Avalon Panorama and Rhine Water Levels

We just completed our voyage on Avalon's new Panorama from Amsterdam to Budapest. This was its first commercial cruise - and was really spectacular. Avalon was wonderful from start to finish.

We ran into low water levels in the area of Regensberg, as well as on stretches of the Rhine river before that. In Regensburg, we were not permitted by water authorities to proceed toward Passau resulting in a delay of several hours. Fortunately we had rain that night and all the next day and were permitted to proceed without further problems. No problems on the Main or Danube. We were able to make up the missed time and our cruise itinerary was not affected.

Our captain, who was magnificent, told us that the Panorama is larger than the average river ship and draws more water, making it more risky in low water. He also noted that the Rhine area was suffering a drought, and that cruising toward Austria and Hungary could be affected regardless of the size of the ship. At one point, we had less than 1 1/2 meters between the propellers and the river bottom.

The cruise itself awesome and well worth the little bit of stress of low water. The entire crew, along with cruise director, was the greatest!

However, those cruising on this area of Europe should expect that, because of low bridges, you don't often get the chance to sit up on the sky deck of the ship. But, on Panorama, the rooms on levels 2 and 3 are all suites with "pseudo-balconies", and you can sit in your room with the door open and feel the fresh breezes and watch the lovely views pass by.

I highly recommend Avalon - being 2 of the 6 Americans on board joining mostly Aussies and a few from New Zealand, we had a great cruise!

Hi Benjzmom,

We are cruising on the Panorama on 13 th July.

Hopefully there has been some rain since.

You sounded impressed.

I'm sure we will be too.

A couple of questions.

They offer a drinks package. Is there any need?

Are the drinks expensive on the boat?

Can you bring alcohol onto the boat easily.

How is the wireless reception on the boat? We were hoping our iPad might work without having a 3G microsim.

Did you do many of the optional tours? Any must dos? Or did you wander around the ports by yourselves?

Any tips you can pass on would be most appreciated.

Thanks

BeHappyM8- I didn't cruise on the Panaorama but did an Avalon cruise so I think maybe some of your questions cross over.

Unless you are a heavy drinker I would skip the drink's package. On our ship they offered 2 for 1 drinks in the lounge every night. I believe the costs were like 6 euro per drink so it is sort of expensive. They do have all you can drink wine, beer and soda at the evening meal. Just don't over do it as you won't like yourself in the morning.

You can bring alcohol on board and I don't recall them making a big deal about it. You may be charged a 'corkage' fee if they open the bottles so bring your own cork screw. We didn't do this so I'm only going by what I remember others on our cruise doing. There is a mini bar in your room with soda, alcohol and beer. Not extremely expensive, sort of hotel like prices.

We brought a netbook along and it worked ok although not as fast as at home. They had wifi on board and we bought the pass for it....something like 20 euro for the week. We used it mainly for email.There are dead spots on the river so in some instances you had no connections.

The included excursions are ok but maybe benjzmom has better ideas. You will have some time for independent exploring but not much. Be selective and go on some of the extra excursions. They are OK and Avalon does a nice job of planning for you.

Sounds like you will be having a wonderful experience!

BehappyM8

We are also on the Panorama on July 13. Sounds like you already got your tickets. Called our travel agent yesterday and he said they hadn't gotten to it yet as it was still 30 days out. I was suppose to call back today and he will give us more information, but ran out of time. What part of the world do you hale from. We are living in Florida but will be leaving from Philalelphia where our daughter lives. I posted a while ago trying to find out if anyone else was on the Panorama at this time and didn't get any replies. This is our first River Cruise so I hope the river levels are good so we actually get to cruise.

Hi Phonequeen,

We already have our tickets because we leave to go to Europe on Monday.

We live in Perth, Western Australia and are off to Europe for a total of seven weeks of which the River Cruise is the central and star attraction.

Look forward to meeting you on the boat.

Travel safely.

Just returned from the Budapest to Amsterdam Avalon Panorama cruise. Water levels were not a problem as it rained almost every night.

The Panorama cruise offers guided tours of the ports you stop at, with radio receivers. Depending on the length of the stop, we usually had another hour, at least, to walk around the cities and shop. In some, we had longer (Cologne, Vienna, Regensberg).

We took the optional tour to Nuremberg - a MUST! Very compelling. We also took the Weltenburg Abbey/Danube Gorge option - it was a nice diversion, the abbey is beautiful (small) and the beer decent. Not overwhelming, but nice. The Salzburg and Czesky Krumlov excursions (two options, same day) were both good - we split up, and each did one of them. Shipwise - it was about 1/2 and 1/2 on each one of those two tours. NONE of the people we talked to were happy with the St. Andrews excursion from Budapest - they said it was a complete waste of time. I would avoid that at all costs if Avalon didn't eliminate it based upon all the bad reviews! Schonberg Palace in Vienna is lovely - I didn't take the excursion because I had been there on another visit, but it is worth seeing. If you are in Vienna on a Sunday, then by all means do it because most shops are closed. The Budapest lights tour is nice but you can see a lot just from the ship, or getting off ship and taking a nice walk across the bridge or along the river. That was our last night on ship so we didn't take the excursion but enjoyed the walk instead.

You don't need to buy a drink package - dinner is unlimited alcohol; happy hour is 2/1 and prices are reasonable (we didn't use the bar very often, but others did); and you can get buy beer for lunch if you really want it. I recall some announcement about bringing your own liquor on board, but honestly don't remember what the prohibition was -- I think someone else posted that they charge a corkage fee. Our TA sent us a bottle of complimentary wine for our room, and we enjoyed that during the first few days. The waiters at dinner make sure your drinks are full ALL through dinner.

I wrote about the wireless reception in another post -- it is free, and available when you are in an area with decent reception - not entirely dependable, and a little slow. My IPad worked fine - you do not need 3G to use it.

Our cruise was made up of 128 Aussies, 8 or 10 from New Zealand, and 6 from the U.S. We really enjoyed meeting Australians from all parts of the country. They know how to have a good time and are very friendly.

Glad to hear that water levels on the return cruise were not a problem. Panorama is a large ship, relatively speaking, and our captain told us that low water levels would be a challenge. The biggest problem area is the Rhine, just before you change over to the RMD canal and Danube. You won't have too many opportunities to use the sky deck because of low bridges so take advantage when you can -- also, sign up for the sky deck lunch at least once - that was nice too, particularly when the weather was nice.

Hope this helps - we were VERY happy with Avalon.

Benjzmom, Thanks for your review of the Panorama. Happy that you were so pleased. We will be on her in November at Thanksgiving, have no idea what water levels will be at that time. Just know weather will be cold. Sailing Budapest to Prague. Also happy to hear that you had intermittent free WiFi as I plan to bring my IPad with hopes of using it. How did you compare this Avalon all suite ship to the other Avalon riverboats you have been on? We were on the Affinity last year and were quite happy with Avalon and the Affinity crew, hence we booked our upcoming cruise for November.

We are staying 2 nights pre-cruise in Budapest at the Avalon selected Hotel which is the Intercontinental but are looking to book our own 2 post-cruise nights in Prague. Any good recommendations?

Your ideas for port excursion recommendations are welcome. Thanks!

We stayed at the Intercontinental in Budapest as part of a pre-cruise package. It was OK....location was the best. The Panorama docks within a short walking distance of the hotel. The cruise director suggested the Hilton for Prague. We had a wonderful flight to Budapest...Houston to Amsterdam with a brief layover and then onto Budapest. We flew KLM.

We stayed at the Intercontinental in Budapest as part of a pre-cruise package. It was OK....location was the best. The Panorama docks within a short walking distance of the hotel. The cruise director suggested the Hilton for Prague. We had a wonderful flight to Budapest...Houston to Amsterdam with a brief layover and then onto Budapest. We flew KLM.

GrannyDi, Do you know which Hilton in Prague was recommended? There are 2. One is in the Old Town and other is not. Trip advisor gives so-so reviews on the Hilton in Old Town. Good location but expensive wi-Fi and Hotel ammenities and staff did not get great accolades in the reviews I read. Maybe others have had better experiences to report.

I didn't know there were two Hiltons. Cruise director just said Avalon uses the Hilton.

Another option for a hotel in Prague is U Zlate Studny Karlova. It's not the Studney one but the one in Studny. This info was given to us by another passenger on the Panorama. We just got home so I haven't taken a look at it online yet.

Just found the hotel (U Zlate Studny Karlova) at tripadvisor...its ranked #43 and sounds good!

Regarding Prague, we stayed at Arcadia Residence - which is #1 on TripAdvisor. I would never stay anywhere else now that I've been there. They have two facilities - one in the old town and one about a 15 minute tram ride away, just below the old fortress. Distance was not a problem - but, we chose that location because they had a 2-bedroom apartment.

ALL of the rooms are apartments - in the old town, they are 1 bedroom. Breakfast delivered every morning (plentiful and delicious) at the time of your choosing; and the hosts Max and Pasquale make you feel like you are visiting their home. If you need the hotel experience, then I'd probably avoid hotels used by Avalon - they are generic, and expensive (we found out that the place we stayed at in Amsterdam pre-cruise cost 1/3 of the price of the NH Amsterdam per person, and it was wonderful.) We have friends who stayed at the Maximillian in Prague (#46 in TripAdvisor) and were happy with their room. There are so many nice little places to stay in Prague that are close to all of the sites. The InterContinental was on the edge of the Old Town (5 minutes to the Clock Tower) if you want modern.

Thanks for the info. We'll be needing two rooms when we go in 2012.