FuelScience

On 3/11/2019 at 7:23 AM, Got2Cruise said:

Definitely leave the blazer home. We found that in Avalon some folks don’t even change out of their touring clothes. We ourselves take a shower and change before dinner. 

We've sailed both Avalon and Viking (also Vantage) multiple times, and I didn't see any significant difference on how people dressed for dinner. Avalon was the only one that made a clear statement that shorts were not acceptable for dinner.

I don't know, but I wonder if the issue may be the high current draw of curling irons, etc. I think that the 110 V outlets may have limited amperage. Also, I seem to remember that DW complained that even when she used the 220V Viking supplied hair dryer, it didn't work well (didn't get hot enough), when used with the bathroom outlets. It only delivered full power when plugged into the outlets in the stateroom. She said that this has been true on the other lines we've sailed as well (Avalon and Vantage)

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

FuelScience,

 

not long to go now till your river cruise on the Saar, Moselle, Rhine and Neckar. You are our nickocruises "guinea pig" . I so hope that you will have a great time with the four rivers doing exactly would they should be doing.

 

Your cruise ends in Stuttgart of course, probably the furthest it makes sense to go on a river cruise ship and I know you will not have time to explore the river further post-cruise this time.

 

Further upstream are a few nice places that merit mentioning for pre- or post-cruise plans or indeed a land trip. One of them is Tübingen, the old university town: https://www.dw.com/en/tübingen-half-timbered-houses-and-students/a-36132127

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you! We're excited about the trip. I would love to see Tübingen, but that visit may have to wait for another trip. Three weeks away from grandchildren is about all my DW can stand. There have been a couple of modifications to the trip. We heard a some time ago that the cruise would end in Ludwigsburg instead of Stuttgart due to an event at the Cannstatter Wasen. Then last week we learned that construction work on the Ludwigsburg river bank would prevent docking there. So the ship will make its final stop at Lauffen.

The original plan was to dock at Lauffen at 22:00 after visiting Bad Wimpfen and set sail for Ludwigsburg at 7:00, arriving at 12:30. We will now be bused to Ludwigsburg from Lauffen and then be taken back to the ship.  We disembark from Lauffen on the final day of the cruise, arriving at the Stuttgart bahnhof around 8:15. 

We're flying back from Frankfurt on the next day, so maybe it's worthwhile taking a train to Tübingen and spending the day there before heading to Frankfurt...

Again, thanks for the note. I'll try to be a good guinea pig and post from the cruise with a full review upon return.

If you're adventurous, you might also consider a flight from Berlin to Frankfurt and a train from there to Remich. I did a quick check, and you can fly from Berlin to Frankfurt for less than $100. Then you can take a train from there to Nennig Perl via the Bahn (FRA to Trier, Trier to Nennig) for 20-26 Euro. According to google maps, the Nennig train station is just across the river from Remich (1.1 km).

I always ask myself, would a waiter here like being tipped in Euros?

Did a search on HDMI and came up with this from a trip report from the Crystal Mozart:

• "On the 40-inch flatscreen TV there are views of the Port, Starboard & Aft from the ship cameras with lovely classical music. The TV is not movable so although we brought HDMI cable to see our videos and pictures, it's not possible. We'll just have to wait till we do the self-guided post-cruise land tour in Vienna."

7 hours ago, nikitty said:

f anyone else has done a Avalon river cruise and can address the noise level on the 3rd level or anything else that I wouldn't think to ask, please let me know.  We have to book this cruise by Monday or Tuesday I believe - and the deposit is non-refundable

We've done two Avalon cruises--both on the top deck, and we didn't notice any noise problems.

Headed for the Netherlands in just over two weeks for 9 nights with Teeming (Amsterdam to Amsterdam), followed by a six-hour train ride to Saarbrücken for 7 nights on the Saar, Moselle, Rhine, Neckar rivers with German line Nicko.

You might want to check this thread:

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

The only other line I can think of is nickocruises, which is a German company offering some cruises to the English-speaking world. Here are their offers: https://www.nicko-cruises.de/en/river-cruises/

As you can see, they have shorter trips and that could be the way for you to go. I do not know what you could arrange with them as regards airfare.

 

I'll be onboard Nicko's MS Casanova for a 7 night cruise (Saarbrücken to Stuttgart) beginning on April 6. I'll try to post while onboard and write a review when I'm done. The week before we'll be on a 9-night Teeming cruise through the Netherlands. So I should be able to do a reasonable comparison. One thing I like about both these lines is the fact that they post targeted arrival and departure times for all of the ports.

It might be worthwhile to put a post together for all of these budget lines, clearly listing what the do and don't include compared to the more expensive lines like Viking.

11 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Starting a list of all of the links we have shared that are not links to things on Cruise Critic. As always, please feel free to edit or add to the list:

 

• Valrhona  (The Valrona Chocolate Museum across the river from Viviers)

Small,  correction, should be across the river from Tournon.

42 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We're doing the train which also includes a walking tour before returning to the ship. I'll decide mid-tour whether I do the walking tour or head off on my own.

It's about a mile from the docking site in Tournon to the candy store. Just leave enough time to walk to Valrhona and back.

14 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

🙉 I did not just hear you say that there is chocolate to be had. 🙉

 

Tournon is a half day stop for us, after lunch we head to Vienne, so other than the short walking tour in Tournon, I don't know that we will have much time there.

 

But for those who are interested, Cite du Chocolat Valrhona, 12 Avenue du Président Roosevelt, 26600 Tain-l'Hermitage, France

We only had a short time in Tournon on our Avalon cruise. I chose to skip the walking tour and make the walk across the bridge to Tain-l'Hermitage to the chocolate shop. I think that Viking may offer a train ride, so you may have a harder decision to make. If it's chocolate or walking tour, I'd definitely do chocolate!

6 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

We leave in just a few weeks now (3/19 sailing) and it is my plan to "live blog" our adventure right here in this thread. It will be a good time to ask specific questions about the itinerary.

 

 

Looking forward to the blog. We did Provence with Avalon a couple of years ago, and the Pont du Gard was a highlight for me. Also, if you have time in Tournon, make it to the Valrhona chocolate store. great chocolate and lots of free samples!

From the site below:

It would appear that the rate of affected sailings is somewhere between 5% and 10%, but no one knows for sure because the river lines do not provide these statistics.

Whether this person's opinion is better than anyone else's is anyone's guess.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Richard-Turen/River-cruisers-need-facts

I assume that you've found the reviews below. For more info you might try searching this forum.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=1243

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=1222

https://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=1348

I forgot one thing in my earlier response. I'll consider adding an Indonesian rice table to you Amsterdam trip. We like to visit Indrapura the first evening we're there. We're usually tired and ready for an early bed time. Indrapura is a good choice for that evening since they offer a 25% discount if you're finished by 8:00.

https://www.indrapura.nl/en/

6 hours ago, travelnut4 said:

Anything else you all recommend for our time in Amsterdam?

We really enjoyed the Reypenaer Cheese tasting. It's € 17.50. You taste 6 cheeses and have wines and port to match up with each cheese. When we did it it included a discount on any cheese that you bought in the shop. Not sure if they still offer the discount, but it's worthwhile without it.

https://www.reypenaercheese.com/en/tasting-room/cheese-tasting

51 minutes ago, KathyK13 said:

We are taking Avalon's Canals, Vineyards, and Castles in June and have booked our own flights out of Toronto.  We live in western NY and with the favorable exchange rate, we were able to get premium economy seats on direct flights for $500 less than it would cost us to fly out of Rochester in basic economy.  It's worth it for us to have the peace of mind knowing we will be comfortable for the 8 hour flights  rather than take a chance on having Avalon assign us flights.  Looking forward to our cruise!

That's a great cruise. If you're interested, the link below will take you to the dailies from our Paris to Amsterdam cruise back in 2016. This cruise had a slight diversion from the normal itinerary. We had to leave Bernkastel early due to a wine festival, so we had an afternoon in Zell. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0nz16ahW1fiNWxTRklRY0pTVU0

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

That is certainly a thought. But Viking would not be able to market it as a longship . That is where I see the problem: marketing. With the North-American/British/Australian lines going overboard (no pun intended) with words like "luxury", and size seems to matter more than ever on the Danube, would people jump to the idea of a smaller, more intimate vessel? Those ships are an "inbetween", aren't they? Neither peniche or barge with that personal service and only up to 24 passengers, nor a river cruise vessel large enough to accommodate many extra amenities that the 110m ships and 135m ships so often provide these days. The ships are fully renovated and offer everything one really needs, of course, but I have my doubts about finding the clientele. As you said, the veteran cruisers perhaps.

 

There is one British tour operator offering the route, they charter the MS Johannes Brahms: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/german-waterways/secret-waterways-of-germany-berlin-to-amsterdam.aspx

 

And here is one I have never seen before, Kiel to Berlin: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/elbe/from-the-kiel-canal-to-berlin.aspx?boardbasis=FB

 

As you might expect, neither the itineraries nor the Johannes Brahms get "luxury" attributed to them. "Elegant" is the term they use for the ship.

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks for this. I'm glad to see an English language Berlin to Amsterdam cruise. I agree that the smaller ships have a lot to offer, but they have problems finding customers. My first river cruise was back in 2012 on the old Viking Sky, a smaller ship with no French balconies. It was well maintained and had great service. It sold us on river cruising. In April we'll be on Nicko's MS Casanova. Nicko advertises it as one of their "boutique" ships. The 103 meter ship holds 96 passengers and was built in 2001, but the photos look nice. As we've discussed before, it's one of the few ships that sail the Neckar. We're looking forward to the smaller, more intimate atmosphere. We'll also see how bad my German is!

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

FuelScience,

I have spoken to a representative of the exclusive German booking agent for CroisiEurope. She confirmed that on the Berlin to Amsterdam route, although larger ships can sail stretches of the river, a few locks that are small limit the size of ships. A 110m ship is not possible on the route they sail. We also talked about the problems of the Elbe in 2018. She pointed to the shallow draft of the two paddle wheelers on the Elbe but said that while they sailed for a long time, at the worst of the drought CroisiEurope also had to give up on sailing with them.

 

The ships on the route are small but the cabins are not much smaller than on their regular ships and all have proper beds, not fold-down beds that are sofas during the day. The ships just have fewer cabins.

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks for taking a look at this. As the "popular" rivers become more crowded, I wonder if there's any incentive for some of the larger lines to build smaller ships to explore these novel routes. It seems like veteran river cruisers would jump on some of these routes if they knew about them.

If you're wondering where you'll be docked in Amsterdam, you can check at the site below. Just type your ship's name into the search field and scroll through until you find your dates. Docking locations are shown on the map at the second link.

https://www.portofamsterdam.com/en/shipping/rivercruise/berth-reservations-river-cruise

https://www.portofamsterdam.com/en/shipping/rivercruise/berths-and-available-facilities

4 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Our ship excursion in Tournon was a walk across the river to Tain-l'Hermitage and the vineyards and tasting room of M.Chapoutier.  At the end the guide gave us directions to the Valrhona chocolate museum and tasting room, which was only a short detour on the way back to the boat.  Wine and chocolate: heaven!

 

For whatever reason, Avalon doesn't spend much time in Tournon. We docked there in the middle of the night. The walking tour began at 8:30, and the ship set sail for Vienne at 10:15. I was at the chocolate shop when it opened at 9:00 and got my shopping done in plenty of time to make it back to the ship. DW took the walking tour and wasn't overly impressed, but I gave her chocolate and that helped her mood!

For Playtennis's southbound trip it looks similar. They have the morning in Tain/Tournon and then sail to Viviers for an afternoon tour there.

So if you make your reservation for an optional tour on Avalon's web site or through a travel agent and prepay before the cruise starts, that tour is guaranteed to happen. Even if you're the only one signed up. If no one had signed up for an optional tour before the cruise and just a few signed up on the ship, then the tour wouldn't happen. I don't remember what the minimum number was. So again, if there's a must see tour, like the Pont du Gard, you should sign up before you leave. This policy may have changed, but that's the way it was in 2017.

1 hour ago, Playtennis said:

Fuel Science,

Thanks for the offer of the dailies.  Love to see them.

Here's the link for the dailies. Let me know if it doesn't work.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0nz16ahW1fiaE9FVGtxbEpoWjA

I second franski's suggestion for visiting the Valrhona chocolate store. If I remember correctly, it's about a mile walk from the ship's docking site, but easily doable in the time we had there. Let me mention one more thing. If there are optional excursions that you really want to do, you should book them ahead of time. It may have changed, but when we sailed the Rhone, Avalon had to have a certain number of people sign up for an optional tour in order for it to take place. If not enough people signed up, the tour was cancelled. The exception was for tours where people had signed up before the cruise. Those tours went ahead regardless of how many people had signed up. So if it's a must see, sign up before the cruise.