We have been on previous river cruises, but always with Avalon Cruises, we thought that with a reputation like Fred Olsen this cruise would be of the same standard, Oh how wrong we were. The only thing that matched Avalon was the food.
Everything else was poor, it was not even a Fred Olsen cruise, but a Luftner Cruise and only one person on the whole boat actually worked for Olsen, the hygiene ...
Done a lot of Ocean Cruising but never a River Cruise. This one coincided with our timetable. The Itinerary - Rhine and Moselle attracted us and the reality met our hopes. The stops chosen were good. Perhaps a little longer in one or two of them would have been nice. Obviously smaller than a Cruise ship but for its size was spacious and well laid out with nice lounges. Our Cabin was on the ...
The whole experience from booking to returning to Heathrow afterwards was really well organised and enjoyable.
The cabin was spacious enough for two, with floor to ceiling sliding glass doors. Fine for watching the scenery slip by when the Sun Deck got too hot. The shower provided plenty of hot water, a definite plus.
The food was of premium quality and the staff all friendly and ...
I have never been on a river cruise before, but after a very fast embarkation , we were settled into our cabin, not large, but comfortable and always plenty of hot water & very efficient toilet. Dinner the first evening was okay, but pleased to say food improved considerably over the week and they were very good with my lactose intolerance and I was able to choose for the day at breakfast, from ...
I chose this cruise on the recommendation of my travel partners who had travelled with the company on sea cruises. Ship rather tired needs maintenance , balcony door did not open and cabin door flew open during the night would not lock from inside.
Expectations were high and not met the cabins fine and housekeeping staff worked hard under great pressure.
Food not bad lack of fruit had to ask ...
We did this cruise starting at Basel and finishing in Dusseldorf. If I did it again I would do it in the other direction. This is becuase some of the quaint places that the ship docks at in the Basel-Dusseldorf direction are only stopped at for a few hours - such as Cochem - and we would have preferred longer. In the opposite direction you get longer there and not so long in the other places. ...
First for the postives, we travelled for less than £1000 each and the scenery was absolutely beautiful - particularly the Moselle River! We had not been to Germany before and the castles, vineyards and pretty villages were lovely. A river cruise is a slow and relaxing way to enjoy rural parts of Germany that we otherwise may not have been able to enjoy.
In terms of our experience of the Fred ...
The room was nice and clean. On the first night I had fish which was translucent in the middle and not too nice so I left it. It lay heavy and around midnight I was violently sick and had diarrhoea. I took medicine but ate little for 5 days. With temperatures in the mid 30 it was bad. The coffee station cups were rinsed in the sink, not washed and one waiter put 3 handfulls of ice cubes into ...