You learn a lot about a cruising company when something doesn't go to plan, and Avalon's poor decisions have prompted us with the final verdict of "0 stars, never again". Our Christmas Market cruise was dramatically altered due to high water conditions on the Danube. Avalon was faced with the same dilemma as other cruise lines, and as you'll read, failed across the board with their ...
I selected this Cruise company because it fit our plan to see the Oberammergua Passion Play with a Danube River Cruise. This was our 3rd river cruise. The pre-trip was TERRIBLE. The cruise was DELIGHTFUL.
One of the Reservation clerks was extremely rude to me. Our travel agent called the office and was put on HOLD every time for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours before getting to talk to the ...
Had 7-previous AVALON river cruises. They lost my wife's suitcase for FOUR DAYS on their transfer from Paris to Saint Malo. On 2nd day, the tour guide told us they had video of the suitcase being loaded on the bus in Paris and it was probably stolen. On the 3rd day, told us that they think they found it and it should arrive by that evening...It didn't. On the evening of the 4th day, the suitcase ...
My wife and her elderly parents booked Avalon Waterways Blue Danube Discovery Cruise. This was intended to be a "trip of a lifetime" for my 88-year-old mother-in-law. My father-in-law, who is 90, had been saving for years to make her dream a reality. Despite spending nearly $8,500, this dream, was instead a nightmare.
While they were still healthy enough to participate in such an adventure, my ...
We were comparing Viking and Avalon as we knew nothing about either. We chose Avalon as it was the right timing and we received free air fare. Lol. We really didn't know much about destinations or places we wanted to see but thought we would start with the Danube and see what that was like. We quickly found that the destination was only part of the trip. We enjoyed every minute of the time we ...
We chose to go on this cruise to experience five countries in a leisurely manner, taking in the passing scenery from our Stateroom. To be fair, we were not too bothered about excursions or onboard entertainment, so our rating in this area may not be important to others.
Had the trip gone according to plan I have no doubt I would be giving Avalon five stars. The five days we cruised, out of ...
We had high expectations for our first (and LAST) river cruise last summer to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We had no idea that there were issues with low water levels until we landed in Prague. Most other people were told before they left town they could cancel for a full refund - we were not. After purchasing Business Class tickets, we didn't think it made sense to turn around and ...
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 ...
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 ...
Has Avalon lost the plot or are they about to sink into murky water?
One would think so by our experience. Picked up at 4.30am in the morning, in Amsterdam by 10.25am we were taken to a hotel where a meeting room has been hired and told we have a choice, sit there until 4.00pm before we go to the ship with provided refreshments of lukewarm coffee in jugs, or go and walk around Amsterdam centre ...