My husband and I have cruised on upscale larger ships and also took a Viking river cruise in China. We looked forward to a new travel experience in Europe.
We started in Prague and stayed at the Intercontinental offered by Avalon. On the first day, and Avalon rep gathered us in a meeting room, provided a glass of champagne and then reviewed to trip. We were quite disappointed that there was no opportunity to meet other passengers, maybe by providing hors d'oeuvres and a social atmosphere. No clue as to where to spend our time or suggested restaurants in the area. Breakfast was good and the provided castle tour was nice plus the tour of the town square. The Avalon desk was not attended for most of our time there.
Our transfer to the ship was add. While there was commentary by a guide, they stopped at a gas station like a 7-11 where we could purchase our own snacks. This was a 5 hour trip! Surprising to us that no food was provided like a box lunch. None of us spoke the local language and we did not have local money, Avalon didn't care.
Our cabin was clean and well laid out with enough storage space. Our cabin steward, Laylo (or close) was excellent. One criticism: While the idea of being able to open the window for a panoramic view while cruising is nice, in reality that resulted in a lot of bugs in the cabin. A small balcony with a table and chairs (using 1/3 of the window space) and the rest for a panorama view may have been a better idea.