Avalon Visionary Review

4.0 / 5.0
83 reviews

Has Avalon lost the plot or are they about to sink into murky water?

Review for Europe River Cruise on Avalon Visionary
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2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2016
Cabin: Outside Stateroom with Window

Has Avalon lost the plot or are they about to sink into murky water?

One would think so by our experience. Picked up at 4.30am in the morning, in Amsterdam by 10.25am we were taken to a hotel where a meeting room has been hired and told we have a choice, sit there until 4.00pm before we go to the ship with provided refreshments of lukewarm coffee in jugs, or go and walk around Amsterdam centre which was twenty minutes walk away. Okay, fair enough, we were early, although not our fault Avalon had booked the aircraft, so we wandered off, carrying all our belongings being no secure storage.

Now to the boat (which we've decided it to be rather than a ship) and to a 'State Room' sold in the brochure to us as spacious with panoramic floor to ceiling window and comfortable seating, while we cruised along through the tulip fields of Holland.

Cabin Review

Outside Stateroom with Window

Cabin D

In our case the 'State Room' should be more aptly named 'Cabin in the Bilges' as a better description. The panoramic window turned out to be two narrow slits looking out at the concrete side of the jetty. Although to be fair, when the boat was cruising you could look out, if you stood on your bed and held onto the ledge that is!

The end of the bed was eleven inches from the dressing table, either side of the bed twelve inches from walls. The single chair (not two, one for each of us) to sit on, was more like a one you'd find in a kitchen, jammed under the dressing table with not enough room to be pulled out and use.

Then, if you wanted a wet shave, forget it, far too dark in an en-suite that could only be described as bijou, or in practical terms so small that if the boat hit the jetty at least you couldn't fall over.

This was obviously not a cabin for two, but a converted single cabin, where the bed won't fit the room and an en-suite that you can't actually turn round in.

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