Daisi

Avalon has several groups for it's excursions as well, we started off with about 6 - 8 in ours, ended up with 10. They also have a choice of excursions, so you can do the "classic" tour, a "specialised' tour and an "active" tour, so that also helps to keep the group sizing down. We were on a ship with 121 passengers, and I don't think we ever had a full bus when we had to take one for touring away from the river. Some times we had a large coach with about 15 people on it...we sat in the back and would have 1/2 of the bus for space!

That's the way we look at it. It's a nice way to get a general overview, and know where you wish to someday return. We have for years ended our holidays with a 17 hr drive home, so would come home tired, but even with a day "relaxing" on the trains, we were still worn out from our cruise. That is how we learned to start at the furthest distance and head towards the shortest flight home. 🙂

As Roz says above, read the articles. Then find a TA who is knowledgeable about river cruising, or has a co-worker who is that they can bounce ideas off of. It costs nothing, but can be very valuable. As others have said, how about combining a land & river cruise? That way, if you are going to Europe for 2 weeks, and find river cruising isn't for you, you can still enjoy the land cruise. I'm sure you will come home with some good memories of the cruise, but it's not for everyone. If your partner is a fussy eater, don't worry. I don't like onions or peppers, and have an intolerance for eggs. No problem, I think after the first dinner my server knew, and would make sure that I knew if something was in one of the dishes I chose. I usually just pick out the onions & peppers, but with him mentioning it to the Chef, my dishes came with none in them. At breakfast, the Chef would watch out to be sure I knew about any heavy egg dishes, without even making a fuss. There is always the usual beef/chicken entre for dinner, but I'm sure he can find some dishes he will like. Is river cruising for you? Only you and your partner will know, but here is a typical day. Start the morning with breakfast, out for a morning tour (usually 8:30/9:00 - 11:00/11:30), back to the ship for lunch, then if in port for the remainder of the day, you can choose to go on another tour (1:00 -4:00), wander around port or just relax onboard. Happy Hour & the daily briefing is usually around 5:00 - 5:30ish, and dinner follows. Dinner is a lengthy one, but think about dining in a good restaurant with a 4 course meal, it doesn't come at fast food speeds. After dinner, there will be some heading up to the lounge for a night cap, and listen to the keyboardist, or other entertainment if available. To be honest, most go out for all tours - morning and afternoon, so after dinner is over a lot will go to their cabins to catch up on news from home (free wifi), review their day, and get ready for the next one. There is a limited amount of room for gyms - a couple of stationary bikes, some free weights, possibly a treadmill, but there is a nice walking/running track on the sun deck Not recommended for an early morning run, but once everyone is up, feel free. There may be a spa with a masseuse, a hair salon, but nothing like what you would find on a larger ocean ship. River cruising is the one holiday we really did need a holiday to recover from, but we enjoyed it so much we were planning our next one on the flight home!

Pack layers, so you can mix & match. Choose your colours so everything co-ordinates together, no matter how you mix your outfits - short sleeved top with light sweaters, capris, and a couple pairs of slacks. Bring light clothes so they can be rinsed in the sink or shower, and hung to dry for a day. We wear our heaviest clothes over - jeans, coat, heavier shoes etc, so less in the luggage. I did vacuum packs for our clothes, so got a lot of clothes packed flat and took less room. We have expandable 19" carry on luggage, so going home didn't matter as much. Don't worry about a different outfit each day (or 2), as most travellers will be rotating clothes just like you are. I've never travelled on Uniworld, but as Roz says, I will sometimes wear my daytime clothes in the dining room...in fact, I usually did, either the outfit for the next day, or what I had worn that day, depending on how we were touring. I did have a couple of nicer tops to wear for the special dinners, but that was it. We did a 3 day pre-cruise, 7 day cruise and 2 days to get home after, and managed it all in our carry on, except for the 1 outfit each (basically top & change of underwear) in my backpack (personal item) just in case we did have to check our carry on, which we did! It arrived ok, but at least we had 1 change if needed. I also packed 1/2 my husbands clothes in with mine & vise versa. We didn't take Shampoo/Conditioner, hair dryer or straighteners or any other stuff. Meds were eye-drops so they went in our camera bag, with our tablets. We packed minimal, and still actually could have taken some out.

Thanks @Kenster, yes, I had heard it from a TA who runs a forum. She is organising a tour, and that is when she found out.

@jsn55, a social media site.

Sorry Jazz, I thought just the initials would be ok. Just wanted to share the news with fellow Avalon cruisers, as I don't' think it's known yet, there is nothing on the website.

I think primary language is German? I hope UDChE89 can understand the basis of whatever language is onboard, just for social encounters.

Make that 2 pair, in case one gets wet!

I agree Fran, you only see above the table, and to tell the truth, I'm more interested in looking at a persons face and eyes than even what clothes they are wearing. Reminds me of my B-i-L, who invited us all to his place when they moved from Southern Ont to our end. We showed up, he had a dress shirt, tie and dress shorts! Yes, there were a few AC/DC references, but that's how he was comfortable in our 30+ heat. I was more worried when he was BBQ'ing that his tie would end up in it, but nope, all was good.

I agree, every line treats this situation (and the cancellations from Covid) differently. I was lucky booking my first cruise as one or two years prior, there had been both flooding and low water. It was a lot of reading back posts, but seeing how various lines reacted helped us choose which ones we really wanted to avoid. While they can't control the weather, and it can change from normal to flood / drought quickly, how they handle it is one thing to really look for. Those cruising next year (us hopefully 🙂) may have no problems, you just never know.

When Covid broke, and everyone was having fun trying to connect to cruise lines to get cancellations, rebates etc, I had to re-book our cruise. My agent said to give her a couple of days (final payment would have been about 7 days out), as no-one was to fast on the phone. No problem, I had time to wait. About 10 minutes later, she was calling me back, and not only was our cruise re-booked, but it was also agreed on booking that the cabin, and air could be changed later. She was so shocked, and while she had them on the phone, she re-booked 2 other couples. Sad thing was, that booking was also cancelled & rebooked (nice and easy as usual, but not quite the hectic time), so we are really hoping that next Sept. is a go. Avalon's advertising got us to book tour first cruise with them, their staff had us planning our next cruise on the flight home, and their back office is keeping us loyal customers. As long as they have the itinerary we want, they will be our go - to line.

@notamermaid, I think sometimes that's the one reason my TA welcomes me back. She enjoys working with them. 🙂

Avalon's post about low water situation. https://www.avalonwaterways.com/travel-update/?fbclid=IwAR0DPjjpAwfGaCL85FZIFx6PNivEAX7PNposLtvjBDlPT1dYFps2xBSv71U

Not sure where it's from @notamermaid, it came up on one of my news sites. I agree, "the death of river cruising" was clickbait, and it will take more than 1 year of low water to do so. If barges are still sailing, then I guess it's taking one company saying that it won't sail as fact that none are sailing. Hoping rain comes soon, not only for vacationers, but for those who depend on the rivers for their livelihoods.

Not good news now...the Rhine is closing to barge traffic. https://theloadstar.com/rhine-closes-to-barge-traffic-with-water-depth-set-to-hit-record-lows/

Hmmm... rather than renting a car, we tend to buy the public transit passes. You can get them to cover from 1 day to a week, and they will cover most areas of transit. Just thinking that that may be an option (along with rail for Amsterdam / Brussels) rather than trying to drive around Paris. (Full disclosure, a traffic jam where I live is having a car in front of us and behind us on the roads. When we go to large cities, we will often spend an hour or so just watching all the cars drive by the hotel windows. 🙂)

It took us a full day to get to Amsterdam from Basel - probably just about 8 hours. Our longest stop was about an hour, where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was interesting, we met 2 friends from Germany (different towns) who were travelling up to Amsterdam to shop, and once they realised we were Canadian, they went all out to help us out. Took us a while to figure out how the system worked as to reserved seats, but it was a fun day and nice and relaxing way to sight see.

@TravelingProf, we took the train from Basel to Amsterdam after our cruise. We did the milk run, all along the river, and saw a lot that we missed sailing at night. The only parts we "skipped" was from Cologne to Amsterdam, as that portion had been daytime sailing. If you are looking at doing this, you can check out the Man in seat 61's site, he has the stops to look for to go along the river. You will probably miss excursions, as the trains don't always run at the right times or to the right locations, but you will see other things. 🙂

Yes, I do have to agree, the CD makes your trip. I had mentioned to ours that i was a bit disappointed that we wouldn't be doing the canal cruise in Strasbourg as Avalon didn't have it as part of the itinerary any more...next morning, we walked out to do the tour, and we were on the canals! She did several more surprises for others throughout the cruise. I hope our next one is just as good.

Hearing that Avalon did a ship swap and the Imagery II arrived by water in Amsterdam. It picked the passengers up in Koblenz, bussed up from Strasbourg.

DH wishes to go to Paris, so I am looking into Avalon's Grand Tour of France. I'm not a city lover, to many people, but that will probably be one of the few times we actually will fly in and out of CDG. 🙂

Maybe it's different with the UK, as we were (and are for our upcoming cruise) able to choose our airline & what stops we wish to do. I avoid CDG, so do tend to go through Schiphol. Avalon has been great to work with for flights, and doesn't charge any extra fee. When the tickets were booked, I went directly to the chosen airline (KLM), and upgraded our seats, as well as selecting them.

That is one of the best things about doing an organised holiday like river cruising or by coach....you can still plan for "free time", but get to let everyone else deal with the headache of working around low water, broken locks, strikes... 🙂 I still do lots of research, but love the fact that I don't have to look for somewhere to eat, which of 20 some options to do each day etc. Once in a while, it's great to sit back and let someone else do the work. Another great thing about doing a cruise that has multiple options of tours/day. When we sailed, there were about 2-3 options for the included tours, as well as a couple for the optional ones. It was great sitting down for dinner with friends who had done other tours and hearing about them, and telling them about the ones we were on. When touring as a group, you can do the choices you want, not everyone having to do the same. 🙂

Can't speak for all cruises, I'm sure some do it differently, but with Avalon, once final payment has been made (and this is something to consider, as Viking is AFAIK the only one requesting payment in full a year ahead of sailing), you can go to a section of their site, where you can provide them with all the information required - contact #'s, contact names for people at home if needed, as well as a list of excursions available for your cruise. You can then select the ones you wish to do, and pay for them as well. We do so ahead of time, as we 1) don't like coming home to a large CC bill, and 2) prefer to pay CDN rather than the Euro's they charge onboard. You then have up to about a week or so before sailing to change or modify your choices. Docking depends on harbour masters, they control when you arrive & when you leave. Since you usually sail at night, you will most likely be docked early in the morning. We are early risers (like 4:00 - can't get into this retirement thing even after 3 years) so we would get up, and if docked, we could go for a wander around port, or the sun deck (walking, not running), then go on for breakfast. Rivers can have problems, early spring brings high water, summer brings low. Any time is a gamble, I had friends who went this spring and had snow. Coming from Houston they weren't to sure about it! Just be prepared for anything, most lines are now well used to dealing with the water levels so hopefully will have a way around things. If you wish to dress in a jacket & button down shirt, I'm sure no one will say anything. Yes, some of the cruises in the summer time get a little more casual, and that's probably because of the heat. I think we saw 3 gentlemen in a jacket on our last night, and 2 of those were celebrating anniversaries, so not sure if that counts. Mind you, our last night was a bit of a rush, as 2 of our tours were a little late getting back so it was a quick re-fresh in the cabin and up for the disembarkation talk. As long as you are neatly dressed, most won't comment on what you are wearing. My experience is most are commenting on how much better your dinner may look over their's! One thing to consider, keep an eye on the boards to see how various lines are dealing with the water issues, it will help you to know what to expect if you have issues. Also, start requesting brochures from various lines (paper or e-mail to a junk e-mail account so your regular one doesn't get overloaded). It will help you to compare what is available. If watching YouTube, watch the passenger ones, not the ones posted by the lines, as they are real, not staged. I may have mentioned that previously, not sure.