John Roberts’ Christmas Markets Cruise — QuirkyCruise Contributor & Cruise Expert to Host Holiday Cruise on Rhine River with Transcend Cruises

John Roberts’ Christmas Markets Cruise on the Rhine River

By Heidi Sarna

We love how involved in the travel world our contributing writers are. John Roberts is a great example.

In fact, John — who is owner of In The Loop Travel, a website and social media brand that focuses on active travel and cruising — is hosting an exclusive Christmas cruise on the Rhine River focused on the colorful Christmas markets of Germany.

John Roberts will host a Christmas Markets cruise in December of this year. * Photo: John Roberts

Roberts and his co-hosts and fellow travel content creators (Mikkel and Dan Woodruff of SometimesSailing and Justin and Lauren Ceksters of JustinPlusLauren.com) have created a special program for a week of fun on the Rhine River, December 17 to 24, 2023.

Christmas Markets cruise hosts, John Roberts (top) and below Mikkel and Dan Woodruff of SometimesSailing & Justin and Lauren Ceksters of JustinPlusLauren.

This Christmas Markets voyage will be a luxury, all-inclusive experience with Transcend Cruises on the ship Advance by Transcend.

This 110-passenger luxury vessel is the former Crystal Mahler from Crystal Cruises. The boat is owned by Riverside Luxury Cruises (Riverside owns the five former Crystal river boats, more details below) and is now known as Riverside Mahler.

Transcend Cruises, a new charter-only river cruise line focused on the luxury end of the market, is chartering the Riverside Mahler in 2023 and 2024 while it pursues plans to build a pair of new 120-passenger river vessels to debut in 2025.

Riverside Mahler, when she was still cruising for Crystal. * Photo: Crystal Cruises

RELATED: Anne Kalosh reports on the new charter-only river cruise company Transcend Cruises.

Subscribe to our monthly small ship cruise email

Subscribe to QuirkyCruise.com for monthly curated newsletters highlighting our top small cruise ship reviews, round-ups & offers!

The cruise program will feature celebrity chef Jon Ashton, who will lead cooking classes and special events and tours onboard and off the ship.

Prices for the all-inclusive sailing start at $3,325 per person (airfare and transfers are separate).

What makes this cruise special is the access you’ll have to cruise experts like John.

I asked John a few questions about his Christmas Markets cruise and how he got involved as a host.

QuirkyCruise: Have you hosted a cruise before?

John: This is the first cruise I have hosted.

QuirkyCruise: Why did you want to host a river cruise?

John: Transcend asked if I would be interested, and I thought it could be fun to host a river cruise, especially at Christmastime.

Having been on more than 120 cruises and more than 50 small-ship and river cruises (my favorite way to travel), it has always been my goal to inspire and inform travelers about what they can expect and how they might best enjoy and experience a particular cruise ship or destinations they visit.

Transcend and I discussed how it will be a nice opportunity to bring my In TheLoop Travel followers and community together on a cruise so we can experience a voyage in real time and I can show them some of what I’ve learned over the years and help them immerse themselves in these places the way I try to.

I’ve also asked Mikkel and Dan, Justin and Lauren, and chef Jon Ashton to join the cruise so they can reach their followers and fans in a bid to create a diverse cross-section of travelers to learn more about and potentially join our Christmas Markets cruise, which promises to be a wonderful experience.

John’s been on more than 120 cruises all over the world. * Photo: John Roberts

QuirkyCruise.com: What will your role be on board? Will you do any talks or lead any excursions?

John: We all will be available for informal meetings and in “ask us anything” mode during the voyage, whether sharing meals or on excursions or just hanging out in the lounge.

We will also be holding a formal panel discussion about how we got started in content creation and why we enjoy river cruising so much. We’ll also have sessions on the art of storytelling.

The idea is to help travelers learn a little more about photography (Mikkel is a professional photographer), social media and other methods to get what they want out of their trips and how to capture, preserve and share their experiences in any way that is important to them.

We enjoyed helping to create the shore excursion program, which is loaded with some cool stuff that you won’t find on the mass-market river lines during their Christmas Market cruises.

QuirkyCruise.com: Please share a few more details about the excursions and experiences.

John: Our curated onshore experiences will include a brewery tour and tasting of the famous smoke beer in Bamberg. We also have plans for a sunset cocktail event on a historic bridge overlooking the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.

There will be cooking classes led by Chef Jon Ashton and also wine tasting sessions onboard and at a vineyard ashore.

We plan for gingerbread decorating and live entertainment on the ship with local musicians.

And, we have built into the schedule plenty of free time for independent exploration and shopping at the markets, as well.

The beauty is the flexibility we have had in curating the experience to meet the interests of our guests.

For example, as I’m really into fitness, I will definitely be encouraging my fellow cruisers to join me on walks, bike rides (weather permitting), as well as morning stretch/yoga classes or gym workouts.

QuirkyCruise: Tell us a bit more about guest chef Jon Ashton.

John: This will be Jon’s first time working with Transcend Cruises. I was happy to make the connection between him and Transcend, and I’m glad they hit it off. Jon is a fantastic chef who has a wonderfully infectious upbeat personality. He has a passion for travel and sharing his knowledge of cooking with others.

I bet Transcend could end up partnering with him on future charter cruises.

Jon has a great reputation and has made regular appearances on the Today Show, the Tonight Show and has a history of working with a number of cruise lines, most notably Disney Cruise Line and a long-time partnership with Crystal Cruises.

Chef Jon Ashton. * Photo: JonAshton.com

QuirkyCruise: What’s the connection between Riverside & Transcend cruise lines?

John: Riverside Luxury Cruises is a luxury all-inclusive cruise line that was bought by a brother and sister from Hamburg, Germany, who also operate the Seaside Collection portfolio of resort hotels.

Recently, Riverside purchased the five former Crystal Cruises river boats and is launching them gradually.

For 2023, Riverside Cruises is operating two of the former Crystal river boats — the Riverside Mozart on the Danube River and Riverside Ravel on France’s Rhone River.

Riverside Mahler, as discussed above, has been chartered by Transcend for 2023 and 2024, to be called Advance by Transcend. Meanwhile, Riverside Bach and Riverside Debussy are scheduled to begin cruising next year in 2024.

For Transcend Cruises, since they want to get their custom-crafted charter-only cruise program underway before their two newbuilds are ready in 2025, it was a perfect fit to charter Mahler from Riverside.

Rendering of Transcend Cruises’ planned newbuild. * Rendering: Transcend Cruises

For more information about John Roberts’ Christmas Markets cruise, click here or leave a message below and John will get back to you right away!

Don’t miss a post about small-ship cruising, subscribe to QuirkyCruise.com for monthly updates & special offers!  

© This article is protected by copyright, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the author. All Rights Reserved. QuirkyCruise.com.