Having been only on the larger cruise lines this was my first time on a smaller River Cruise trip. I wanted the smaller more intimate ship and was looking forward to sailing into smaller ports which the larger ships cannot necessarily visit. While I have no other River Cruise line to compare to, Avalon left me with the overall impression that it provides a comfortable journey (beds were good and nice shower), however I find myself having difficulty raving about any aspects that might be outstanding. The meals were good but not great. I have difficulty remembering a single meal, I think I expected more gourmet cooking, though presentation was always lovely. Breakfast became a bore as it was the same items every day.

Definitely no evening activities to entertain. We had one classical trio concert in the middle of an afternoon, which I would have preferred in the evening for some lively entertainment and socializing after. After dinner, and certainly by 9:30 pm the ship was a ghost town. Only the one lounge, and another smaller coffee lounge, but most people were in their cabins as there was nothing organized, cultural or social. The on board movie options in your cabin was a welcome option once I realized there was no effort to make the journey memorable. As a solo traveler there was no effort by Avalon to make me feel comfortable or to introduce me to other solo or independent travelers. With an open seating arrangement for meals you had to be assertive and go up to diners to see if it was okay to join their table.

Avalon staff were more functional than social. If you had a question they attempted to answer it, otherwise they merely stood at attention. I thought there would be more personality to the smaller passenger size ship, but no. If I look at Avalon as merely transport that got me from place to place then they succeeded. However, would I recommend this particular cruise line? Hard to say....as there was nothing overly wonderful and memorable that would make me choose them again. My motivation at this time would be to focus on the ports I want to visit. The local our guides were good and I think Avalon relies alot on the local knowledge of the tour guides to make the trip worthwhile. Every morning we were in one port with sailing resuming as we ate lunch very often. Certainly no real opportunity to stay on and explore on your own instead of having lunch on the ship. Even the day when a bus was taking passengers to Brussels for the optional tour, the morning excursion still had to come back to the ship as the ship was sailing at lunch. And when we landed on a Sunday, be prepared for most places to be closed. Why Avalon doesn't adjust the ports to make sure you are not in a place where things are closed on a Sunday baffles me. An overnight stay in one place would have been nice and I would definitely look for that if I took another River Cruise. The only place we had that was in Amsterdam the day before we left which wasn't much of a bonus as I had that option available to me since I booked my own airfare. Read more