um, but even the easy tours had different levels, and like one time we took the really slow one and me and my husband, he was like, "Okay, we're not doing that again." We're just going on the regular. I will tough it out. We're going on the regular. But I thought they did a good job with that, um, making sure that everybody was included in [00:27:00] getting off the ship if they wanted to be.
Speaker: Awesome. So now that you have been on your first river cruise, do you have a dream cruise?
Speaker 2: I don't but probably 'cause I don't know a lot of what's out there. I will say that I spent a little bit of time looking at this, Viking has an around the world six-month cruise.
Speaker: Viking Ocean? Yeah. It's not a river cruise, it's Viking Ocean, yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It is, you do get on an ocean. But it's the thing.
And I did a little calculation on it, and I don't know. If I could do the true luxury suite, I might consider doing that. I don't think that's in our cards. But I told my husband, , and this would be true luxury, if Well, I don't wanna say our age, but seriously My husband's older.
We would never see some of the places that you could see on [00:28:00] that type of cruise. And, you know, so if I won the lottery or, some unknown aunt left me a bazillion dollars, I might consider that, and that would be super luxury. Yeah. I know it's not a river cruise, but that would be one big boat that I would consider.
I assume the boat's... Well, it's gotta be bigger. I know so little about ocean cruising, but I would assume the boat, it is bigger, but it's not that many people on it.
Speaker: No, the Viking Ocean ships are bigger, but I don't know. I've got a number of about 600 in my head, but I could be making that up.
But yeah, they're definitely bigger. But I'm all for a good world cruise. That is my dream cruise, is to go on a world cruise. So I'm gonna be-
Not in the penthouse suite, but definitely make it happen somewhere on that ship.
Speaker 2: Yes. I don't know.
we never ventured. It's not blocked off, but, yeah, I think it's kind of frowned upon probably to go and, look at. I don't know. I think we did [00:29:00] actually have a meal with somebody that was in that suite, and I should've picked their brain, but I didn't wanna be rude and be like, "So how is it up on the..."
But I did talk to some people that were, like at the water level, and they were super happy with their rooms. They thought they were lovely. So I didn't see any, but I will take their word for it. But I will say that if you can splurge for the balcony, splurge for the balcony.
And not to have a negative, but I will say the one thing that I was surprised with is... And I think part of this had to do with the river being low. Like, there were times that we would have three boats in a row, and so it doesn't matter where you are, you are, hanging out with your boat neighbor. And that was occasionally I was like, "You know, I'd really not like to look at that," but eh, it wasn't that big of a deal .
Speaker: Yeah. That is unfortunately part of river cruising, is that sometimes the boats do dock side by [00:30:00] side, and then you have to, like, walk through another boat. Um- Mm-hmm ... or you get out on your balcony and you're looking at somebody else's balcony.
Speaker 2: Yeah. that's fun when you're both out there.
Speaker: I mean, You just chat and say hi, and then try to ignore them, and then everybody goes in eventually. But I don't wanna say that it was bad, butit's different, and something to know if it's not- Mm-hmm ... like unexpected if you didn't know that that was the case.
Speaker 2: And as a newbie to river cruising, I will say too that I did not expect... I didn't know anything about the river levels. And I know that some years it's super high and they have
Speaker: Right ...
Speaker 2: to do that. And I should have thought. I mean, I live on the Ohio River or my town is on the Ohio River.
I don't live on the Ohio River, but it changes like as rivers do and seasons. And I guess I just assumed that they would work out how to beat Mother Nature, and to some degree they have, but you can't fully do it. But you know, the decks were lovely, and nice chairs and then they had, bar service [00:31:00] and so that was also kinda luxurious, just hanging out, getting your drink refilled.
Speaker: That's right. I love it. Well, thank you so much for being here. Yeah. I really appreciate your time. And for the listeners, thank you also. And until next time, I wish you safe and luxurious cruising.