Review Poetry Budapest to Amsterdam

[skandls]

My husband and I just returned from the Avalon/Amadeus river cruise. (Sep 25 to Oct 9). The ship is beautiful and the staff is outstanding. The rooms were very well appointed with mini bar and TV. For what we paid I thought there were things that should have been classier. There seemed to be some 'bean counters' that made the trip not quite what I expected.

 

The rooms are quite nice - but they turned the air conditioning off at night. many people opened their windows at night. I got bit by a mosquito on day 2 so I did not open our cabin window. They have some generic body-shampoo-conditioner all in one. (Even Holiday Inns offer soap and shampoo)

 

The food was very tasty - but much of the buffet breakfast and lunch was served luke warm as there were no heaters under the hot foods. The wine with dinner was at best mediocre (Chilean) and at worst really bad (Hungarian). We found the drinks to be on the pricey side - 5.50 E ($6.60) for a martini. If you brought wine to dinner corkage was 9.00 E. For the captains gala party they had 'happy hour' 50% drinks from 5:30 to 6:30 PM and then the computer ended the half price hour.

 

There is something going on with the Avalon/Amadeus partnership. I dont know which company is responsible but they seemed to be pinching the pennies. The water - ice tea glasses were in short supply and we often got juice glasses (about 4 ounces) for water at dinner. We had a bottle of wine from our travel agent and the wine glasses disappeared after 2 days even though we had not opened the wine.

 

I was very happy we did not have one of the lower floor cabins. These rooms had windows at the water line so they did not open. In port these rooms were often in the dark as the windows were below the dock level. Some people may want to save the money - just a warning if the AC is off you cannot open the window to cool down.

 

The recommended tips have been raised. 3 Euros per person per day for the cruise director and 12 Euros per day for the staff. This was up from 2 and 10 - I had checked before we left on the trip. Internet is a (nobody will use it) 3.5 Euros per minute - off the ship you will pay maybe 5 Euros for a half and hour.

 

The ports were on a whole very interesting. I wish there had been more time in vienna. As with most of these tours getting a good tour guide is the luck of the draw. We had a great one in Salzburg.

[aneckc]

Thanks for the trip report. We are taking the Globus/Avalon Prague to Bucharest Grand Black Sea cruise next June and appreciate your insights. I am surprised to find Avalon so "cheapy". I thought it was one of the more upscale cruises out there along with Viking. :mad: Still looking forward to a fun trip.

[EmJakeBubbie]

skandls: we love both independent as well as escorted touring throughout all the great capitals "across the big pond" - have often seen cruise passengers out and about whilst touring, ever faithful to their wristwatch so as not to miss the ship when she sails. I appreciate your cruise comments - have often wondered how different a perspective we would get if we ever did one of those cruises. Land tours are not for everyone, nor are Cruises for everyone. I'm always interested to read about these different cruises. It does sound as if you had a nice trip, so that's a good thing.