Earlier this year, I was asked to go on a seven-night Trafalgar Verity sailing departing from Arnhem. We've booked their tours quite a few times, but I'd never done a river cruise, nor had I sold one.

There's only two of us who sell in the shop, but we've done quite a bit of training with Trafalgar. It was the TTC (Travel Trade Corporation) Sales Manager for our area, Ryan Carroll, who said we should give it a go.

And do you know what? There's no one I would rather have sailed with for my very first river cruise. And Trafalgar is all I have spoken about for weeks since going on the fam trip.

'Passengers preferred the relaxed vibe'

I remember thinking the ship was much more luxurious than I thought it would be. That said, It was not overly fancy onboard. Nobody was getting dressed up, for instance. I think people preferred that more relaxed vibe.

The cabins were lovely. It was a bit strange though. We were in a standard cabin and you could see the waves crashing into the window. The food was amazing every single night.

What about the entertainment? There was a woman who played Celine Dion and Queen hits on the violin. That was when we were in Cologne. I quite liked it. 

It might be an age thing, but the performance only lasted about 30 minutes. I thought it could have been longer, but then again, I'm not sure everyone onboard would have wanted it to go on all night, particularly those older guests.

Shauni Robinson

We took two land tours during the cruise. One was to Michael Schumacher's private collection of cars. I really like cars. A few of the agents went to that. It was in a huge aircraft hanger where, apparently, Lufthansa was started.

The second trip was a walking tour of Koblenz. The tour guide took us to places that were not publicly advertised. It was so interesting.

'A lot of customers have booked for this year'

It was absolutely roasting at the time, though, so it was nice to get back onboard. We went up on the sundeck and actually spend a bit of time up there while we were cruising. It would have been nice to have had a little plunge pool onboard.

I'm now hoping to make some Trafalgar river cruise bookings, but a lot of our customers have already booked their river cruises for the year, or their holidays more generally.

We have one couple who are very loyal to Riviera Travel, but are thinking about cruising with another line. A lot of our customers are retired and they often make high value river cruise bookings.

I think Trafalgar will do well with their river cruise product because their tours are so good. It is really hard to get customers away from the river cruise that they like. I'm now trying to get people away from ocean cruise and instead book a river cruise.

If you're going without kids or you're a little bit older, I think you should be considering a river cruise. I would really love to sell a Mekong river cruise. It is just trying to get your foot in the door because there are so many river cruise lines.

As soon as you have been on a Trafalgar river cruise, you could very easily go on another.

As told to TTG's Harry Kemble.