Our first river cruise and we LOVED it!. Favorite part was cruising thru the Rhine Gorge and seeing the castles. Cabin was spacious, bed super comfy and bathroom gorgeous. We had plenty of room for everything. Dining room experience was the very best - delicious, innovative gourmet food, lovely setting, and service was attentive and thoroughly professional. The whole ship was beautiful, sparkling, and perfect! We also liked the idea of a smaller number of passengers; by the end of the week, we were family! We found all the staff to be friendly and helpful in every way. The only tiny flaw in the ointment was that the shore excursions were not really set-up to accommodate people with walklng problems. My husband was unable to participate in most of them as were several others that we encountered. I realize that old cities have lots of cobblestones and touring favorite sites requires walking but I am wondering if there could be more abbreviated tours so that less able individuals could take part and not have to stay behind on ship. Will definitely do another Avalon cruise. (Wish the Baltic Sea was on the itinerary.) In conclusion, we had such a wonderful time that we did not want to leave the ship when the trip was over!!!