Lovely ship, our cabin fantastic, great food, very friendly staff (mostly), scenery on Rhine and Moselle Rivers excellent. For elderly people with mobility issues or people like me on crutches after a knee operation, this may not be the cruise for you. The vast majority of passengers on this cruise were aged from 60 to 80. Thankfully most were fairly mobile because many of the shore tours were walking tours. There was always a slow walking tour but the distance was the same. I can't, at the moment, walk 3 kms plus on crutches to see a Windmill. On one occasion we were supposed to walk approximately 1 km to a wine tasting place. The problem was it was hot, over 30 degrees. I and a few others took a Taxi which the Cruise Director somewhat reluctantly arranged. The rest of the passengers who did walk, were obviously hot and bothered upon reaching the winery place and most returned to the ship after only a few minutes, obviously not looking forward to the hot walk back. There were other occasions when buses should have been utilised. The Cruise Director, who was quite fit, gave me the impression us less mobile passengers were a bit of a nuisance.

Avalon provided free drinks with dinner. I was disappointed at times towards the end of the meal to find it difficult to have your drink refreshed. I hope this was because the staff were busy and not because they were trying to save Avalon money. If I were to do a River Cruise again I would go Scenic Cruises. Their cruises are all inclusive and from past experience I have a feeling they would be more attentive to the needs of less mobile passengers. A comparison of prices shows not a great difference between Scenic and Avalon.