We just finished our July 3-10 Rhine River cruise with Avalon and really enjoyed the experience. A Felicity post cruise report started by TravelingLadyOhio includes a lot of additional information. That string can be found at:

mailto:http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php%3Ft=1444641

We flew into Zurich 2 days early to adjust a little to the time change and toured on our own. We stayed at the Sheridan Neues Schloss Hotel using points. The hotel was reasonably located, allowing us to tour of Zurich by foot the first day. The highlight of our pre-cruise stay was the second day trip to Mt Pilatus/Lucerne. If you have an extra day, this is an easy excursion using the Swiss Rail system (including Mt Pilatus cog railway and cable car system). Lucerne is more of a casual town in contrast to the more stoic feel of Zurich. We felt the Zurich sight seeing trolley excursion was a waste of time and money - bad audio, redundant stops with a self-walking tour, and a driver who though he was in training for a Gran Prix. Read more