Choose another cruise line. We will not sail with Avalon again in the future. I can not, will not, trust anything that Avalon claims in their false advertising about their alleged ports. Please understand, I am _not_ criticizing Avalon because the ports had to be changed. I _am_ criticizing them because they utterly failed to communicate those changes to their customers. They withheld (intentionally) vitally important information that materially changed the tour.
We sailed with AMA Waterways several years back and highly recommend them. We have also sailed with Azamara (not a river cruise) and also highly recommend them.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
No problems, we handled the details ourselves. Rated at 3 stars because Avalon not involved.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The service was outstanding, the food was adequate, with a weak start that improved somewhat during the week. The wine and beer were drinkable, for the most part. We purchased our own when we wanted good wine. Avalon needs a wine and beer package for better selections.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Slim to none.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Avalon brought in a few entertainers. I did not care for them. Others in my group liked one of the acts.
Children's Programs
1 out of 5
N/A. There are no children's activities. This is an adult cruise.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Five stars for all of the crew but one, the cruise director, and he was a two or three-star (at best). So, four stars overall.
Other than the Cruise Director, Stefan (sp?), the remainder of the crew was fantastic. Special shout-out to the Dining Manager, Vassil (sp?), and two of his staff: Deris and Sandar. They were amazing.
Stefan, however, is clearly burned out and "phoning it in." He did a terrible job in keeping us informed and several of the bus trip meeting times and locations were disorganized, to put it nicely. He would drop last minute (night before) notices on us that the itinerary (including port locations) was being changed. When I pointed out to him that this was not the cruise that Avalon had (falsely?) advertised, one that we had relied on in booking independent tours, his response was a shrug of the shoulders and disinterested "so what?" response. He made it very clear that he really doesn't give a damn what Avalon says or what plans the customers may have made. "To hell with you and your plans," although not so stated, was clearly his attitude. He just doesn't care anymore. . .
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Very comfortable, plenty of space, and generally overall well served. The cabin steward twice ignored the laundry bag request we had set out, but that's ok. He then had to put up with our laundry hanging to dry in the bathroom . . .
Ship tip
Sail with another cruise line. Avalon does not honor its itinerary.
Very nice visit to Colmar in the morning (optional tour), though if we had it to do over again, we would not. It was nice, but the cost and amount of time on the bus to and from the port made this not a great value. The afternoon bike tour in the Black Forest (optional) was outstanding. This should be offered as a full-day option.
Beautiful town, great tours. The "bites and highlights" tour (included) in the morning was outstanding, but more so for the sites than the food. The "Alsace Countryside and Vineyard" tour (optional) was outstanding.
We did not visit this port because ????? Avalon (falsely) advertised that we had a scheduled stop in Mainz, with long bus-ride excursions to Heidelberg. This was a lie. False advertising, possibly with the intent to prevent use of local tour companies? We found out the night before that scheduled stop that we would be stopping at Heidelberg instead. With an afternoon follow-up in Mainz to pick up the Heidelberg participants. This completely screwed-up all of our independently booked tours we had schedule in Mainz. Avalon knew, or should have known, that the stop was going to be in Heidelberg, but they said nothing in advance. The cruise director just didn't care to explain other than to say: "too bad."
Another instance of false or misleading information from Avalon. I booked this cruise far in advance, in hopes of seeing at least some of a Koblenz fireworks show. I called. Avalon, repeatedly, in the year before the trip to see if this might be possible? Avalon reps repeatedly responded: "Wait and ask the cruise director." When I asked him, he responded, in so many words,: "No way that this ship will be allowed in Koblenz that night because of those fireworks." And he pointed out that an evening excursion had been added that would be in another port. In other words, Avalon knew, or should have known, that we would not be stopping in Koblenz and should have told me in advance. I am _not_ blaming them for the change in itinerary, but for intentionally misleading us by stating that they did not know this in advance. Clearly, they did. We did stop in a port many miles downstream and then were bussed back to Koblenz for those tours. The "E-bike though the Moselle Vineyards" tour was awful. It was a long slog on a busy highway with cars driving at high speeds only inches away. Nothing scenic or relaxing about it. We stopped at a small town somewhere, not quite sure where or why, as neither of the tour guides explained anything other than: "Get off your bikes and we will see you in thirty minutes." When the Avalon "activities director" asked where the public restrooms are located?, the response was: "There aren't any, go buy something at a bar and use the restroom there." The bikes were filthy and in very poor repair (one e-bike stopped working altogether). Sadly, we returned by another route that was, for a short while, quite lovely. When I asked the tour guide why we did not ride that route both ways (rather than the ugly, crowded, busy, highway)?, he replied: "Oh, we wanted to give you some variety." He was the only guide on our trip that I did not tip.
The e-bike tour in the morning was wonderful (despite gear issues with my bike) and highly recommended. Dusseldorf was nice, but dirty with garbage and a lot of broken glass. We were there on a Sunday morning and apparently it is quite the party town . . .
Lovely city, great excursions. We highly recommend the "canal cruise" tour. The optional "bites and highlights" tour was also quite nice, but there was a lot of overlap in the information being presented between the two tours. So much so that it appears they were sharing the same script. Still, both great guides.
Revised star ratings to reflect that while Luzern and Basel were lovely, Avalon had nothing to do with that. Same for the easy embarkation and disembarkation details that we handled ourselves.
Sorry to hear this. We river cruised the same route from Basel to Amsterdam in 2010 and rated Avalon 5 star. A shame the quality has gone down that far.
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