The differences amomg the major lines

[cbb]

My husband and I took Avalon from Budapest to Amsterdam and loved it. We have sailed with Crystal and are leaving in 2 days for an Oceania cruise. Please don't expect an ocean liner experience with an European river cruise...apples and oranges. We had no problem with the headsets. If you wanted to participate in the free tour of a city you had your ID card swiped , picked up a headset (we chose a different color every time) and walked to that "color" bus. A local travel agent was responsible for his/her own bus and our Avalon leader saw every bus off. We had a choice at every meal of fish, chicken, beef, and vegetarian/pasta for every dinner and the local white/red wines flowed (no charge) Often, when we docked there were crates of fresh produce waiting at the dock to be put on board. The primary group on board were Australians and New Zealands. Please, please, if you are from North America, talk to them, especially if they look to be over 75. Our 1st night we met a woman who had spent 5 years in a Japanese concentration camp in Luzon with her mother with no knowledge of her father. I asked her if she had ever met any of the US POW nurses from Corregidor and she said "they saved my life in hospital." Another gentleman had fought Hitler in Prague only to be imprisoned after the war by Stalin's people. He escaped after 18 mos (his wife said he will not speak of his experiences) and made his way to a DP center and was offered passage to Australia. He was unable to return to Prague until the 1990s! The only reason I'm preaching is that too often we see the sights and ignore the stories of others. We recommend Avalon highly (but stay away from Salzburg in August! Everyone is Europe was there, I think!) Safe journeys.

[webfoot]

When we boarded the Avalon Artistry last year all we heard were Australian and New Zealand accents ... and wondered about the US/Canada contingent ... well we were all there ... including two couples from UK. One of the gentlemen had suffered a stroke earlier in the year but he had a wonderful time talking to everyone.

 

We had a mix of about 70% Australian/New Zealand, 15% Canadian, and 15% US ... great mix ...

[cbb]

webfoot--we had ~140 on the Avalon Poetry last August and ~100 were from Australia, next group was NZ, then Brits, then Canadians and 6 US!

Everyone, and I mean everyone wanted to talk about the US election, even the Canadians and they had an election before ours! The people from "down under" knew all about both candidates and all had very firm opinions; many wished they could vote! As I've said before, give me Australians/NZ to travel with--they are wonderful companions! What was so cool was that there was such a variety of ages on board; some were in their 40s up to the 80s (trust me, most of the 80s folks did everything the rest of us did and were ready for cocktail hour and I was ready for a nap!) good times!

[webfoot]

The Australians that were on our trip opened up the bar in the morning and kept going long after I went back to the cabin ... we enjoyed partying with them.

 

I'm anxious to see the mix on our trip this year. The new Avalon ship, Affinity, only has room for 138 people ... I had hoped to find someone on here who was going on the same cruise, but so far, no luck ...

[cbb]

webfoot, where are you going this time? I'm trying to plan next year's vacations--we try to take 2 a year--and am open to suggestions. One trip will definitely be to South America (1st time) with Globus and add Amazon and Peru so that we can see Machu Pichu but haven't decided on the 2nd one. We're talking about one of Oceania's Asia cruises and then adding additional time in China, either on a Globus/Monogram trip or their cruise/tour of the Yangtze. However, there are other river cruises we want to do such as Paris to Nice and the Nile tour/cruise. So many places so little time (and we're in our 50s!!) Safe journeys.

[pully8]

Tauck River Cruises probably has the largest size cabins for the European River Cruises. (Also I think Scenic cabins may be larger)

 

You must look at the river cruise you will be on, then you can compare the cabins on the vessels of the various river cruise lines.

 

It is difficult to say X line has the largest cabins. That may be true for 1 ship.

 

I have found the cabins on Avalon to be much small than my cabins on Viking Century Sun and Viking Surkov.

 

I have gotten good reports on Viking, AMA, Tauck, and Uniworld cruises. These reports came from people that have traveled on several of the river cruise lines.

 

After my cruise with Avalon in June 2008, I will not choose Avalon agin.

 

Check the reviews for more information.

 

MSEm

can you elaborate why you would not go with avalon?

we are going on the avalon next month basle to amsterdam.

first cruise.

them do seem scant with details at present.

re extra costs etc.

anything to watch out for?

regards

[pully8]

Sorry for the typo. I try to check for spelling, but I do not get all of them. If you want to "rent" a robe from Avalon, put in your request as soon as you get on board. They only have enough robes for about 9 or 10 cabins. Even Carnival has a nice terry robe in my cabin (OV or better) for my use on a cruise.

 

When asked to compare Avalon vs Tauck.

If you end up paying the Tauck price for your total cost, IMHO, just book the Tauck river cruise.

 

Tauck may or may not offer some benefit of "free air". All of the companies are making special offers. If you are offered free air, check on what it will cost you to book your own air and how much credit you may receive against the cabin cost.

For me I usually do better to get a credit for the "free or special" air and booking my own air.

 

Msem

thanks for your post.

we are booked on the tapestry basle to amsterdam may 3rd.

first cruise.

they seem scant re details re extras.

we like others do not want to be ripped off or get nasty surprises.

any further advice or comments?

just as background we booked this cruise back in november.paid in full.

it was part of a gardens of europe tour which included the chelsea flower show, monets garden and many others in france and amstredam.

about 3 weeks before we were to leave the agent rang and said a few changes had been made.

it turns out only 6 had booked and the tour would not go ahead.

they expected us to accept a different and lower quality tour. after telling them this was not what we had paid for we got our money back for the non cruise part and have made other plans.

pressure and the last minute.

so we do not want too many other nasty surprises!

what can you tell us?

regards

[MSEm]

Please check under the member reviews.

Select (REVIEWS) at top of home page

Select (MEMBER REVIEWS)

Select (AVALON)

You will find my review from 2008.

 

I have also traveled again with Viking River on the "Waterways of the Czar" Oct 2008.

 

At this time I would choose between VR, Uniworld, AMA or Tauck.

 

If you have other questions, you can e-mail me directly

 

msem2 at cableone dot net

 

MSEm

[StarTrkGeek]

Please check under the member reviews.

Select (REVIEWS) at top of home page

Select (MEMBER REVIEWS)

Select (AVALON)

You will find my review from 2008.

 

I have also traveled again with Viking River on the "Waterways of the Czar" Oct 2008.

 

At this time I would choose between VR, Uniworld, AMA or Tauck.

 

If you have other questions, you can e-mail me directly

 

msem2 at cableone dot net

 

MSEm

Have you ever used GCT?

[MSEm]

i have not traveled with GCT.

 

I have done 2 river cruises with Viking River (China & Russia)

I also did 1 river cruises with Avalon (Budapest to Prague June 2008).

I talked with 8 to 10 people on the Avalon cruise. We were in agreement the the experience we had with Avalon was not up to the same as expereinces on Uniworld, AMA, and Viking River.

MSEm