II took this Avalon cruise only six months after we took a cruise on a Viking ship up the Danube so I felt I was in a good position to compare the two cruise lines. First I’ll say both cruises were a lot of fun. One plus for the Avalon was it had much fewer passengers which made the trip more personal. Viking had 190 passengers versus the Avalon’s 109 passengers. The stateroom on the Avalon was nicer than Viking, too. The Viking’s bathroom had a shower that only had a shower curtain separating it from the rest of the bathroom. Avalon had a shower with an actual door and nicer fixtures. Both rooms had plenty of storage. The food was slightly better on the Avalon but neither riverboat should be considered gourmet dining, like an Oceania cruise line for instance. The tour guides Avalon had were far better than Viking’s, although they were all contractors. Both staffs were very outstanding, although the cruise director on the Avalon seemed to be bothered every time we asked her a question. She usually answered with “you can find that answer in your newsletter… but I’ll tell you anyway”. Also, there are so many Viking boats, they always dock against each other so you never really have a view from port.
One major flaw the Avalon Felicity had was we could smell cooking and exhaust fumes through the ventilation system in our room. We talked to two other couples who said the same thing. That in itself would mean I’d never recommend the Felicity boat.
Overall both were fun trips and a great way to get a brief glimps of some cities that you might not otherwise easily see.