Ocean and River Cruises (2024 and beyond Version)

aquapt
Tue, 16 Jul 2024 03:15:14 +0000

When I visited my studying-abroad daughter in France in 2019, I did a river cruise with Road Scholar. I was almost the youngest participant; those younger than I were the ones traveling with a parent. I really enjoyed the program itself, the “life long learner” vibe, the flexibility to pick and choose group activities and choose your own pace, and the great tour guides. It was funny to look at the safeguards they have to build into the boats - a multi-step button system to open the doors from the lobby so that drunken people can’t stumble out unwittingly and fall in the river - and to think how great it was to be with a group for whom that really wasn’t needed! OTOH, I feel as if the Road Scholar staff (not the ones on the tour with you, but the ones setting everything up) get a little too comfortable with being paternalistic toward their clientele - every question seemed to elicit a “There, there, don’t worry, Grandma” attitude, when in fact my questions turned out to have been very good ones that they should, in fact, have taken seriously. For example, I didn’t like the timing of their outbound group flights, so I got my own and booked an extra night at the destination to have more recovery/adjustment time. The next morning, the group flight showed up at the crack of dawn, and the hotel lobby was festooned with exhausted senior travelers slumped in uncomfortable chairs for the entire day until their rooms became available in the late afternoon. If I’d believed the “There, there, don’t you worry, we take care of everything” attitude, I’d have been slumped among them.

My mother did more than 50 Elderhostel trips in her day, so I felt a certain attachment, and I would consider traveling with them again, but I definitely wouldn’t be too trusting, and wouldn’t hesitate to second-guess anything that seemed poorly thought out.