June 2023 Edition

River Cruise Adventures
By: Stu Cooper / Happy Adventures
“
Grandpa, tell me a story.” My sevenyear-old
granddaughter and nine-year-old
grandson love to hear me
tell them stories.
What they really are asking me is to tell them
about my youth. You could probably guess that I
like to tell them about my first recollections of traveling. For
as long as I can remember, I just loved to travel.
So, I tell them about my first
airplane ride on a Northwest Orient
Airline flight from Minneapolis to
New York in 1958. I was five years old
and I still remember bounding up
the stairs into this big four propeller
engine Stratocruiser for my flight
home from visiting relatives in the
Midwest. I just loved every second of
that trip.
Now, some sixty+ years later, I am still telling people about the fun
and interesting trips I love to take. And the trips I am most enthusiastic
about as I get older, is river cruising. This mode of travel has even
surpassed my love of ocean cruising.
I see the river cruises as everything a big ship cruise is, but in a much
less hectic environment. Don’t get me wrong, I like
the excitement of nightly Broadway style shows,
and lots of big ship “bells and whistles.”
But there is just something about a slow amble
down the Danube, or Rhine or even the Mississippi
River that just can’t be beat.
The river vessels only have 150 or so passengers.
The pace is quiet and calm. There
is a sight to see on every river bank
that may be no further than two
hundred feet away.
And the river ships can literally
pull over to the side of the river and
provide a walk along the river at just
about any time. It’s fun to watch the
beautiful scenery pass by. And yes,
shore excursions are included in the price of the river cruise.
That’s why we’re so happy to be working with the Viking River
Cruise folks and all the great river cruises they offer all over the world.
We are even working on a Vegas Voyagers group Viking River Cruise
for 2024. All information to follow.
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June 2023