I chose this particular cruise because at the time I booked it, it was the only two-week river cruise over the Christmas and New Year's holidays in that part of Europe.
The ship was beautiful and the cruise was wonderful. The tours were interesting and enlightening and covered a lot of areas, some by bus and some on foot, including quaint medieval villages, wonderful cities and beautiful countryside. The food and service in the dining room were exceptional, and the on-board entertainment was, with a couple of exceptions, outstanding. One disappointment was the extremely loud (huge amplifiers in a very small space) rock band on New Year's Eve. The majority of the passengers were an older generation and didn't appreciate the ear-splitting music. A small percentage of the younger passengers enjoyed it, as did the crew, who were allowed to party with the passengers that night. But, most passengers gave up and went to their cabins early.
My cabin was on the lowest deck and only had high windows as most of the cabin was below the water line. But, it was roomy, well designed, and very comfortable with plenty of storage. Unfortunately, I had a problem with only cool air flowing from my heat vent. There was a simple dial for temperature and a switch for the fan. And, according to other passengers, they were using those controls the same way I was. However, after being moved to a different cabin and still having cold air blowing out of the vent, I was more or less told that I was the problem, not the heating system, and I was instructed not to touch the controls. So, in my case, the "separate heating and cooling controls for each cabin" as shown in Avalon's brochure were useless.
Was moved from one stateroom room to another due to cold air blowing from vent in first room. Same thing happened in second room. The ship's manager made me feel that I was the problem -- not the heating system. It wasn't a good experience.