Questions about Avalon Cruise schedule & excursions

[Losingcontrol36]

We are first time river cruisers and are going on an Avalon cruise down the Rhine River in April. One of the issues we are having is that Avalon will not provide a schedule until two weeks before we depart. I would like a schedule so that we can plan some activities. Can anyone who has taken the Avalon Basel to Amsterdam river cruise provide us with a rough schedule? Do you have any recommendations on Avalon shore excursions? We will be visiting Strasbourg, Speyer/Heidelberg, Mainz, Rudesheim, Koblenz and Cologne.

[puppycanducruise]

We did the Avalon Rhine cruise - Amsterdam to Basel in 2010 so I don't know what has changed.

We did all the included shore excursions and did a lot of walking on our own. We heard from others on the boat that the optional tour to Mercedes Benz was not worth it.

Sorry I can't recall a lot of details, but I do have a warm, happy feeling when I think back on the cruise.

Hope you enjoy your cruise.

[TravelingLadyOhio]

We took this cruise in July '11. It was wonderful and we loved river cruising so much, that we are going with Avalon again in July, Paris/Normandy.

In Strasbourg, we had a morning tour of the city, then we stayed and had lunch at an outdoor cafe - walked, and shopped on our own and took a cab back to the ship.

We had a morning at Speyer, just enough to walk thru the city. The tour of the Heidelberg castle that same afternoon was wonderful - then had time for shopping in the city afterwards. In Rudesheim, I found the mechanical museum tour not to my liking, and wished we had gone on our own for the afternoon. However, the evening dinner offered at one of the local restaurants was one of the highlights. It was absolutely so much fun. That is one I would definitely recommend. The morning crusing thru the Rhine gorge was beautiful.

In Cologne, we went on our own walking to the cathedral and other sights. Also, there is a candy shop right next to where the boat docks. Spent way too much $$ in there :D

In Amsterdam, if you want to tour the Anne Frank house, be sure to buy your tix ahead online. They are timed, so you will have to figure out the day/time that will work best for you. We stayed 2 extra days there - much to see in the area. Have fun with your planning.

[YoungDubFan]

I did this cruise in May 2012. Here is the link to the trip report I posted afterwards:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1646466

I'm pretty sure I tried to mention timing of port stops. We did the Mt. Pilatus / Lucern option excursion and really enjoyed it. We also went wine tasting in the Alsasce region in the afternoon of the Strasbourg stop. Again - very enjoyable.

 

Please post if you have specific questions and we will try to answer.

[Shebely]

You can go to Avalon's website and register for "My Avalon". After your registration you can enter your invoice number and since you are within 90 days of your cruise, you sill be able to look at optional excursions which will be available to you. There are included excursions each day and you can see what those are when looking at the itinerary. Your Cruise Director will give a briefing about the Optional tours and then give you time to sign up for any you are interested in. Hope this helps.

[Avalon Waterways]

We are first time river cruisers and are going on an Avalon cruise down the Rhine River in April. One of the issues we are having is that Avalon will not provide a schedule until two weeks before we depart. I would like a schedule so that we can plan some activities. Can anyone who has taken the Avalon Basel to Amsterdam river cruise provide us with a rough schedule? Do you have any recommendations on Avalon shore excursions? We will be visiting Strasbourg, Speyer/Heidelberg, Mainz, Rudesheim, Koblenz and Cologne.

 

Hi Losingcontrol36! We are so thrilled you will be joining us in April for your first-ever river cruise. If you have not yet received documents from our team, you should very soon! We also agree with Shebely ... registering on MyAvalon is a great way to pre-plan all of your activities. Have a great journey! We look forward to welcoming you to the world of river cruising.

[stretchcruz]

We loved our 2 river cruises with Avalon and have a third booked for April 2015. I would advise to go along with the included tours to start. If you find that you are not enjoying a tour, and you want to wander around on your own, just let your tour guide know so that she won't look for you, and you can just make your own way back to the ship.

In Rudesheim we enjoyed (much to our surprise) the mechanical music museum but we did not enjoy the wine tasting in the garden down the road afterward. It seemed like a sales pitch and we just sat around for way too long. I would do the museum but then just walk around the town.

Our ship missed Cologne because we lost an engine. We ended up in Dusseldorf. There was an option to take buses to Cologne, but I hate riding in buses so we passed. We went into Dusseldorf, and I was in dire need of a pair of shoes since my walking shoes were giving me blisters. I found said shoes, and the cruise director gave us a map and recommendations for restaurants and bars. We enjoyed a beer in a local bar and we liked wandering around and taking pictures.

In Amsterdam we wandered around and got lost (a LOT!!!)...we kept ending up in Dam Square without meaning to....by the end of our two days we were calling DAMN Square, but everyone is really nice and helpful. Do get your tickets ahead of time for the Anne Frank House, as someone else said, and you will skip the long line. The Canal Boat tour that Avalon did was good, but it ended at a jewelry "factory", where we were smart enough to not go in, but our tablemates on the cruise made the mistake of thinking it was a tour, when in fact it was a sales pitch type thing. They felt trapped as doors kept closing behind them. We were supposed to meet them there and go to the Rijksmuseum. We waited and waited after we got off of the canal boat, not knowing that they went inside. We went to the museum by ourselves (walked). One tip I can give is to not crowd onto the first canal boat. If you wait you could end up on one with less people on it and better views. Our canal boat tour guide was really hilarious, we loved her, our tablemates ended up with a not so good guide. Just the luck of the draw.

In Heidelberg we LOVED the castle!! Incredible and our guide was great. If you do the walking tour afterwards, ask the guide how to get to the Poets Walk (I think that is the name). On our cruise we did not have the option of the Essential or fast moving group, so we were in the Traditional, which took time...stops and talking along the way. Once we got to where we could do the Poets Walk (or whatever), we only had time to get halfway up the hill (it is steep). But we did have good views overlooking the river and Heidelberg. Got some pretty pictures. Would have liked to have gotten there sooner so we had more time to hike to the top. We had to meet our guide at a certain spot to catch the bus back to the ship and we were cutting it close. We are NOT shoppers, so we like to have time to see and explore.

In Strasbourg we had a pretty miserable rainy day, but the canal tour was good. Our guide took us around and gave us options as to if we wanted to go inside certain cathedrals or not. We went inside most since it was pretty rainy!! I'm sure it is a beautiful city but you couldn't prove it by us.

The tour in Koblenz was good, it was early in the morning and nobody was out and about, so we had the city to ourselves. If I remember we weren't there that long.

I'm trying to remember where the Gutenberg museum was (Mainz?) It was pretty interesting with the guide....and when they showed the printing press they called a few folks up to help.

In Breisach, there was a tour to the Black Forest. It was very confusing. The cruise director didn't really make it clear which bus went where..and we were confused as to where we were going and what we were seeing. We really didn't enjoy it much, we went to some kind of farm or something...too much riding in a bus for me, and several folks on our bus got "bus sick", we were going through the mountains and to this farm type place. We wandered around a little, it was sort of interesting but not worth the bus ride. I think the other buses went to a cuckoo clock factory maybe...the folks outside of the buses directing us seemed confused as well. I think our cruise director was not really informative because of some river issues and I think she was a bit overwhelmed.

Cruising the Rhine was great..the castles were really pretty and the cruise director gave a running commentary over the loudspeakers on them. The captain on our cruise had an "open door" policy for the bridge and it was really fun to go in there and have him explain the navigation, where we were, etc. They will also give you a map of the castles.

Each day you will have literature in your room with maps and descriptions of where you will be the next day. There are also some history sheets. I think these depend on the cruise director, our cruise on the Danube had more, the cruise on the Rhine less.

I'm sure you will enjoy....chill out, relax...it's a lot different from ocean cruising (we've done a LOT of them). On ocean cruises we plan our days from start to finish with local guides and excursions. On an ocean, barring some big unforeseen problem, you will be where you thought you would be at a given time and day. On the river, it may take more time to get through the locks (there are strikes sometimes), or the river levels may be high or low. On our Rhine river cruise we never got to Basel. We ended up in Breisach. It was fine with us, they bused us to Basel where we were taking a train to Paris. You need to go with the flow. We spent an unexpected day in Breisach, got a lot of pictures....none of the shops or restaurants were open because it was Sunday.

You will love Avalon, don't worry, just don't overplan....be prepared to sit back and go with the flow!!!