Avalon Impression Review

First River Cruise: A Complete Success!

Review for Europe River Cruise on Avalon Impression
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71Bruin
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jul 2016
Cabin: Panorama Suite with French Balcony

We are experienced ocean cruisers (17 cruises, including Disney (2), Princess (2) and mostly Royal Caribbean (13) but we had never tried a River Cruise. We chose a 7 day "Legendary Danube" cruise which included 3 nights pre-cruise in Prague. We added two additional nights at the end in Budapest, also through the cruise line. We could not have been happier with our experience!! We chose Avalon after doing research on a number of lines. Their ships tend to be newer (ours was 2 years old), they tend to get predominantly American, English, Canadian and Australian cruisers so language is not an issue. Their price was extremely competitive with the top river cruise lines and the reviews I read were mostly very good.

They placed us at the Intercontinental Hotel in both Prague and Budapest (two outstanding European cities that did not disappoint!), which were both extremely well located, had great breakfasts (included) and were well appointed. Our Cruise Director (Valatin) was OUTSTANDING!!! He met us at the hotel in Prague and was with us until we checked into our hotel post cruise. He was very experienced, made everyone feel special and that he was there to make our cruise vacation an unqualified success. As an example, one of our friends caught a cold/flu and missed one of our excursions and he called her room to see how she was doing, offered to get her medicine, food etc. He was always available, answered any question that was posed to him and narrated a couple of our sailings (the Wachau Valley and a morning sail into Budapest) with interesting facts which enhanced our cruise experience. The entire staff were friendly, helpful and always seemed to have smiles on their faces.

The ship itself was wonderful. Our room was great (see below) and we had a small lounge area at the back of the ship with a nice big screen TV, coffee, tea, juice, cookies etc. We watched portions of some of the Euro Cup semi's and finals and had a great time. The dining room was well appointed and the food was very good. Breakfast was a buffet with an egg station, lunch and dinner were served tableside. Just like on ocean cruises, there were always certain dinners (steak ,chicken, a fish dish and a vegetarian dish) available if you didn't like the choices on the daily menus. Beer, wine and soft drinks were available at dinner with iced tea available at both lunch and dinner. The large lounge where we had our "port talks" was very nicely done with a big bar, a piano and lots of seating.

Cabin Review

Panorama Suite with French Balcony

Cabin P

Smaller than ocean cruises but well appointed, with a very nice bathroom and shower (tile, granite, very good toiletries etc). Comfortable bed, well lit, good choice of movies on the television and decent choice of news channels in English. (I guess neither Ocean cruises, hotels in Europe nor River Cruises can have "entertainment" type channels in English only news and financial. Saw a lot of CNN, Bloomberg, BBC etc) The suitcases fit very easily under the bed and the desk area was well designed. Bottled water in the cabin whenever we needed it. A little light on storage for clothes.

Port Reviews

Nuremberg

Nice way to start the cruise. Saw the castle and the town center.

Regensburg

Incredible tour of Weltenburg Abby and walking this medieval city. Nice way to spend the day!

Passau

Took a full day excursion to Salzburg. Wonderful City, lots to see. Had a very relaxed lunch at a café on a side street and let life walk by. Visited a couple of sites related to the Sound of Music, including the Church (outside Salzburg) where the wedding in the film took place.

Vienna

Nice to see one of the most popular Cities in Europe.

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