The concept of river cruising is relatively new (if you don't count steamboats on the Mississipi in the 1800s), but I think the idea is growing quickly. We get brochures from Viking Rvier Cruises all the time, and it's one of the few bits of junk mail I actually like to read.
What makes it seem fun is that, unlike most cruises that go a long time between ports and then stop for a short time and leave, river cruises get from one place to the next quickly. Lots of tours are included -- it seems like not nearly the dead time you have on an ocean cruise. Besides, you have a view from every room, and since you're on a river, there will always be something to see.
The really nice one is Amsterdam to Budapest in 15 days, through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, but there are more exotic trips, like through Cambodia, if that's what you want.
The downside to these cruises is that they cost more. Regular cruises now cost about the same per night as a Motel 6 plus three meals at Denny's, but river cruises are more like a Hilton and someplace nicer than Denny's. And that means just me and Jackie. If the boys want to go on one, they can use the college education we will pay for and get good jobs and pay for their own.* Our twentieth anniversary is two years from now, and if all goes well, we could take one then. Lucas will be off to college, and Jarrod will be 15 and, um, going somewhere...Hey Mike, can you take him?
It might be ambitious to think we can afford that, but we have put off travel for a long time. It's time to go somewhere.
*Jackie says you have to be 21 anyway. They don't take kids.
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