Trip Report southbout Avalon Romantic Rhine

[RNCheryl]

Just back from a wonderful European escape. Spent 3 nights precruise in Amsterdam. Stayed at Swissotel in Dam Square. Nice room, in the middle of the tumalt of central Amsterdam. Tram station a couple of minutes walk, easy to get everywhere. We took a canal boat tour with Those Dam Boat Guys and recommend. Small boat, personable and informed captain. http://www.thosedamboatguys.com/#intro

 

Context tours of the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum. Again, you get what you pay for, personalized and informative narration. https://www.contexttravel.com/cities/amsterdam

 

Toured Anne Frank house. There is a 30 minute English session prior to the tour that makes the whole thing come alive. Highly recommend.

 

Finally, we did a WWII tour with http://www.slagveldreizen.nl/. A very passionate tour director and well worth your time.

 

Boarded the Avalon Tranquility on Saturday afternoon after the optional tour to Zaanse Schans windmill village. Very touristy, but never the less interesting. Lovely photo ops here. https://www.dezaanseschans.nl/?lang=en.

 

The Tranquility II is a lovely ship. Our cruise had 125 passengers, almost total capacity. The passenger mix was mostly folks in their 60s, well traveled. Some young folks in family groups, a couple of 40something couples, some older. Cruise director was Stefano. He was always available during the day, went on several of the included excursions, but, unlike on ocean cruises, we never saw him in the dining room, or in public places in the evening. He was personable and very efficient, but not super friendly.

 

Cabin was on the 200 level, panorama cabin. Slightly smaller than an ocean cruise, but lots of storage space and a very nice, modern bathroom. It was great lying on the bed and watching the countryside as we sailed.

 

Meals were fine. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style. I had a veggie omlet specially mad almost every morning. Great bread. (On a tour of the galley, the chief chef told us that someone from the staff goes to the local village on every stop and buys fresh produce and freshly made bread). Lunch always had a great soup, plus a full range of hot and cold dishes. Dinner was a set time for everyone. Regional wines were featured and were very good. Some hits, some misses, but you always got enough to eat.

 

After dinner activities were marginal, at least in our observation. We attended a violin duo one evening (excellent), and the crew talent show (funnier than you would imagine). Otherwise, there were lots of movies on the in room TV.

 

The optional excursions that we did were as follows: A food tour of the Jordaan area in Amsterdam (a new excursion). We really enjoyed this and got to eat lots of regional treats such as herring, bitterballs, and Poffertjes.

 

We bypassed the Black Forest excursion, as it seemed like a long time on a bus for a short excursion. We walked thru the local village instead and had a lovely experience. We did the Alsace wine testing trip. It was OK, but hot and crowded.

 

Of all the stops, Koblenz was my favorite. Just seemed like there were dozens of alleys and squares that needed to be explored.

 

Avalon did a great job of transferring us from Basel to the train station in Zurich after the cruise. This just required a little planning with the cruise director.

 

A couple of other things that Avalon did well: on German day in the restaurant, there was an accordian player making music for us. On the Castle day, there was a BBQ on the upper deck, so you could castle watch and munch at the same time. After every excursing, there were cold towels, cold water and drinks awaiting you on return to the ship.

 

After the tour concluded, we spent 5 nights in Switzerland. What a magnificent time that was. 2 nights in Lucerne (rainy and cloudy, but we made do) and 2 nights in Wengen in the Bernese Oberland. Jaw dropping scenery. Our favorite hotel of the trip was http://www.hotel-schoenegg.ch/?lang=en-GB. The friendliest staff ever, and the views from our room could not be compared.

 

An expensive trip, but probably the only visit to this area, as there are so many places to see and so little time.

 

Enjoy!

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thank you for your review. River cruise evening entertainment isn't up to ocean ship standards, but wasn't there a piano player or some music in the lounge after dinner most nights?

Edited October 2, 2016 by Host Jazzbeau

[RNCheryl]

Yes, there certainly was a piano play on board. I must admit that most evenings were were tired after dinner and an after dinner drink, and were ready to go back to the cabin to relax.

 

No complaints, as I knew this going in.

[gato4]

Thank you for your review, Cheryl. We'll be taking that cruise in August of next year. I especially liked hearing about the tours.

 

 

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[cmjfgll]

RNCheryl, I enjoyed your trip report and have a couple questions. My husband and I are booked on an Avalon cruise with a similar itinerary for next May. When we disembark in Basel we plan to take a train to Vienna from the main station in Zurich. I believe Avalon will usually transfer to the Zurich airport but I was surprised that they transferred you to the train station. Was that the main station in the city? And if so did you arrange that transfer in advance and was a fee charged? Thank you in advance for your help. This will be our first river cruise and I need all the help I can get!

[Daisi]

RNCheryl, I enjoyed your trip report and have a couple questions. My husband and I are booked on an Avalon cruise with a similar itinerary for next May. When we disembark in Basel we plan to take a train to Vienna from the main station in Zurich. I believe Avalon will usually transfer to the Zurich airport but I was surprised that they transferred you to the train station. Was that the main station in the city? And if so did you arrange that transfer in advance and was a fee charged? Thank you in advance for your help. This will be our first river cruise and I need all the help I can get!

 

I'm also curious about this, as we are looking at taking the train from Basel to Amsterdam, as a relaxing way to possibly see some more countryside. If they will assist with getting us to the train, it's one less thing to worry about. Glad to hear you were happy with Avalon, we are looking at 2018 for our Rhine cuise.

[RNCheryl]

cmjfgal: When we did our initial payment, travel agent booked us from Basel to Zurich. No specific destinations provided. When we met in the hotel prior to the cruise, I spoke with cruise director and advised him that, as we were traveling on into Switzerland at the end of the cruise, we needed to go to the TRAIN STATION instead of airport.

 

It turns out that those two locations are very close together. We were on a bus with passengers going to the airport from Basel, and a few minutes later we got to the central train station.

 

Just speak with your cruise director prior to sailing. Avalon made transfer very easy.

[cmjfgll]

Thank you for the info, RNCheryl! Our travel agent did set up a transfer from Basel to Zurich Airport and I know there is a train station at the airport, however, I do not find that it has direct trains to Vienna. Due to the timing, we will need to spend the night in Zurich and catch the train early the next morning. I just thought it would be one less change of transport if the ship transfer took us all the way to the main station in the city.