Cabin Aquarium Class vs French Balcony

DW & I are considering an Avalon river cruise and are trying to decide between the Deluxe Stateroom "Aquarium Class" and the Panorama Suite "French Balcony".

The Aquarium Class is much lower in price but are there any concerns about a portion of the exterior walls of the cabin being below river level, such as too cold or dampness, smells, etc? These cabins are also on the lowest passenger level deck so any concerns about ship movement or noise or smells?

We have traveled in the aquarium class cabins on Avalon and Viking and there are no problems with dampness, noise, smells, etc. The cabins are very nice and well appointed. The difference is mostly the windows. The lowest level has windows high up on the wall and they are just above the waterline. You get a really close up look at the ducks and swans! We spent very little time in the cabin and preferred to use the lounge or better yet the sun deck. It is up to you if it is worth the extra money. Avalon does have the best french balcony cabins in that the beds face the windows and they open so wide. A couple of things to consider - if you are going for the Christmas markets it will be very cold and the days are very short, getting dark around 4 pm. There are also an awful lot of riverboats out there now. If you are going during peak season you will probably be doing alot of rafting. If you are not familiar with that, it where the boats dock side to side and you walk thru them to get to the land. They are very close together, so you may be looking directly into the cabin on the boat next door with the french balcony cabin.

I've also sailed in both cabin types and have never experienced anything different in the way of temperature change, smells, noise, etc. I do prefer the French Balcony though, because it lets in a much greater amount of natural light, which I very much enjoy. That being said, I would consider an aquarium class room again, if the price caught my eye.

Thanks for your replies and sharing your experiences. Appreciate knowing more about river cruises due to our prior travels have been exclusively ocean going ships. We will likely do the aquarium class, especially being our first river cruise.

If you’re cruising in nice weather it can really be lovely to have a window or balcony that opens.

If you don't like steps, be sure that the elevators go to the bottom deck as that is often not the case.

We prefer lots of light and choose an outside balcony for most of our river cruises, and French at a minimum. Friends we cruise with are happy to save the money and book Aquarium. Very much a personal decision.

Good point about the elevator. On a recent Tauck cruise I noticed there was a tiny steep spiral staircase down to the lowest level and no elevator.

We usually cruise in shoulder/low season during the fall or Christmas season on Viking or Avalon. We have decided aquarium class suits us fine. On Viking the French balcony rooms are a little smaller than the lower level rooms and when it’s cool and gets dark early and on routes when almost all the cruising is done after dark it just doesn’t seem worth the upgrade cost. Occasionally on Viking the upgrade cost to French balcony is just $150 or so pp so that might be worth it but on Avalon it seems like it is usually >$1000/pp.

as others have said we don’t spend much time in the cabin so it doesn’t seem worth much to us for the upgrade. But others really seem to enjoy the open air, especially on Avalon. I might feel different if we cruised during the summer months with longer days and warmer weather.

We chose aquarium class on Avalon this past September on our first river cruise and we will select aquarium class on our next river cruise. We didn't miss the large windows of the French Balcony rooms because we were rarely in our room. We were either off the ship on an excursion, dining, taking in the sights from the top level, or relaxing in the lounge. If we needed some respite from people we could easily find a corner of the lounge or top deck.

We did a Christmas Market cruise and selected a french balcony because we wanted the extra light - we DO spend more time in the cabin (even though we were also the only non-smoking passengers who ever went up on deck :D) and we did open the windows a couple times too. I loved having the extra light & air - even with the shorter days....

The old Uniworld ships have a split level setup, and the category 4 cabins have good size windows (not opening however) that come down to about the level of the bed and are just above the water level. Those were fine for me. In particular, I liked being able to lie in bed and watch the water go by right at the level of the bed. I don't think that I could deal with small windows high up on the wall. (I had it on a barge and cycle trip, and I spent NO time in that cabin.)

We sailed in aquarium class on Viking last June...our first two river cruises. Our family members traveling with us had a French Balcony. As someone mentioned, the ships are usually attached to others in the ports and unless you have an end suite, your view is another boat and you must draw the drapes. When cruising was scenic, we'd go up to the top and would have done so anyway had we had a higher class cabin. There is more going up and down steps if that is a consideration for some. I think there was an elevator but it was not used very much on our cruise except by one lady who could not go on the excursions due to walking issues. No smells or any problem with it and we booked again at the lowest cost. On the Embla we had the last cabin next to the crew door....very quiet and private. On the Viljham we were in the middle but no problem there either.

One plus for these rooms is that the window has a space in front of it that we used for storage and the final stage of handwashed clothes drying as we were gone for a month. We needed that space so that was a pleasant bonus feature.

We have traveled both - and almost always book Aquarium Class. We prefer to save the money for the next trip!!

We were actually upgraded on a recent trip with Avalon, and while we did enjoy the larger window (we did Holland & Belgium in May), DH and I agreed that it isn't worth the money (for us) to upgrade. You do have a window in Aquarium Class - and we don't spend that much time in our cabin. We were back in Aquarium Class for our trip in September - and quite happy to be there.

I enjoy the sound of the water outside the window - and do agree with HokiePoq about using the ledge to dry any "smalls" we hand wash.

Fran

We too chose aquarium class and had no problem, we've booked the same on upcoming cruise. We spent little time in our cabin because we were off the ship, in the lounge, dining room or up top taking photos, reading or just chatting with fellow cruisers. Our cabin was down one flight of stairs from the Lobby level and there wasn't an elevator however. We are fairly social so the cabin was secondary for us while on board, for those who prefer a view, need more light or like a bit privacy and spend time in their cabin, then aquarium might not be the best bet. Safe and happy cruising.

DW & I are considering an Avalon river cruise and are trying to decide between the Deluxe Stateroom "Aquarium Class" and the Panorama Suite "French Balcony".

 

The Aquarium Class is much lower in price but are there any concerns about a portion of the exterior walls of the cabin being below river level, such as too cold or dampness, smells, etc? These cabins are also on the lowest passenger level deck so any concerns about ship movement or noise or smells?

We did our first two river cruises last year with Avalon. The first we took the French balcony on the Danube in June, while the aquarium on the Seine in October. On both occasions, we were out of the room most of the time on excursions, on the sun deck, eating etc. Unlike ocean cruising, our longest river day was around 4 hours, compared to 2 - 3 sea days in a row. Notwithstanding the obvious, both roomswere fine, room size, cleanliness, accessories etc. We have subsesquently booked 2 more aquarium class rooms for a Mekong & Rhine cruise in 2018.

Enjoy.