On Board the Avalon Impression

We boarded the Impression a bit after 4PM today. Beautiful ship. Sitting here next to the well-lit Chain Bridge, we saw Avalon Expression, Viking Idi, AmaSonata and Scenic Pearl heading upstream. There were several others during dinner heading both ways but didn't catch names. We head upstream, ourselves, after a day in Budapest.

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Congratulations!

We look forward to your trip reports!

Congratulations! Thanks for keeping us informed. I'm even more excited now. Can you let me know when time you sail from Budapest.

Day 2 - Did the ship's tour of Budapest. Well done. Took optional tour to Szentendre. Also well done and worth it, IMO. Shoved off at 1800. Captain took us downriver a bit, then started upriver, giving us some great final shots of Budapest from the water. Nice Welcome Aboard dinner. Can't describe how awesome this is - cruising the Danube. Expect to be in Bratislava at 0930.

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Happy cruising!

We are in Vienna today. Yesterday was Bratislava, not to be missed. The historic district is so quaint and interesting. We also took the optional afternoon tour to Schlosshoff. Beautiful and get to see some countryside. Evening, 5 young ladies came aboard (Aphrodite was their group name) to perform. Outstanding. Avalon has been A1 to date! Oh, 2 locks down, 66 to go!

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Thanks for the report!

You will have wonderful entertainment on board. Aphrodite is great. I've seen them twice and enjoyed their concerts very much!

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Have a great time.

Keith

We did a nice tour to Salzburg. Beautiful countryside. Slow going from Passau to Regensburg due to low water. We will be 3 hours late into Regensburg but the worst is behind us.

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Everything has been wonderful. Avalon has been great so far. Regensburg, Nurmburg and Bamberg have all been great stops. Had some rain today in Bamberg but did not spoil the tour. Main River is a delight so far. Can't say enough about how great this has been so far'

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Everything has been wonderful. Avalon has been great so far. Regensburg, Nurmburg and Bamberg have all been great stops. Had some rain today in Bamberg but did not spoil the tour. Main River is a delight so far. Can't say enough about how great this has been so far'

 

 

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Thanks for the updates. It's good to know the water levers are improving.

Stopped in Wurmburg yesterday. Nice town. Took the excursion ($) to Rothensburg. If you take only one excursion on this trip, we recommend this one. And sailing the Main has been a real treat - at least in our opinion. Many small, beautiful villages and glorious countryside!!

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Stopped in Wurmburg yesterday. Nice town. Took the excursion ($) to Rothensburg. If you take only one excursion on this trip, we recommend this one. And sailing the Main has been a real treat - at least in our opinion. Many small, beautiful villages and glorious countryside!!

 

 

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thanks for the suggestion.

We are back home now, having made our first River Cruise journey onboard the fantastic Avalon Impression from Budapest all the way up to Amsterdam. Only one delay of about 3 hours due to low water navigation between Passau and Regensburg - otherwise, "smooth sailing". As the Captain said, there is os much that can go wrong on a river cruise (low/high water, accidents on the waterway, locks breaking, strikes (especially lock workers), that making it 15 days with only one delay is pretty impressive.

We will have a complete review very soon, but just wanted to say that, though we are unable to compare River Cruise Companies, we'd find it very difficult to select another line in the future. Avalon has impressive ships, the Impression has a great crew from the Captain to the dishwashers, and our cruise director was the best.

The reasons we went with Avalon (versus two others we considered) were:

1 - The bed configuration - may seem trivial but on a river cruise, both of us being able to lie there and enjoy the world going by was a big plus.

2 - "Balconies" - Avalon (suite ships) have a three door configuration where 2/3s of the room opens up to the outside. We felt having an actual "ocean cruise balcony" would substantially reduce the size of the living arrangements. This is non-debateable. There is only a finite width to these ships and to add a balcony means subtracting living space.

3 - Globus - They are a leader in the bus tour market (and we've used them before) and felt they would be very strong in the touring part of the journey. A good, safe cruise down the river is important. What you see and do along with way is equally so, in our estimation.

Now, we have so many more reasons why we would stay with Avalon.

Again, we have no basis for comparison, other than the 3 objective ones mentioned above, but we were extremely happy with our trip.

Rudy-

We can't thank you enough for sharing your experience on this community page. It's SO appreciated.

We are grateful you chose us and look forward to welcoming you aboard another Avalon ship in the future (the near future, we hope). In the meantime, we look forward to reading a more formal review of your experience aboard the Avalon Impression soon.

Best wishes to you and thanks again!

As a final post to this thread, by us, here's the location of the cruise critic review we put together:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=258952

As a final post to this thread, by us, here's the location of the cruise critic review we put together:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=258952

Thankyou so much for your review. We did the same cruise with Avalon on the Panorama just a little over 2 years ago. I agree with all that you say about the reasons for travelling with Avalon. We also had an amazing trip and had the same cruise director. He was fantastic.

It has been really great reading all about your trip which brings back very many special memories. Glad you had such a wonderful vacation. Cheers!!!!

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Oh my I am so excited for my own Avalon trip coming up Amsterdam to Budapest. My DH got really excited (again) after reading your posts and enthusiasm for Avalon and River cruising! :)

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Thank you for the review and the updates. It's helped us with our preparations.

We leave for Budapest on Sunday and will be boarding the Impression next Wednesday.

Just want to also thank you for your review. On August 31 we're on the Affinity from Amsterdam to Budapest. Read your posts as you traveled and the review is very helpful with our planning.

Rich

You're welcome. Glad it helped.

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