Avalon Luminary

Overall, we loved the cruise. The Avalon ship and its practices could use some improvement, however. Lectures could only be heard from top deck or the lounge, but not in your cabin. On days where morning and afternoon tours were scheduled, we barely had time to get back, eat and rush out again. Dinner options weren't great, tho food presentation was good. The dining room was stifling hot on several dates when temps got into the 90's. There was only one pillow option--too soft for me. Cabin was quite cozy--only one chair. Our bed faced aft, so not good viewing from the bed. Needed more tour options in Cologne, as it was Sunday, the included tour was less than 90 minutes and we were there all day. Aside from seeing the cathedral, we were bored. Most of the tours were quite good.  I would choose a different cruise company next time--we liked Uniworld overall much better, but they didnt offer the same itinerary....

I loved the opportunity to float down the river and take in all the awesome scenery. The included excursions were great - my only recommendation would be to have an option for folks to spend a longer time to explore. For example, in Vienna we only had an hour to enjoy a coffee at one of the 2700 cafes and visit the shops. We did not feel comfortable arranging our own "ride" back to the ship. Otherwise all of the excursions were great. 

We had a very good experience on the Avalon "Luminary" even though we were diverted to a 2 night hotel stay due to high water levels on the Danube.  Though we were all understandably upset to have to pack up and miss some of our itinerary, we really enjoyed Munich and the additional tours that Avalon arranged for us at no additional charge.  Avalon covered all of our hotel and meal expenses while we were off the ship.  We had some great food experiences at the lovely German restaurants and were actually very happy that we got to tour this region.  After the 2 nights in Munich, we were able to rejoin our ship and finish the cruise.  Our tour director and Avalon really took excellent care of us and we have no complaints with the revised itinerary. 

The Avalon "Luminary" is a very clean and comfortable ship.  The crew really goes out of their way to provide friendly and excellent service.  We liked our smallish but thoughtfully arranged cabin with the large sliding glass doors.  There is plenty of storage and the bed is comfortable.  We would have preferred down pillows though.

We can only give the food three stars, especially compared to the larger ocean cruise ships.  Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style and have decent choices, but nothing exceptional.  They could really work on their dinner entrees, the fish dishes especially were disappointing.  They did serve a very nice rack of lamb one night and the beef tenderloin was especially good.  But, very few vegetables and salads were offered with dinner and the desserts could use improvement too.

Overall, we felt that we had a very nice cruise experience.  The itinerary was good and we saw some very beautiful and dramatic scenery along with some quaint towns and exciting cities.  The local guides were fun and provided a lot of interesting information.  We did like that there was something to do at least once a day off the ship, unlike the large cruise ships that have several at sea days.  Avalon does a great job with their personnel and we felt pampered and appreciated.