Just back: Avalon Felicity "Romantic Rhine"

My wife and I just got back from the August 7 - 14 Avalon "Romantic Rhine" cruise, Amsterdam to Basel.

Executive summary:

We had a great time.

Overly-wordy, cathartic summary:

1. Day one in Amsterdam: If you have Avalon transport you from the airport, they bring you to a gathering area in a hotel near where the Felicity is docked. You can either stay there until boarding time (4 PM), or take an optional, extra-cost tour of some sights outside Amsterdam. Neither of those options appealed to us, and fortunately we had taken a chance and bought tickets on-line to the Anne Frank house before we departed the U.S. We knew that there was a risk that an airline delay or a poor choice of time slot might prevent us from using the tickets. However, our flight was on-time, and our guess at buying tickets for 2:15 worked out fine. We took a taxi (there are a few waiting outside the hotel) into the city for about 9 Euros since we didn't have a lot of time to walk there, and once we arrived, we happily bypassed the ticket queue which snaked around the block. We walked right up to the door for people with advance tickets, and the watchdog employee let us right in, even though we were 20 minutes early for our time slot. After doing the tour, we took a leisurely walk back to the boat, getting our first taste of the city. When we arrived at the dock, it was after 4:00 and we were able to walk right on and check in, without going back to that initial holding area in the hotel.

2. Open seating: After getting settled into our room, we went to dinner and checked out our first "open seating" meal. As you may have read elsewhere, there is a single seating, and you cannot reserve a table. This is very different from the big ocean cruises, and we loved it. If you're feeling socially passive, you can start a new table and see who joins you. If you're in more of a gregarious mood, you can choose a table that already has some people who you would like to meet. By the end of the week, we had shared a table at one meal or another with a large percentage of our fellow passengers. You really get to know many of the people you are travelling with, and it creates a camraderie that is a unique aspect of river cruising. Even if you are shy or retiring, it's a great way to get to know the other people on the boat.

3. Food: it is really, really good. The Avalon hand-outs almost apologize for not having the same volumes and selections as the big cruise ships, but to me this was a positive. Instead of constantly thinking "Oh, I shouldn't have eaten so much", I found myself thinking "That was really delicious" and leaving the table very satisfied. And Avalon gets high marks from me for truly delivering on the promise of free-flowing drink at dinner. They serve decent quality wines and beer, often reflecting the area you are cruising past, and the wait staff keeps an eye on your glass. You rarely have to ask for a refill -- they are typically there offering to pour before your glass is empty. (Remember, the free wine and beer applies only to dinner, not lunch. But don't overlook the champagne bottle at breakfast for making mimosas!).

4. CD and staff: The cruise director, Andrzej (pronounced "on-dray"), is terrific. If you are accustomed to a big cruise ship CD, who typically acts as half-cheerleader/half-clown, you might be surprised at first by his low-key personality. But he is very knowledgeable, and his humor is extremely dry -- if you don't listen carefully, you will miss some of his best lines. And the staff is hard-working, friendly, and efficient. Be prepared to see them break out of their quiet personas during the Crew Show on the fourth night,

5. Passengers: We were wondering whether we would fit into the typical river cruise crowd. We got the impression that it tends to be much older, and indeed, many of our fellow passengers were well past retirement age. But there was a cross-section of ages, ranging from young adults traveling with their families, through a newly-wed couple, through working couples in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, through early retirees, right up through the very senior set. The only age group not present was children. But regardless of age, almost all passengers were very congenial and interesting and fun to talk with. And the international make-up of the crowd was interesting. I'm not sure of the exact percentages, but there were several Australians (the cruises are very heavily advertised down-under, according to our Aussie friends), some New Zealanders and Canadians, a fair number of Welsh, Scots, and English, and even one or two Swiss, Egyptians, and Turks. Americans only made up about 20-30% of the passengers. So even though everybody spoke English, they came from around the world, and that made for some for fascinating dinner conversation. And at night, the lounge was lively with new-found friends.

6. Internet access: Most people I talked to seemed happy with the wireless service, but I was unable to connect reliably for most of the trip with my Droid smart-phone. And toward the end, I wasn't even able to check my Verizon e-mail on the two public systems in the lobby. I blame the latter on Verizon, which has a horrid Web mail interface, but there was something about Avalon's security or settings that prevented connectivity with a Droid. (When we were moored next to other boats, I could connect to their wireless systems no problem and bring up their log in pages. But Avalon just constantly gave me "Problem loading the page" errors.) When I asked about this at the desk, I received a somewhat dismissive "Well, nobody else has complained" response. So if you have a smart phone and find that it doesn't work with Felicity's wireless, please make sure to complain.

7. Tours and tour guides: The tours tended to be good, but the quality of individual tour guides varied wildy. Some were extremely knowledgeable, entertaining, and efficient, while others could be vague, distracted, and even annoying. (Note: Tour guides should NOT sing. Please.) My biggest disappointment was in Koblenz, where the guide spent way too much time going into excrutiating detail about stories and legends regarding a couple of statues, and left us too far away from Deutches Eck for most people to get to it before sail time. I mean, what's the point of stopping at Koblenz if you can't stand at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle and have your photo taken with the statue of Kaiser Willy? On the other hand, I give the Heidleberg tour high marks because Avalon gives you the option of touring a castle, or going with a second, non-castle tour that gives you extra free time to explore the town on your own. My wife and I are comfortable striking out on our own, and we appreciated the independent time.

We decided to take the optional wine-tasting tour in Alsace, and highly recommend it. The winery owner is personable and generous with his samples, and the bus ride was both scenic and enjoyably terrifying as the driver maneuvered through impossibly narrow and crowded streets. (Okay, Avalon Marketing is probably having a heart attack that I just used the term "terrifying" in a review about one of their tours. I assure you that I never felt at risk; it was just amazing and exhilarating to be on bus that seemed capable of navigating a lane that appeared to be 10% narrower than the bus itself.)

Finally, the Black Forest tour was much better than I expected it to be. Although it was touristy, the destination souvenir & cuckoo clock shop was actually much classier than I assumed it would be. The owner is a showman who personally greets every visitor and serves samples of cherry wine and liquer. He and his son even came to the boat the night before to give a carving demonstration. The bus ride to the shop takes an hour, but the scenery is beautiful, and our tour guide was top notch.

8. Formal dinner: The Captain's dinner is, as others have noted, perfectly fine for people who don't want to get super-dressed up. But our group seemed to tend towards a little more formal. I took a sports jacket, no tie, and I was glad I had the jacket. Not due to any outside peer pressure; I just enjoyed having the chance to dress little nicer than usual for one night.

9. Random notes:

• We brought a dozen or so lightweight wire hangers for the closets and used every one.
  
• You might want to get a room closer to the bow than the stern if you have the option. The engine noise gets a little louder towards the end of the corridor. Not bad, just a little bit more noticeable. And there is no stairway in the stern. So if you have a cabin at the end of the 200 ("Sapphire") deck and want to get a coffee from the stern lounge at the end of the 300 ("Royal") deck, you need to walk down to midships, go up a stairway, walk to the stern, and then back again. No big deal, but if you are at all disabled or find walking a chore, it might be a consideration.
  
• If you can, you really should get a room with a full-size sliding door rather than the small window found on the Indigo deck. That French balcony is nice. Really nice. We noticed some other boats on the river that didn't have any sliding doors and we were glad we weren't on them.
  
• On the other hand, I don't see any advantage to getting a room on the upper ("Royal") deck. The 200 ("Sapphire") deck was just fine.
  
• The deck chairs were nice, but they could really use some kind of cushion or padding for your head.
  
• There are more expensive, fancier boats out there, but Felicity was classy and comfortable. One of the advantages of mooring next to other boats at some ports is having the chance to go through their lobbies. There was one that felt like a bordello (not that I would know; I've just read about them :-). Statues and chandeliers are nice, I guess, but I rather have my cruise boat spend the money on good food and wine.
  
• Because of the long stretch of industrial facilities on the lower part of the Rhine, the stretch between Amsterdam and Cologne is very long. This means that if you start from Amsterdam, you begin with a long, leisurely stretch,and the pace rapidly speeds up after Cologne. But if you start at Basel, this means that your trip starts fast & busy, and then slows down as you near Amsterdam. I don't think one is better than the other, it's just an interesting quirk of the geography of the river.
  
• Water levels were no problem. I figured August might be a period of low water, requiring bus detours around shallow stretches of river. But we sailed the entire route.
  

That's it for my observations. This is a heck of a lot longer than I intended when I first sat down to capture my thoughts, but I hope it's useful to folks thinking about taking this cruise. I look forward to reading the thoughts of my fellow passengers.

Thank you so much for sharing. We went on the Avalon Tranquility from Budapest to Prague last fall, and this spring (end of April) we are scheduled to be on the Luminary from Amsterdam to Paris. We are doing our own hotels to save money. I'll have to look at our itinerary to see what similarities there are. We are flying into Amsterdam a day early so will get a hotel there before the cruise begins. Did you do a canal cruise with Avalon?

We, also, did enjoy the food and our fellow passengers.

bfred-excellent summary! We did the same cruise last year and also thought it was sensational. Some on this board don't think the food is too good on Avalon but we thought the lunches and dinners were pretty tasty. Breakfast on the other hand wasn't extra special but adequate.

We also did the wine tasting tour and thought it was OK but it was more of a sales pitch as was the Black Forest tour which we thought was an incredible waste of time. I guess we were expecting more.

Anyhow, thanks again for refreshing my memory on this wonderful trip.

Thanks for the review. I'm booked on this trip for the end of May 2012 and am really looking forward to it. I really appreciate reading about everyone's trips.

stretchcruz: Yes, the Amsterdam canal cruise was an included excursion on the morning of our first full day. The tour would have been better if the weather had cooperated, and if the guide had been a little more on top of her game. This was one of the few days where we had marginal weather, and the glassed-in boat got pretty fogged up. So the guide would point up to a feature on top of one of the houses, and all you could see was a blurry shadow. Even on a good day, I don't think we would have been real thrilled with the guide. I don't want to slam any of the tour guides unfairly, but let's just say that this one was not in the top 10 percentile.

paulinda: I agree with you on breakfast -- it was the only meal that started to get a little boring by the end of the trip. But that is a very minor quibble. It still had plenty of healthy choices and the omelettes and specials were good.

youngdubfan: let us know how yours goes!

Thanks for a wonderful informative review - we are going on the same cruise in a few weeks. We are also on Sapphire deck. Loved hearing your points of the excursions, food, wine, rooms, staff, internet. Any thing you wished you had brought or had done - could have should have would have :)

bfred, thanks....when we were on our cruise our guides were all pretty good, but we really did not enjoy the one in Vienna at ALL! Luck of the draw, I know, but she was so annoying.....I'll look at the rest of our ports and see if we have some in common and if I have any questions, I'll ask! Thanks again for your review.

Fantastic review! One of the best I've read in quite awhile. Thanks for your concise, fair, yet informative and fun to read, review! :)

bfred the wife and I took this same cruise the first of April. Sounds like the CD was the same we had. We took the Heidleberg Castle tour and still had about two hours to shop down town.

The optional tours we took were the German Diner and Maginot Line in France. The German diner in Rüdesheim was a great experience. It was at the same place the had the Rüdesheim coffee. There was good food, all the wine you wanted and great music and dancing.

For a war buff the Maginot Line tour was a great tour of some very large bunkers on the France/German border. We also enjoyed the bus ride through the french country-side.

We was on the third floor deck and couldn't hear any engine noise at all.

Roger

Thank you for your review. I'm just starting to look at and read about river cruises. We've never done one and I think it would be something we'd really enjoy. We're looking at summer 2013. My DD is a junior in HS and by the time we go will have taken four years of German and is excited about seeing some of Germany. :D

Again, thank you for posting a review!

For a war buff the Maginot Line tour was a great tour of some very large bunkers on the France/German border.

Roger, I too am a student of World War II, and I would have loved the option of a Maginot Line tour. However, I was able to content my self with photographing the notable Allied crossings as we cruised by them at Nijmegen (Market Garden), Mainz, St. Goar/St. Goarhausen, Oberwessel, Nierstein, and Oppenheim. Anderzej was very accommodating, and let us know when we were approaching the Nijmegen bridge during dinner, and even offered wake-up calls for anybody who wanted to get up at 4 AM and go up on deck for the Remagen site. I passed on that one. I've been putting together "then & now" photos of the crossings, showing them in 1944-45 and 2011.

I should also note that somebody (Andrjez I presume) loaded up the movie channel with both "A Bridge Too Far" and "The Bridge at Remagen" -- a thoughtful touch that scored points with me for Avalon, even though I was too busy to watch a movie.

Boy, do I appreciate your review! We are doing this trip in September with 8 other couples. You have hit on so many of my concerns and questions. Thanks Gev

Boy, do I appreciate your review! We are doing this trip in September with 8 other couples. You have hit on so many of my concerns and questions. Thanks Gev

Gev, I'm glad you've found the info helpful. We certainly benefited from reviews posted by those who preceded us, and just want to keep up-to-date info flowing. Hope you post your experiences when you get back.

A couple of extra notes:

1. Electrical outlets: The Felicity, like most Avalon boats, is relatively new (commissioned in 2010) and it has more electrical outlets than a lot of quality hotels. I counted two at each end of the bureau/desk, one in the bathroom, and at least one near the bed. Still, a lot of people carry lots of electrical devices now. My wife and I had two cameras, two smart phones, an extra smart phone charger, an iPod, an eReader, and a curling iron. To handle all these devices and chargers, I packed an American power strip and a single European adapter. That way I was able to plug all our devices directly into the power strip without worrying about multiple European adapters. Just make sure that the power strip doesn't contain any surge suppressor or other electronic circuitry. Just a plain, no frills power strip. Oh, and they warn you not to use the outlet in the bathroom for a hair dryer. It's underpowered, for some reason. Use any hair dryer with an in-room socket.

2. Groups: You mentioned that you are going with eight other couples. You might want to consider agreeing with your colleagues ahead of time NOT to spend all your meals together. My wife and I discussed the possibility of traveling in the future with a family group, and we agreed that if we did, we would set ground rules to eat with strangers for most of the meals. One of the benefits to river cruising is meeting people from all over the world, and you might miss out on some of that if your group tended to cluster together all the time.

3. Locks: The Rhine is navigable because of the many locks situated throughout its length. Felicity traverses some of these in the middle of the night, and you may wake up to some bumping and noises. We went to sleep one night with the sliding door wide open and curtains apart to let in air. We awoke to lights and voices and a lock wall 6 inches from our window. Enjoy it! It's part of the experience.

3. Locks: The Rhine is navigable because of the many locks situated throughout its length. Felicity traverses some of these in the middle of the night, and you may wake up to some bumping and noises. We went to sleep one night with the sliding door wide open and curtains apart to let in air. We awoke to lights and voices and a lock wall 6 inches from our window. Enjoy it! It's part of the experience.

How awesome!! :) Thanks once again for the very helpful information!

I can add one comment to the one about the electrical outlets in the cabins....I brought my hairdryer (dual voltage), and an adapter...and when I plugged it in it turned bright red and started to smell (in the stateroom!!)...so I gave up and used theirs, which was more than fine. I have long hair, and it dried just fine with their hair dryer. I have straight hair and don't use a curling iron, so next time I'm saving space and just using theirs.

bfred, I'm sure I'll still have questions for you once I figure out our ports in common!

bfred, I'm sure I'll still have questions for you once I figure out our ports in common!

stretchcruz, it looks like the overlap cities of our two itineraries are Rüdesheim, Cologne, and Amsterdam. (They actually go upstream a little ways to get to Rüdesheim before turning around and heading back towards Cologne.) Not sure if you stop at Koblenz. One itinerary shows it; another doesn't.

We loved Cologne. Lots of history, and our local guide was very good. Make sure to spend some free time in a brauhaus and order some Kölsch.

Some people loved Rüdesheim, but we felt it was a little too touristy -- to us it felt like a Disney interpretation of a traditional German village. Still, the gadget nerd in me loved the included tour of Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet Museum. And the "coffee" tasting was also worthwhile.

If your stops do include Koblenz, see my comments in my original post.

bfred I thought I would add on to the electrical. I didn't see a outlet by the night stands. So when we needed a extension cord to plug in a gadget at the head of the bed. I went to the Desk and ask if they had a extension cord. She pulled out a 8 FT extension cord with they're two prong plug on the end and a outlet box on the other end with our configuration so we didn't need a adapter. We used it all week.

Did you spend any time in the small lounge at the rear of the boat. We found it was great to set back there at night and watch to lights on the banks, play games or just enjoy a nightcap. There was some engine noise in the rear lounge.

Roger

bfred, I'm not exactly sure if we stop at Koblenz, here is what it says:

Day 4Rüdesheim–Rhine Gorge–Koblenz

Rüdesheim is the perfect example of a Rhine Valley wine tour and SIEGFIRED’S MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM is a real surprise! Enjoy a SPECIAL TREAT, then there’s free time to explore the Drosselgasse and pick up some souvenirs. The dramatic RHINE GORGE is the most beautiful stretch of river. Pass the legendary rock of the Lorelei, where sweet songs of local beauties lured enchanted sailors to their doom. Situated at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, 2,000-year-old Koblez is the cultural and business center of the Middle Rhine region. The Deutsches Eck, located on a tongue of land where the two rivers converge, holds an impressive equestrian statue of Wilhelm I. (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner)

It doesn't exactly say if we stop!!

I am looking at the Romantic Rhine cruise starting at Basel to Zurich and wonder if there is a preferred side of the ship to select. North-bound with starboard on the east for sunrises or port for sunsets? Any other factors come into play?

Thanks.

I've enjoyed reading all the reviews.

We're putting together a small group of friends for either 30SEPT on Felicity or 7OCT for Visionary (new in 2012, like Panorama).

Karen

Stretchcruz, I am sailing on Avalon Luminary, 28 April, 2012, Amsterdam to Paris also. I just started a new thread on the River Cruises Roll Call threads. Hope you can find it and join the roll call. It will be nice to have someone to "talk" to about the upcoming cruise and share info with.

BTW, thank you all on this thread for the info that is posted here. I'm learning alot since this will be my first time river cruise. I hope to learn alot more over the next months form these CC boards. What a wonderful idea and wonderful group of people to talk to!

Texasrose, found it and replied to you!!

...Did you spend any time in the small lounge at the rear of the boat?

...wonder if there is a preferred side of the ship to select. North-bound with starboard on the east for sunrises or port for sunsets? Any other factors come into play?

ROGER: No, the only time I hit the rear lounge was first thing in the morning, for a pre-breakfast coffee out of the machine. It was nice, but I tended to head topside whenever possible, even at night.

BLING: We talked about this a little. There is perhaps a slight advantage to having a port cabin: you're a little more likely to have a view of the river when docked. But then again, if another ship moors on the outside, then there goes your view. We had a starboard cabin, and it was fine. We didn't spend enough time in the cabin when docked to make a difference.

Thanks for your advice about meeting and enjoying new friends during meals.

Some of our group were wondering about hair dryers. You touched on it but I could use more information. I guess there are no in-room hairdryers provided by Avalon. Is this correct?

We had a hairdryer on the Tranquility in the room. I brought my own but it got all hot and bothered when I plugged it in. I used theirs and it was just fine, and I have long hair. I'm not bringing one next time.