SHOULD WE TRAVEL TAUCK OR WAIT FOR CRYSTAL? |

THE THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO RIVER CRUISING

Welcome to River Boat Ratings, the internet's leading site for those who are seriously considering sailing on one of the world's great waterways. It is good to have you here and we'd like to begin by making a few promises to you:

We will never talk down to you or insult your intelligence. This is a site for adults who do not need advertising hype, phony "user reviews" or PR double-speak.

This is the only river cruise review site that does not accept paid advertising from the companies we are reviewing. We do not accept promotional fees from any river boat company. You will never see an ad of any kind on riverboatratings.com

We use only the industry's most respected professional sources for information. Unknown "users" will never be quoted. The bulk of our material is sourced from leading industry reports and from the most respected travel journalists. Our evaluations are never based on popularity polls or self-appointed “critics”.

WHY TRUST US?

Actually, we're not sure you should "trust" anyone you meet on the internet. We urge you to check our background and credentials. Make certain you feel comfortable entrusting some of the best moments of your life to our consultants. Here are a few things about us we hope will be of interest:

We have been named "The World's Top River Boat Specialists" by the Editors of Conde Nast Traveler Magazine. Ours is the only firm in the nation to achieve this recognition, regarded as the equivalent of a restaurant receiving three Michelin stars. In fact, it is statistically harder to make the Conde Nast "World's Best Travel Specialists" list than it is to gain admission to Harvard University. We have also been named the “Nation’s Top European River Boat Specialists” by Wendy Perrin, the country’s most authoritative consumer travel voice.

Our Managing Editor, Richard Bruce Turen, is the Senior Contributing Editor at Travel Weekly, the most respected travel industry publication in the nation. He writes a regular column on industry affairs.

Our firm, Churchill & Turen Ltd., has been named "World's Best Small Luxury Cruise Specialists" by Conde Nast Traveler for the past eleven years. Collectively, our firm has won more "World's Best" accolades than any other travel firm in the United States.

We have been named one of the nation's Top Ten Personal Vacation Planners by Travel + Leisure Magazine.

We have been featured in articles in the New York Times, USA Today, Consumer Reports, and The Wall Street Journal. Our staff has appeared on CNN, ABC, and NBC News and on National Public Radio.

Members of our staff have lived in Europe, traveled her waterways, and worked for Europe's leading cruise lines and small ship operators.

We are celebrating our 30^th year in business. We are proud members of the $21.3 billion Virtuoso Network, the top producing agency group for the world's leading River Boat companies.

In 2015 and, again in 2017, we were named the Top Producing Consultants in the entire worldwide Virtuoso Group.

Look around our site. Do you notice anything unusual?

We do not accept advertising or payment from any river boat company reviewed on our site.

We are a not-for-profit, ad-free, consumer-oriented site and we will never try to sell you or hype you. Every river boat product is different. They are not all excellent.

We assume that visitors to our site are intelligent consumers and that you will know what to do if you are in agreement with our approach, find our knowledge of river boating of value, and wish to work with us on a zero-cost basis. We charge no fees of any kind in conjunction with the booking of river cruises. If you book with a river cruise company directly, you will still be charged our fee, as it is built into every fare.

Q – We were really surprised to read your announcement regarding Crystal’s new River Boat Brand set to sail in 2017. As Boomers who are still working, I suppose we’re in a position to wait for Crystal to do our first river boat cruise. The question is should we? We appreciate find food and service, we’re not snobs, but we love the way Mandarin Oriental and the Four Seasons brands treat us when we use their properties. We’ve cruised Silverseas but never a river boat . Tauck sounds amazing and we’ve learned so many things on this site. But it would be great if you would tell us if we should go with Tauck in 2016 or put it off a year? We love the best products that don’t nickel and dime you for everything. We’re foodies and a lot more interested in local life than we are in ancient history lectures. If you don’t want to commit to a recommendation we’ll understand. Who knows if this new Crystal line will be any good?

A – They will be known as the Crystal River Yachts and they will be excellent. You can take that to the bank. Not perfect, not at the beginning, but these people understand luxury and they are not entering river boating to be second best. Their target customer is the upper 2% of affluent travelers. Given your profile, and the fact that you do not need to travel in 2016, we would recommend that you strongly consider waiting for Crystal to launch in 2017.

Actually, you won’t be waiting very long. The books will open on December 1st, 2015 and we would highly recommend that you call us that morning or as soon afterwards as you can. We expect the prime season sailings to sell out in the first 72 hours.

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SHOULD WE TRAVEL TAUCK OR WAIT FOR CRYSTAL?