Suite

Avalon Waterways

River Cruises

Gay & Lesbian Cruises

Romantic Cruises

Singles Cruises

Cruises for the Disabled

Senior Cruises

Gourmet Food Cruises

Prague

Vienna

Europe - All

Europe - River Cruise

Europe River

Austria

Slovakia

Danube River

Excellent

Very Good

Average

Terrible

Poor

Avalon Panorama

Avalon Passion

Avalon Vista

Avalon Tapestry II

Avalon Imagery II

Avalon Visionary

Avalon Artistry II

Avalon Impression

La Palma

While most people were notified before they left home, we were not, that our cruise would not be sailing as planned.  I had no idea the river levels were too low in places until I arrived in Prague for the land portion of the cruise.  The theme of this so called river cruise was how many hours can we put you on a bus instead of enjoying your relaxing river cruise?  This cruise has been a joke from day 1 and when they finally announced mid-cruise that not only were we going to miss the first 2 days of our cruise, but also the last 2 days, most of the people onboard pitched a fit.  The cruise director who is an independent contractor, said hey, don't blame me, call Avalon.  She wanted everyone to smile and just take it apparently.  So what that we spent a fortune to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  I get it, they don't control the weather HOWEVER, if you can't deliver what you promised to people you should, at a minimum, give them a big discount.  And how about throwing in some free drinks or shore excursions.  Something to say we are sorry we cannot provide you with the experience you shelled out $10,000 for.  I could have bused/trained myself around the area for far less money.  What a rip off.  I will never book a river cruise again.  They don't even compare with ocean cruises.  The service is lousy and the food is pretty pathetic.  This was the biggest vacation disappointment ever.  DON'T BOOK AVALON.  They don't care what your experience is as long as they have already cashed the check.  It's going to be hard for them to stay in business when it gets around that they don't take care of their customers and won't do the right thing by them.

Don't book a river cruise - very expensive mistake

Let me preface this by saying we are not cruise people. We've only taken a couple of other cruises on small ships (Windstar - great!! and Antarctica excursion) but never a river cruise. We chose Avalon because they advertised a 3-Day Cruise Only option that allowed us to do only the river portion with them. We looked at the cruise as Room & Board and transportation only. We weren't interested in any group tours. We booked our own hotels in Vienna and Budapest and did our own thing in every port. Being very experienced world travelers (having already traveled independently to over 100 countries) we don't like groups. All that said, this seemed pretty easy. Wrong! 

The entire experience was annoying. From boarding the ship to leaving, we felt harassed. The cabins they touted as a room with a view, was adequate but nothing special. Food was really designed for the typical cruise population with an average age of 70. When I asked for a piece of fish with no sauce, which seems like an easy request, the waiter acted as if I was inconveniencing him. The cruise director was the most annoying person I've ever encountered in all my travels. And, above all else, no one on the staff seemed to understand the concept of Cruise Only. They kept paging us and asking about our arrangements. They were annoyed we weren't part of their group. What happened to "it's all about the customer?!"

The cruise itself: The ports were interesting — Melk, Durnstein, Bratislava and into Budapest. But river cruising is a very expensive way to see places if you are a good independent traveler. We spent three nights on the river and then three nights in Budapest at a very high-end hotel. When we added up all our expenses there, it turned out we spent half as much — and that included a huge suite, using the hotel car for touring, taking advantage of its spa, eating in some astoundingly fantastic restaurants, and being driven to the airport.

And, as if our experience on the ship wasn't bad enough, when I got home and received a welcome home email from Avalon asking for my feedback, I wrote back about some of the problems we had, and was planning to post a negative review on TripAdvisor, I received a reply telling me they were very busy and would take 5 – 8 weeks to reply. Seriously? That's how you reply to a customer who is unhappy? I didn't want anything from them other than to say you did a lousy job. The upshot was I requested to have my address — email, snail mail, and any future delivery systems — removed from all their databases. I do not want to receive anything from them.

I know lots of people who love river cruises. If you are one of them, be very careful before choosing Avalon. Customer service is not their strong suit.

Awful :-(

We had the most horrible travel experience of our lives on the Avalon Panorama Christmas cruise in December of 2011. From beginning to end, this trip was a nightmare.  Avalon began by making a mess of our airline reservations.  Had to pay a penalty to cancel their airline reservations and make our own.  When we finally got aboard the Panorama in Nuremberg, we were herded like cattle into the main room where we had to wait interminably to be assigned our rooms.  This was after a very tiring bus ride from Prague to Nuremberg.  

When we were finally settled in our cabin, we found that the elevator didn't work on the ship, and we are both senior citizens and found it very difficult to get around on the ship because of this.  

We were promised ethnic food aboard and that never materialized.  The food service was like a cattle call.  It was impossible to order only one course and have it served in a timely way.  

After arriving at Regensburg, we were given a heads up that we might not be able to go down the river due to the water level.  That is exactly what happened, and we were driven all over by bus and missed the ports we were promised and were at last driven to Bratislava, not on our itinerary, and not to Vienna where we were supposed to end our cruise.  I had purchased several extra days in Vienna, and had also purchased tickets to the Spanish Riding School over 14 months before the tour.  We had to leave the tour after being taken to Bratislava in order to be in Vienna for the performance we had so looked forward to.  The tour director, Robert, refused to help us get an extra night in Vienna, so we had to telephone directly to the hotel and they extorted 259 euros for that extra night.  Then they charged us an extra 100 euros to stay in the same room for the extra nights.

Avalon knew in advance that we wouldn't be able to sail down the river.  Other cruise lines informed their passengers before leaving their homes and gave them options.  Avalon did not do this even though they knew we couldn't have the cruise we paid for.  We had purchased travel insurance and could have recouped all of our money had we known in advance that we couldn't sail down the river.

Avalon has refunded two days of our cruise, but that doesn't even begin to repay us for the terrible bus rides, loss of several ports we were promised, and their general uncaring about the passengers' needs.  We spent most of the time on crowded buses and in my opinion were robbed of what was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime cruise.

My warning to future river cruisers is to book with anyone but Avalon.  Viking informed their passengers ahead of time and I was told that other cruise companies did the same.  Avalon did not!!!!  

Also, don't bother with trip insurance.  I bought expensive trip insurance and tried to collect for the extra costs in Vienna due to trip interruption, and have heard nothing from the trip insurers.  

I feel that we were treated unfairly by Avalon and they have been giving us the runaround since we got back about what they were going to do to rectify this situation.  A group of passengers on this cruise have been emailing back and forth, and the general consensus is that Avalon owes us four days worth of repayment due to the lost portions of our trip.  They have told us that they need four to six weeks to "investigate" this situation.  Why?  They know what happened. Also, I was informed that those of us who wrote letters to Globus and Avalon would be treated differently from the rest of the passengers.  Is this fair?  I don't think so.

My advice to any would-be river cruiser is to AVOID AVALON LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Nightmare before Christmas

Avalon Waterways Avalon Panorama River Cruises Reviews

Filters

1-3 of 3 Avalon Waterways Avalon Panorama River Cruises Reviews

Find an Avalon Panorama Cruise from $2,024

	Cabins
	Dining
	Entertainment