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The Avalon Tranquility is a beautiful ship with an outstanding staff. Our first three days in Prague staying at the Hotel Intercontinental were perfect. We were within walking distance to the Jewish Quarter which was so interesting and informative. We attended services at the Spanish Synagogue on Friday night.
We spent one night on a Tasting Tour of Prague with a lovely young Czech couple and four other tourists and really learned about their history under Communist rule along with the wonderful food that was presented at each stop along our walk.
Three day later we were bussed down to the ship docked in Nuremberg. Our cabin was clean and comfortable with plenty of storage and a french balcony. We entered our cabin immediately and our luggage came in about five minutes. We met couples from all over the world and enjoyed them all. People were very friendly and we enjoyed everyone we met.
Tours were very good to excellent. Nuremberg was not very interesting. We only took the included tour and missed the Hall of Justice. Regensburg was a beautiful and very walkable town. We loved the Benedictine Abbey in Melk, but there was no time to explore the town.In Vienna we chose the optional musical presentation at night. The musicians were exceptional and we enjoyed the evening even though this was a concert just for tourists. Budapest was very interesting and we enjoyed the city tour.
We chose to spend six more days after the cruise spending four days in Krakow, Poland to see Auschwitz and returned to Budapest for two days. We made this vacation into a Jewish heritage tour, visiting Terezin in Prague also.
I was very impressed with all the staff aboard the Tranquility except for the Cruise Director. I wrongly assumed the port talk every night would be about the town we were sailing to the next day. Instead it was nothing but the optional additional expensive tours to purchase. He did work very hard, but his personality was not very warm and friendly.
I think Avalon could skip some of the entertainment except for the last night. The man with the foot long beard was awful. I also skipped the next person and went to bed. The last night on board the violinist and piano player were wonderful musicians. Everyone really enjoyed them.
Food and wine on board was very good to excellent. We enjoyed dining outside on the top deck for lunch.
Avalon did an outstanding job in pampering guests and I would not hesitate to take another cruise with this company.
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