Avalon Paris embarkation day

We will be taking our first river cruise in July. We will be on the Avalon Creativity. Our plane arrives in Paris at 9:30AM. Since this is our first trip to Europe we have a lot of questions. How long will it take to get through customs? Since Avalon is doing transfers, where will they take us? Will there be time to see anything in Paris that day? What would you suggest? Thanks for any advice.

Avalon always takes you to a hotel to meet. When we went three years ago Avalon offered an optional excursion to the Eiffel Tower. Last year they did not offer that excursion.

Did you sign up for the "My Avalon" on the Avalon website. That will give you the particulars of what hotel they will be using this year so you can plan accordingly

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Thanks for the info. Did you like the Eiffel Tower tour? If they do not offer it is there something else close to the hotel to see?

We didn't do the tour because we spent three days in Paris independently. If you do get the opportunity to go to the Eiffel Tower with Avalon go for it. That will save you the hassle of ordering the timed tickets online yourself and then figuring when to go during your time in Paris

The hotel Avalon used when we went was the Pullman Montparnase. I'm not crazy about the location from a tourist standpoint because it is located in the business section of Paris with many modern buildings. There are quite a few lovely sidewalk cafes in the area.

I'm sure the Avalon rep can give you advice on how to get to nearby points of interest. There are so many in Paris.

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You can't be certain about the hotel until you get your documents about a month before you leave. Last year we did Avalon from Paris to Amsterdam and stayed in the Hotel du Collectionneur Arc de Triomphe Paris which was very nice and well located. This year we're sailing Avalon from Nice to Paris, and we're at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand. It didn't even show up on the Avalon web site before we got our documents.

I would advise you to look for something to do in Paris. If you don't have time before embarking on the ship, you'll have free time when you return to Paris. Download a Paris map to your smartphone that you can use without needing to access your data plan. Watch a couple of YouTube videos about how to navigate the subways. Plan for some things you want to see. And you're good to go.

We will be on the Avalon Creativity 7/4 sailing. We received our documents yesterday (early mailing since we'll be leaving for Europe 2 months before the cruise) and it lists the hotel as the Pullman Montparnase.