The River Cruise Line - The Switzerland II

I've just got back from the ACE river cruise expo, (#rivercruiseexpo if you're on Twitter), and wanted to tell you about some of the ships I've seen. I had the amazing opportunity of seeing six different river cruise ships all owned and operated by six different cruise lines in the space of about three or four hours.
For that reason, (as we were being hurried around them a little), some of these posts about the different ships may not be as detailed as they always are and some of the pictures might not be the best in the world. They will however, (I hope), give you a taste of what each ship is like and let you judge the 'personality' of each ship.

The last ship of the day I got to see before heading back from Amsterdam was also the most surprising and that was the Switzerland II operated by the River Cruise Line. I've been selling cruises for the River Cruise Line for a year or two now and I thought I knew the product fairly well, (although this was the first of their ships I've seen), but actually seeing one of their ships was a real eye opener for me.
River cruises, in general, can be quite an expensive holiday so the River Cruise line set out to make it affordable to the majority of people that wanted to try it. They don't include free drinks with any of their packages and you have to pay for most of your shore excursions. They also rarely offer flights to get you to your destination. Instead they will arrange a coach to pick you up in your home town, take you to either Newcastle, Hull, Harwich or Dover ferry port, ferry you over to the continent and then transport you to your departure port.
Hence the low prices.
They themselves tend to describe their ships, (and the cruise experience with them), as 3* plus, maybe 4* so when I heard I was going to be seeing one of their ships my expectations weren't high - How wrong I was!

The ship from the outside was quite an old fashioned red and white colour, nothing like the sleek white hulls of the modern luxury ships I'd already seen; it almost looked like a canal barge but after I had seen the interior I decided that I actually quite liked it as it fitted in well with the theme of the ship.

This was my first view of the ship and as I said it really took me by surprise. Everything was spotlessly clean and shining and was decorated in red wood and brass lending a very nautical theme to the reception.

This theme of red wood and brass was also continued right the way throughout the ship.

This is a quiet corner of the main reception with some very comfy wingback chairs to relax in before going out in port.

One of my complaints about the ship, (probably the only one in fact), was that some of the staircases were quite steep.

This is the main lounge. Again you can see the bar looks really nice and well appointed and the red wood and brass theme is continued again.

This is the main restaurant. I wasn't overly keen on some of the bench seats as I felt they were a little commercial but the overall impression was of a clean, stylish and well presented restaurant.

The suites on the Switzerland II are large but still don't have french balconies, just the outside windows. To make a suite the River Cruise Line have put two standard cabins together so the size of a suite is exactly double that of a normal outside cabin. They also have two bathrooms, one with a bath and a shower and the other with a toilet and sink.

This is a standard outside cabin. It looked comfortable enough if maybe a little old fashioned. My only issue was the bed configuration which was L-Shaped. A problem for some but maybe not others.

One of the mini suites onboard the ship. Like the full suites they have double beds but I think I actually prefer the layout to the mini suites. What do you think?

This is I think one of the quirkiest cabins I've ever seen however I really liked it so I thought I'd share it all with you. It's just a standard outside cabin at the front of the ships, (cabins 100 and 101), and as such will cost the exact same amount as any other standard outside cabin. However the River Cruise Line found that no one was using their onboard swimming pool so they took it out and converted the space into two new cabins but because of the shape the cabins were built on two levels. The beds are still configured into an L- Shape but you get a lot more floor space than a standard cabin - What do you think?

So that's the River Cruise Line, what did you think? Maybe not quite as nice as some of the luxury river cruise lines out there but I think for the price they charge they're ships are an amazing bargain.

Happy, (river), cruising