Daisi

Thanks, but I like to plan everything out and know costs before I go to my TA for booking. If I can't find what I want by the site, I look at other lines. This is also why I avoid Scenic, as they have to many problems with their website. I'm perfectly happy with Avalon, and they do have pretty much the same itineraries, so no big deal.

I see what you mean. Sorry, I'm to used to Avalon, where I can book what cabin I want and easily add on extra days both pre and post cruise. Thanks for pointing that out, I had been looking at one of the Ama cruises, but maybe not.

Actually, on the Ama website, just select "Cruises", then select the cruise you wish to take. Once you have that open, on the top, there will be a series of buttons - overview, itinerary, ships, gallery, dates & prices, and connections. You can find pricing under the dates & prices.

Yes, when you go on the city tours, there are slow walkers, and regular or active walkers. You will see the same on the slow walkers, but you are more constantly walking so while no real "rest" until the end of the tour where you have free time (less than the more active walker). I am fine walking, but both my husband & I have problems standing for periods of time, so we enjoy the constant walking. Plus, it's great for taking photos, we had "lookouts" to keep eyes on the guide, so we could grab pictures and quickly catch up. Avalon has also added an Adventure host to add activities for the times you will be on board sailing to the ports, and lead the active tours.

Just curious, will this interfere with the cruises starting up, or is it in a more industrial area?

Avalon also has the varied walking tours, and offers multiple tours for same day excursions. I think what the spokesperson meant was their special active tours that they have started. Depending on which cruise, you will have biking, hiking, kayaking etc. I prefer the slow walkers on the Avalon tours as it's great for photography. We see just as much, but our guides walk and talk instead of rushing us past places of interest and standing in an area where they will talk for a while telling you about what you just passed. We never had to sit and wait for others to catch up, it was a gentle stroll, but if you saw interesting things along the way, you could ask then and shoot a quick photo instead of trying to find your way back after. The only thing I think we missed out on was an extra 1/2 hr or so after (read 1/2 hr to shop instead of 1) after the tour for wandering around.

@QueenofEverythingyou didn't say where you are cruising. On the European ships, there usually is an electrical outlet on the side of the bed against the wall. I know this, because I make sure I get my side of the bed on the wall because I tend to be on my tablet longer than DH, and don't want to disturb him plugging it in to charge. If you know your cabin #, and do the virtual tour of the ship on Avalon's site, you can check out which side of the bed will have the outlet. You never know, you may be lucky and not need the extension cord.

Sorry, Kennster & QueenofEverything, I did mean converter, but have adapter in my mind.

@Kenstercan you help? Seems to me you take an extension cord when you travel. @QueenofEverything, I'm not sure about a cpap machine, but would a travel adaptor work to downgrade the voltage?

I've found the best way to see how people really dress on any cruise/tour is to view YouTube videos posted by people who have been on the tour itself. You will see fellow guests as they are, not how the cruise line or tour company feels it should look.

Not wanting to put words in Tribbs 1's mouth, but I think they mean that while other lines will have a couple of included options with an optional (extra charge) option per day, the other lines have started offering a couple of different included options per day. For example, looking at Avalon's Romantic Rhine (ok, I cruise with Avalon, much easier to compare) vs Viking's Rhine Getaway, Avalon has 3 included tours to chose from the morning in Breisach, while Viking only has the 1. Both have the optional (extra charge) tour to Colmar. Nothing wrong if you are doing your first cruise and are happy with the basic included tour, but if you are touring with family or friends, it's nice to have a choice as to what you may wish to see that isn't "standard".

@gnome12, we didnt' get the thundersnow, but I heard that up in the city they have had over 300cm of snow so far this year. I think we have at least that much if not more. Our poor ducks have to fly out of the creek, the snowbanks are so high along them. We have a small path shoveled (more to drain water from the house than for them to walk on) and have been laughing at them slipping down the sides to get on it. Our squirrels have so many tunnels in the snow in the back yard, it's like the old "Wack-A-Mole" game watching them pop up and down. I did notice yesterday that our bird bath has surfaced (at least the rim) so the snow is slowly dropping.

The biggest problem with balconies on a river cruise is that the space for a balcony is taken out of the space for the room. Normally, you do get more "usable" space for a french balcony, except for Viking as Jazzbeau stated above. Avalon is all french balconies, with the 2 Royal Suites being 300 sq. feet, and the suites being 200 sq. feet. Only the lower deck cabins are smaller at 172 sq feet, Don't forget, the scenery on the rivers is on both sides of the river, so if you are cruising during the daytime, you will want to be in the public areas or on the sundeck to see both sides. We enjoy the windows open wide usually pre-breakfast, or while relaxing in our cabin before turning in for the night. Otherwise, we are off the ship or in the public areas. Also, another thing to consider, if you are docked, you may be having a great view of another ships cabins, as they often tie up together.

I always check a weather app a couple of weeks prior to leaving, gives a good idea as to how temps will be. We were in Amsterdam the beginning of May 5 years ago and it was quite warm, in the 20's. I have been tracking weather in Budapest - right now at 6:40pm it's 12C, here it's -15and it's 12:40. Looking at my month's ahead (app goes to Apr 9, probably not accurate, but gives an idea) and temps during daytime will be in between 14 - 18C. Being from Maine, you are probably going to be quite comfortable in spring clothes edging into summer weather (in other words, yes to shorts/capris), with a warm sweater and some longer pants for evenings.

Mmmmm... we called them Carnival Cakes, would always request them as kids, even if Carnival was long gone. Miss those, will have to take a trip to a German store to see if they have any. I saw that, must have been quite scary for a few moments.

@gnome12, we're Buffalo as well. I heard about this on another site so had checked already. We used to get that show, can't remember now if on Prime or PBS, but hopefully they will pick it up again.

Only on select PBS stations unfortunately. 😞

You are correct, Globus is the parent company of Avalon. While I haven't personally toured with them, I do know several people who have, and all said it was a good trip. They were part of the reason we chose Avalon, figuring if Globus was good, so would Avalon be. There is a page for Globus if you are on FB, but you are correct, trying to research land tour companies is very difficult (I've been looking into both Globus & Insight), as most "locals" on any tourist board tend to say "do it yourself, it's more affordable". What they don't take into consideration is, for us, if one of us is driving, the other looking at a map, how much scenery will we see? I would say Globus is comparable to both Collette & Trafalgar from what I've seen online.

The funniest thing was, when we started this journey, and found out that Mom came from one side of the Firth of Forth, and Dad the other, we joked they would be related.....never thinking that 100 or so years later, in another country and so much more distance between them, they (very distantly) are! Now we are looking into the Highlander side that went the the Netherlands...you never know. 🙂

My sister started researching the family tree when my nephew received a school assignment to trace the family back to Great-Grandparents. Since he knew my Mom's parents, she decided to go a bit further. 30 some years later, she has traced multiple family trees back many generations and we have a massive data base. I just took a quick look, the earliest I found on one side goes to 1255 in Devon England. It's great, as we have managed to contact family all over the world and are in constant contact with some. One of the fun things for her is one of our family names is "Smith", she's only managed to go back to the 1560's for them. @CPT Trips, the "stories" have been uncovered, including finding not one but two members from my Mother's side marrying into my Father's side. Not that unusual, except for the 1300km distance and it happened in the early 1800's!

@Rebel54, you'll have to do a Rhine holiday (land or cruise) and go visit, looks like a nice town with all the old architecture!

Our Avalon tours started anywhere from about 8:30 to 9:00, depending on what we were doing. If we were going out by bus to a city that wasn't on the river, they would be earlier so we would have more time to tour. Breakfast starts around 7:00 for the buffet, but you can get a continental breakfast brought to your room earlier I believe, or just grab a muffin & coffee usually at the lounge coffee bar at any time.

Avalon has 2, both on the Danube, and both in August, which can be difficult if the rivers are low. I know they have other cruises that will stop at Jewish sites as a alternative or sometimes alternate tours, but haven't taken any of them. I do know the ones who took them on our Rhine cruise did enjoy them.

@Wings, yes, we are seeing your nasty weather. Hope you are OK, and don't have to go out or lose your power. Just checked Friday's, and we are expecting a "feels like" of -50C. Think we will be staying in!

@notamermaid, my sympathies on the loss of your neighbour. I hope your younger one recovers well. We have had a lot of snow in the past couple of weeks, just getting ready to go out and clean up from yesterday. The main joy we are having is watching the red squirrels popping in and out of the tunnels, trying to figure out where they will pop up next. Haven't seen the hawk or owl around lately, but I'm sure they are around, so glad the squirrels have their tunnels built. We are expecting cold coming in later this week (-32), but then it should warm up again. Nothing not unusual, so we will be ok. Hope you manage to get away, spring will be here before we know it, and tourists will be showing up again.