Our Romantic Rhine Cruise on the Avalon Tapestry April 13-20 Lots of cruise details.

[SorrentoCruiser]

What an incredible trip we had. The weather was cold, but the scenery was beautiful and the cities we visited were all unique and intersting in their own ways.

 

Before we left, was getting a little concerned when we were within 10 days of travel and still no documents. They did show up on day 9. Avalon provided a travel bag and passport holder with the documents. We dutifully filled out our paperwork, emergency contact info, etc, but Avalon never asked for it or checked it.

 

Although we had not booked our air thru Avalon, and were supposed to meet them at a hotel 2 miles from the Zurich airport, they met us at the airport and provided transportation to the hotel meeting point. There was a room set up for us to hang out in until time to leave for the ship. The hotel had a restaurant with a breakfast buffet ($30 pp) and there was coffee and water available in the waiting area. An optional tour was offered to visit Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus, which we took. I think it was about $58 pp (they took and preferred US $ for optional excursions - much cheaper than if you paid in Euro's).

 

Lucerne was beautiful. There was about 10' snow on the top of Mt. Pilatus. We took a tram to the top of the mountain, a 40 minute ride up, and had about 45 minutes on the summit. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

 

Caught the boat in Basel, and left port very quickly after. Didn't get to see much of Basel, just from the bus driving in, and the boat seemed to be docked in a fairly industrial area.

 

Monday morning woke up docked in Kuhl, Germany, across the river from Strasburg. Included tour of Strasburg started at 8:15 and included bus ride to center of city, a walking tour including a visit to the Cathedral and a canal boat tour. Had about 40 minutes free before catching the bus back to boat in time for lunch. Afternoon optional tours were to Alsace Wine region ($44 or 39 Euro) or the Black Forest ($49 or 43 Euro). We didn't do afternoon tour, but those who did were very positive about them.

 

Tuesday morning- Speyer, had free time to tour city on your own. The cathedral and city center were about a 5-10 minute walk from the boat. 5 if you knew where to go, 10 if you didn't. The cathedral has a crypt below built in the 11th century. Not as ornate as some of the others we saw, but still very beautiful. They have a Technical museum with a new Russian space shuttle, but there isn't time to visit unless you by-pass trip to Heidelberg.

 

Tues afternoon - Heidelberg. Walking tour of the castle. Our tour guide's headset wasn't working, so we didn't hear a whole lot, but it was okay. Had about 1 hour free in town to look around. Lots of souvenir shops here.

 

Wed.- Mainz in the morning. 90 minute walking tour started at 8:30 am and included the Gutenberg museum. After tour you had 45 minutes free to get back to boat. Not really enough time to see much of museum.

 

Wed afternoon to Thurs morning - Rudesheim. Included excursion was a tram ride into town, the Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Museum (better than I thought it would be) and coffee with brandy at the Rudesheim Schloss and a little free time for shopping. If you didn't catch tram ride back to boat, it was about a 30 - 40 minute walk, most of it thru the tourist shop areas along the old part of town and waterfront.

 

Wed evening we took the optional "German Dinner" ($54 or 48 Euro). Dinner was salad, soup, ham, potato salad, bread, and dessert, all served with wine. You had a choice of desserts. There was a band, played some german music, some American. After dinner, they got the group to participate in a couple of drinking games, a bell concert and then a congo line. Robert, the cruise director, had trouble getting us to leave at 9 pm when the program was over. Definately a fun evening, would do this one again.

 

Thurs morning we left Rudesheim at 10 AM and the rhine gorge scenery started immediately. It was freezing cold for us, most everyone was on the sun deck wearing coats, hats, gloves, blankets, but the scenery was so incredible they all stayed until lunch, at least.

 

Arrived in Coblenz at 2 pm. 90 minute walking tour and free time until 5:45. That night was the Gala dinner.

 

Friday was Cologne. The walking tour started at 8:30 am at the boat and ended at 10 am in front of the cathedral. You had the option of walking back with the tour guide or staying and sightseeing or shopping on your own. Lots of shops around cathedral. Left port at 12 to sail to Amsterdam.

 

Sat morning was in Amsterdam. 8:30 am tour left to catch canal boat for tour. Optional trip to Keukenhof at 2pm $49 or 44 Euros, didn't take, but did the 9pm tour to the Red Light District for $29 or 26 Euros.

 

Sunday morning we had to be out of our room by 8 am and off the ship by 10 am.

 

I really enjoyed the cruise experience. It was our first river cruise and totally different than going on a large ocean liner. I can understand all the people who complain about the food, it was definately the low point of the trip for us. We are not people who eat alot of haute cuisine. I can understand the people who do, but wish they would provide a few more options for those of us with simpler tastes. Even their chicken and salmon "alternative" options were soaked in whatever sauce the main option had. The breakfast and lunch buffets were usually decent enough, although not always very hot.

 

The beds on the ship were very firm. That's a nice way of saying hard as a rock. The one redeeming factor was the thick coverlets. We ended up sleeping on top of the coverlets for a little cushioning and using the blankets from the closet to cover up with.

 

The staff was wonderful, the attention to detail and friendliness of everyone was greatly appreciated. I heard several people say they were very generous in their tips because the service was so attentive.

 

We stayed in Amsterdam for a few days after, at the Park Hotel near the Rijksmuseum. Oh, yeah! If you ever get a chance, stay there. The beds are like sinking into a big soft pillow. We did alot of walking everyday, and couldn't wait to end the day and climb into those heavenly beds.

 

I have saved and scanned all of my daily itineraries and some of the menu selection sheets. I'd be happy to answer any questions or send a link to website showing pics & scanned paperwork.

 

Happy Cruising!

[MSEm]

I was surprised at the differency in the US$ and the Euro price for the tours. How did you pay for the optional tours? Did you pay cash?

Did you take traveller's checks for US Dollars? If so where did you cash the traveller's checks?

Was there an ATM on the river vessel?

What time did the breakfast begin?

Did you get any meals in the towns?

Thanks,

Emily

[SorrentoCruiser]

I'm assuming as Globus is a US owned company, they preferred getting paid in US $. They would take US cash or credit card, Euro's only in cash. They made the exchange rate a no-brainer in what currency to pay with.

 

I had been saving some cash, intending to buy Euro;s, but when I realized how much cheaper it was to pay for the tours in US, I used that and just got Euro's as needed from ATM's. Kept cash in safe, along with extra credit cards, ID, etc.

 

They take your passport when you come aboard and return it to you when you disembark a week later. You are given a shore pass anytime you leave the ship, and they make sure to have it back before leaving port.

 

No ATM on ship, but usually easy to find in towns. Never had a problem finding one and getting cash.

 

The only day we ate in town was in Amsterdam. All morning tours had you back in time for lunch, and afternoon tours always started after lunch.

 

One thing I didn't mention was how tight they are in keeping their schedule. If you are scheduled to leave at 12, at 11:30 they start looking for you, at 11:45 they start untying the ropes and at 11:59 they are pulling away from the dock. If you are there at 12:01, you have missed the boat. We had 4 people come within 1-2 minutes of being left, we were down to just the back ropes still tied to shore. They jumped on with the crew.

 

Gelinda

[vb527]

Hi SorrentoCruiser,

 

Thank you so much for your posting. It is very informative. We are going on this particular cruise in September and it's great to read about the day by day recount, especially how the tour is run. I was quite surprised to hear that they only accept Euros in Cash and not on credit card. But then as you have mentioned with the current exchange rate, it's a no brainer to pay by US dollars instead of Euros.

 

Do you know if they use the same hotel for meeting point every time? I would love to see the pics and scanned paperwork.

[SorrentoCruiser]

From the set - up they had, it seems to be the regular meeting point.

 

Didn't answer earlier about breakfast, every day was a little different. They had an early riser breakfast in the lounge every morning for 30-60 min before the regular breakfast (mostly coffee and pastries). The regular breakfast usually started at 6:30 on days with early tours, 7 or 7:30 on the other days, and usually open for 2 hours. Then there was another late riser breakfast in the lounge after the regular one shut down.

 

I will send you the link to pics & paperwork.

 

Gelinda

[SorrentoCruiser]

Here is the link to my flicker account which has all my pics & scanned documents from the cruise.

 

http://www.flickr.com/gp/23678898@N04/A7s43U

[MSEm]

I wil plan on bring more US$ cash than I normally bring to pay for any optional tours.

 

Have you received your CC statement? Did the optional tours remain n US$ or were the charges converted to Euros?

 

Thanks for all the good info.

MSEm

[SorrentoCruiser]

So I can't answer how they post to credit card. We also did out tips in cash.

[vb527]

Thanks SorrentoCruise for the photo link. I can't seem to find the scanned documents on there though?

 

Also wondering, do you remember what was the name of the hotel that was used as their meeting point?

[SorrentoCruiser]

The Movenpick Airport Hotel. Movenpick seems to be a large chain in Europe so you have to specify that it's the Zurich airport if you want to research it.

[SorrentoCruiser]

The scanned docs are under Avalon Tapestry on Flicker.

[vb527]

Hi SorrentoCruise,

Thank you so much for posting the scanned documents. I loved reading through all you have posted. I'm not a fan of surprises and like to be prepare, so it's great to now what to expect each day. Thanks very much!

[SorrentoCruiser]

The first day or two you went thru alot of countryside, not much to look at, but after the 3rd day, the scenery really started picking up, lots of quaint villages, and endless supply of church spires and historical bldgs/ towers/castles.

 

Also, the crew talent show on Thursday night is pretty good.

 

You can stay as busy or take it as easy as you want. If you don't want to do the included excursions, you are almost always parked in the center of the city and sometimes exploring on your own can be so much more memorable than following someone spouting names and dates you will never forget.

 

If I had to do it again, I'd probably skip the Heidelberg excursion. 1 hour bus ride there on the freeway mostly, I've seen old castle ruins before, so walking around outside them wasn't that big a thrill. I much prefered my morning walk around Speyer and next time would make Speyer an all day self guided excursion. Much less crowded than Heidelberg and since I wasn't really looking to do some cheap souvenier shopping, the hour spent in the market area was kinda wasted. Good pastry shop, though.

 

One last hint, almost everywhere in Germany it cost .5 Euro to use the restroom. Always carry coins.

[letsgo39]

I'm assuming as Globus is a US owned company, they preferred getting paid in US $. They would take US cash or credit card, Euro's only in cash. They made the exchange rate a no-brainer in what currency to pay with.

 

I had been saving some cash, intending to buy Euro;s, but when I realized how much cheaper it was to pay for the tours in US, I used that and just got Euro's as needed from ATM's. Kept cash in safe, along with extra credit cards, ID, etc.

 

They take your passport when you come aboard and return it to you when you disembark a week later. You are given a shore pass anytime you leave the ship, and they make sure to have it back before leaving port.

 

No ATM on ship, but usually easy to find in towns. Never had a problem finding one and getting cash.

 

The only day we ate in town was in Amsterdam. All morning tours had you back in time for lunch, and afternoon tours always started after lunch.

 

One thing I didn't mention was how tight they are in keeping their schedule. If you are scheduled to leave at 12, at 11:30 they start looking for you, at 11:45 they start untying the ropes and at 11:59 they are pulling away from the dock. If you are there at 12:01, you have missed the boat. We had 4 people come within 1-2 minutes of being left, we were down to just the back ropes still tied to shore. They jumped on with the crew.

 

Gelinda

 

 

Globus is a Swiss comapny not American.Here is a link with more information.

 

http://www.globusjourneys.com/Travel-Globus/History/

[emel]

 

One last hint, almost everywhere in Germany it cost .5 Euro to use the restroom. Always carry coins.

 

Gelinda, Since you have to pay, does that mean they were clean and presentable? ML

[letsgo39]

In 5 trips to Europe traveling to many different countries anytime I have had to pay for the rest room it has always been very clean.

[orchestrapal]

Currently in Austria! All rest-rooms are FREE and very clean even at bus stops.:) :)

[mamalenf]

Four of us will be on the June 1 Avalon Tapestry cruise starting at Basel.

 

Our flight from Chicago through Heathrow to Zurich arrives at 2:40pm June 1. I am assuming that we will have enough time to get to the hotel for the final 4:00 transfer to the ship.

 

Does anyone know what the weather would be like during this period?

[SorrentoCruiser]

The hotel is about a 5 minute ride from the airport. You need to allow enough time to get thru baggage claim & customs. I'd be sure Avalon knows what time your plane is arriving.

[webfoot]

I just received my credit card statement from the optional trips on our Avalon Artistry cruise and the charges were strictly in dollars ... no conversion. The only items on our charge card that had conversions were those that we used in the countries that we were in ...

 

The only time we used Euros (other than for shopping, food, etc.) were for the tips for the crew.

[retiredslug]

The beds on the ship were very firm. That's a nice way of saying hard as a rock. The one redeeming factor was the thick coverlets. We ended up sleeping on top of the coverlets for a little cushioning and using the blankets from the closet to cover up with.

 

 

We are cruising on the Tapestry in August/September and are hoping Avalon has upgraded the bedding by then. Hard beds do not sound inviting to us after having traveled in comfort on Amadeus last year. Will post a comparison upon our return.

 

Bill

[letsgo39]

Four of us will be on the June 1 Avalon Tapestry cruise starting at Basel.

 

Our flight from Chicago through Heathrow to Zurich arrives at 2:40pm June 1. I am assuming that we will have enough time to get to the hotel for the final 4:00 transfer to the ship.

 

Does anyone know what the weather would be like during this period?

 

 

www.weatherbase.com

 

Here is a link I always use when I travel to Europe.Click on the Europe link and you will be able to go to specific cities and get 10 day forecasts for each location.Of course it is no more accurate then our weather forecasts in the U.S.:) I hope your weather is better then we just had traveling to Italy. We had rain 10 out of 14 days!!!The rainy weather did not stop us fom doing what we wanted to do though.We had umbrellas and raincoats and just kept going!

[happycruizer]

What an incredible trip we had. The weather was cold, but the scenery was beautiful and the cities we visited were all unique and intersting in their own ways.

 

.

 

Although we had not booked our air thru Avalon, and were supposed to meet them at a hotel 2 miles from the Zurich airport, they met us at the airport and provided transportation to the hotel meeting point. There was a room set up for us to hang out in until time to leave for the ship. The hotel had a restaurant with a breakfast buffet ($30 pp) and there was coffee and water available in the waiting area. An optional tour was offered to visit Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus, which we took. I think it was about $58 pp (they took and preferred US $ for optional excursions - much cheaper than if you paid in Euro's).

 

Lucerne was beautiful. There was about 10' snow on the top of Mt. Pilatus. We took a tram to the top of the mountain, a 40 minute ride up, and had about 45 minutes on the summit. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

 

Caught the boat in Basel, and left port very quickly after. Didn't get to see much of Basel, just from the bus driving in, and the boat seemed to be docked in a fairly industrial area.

 

Monday morning woke up docked in Kuhl, Germany, across the river from Strasburg. Included tour of Strasburg started at 8:15 and included bus ride to center of city, a walking tour including a visit to the Cathedral and a canal boat tour. Had about 40 minutes free before catching the bus back to boat in time for lunch. Afternoon optional tours were to Alsace Wine region ($44 or 39 Euro) or the Black Forest ($49 or 43 Euro). We didn't do afternoon tour, but those who did were very positive about them.

 

Tuesday morning- Speyer, had free time to tour city on your own. The cathedral and city center were about a 5-10 minute walk from the boat. 5 if you knew where to go, 10 if you didn't. The cathedral has a crypt below built in the 11th century. Not as ornate as some of the others we saw, but still very beautiful. They have a Technical museum with a new Russian space shuttle, but there isn't time to visit unless you by-pass trip to Heidelberg.

 

Tues afternoon - Heidelberg. Walking tour of the castle. Our tour guide's headset wasn't working, so we didn't hear a whole lot, but it was okay. Had about 1 hour free in town to look around. Lots of souvenir shops here.

 

Wed.- Mainz in the morning. 90 minute walking tour started at 8:30 am and included the Gutenberg museum. After tour you had 45 minutes free to get back to boat. Not really enough time to see much of museum.

 

Wed afternoon to Thurs morning - Rudesheim. Included excursion was a tram ride into town, the Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Museum (better than I thought it would be) and coffee with brandy at the Rudesheim Schloss and a little free time for shopping. If you didn't catch tram ride back to boat, it was about a 30 - 40 minute walk, most of it thru the tourist shop areas along the old part of town and waterfront.

 

Wed evening we took the optional "German Dinner" ($54 or 48 Euro). Dinner was salad, soup, ham, potato salad, bread, and dessert, all served with wine. You had a choice of desserts. There was a band, played some german music, some American. After dinner, they got the group to participate in a couple of drinking games, a bell concert and then a congo line. Robert, the cruise director, had trouble getting us to leave at 9 pm when the program was over. Definately a fun evening, would do this one again.

 

Thurs morning we left Rudesheim at 10 AM and the rhine gorge scenery started immediately. It was freezing cold for us, most everyone was on the sun deck wearing coats, hats, gloves, blankets, but the scenery was so incredible they all stayed until lunch, at least.

 

Arrived in Coblenz at 2 pm. 90 minute walking tour and free time until 5:45. That night was the Gala dinner.

 

Friday was Cologne. The walking tour started at 8:30 am at the boat and ended at 10 am in front of the cathedral. You had the option of walking back with the tour guide or staying and sightseeing or shopping on your own. Lots of shops around cathedral. Left port at 12 to sail to Amsterdam.

 

Sat morning was in Amsterdam. 8:30 am tour left to catch canal boat for tour. Optional trip to Keukenhof at 2pm $49 or 44 Euros, didn't take, but did the 9pm tour to the Red Light District for $29 or 26 Euros.

 

Sunday morning we had to be out of our room by 8 am and off the ship by 10 am.

 

I really enjoyed the cruise experience. It was our first river cruise and totally different than going on a large ocean liner. I can understand all the people who complain about the food, it was definately the low point of the trip for us. We are not people who eat alot of haute cuisine. I can understand the people who do, but wish they would provide a few more options for those of us with simpler tastes. Even their chicken and salmon "alternative" options were soaked in whatever sauce the main option had. The breakfast and lunch buffets were usually decent enough, although not always very hot.

 

The beds on the ship were very firm. That's a nice way of saying hard as a rock. The one redeeming factor was the thick coverlets. We ended up sleeping on top of the coverlets for a little cushioning and using the blankets from the closet to cover up with.

 

The staff was wonderful, the attention to detail and friendliness of everyone was greatly appreciated. I heard several people say they were very generous in their tips because the service was so attentive.

 

We stayed in Amsterdam for a few days after, at the Park Hotel near the Rijksmuseum. Oh, yeah! If you ever get a chance, stay there. The beds are like sinking into a big soft pillow. We did alot of walking everyday, and couldn't wait to end the day and climb into those heavenly beds.

 

I have saved and scanned all of my daily itineraries and some of the menu selection sheets. I'd be happy to answer any questions or send a link to website showing pics & scanned paperwork.

 

Happy Cruising!

 

Sorry for the long quote, but could not quote without the entire msg. Please reference info highlighted in red. Does anyone know if Globus/Avalon still accept US $$$ for the optional excursions?

[webfoot]

We paid with a credit card for the optional tours. The CD accepted either Euros or credit cards, but not US$$.

[happycruizer]

We paid with a credit card for the optional tours. The CD accepted either Euros or credit cards, but not US$$.

 

Thanks webfoot..... Am I to assume that the CC chgs. were then converted to Euros?