Avalon Luminary Blue Danube Discovery May 17-29, 2012 Review

[jnjcruz]

Planning first river cruise, so forgive what may be a previously answered question.

If you take an optional tour, does the charge go on your on board account like on the ocean cruises? Use credit card??

Thanks,

jhagen

On our Viking cruises all excursions were included in the price. We were quite surprised when we booked Avalon to see there were extra charges for the excursions. We paid on board and had to pay in euros. I don't know how other river cruise lines work. Also the excursions offered on our Avalon cruise were a little different than the ones that had been listed on the website, so be prepared.

Jay

[webfoot]

When I was researching Viking Cruises there was mention of optional tours and their cost was extra, which is how Avalon works.

[CQG67]

Gosh, thanks everyone for all of the helpful information. I am up to my eyeballs in cruise literature on river cruises - and they really do vary in what they include in their fare. AMA, Avalon and Viking are three we are looking at. Scenic is very nice but very expensive - but does include all excursions. We want to go in October 2013 for our anniversary and hope that won't be too late in the year. The last time we were in that part of Europe was in mid to late October and the weather was just what we like - cool but not cold. Because of the high cost of this trip, going in May will be a little too soon for us as we are just coming off a two week transatlantic in mid November this year and hopefully a ten day Panama Canal cruise next April. We have taken 30+ ocean cruises and decided this would be something different and interesting and have heard nothing but good things about this type of cruising. Thank you Hal for the wonderful info you provided in your review of your cruise.

Thanks again. Barb :)

[cruiserhal]

When we were researching river cruises each line seems to word things the same but different - yea, that does not make sense but I think some of you that are going thru this exercise know what I mean.

 

On our cruise, every port and pre/post cruise hotel stay had an included tour which we took. The extra cost tours were scheduled at a different time so everyone could take the included tour and not feel they had to book the extra ones. We did take a few extra tours based on what they were going to see and felt each one was worth the money.

 

Since we had never toured in any of the cities before, taking the included tour was well worth the time because it gave us an overview of each town. If we return to any of the towns we would do more touring on our own to see specific sites - either by walking or a local guide. It worked well for us.

 

No matter what your taste in touring is, I hope everyone enjoys every tour on your future cruises.

[kaudreamer12]

What a great overview of your trip! Sounds wonderful! We are anticipating our River Cruise with Gate1 in Sept 2012 starting in Nuremberg and ending in Budapest. The only optional tours along the way was the concert in Vienna $69 and Schonbrunn Palace Tour $59. Since we are arrive in Vienna in the afternoon and have the concert at night, I am not taking Schronbrunn tour the next day. A city tour is included in the am and I wanted to hang out exploring on our own in the pm before returning to the ship. Prior to the cruise we have a bus tour through Germany with one an two nights in different cities along the way. Mainz, Heidelberg, Black Forest, Lucerne, Leichtenstein to Innsbruck, Salzburg, Munich and embarking the ship Nremberg. We purchased the Danube Deck with French Balcony so hopefully we will have a great view while we are in the cabin and can catch some great pics of the scenery!

[lakesidegt]

My wife, cousin, and I (three of us) are planning a Danube River Cruise on the Luminary. Mahalo for posting such a detailed review! I've been on ocean cruises before, but this is our first river cruise.

 

Did you get any feedback from other cruisers about the class of cabins they selected or side of the ship that they were on?

 

Our air fare will be a bit more as we are flying from Hawaii. Did you use Avalon to book your air or did you book the air separately?

 

Mahalo!

[caviargal]

My wife, cousin, and I (three of us) are planning a Danube River Cruise on the Luminary. Mahalo for posting such a detailed review! I've been on ocean cruises before, but this is our first river cruise.

 

Did you get any feedback from other cruisers about the class of cabins they selected or side of the ship that they were on?

 

We sailed on Luminary two years ago and had a French Balcony cabin in C. My mother was across in the same category. Cabins were comfortable and well appointed. Neither side had any distinct advantage. Friends were on the lower deck and their cabin was fine as well.

[lakesidegt]

Caviargal

Tnks for the info. Coming down to crunch time for us - we reserved our rooms on the Luminary and have to make a nonrefundable deposit soon.

[littlegeneral4842]

Thanks for all the wonderful information, we will be sailing on the Avalon Visionary in May of 2013. How was the weather and what about tipping on the ship and for the tour guides? Did you use American money or change it for each country? I thought I read somewhere that you could pre pay the tips for the ship crew.

[drainbow]

Thanks to everyone, and especially CruiserHal for all of the information! I'm looking at booking two rooms for the same cruise, and my travel agent is concerned that P category rooms on the Royal Deck (same deck where suites are) might get excessive noise from people moving the deck chairs around on the deck directly above. Any comment? These rooms are slightly more expensive than the same rooms one deck below. I'm guessing we would prefer to be higher, but the travel agent's concern has me thinking..... Any thoughts you have on the subject would be appreciated!! Thanks again for all of your information - you were the tipping point that made me seriously look at this cruise!

[littlegeneral4842]

Can you tell us the dress code for the concert please and also what was the weather like during the cruise?

[tassietravellers]

Thanks to everyone, and especially CruiserHal for all of the information! I'm looking at booking two rooms for the same cruise, and my travel agent is concerned that P category rooms on the Royal Deck (same deck where suites are) might get excessive noise from people moving the deck chairs around on the deck directly above. Any comment? These rooms are slightly more expensive than the same rooms one deck below. I'm guessing we would prefer to be higher, but the travel agent's concern has me thinking..... Any thoughts you have on the subject would be appreciated!! Thanks again for all of your information - you were the tipping point that made me seriously look at this cruise!

 

We ere on Avalon Panorama in august, we were on the middle deck and had no noise, but I know the people on the top deck had problems as one guy went for early morning runs on the sky deck and they had alot of thumping. That was sorted pretty quickly tho, he didnt realise they would have felt or heard it..well we wouldnt have thought of it either, we used to do a few walking laps of a morning.

I think he changed to walking and everyone was happy :-)

[littlegeneral4842]

Thanks Hal for the very detailed review. Any dress code for the concert in Vienna? Don't want to pack a suit coast for husband if not necessary.

[bobandjo]

Thanks Hal for the very detailed review. Any dress code for the concert in Vienna? Don't want to pack a suit coast for husband if not necessary.

We'll be doing the concert in Vienna in June via the Avalon Vista and everything I've read said the room gets very warm and leave the sports jackets at home. I might still take one for the few special dinners and sitting up on deck in the evening IF I have room in the suitcase.

[pgy]

Thanks, Hal for the information. We have been trying to get port arrival times from Avalon this week, but they would not give them out. I realize that times vary depending on river conditions, but this gives us a good idea. We like to use Viator for walking tours on our own, so we can now see if the approximate times will work. We are looking forward to our July 8th cruise on the Visionary.:D

[bobandjo]

Thanks, Hal for the information. We have been trying to get port arrival times from Avalon this week, but they would not give them out. I realize that times vary depending on river conditions, but this gives us a good idea. We like to use Viator for walking tours on our own, so we can now see if the approximate times will work. We are looking forward to our July 8th cruise on the Visionary.:D

When I contacted Avalon about where the "meeting" place would be in Amsterdam before we get on the ship they responded that they don't know until a month before sailing. I expect that's the same for everything they do on the cruise. We'll just wait for our package to arrive late May, early June.

[cruiserhal]

Thanks Hal for the very detailed review. Any dress code for the concert in Vienna? Don't want to pack a suit coast for husband if not necessary.

 

Oh my, I didn't realize people were still reading my reivew. Thanks!

 

The dress code for the concert can be nice casual because it gets very hot in the room. I had a jacket along with a good number of other men and we had to take them off. We looked forward to the intermission so we could go outside and cool off.

 

I hope this helps. Have a great trip.

[Kentish]

When I contacted Avalon about where the "meeting" place would be in Amsterdam before we get on the ship they responded that they don't know until a month before sailing. I expect that's the same for everything they do on the cruise. We'll just wait for our package to arrive late May, early June.

 

I went with my husband on this cruise in October 12. We would thoroughly recommend the included walking tours. Then you can relax about the timings.

[Froggy57]

Thanks Hal this is one of the best river cruise reviews esp for first timers like us. We are looking forward to our trip on the Luminary this summer. Now to get onto the website!

[cruiserhal]

Thanks Hal this is one of the best river cruise reviews esp for first timers like us. We are looking forward to our trip on the Luminary this summer. Now to get onto the website!

 

Enjoy our trip.

 

We were going to use Avalon again this year but wanted to go to the Blatic so we are going on Celebrity. Next year we are (well 95% sure) taking the Avalon Paris to Budapest trip. It is over 2 weeks but what a trip. It gives my wife Paris, it gives me Wurtzburg Germany, and we both get to return to Budapest. Perfect for us.