Avalon Panorama Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My Wife and I wanted to escape the USA with the backside of COVID and have the opportunity to try something totally different. After doing hours and hours of research we landed on a River cruise aboard the Panorama by Avalon. We had through a travel agent booked a week cruise from Amsterdam to Basel CH for 7 nights.
First impression was the crew was very welcoming and excited to have us on-board. The room was certainly as advertised with in my opinion on par with a nice Hilton or Hyatt hotel room quality. The bed was very comfortable and the doors opened as advertised with the fresh air being available.
The bathroom was spacious and updated quite nice with the shower producing better water pressure than I have experienced in really any hotel I have been in ;)
Cabin Review
Panorama Suite with French Balcony
We had Balcony room about midship. My recommendation would be to be on the 3rd floor and midship.. I noticed as you walked around while enroute/sailing the lower number rooms on the higher floors had less vibration and quieter. Not that any of the floor were bad but you could feel some vibration and some "creaking" as the boat made its way through the river. Nothing bad at all but something that we did make note of if I had to pick a room again I would want room say 304-325.
Having the door open at night even though it was chilly (mid october) was a real benefit and we had plenty of blankets to allow the temperature to dip in the room at night and not be chilled.
Bathroom was very good... Clean and good storage.. Was very impressed with water pressure and plenty of warm water too.
Port Reviews
Amsterdam
was simple for us to come from the USA to Amsterdam. We did not use the transportation so we ended up using the train to Amsterdam Central station. The boat was about a 10 min walk even with baggage to the boat which saved us a bunch of money etc. This was super nice after a long night flight from the states.
Basel
We did not book transportation from Basel to Zurich where we flew out of but had AVALON arrange a taxi from the Boat to the Basel Train SBB station. This was set up quite well but was about 45CHF for the car service. No issue there but be aware without prearranged service it was about a 20 mins ride and 45 CHF.