Daisi

A suggestion. Go to YouTube and look at the various cabins - a lot of cruisers post "tours" of ships now online. Also, some of the lines have virtual tours of both the ships and cabins. That will give you an idea as to what they are like, especially the ones done by cruisers as they usually will have their "stuff" out so you can see the amount of space you get. Sitting outside (or in your cabin in a French balcony) is nice, however remember that when touring a scenic area, you want to see both sides of the river, so will want to be in the public viewing areas. We sail on Avalon, and yes, we choose the French balcony - we sail in the spring and enjoy the open window. There is a nice chair and a (for me) perfectly sized love seat where I can sit and stretch my legs out on, so we can both sit while waiting for time to go to breakfast, or a tour. We like the fresh air, if we were touring in a colder season, we probably would go for the lower fixed window cabins. I also enjoy the full sliding window, as being vertically challenged, I would probably have the "bar" of the top of the window right in my viewing line if we were to go with a line that has the drop window. 🙂 @Kiwi-gal, I see on another post that you are possibly looking at Viking. As @Nippy Sweetie says, for the upper level that has the balcony suites, the corridor is shifted off centre to accommodate the room taken from the cabin for the full balcony. Most ships are all the same width (AmaMagma being one exception) in order to fit into the locks. So those who pay extra for a balcony actually have space taken from their suite to allow for it. Viking (as far as I know) is the only line to do this, and after all, if I am going to pay extra for a balcony, I don't want to have a smaller cabin because of it.

Just hearing from someone on the Avalon Envision - Budapest to Amsterdam. They say they are in Vienna, and have been told that water levels are to high and they may have to either go by bus or fly home. They still have a few days to decide, so not cutting it yet. They also say there is snow at some of the upcoming destinations, which won't help.

@Suzanne123, @jsn55 raises a good point. Do some research on the trains and platforms for your trip. Even if Avalon is holding your hand right up to boarding, it's always nice to know how things work. We don't have easy access to transit - bus/tram/trains where I live. Our first cruise, we arrived a few days early to do some of our own exploring. We took our first tram the day we arrived, our first train on the 2nd day. Thanks to watching several YouTube videos (and major help planning from a site - The Man in Seat 61) I had it fairly down pat as to what was required and how to use the trams (and what trams to take). We ended our cruise with a milk-run trip by train from Basel back to Amsterdam, and it was very smooth switching trains about 4-5 times. Just knowing how things operate (and knowing what to look for on the signs in a foreign language) helped a lot. Enjoy your cruise, we have the French cruises on our bucket list..

This is a good point, if the excursions are included check them out (unless you know a lot about the port you are in), and if you don't enjoy it, find out from the guide where to meet up (if you need a ride back to the ship) and wander on your own. It's nice to wander, but knowing what you are seeing is often helpful. 🙂

Never sailed on Grand Circle so couldn't really say how they do their cruises. The line we cruise on is Avalon, and they have buffet for both breakfast and lunch, so it's easy to slip in and out if you don't want to take the included excursions and just wander around the port. Just make sure you check with the CD as to when they sail out, so you know to be back in time. Avalon's dinners (and I think most) are around 7:00, right after the CD's talk about the next day, which will start around 6:00. Dinner is the only meal served, and if you are in port overnight, you are more than welcome to spend the day in town. The reason independent tours are difficult is because water levels (high/low) and locks interfere with timing in ports. Sometimes you don't leave on time so are later arriving at the next port. Ports can change if there are problems, you may miss one altogether, and have another one substituted. it's easy to wander around on your own, or when doing so, pick up a "tour by locals", but to prebook, it's not advised. Just make sure you know where your ship will be when you return, sometimes they sail to another port while you would be out on an included tour....or shift docking positions. 🙂

I'm sure that if there is a water or lock problem Avalon will look after you. Hope you all enjoy your cruise.

@AtlantaCruiser72, that's my experience, and when we had one of ours cancelled because of low water, the money was back on my CC the next day. I also cancelled one excursion while cruising and also received the money quickly.

We've been on some included tours of only 5 people. I like to go on the gentle walker group so I can take pictures at will. I find that the guides are great at walking *and* talking, so you see everything the other groups do, but you aren't marched past a whole batch of interesting things to stop in an out of the way spot so the guide can tell you about what you saw and what to look for while walking to the next spot. I may lose some shopping time after, but since I'm not a shopper, that's no big loss.

I agree about being flexible, so much is out of the cruise line's control. Should they cancel cruising when water levels are to low or high? Maybe, but then anyone who does their own airfare needs to rapidly make alternate arrangements or lose the cost of flights. Also, rain can come quickly, so low water one week could be perfect sailing the next. We ran into low water on the Danube last year, and it amazed me how quickly Avalon re-arranged our cruise to do their best to make sure that we did get to see as many of the ports as possible. I didn't hear any complaints, just a bit of confusion as it threw a lot of people off when they didn't know that things like that could happen. I look at bus rides (either planned or not) as an extra way of seeing the country side, I had expected when we started the excursions that required a bus that we would be driving highways.. So far, we've only done a couple (and I remember everyone's disappointment when we hit the Autobahn and no-one was speeding past us 🙂), mostly we get to drive through small towns and scenic areas. I don't mind that.....

The barge tours are probably a lot different than the river cruise ones, just like Viking's river cruise is a lot different from it's ocean ones. I've been researching Croisi river cruises since January, and from what I can see, they are competitive. Just trying to confirm about meals, as it does look as if there is a choice available, and how they operate. You can't go on the Loire or Vltava any other way, so really hope they are starting to get competitive.

@CielBleu, I hope you do a review on your Croisi cruise, they do some rivers (Vltava and Loire) that look really interesting. We're used to Avalon, so hoping that they are at least close.

Our tour of Vienna (general walking tour) was much the same as @vada_9 described, but we were lucky enough to see them walking the horses around and seeing them poking their heads out of the stalls. We had never been to Vienna either, so it was a good general overall viewing of the city. We managed to get the full trip around the Ringstrasse, as some of our passengers on our bus were doing the museum tour so they were dropped off. I would say we had about 15 on our tour, and it ended just outside the Cathedral. These are some of my photos. The Cathedral was nice, but we found some of the others we saw on the Danube nicer....Regensburg's was really peaceful, and Budapest's St. Stephens was very impressive.

Our cruise in 2018 wasn't at full capacity, so not sure if it's because fewer people know about Avalon, or most don't do research and choose one main one that does a lot of advertising.

ETIAS is needed for most non EU countries. I believe Canada requires something similar for Europe called an ETA, and has had for a while. We’ve just been lucky that the ETIAS has been delayed for a bit. I’m hoping we can get our May trip in before it comes into effect, but it’s only a couple €s so no big deal.

I read both online as well.

Avalon does have full room service now. We haven't tried it, but it is available. Their tables are a mix, 2 seaters along the wall, 4-6 along the windows and a couple of large round tables used mostly for groups. Avalon also has dining for lunch & dinner in the lounge where you can sit quite easily on your own, even if you are at a table for 4. On nice days, you can take your plates outside to the front area and eat out there. We sailed on one of the 110m ships and sat at a table for 6, however the couple that sat down with us sat with a space between so we basically had our own table.

"Normally" early spring time brings high water, and summer brings low. However we sailed mid-Sept. last year on the Danube and ran into low water. You basically just have to "go with the flow" and hope for the best, as it all depends on the weather for that year. One thing to keep in mind is the temp. End of April to mid-May you will have temps close to the 20's, and I would usually say end of Sept - mid Oct should be cooler as well. There is a lot of walking on the tours, so unless you are used to hot temps, you may prefer cooler weather. One thing we found for our cruise in Sept., by the time you are eating dinner, it's dark, whereas when we sail in May, we can still see the scenery while eating. Since the ships normally sail evenings/night, it's nice to see what you are passing by. 🙂 I don't know anything about Gate 1, but if you do a search in here you may find some reviews.

I think Avalon would also suit, as like Avalon, they are not totally "all inclusive". They have several choices each day for excursions, as well as having Active and Discovery cruises (on the Rhine, they just started on the Douro this year) where you can bike, hike, kayak, canoe or more "cultural" activities like cooking, art etc. My suggestion is to talk to a travel advisor who can help you out with an unbiased opinion. They will probably have cruised on several lines and can help you find what you are looking for in your budget.

@ural guy the Trent Severn Waterway has a couple of unique locks - there is another lift lock just a bit north of the one in Peterborough, although not quite as big. They also have one that runs from one side of the road, across the road, and down to the river on the other side by rail - I've attached a video for you. I didn't get the part from the other side of the road, as I wanted to see it go down the chute. It's quite a scenic trip to drive along, would make a great bike trip. 🙂 MAH03395.MP4

Every year up in Peterborough, they do a charity "pack the lock" weekend. This year they had the most out every - setting a record for 625 canoes & kayaks, as well as 410 vessels. We've been up for this a couple of times, just didn't manage to make it this year. This is what the canoes & kayaks looked like.

@Breckski, with Avalon, you can do a virtual tour of the dining room to see how it is laid out. You can also tour the cabins to see how they are as well. We've found it very helpful when selecting cabins.

Not only does Avalon have several tables for 2 (running along the wall on both sides of the dining room) as @AtlantaCruiser72 shows, they also do room service for all meals. Breakfast will just be a light continental type, and I haven't seen menu's for lunch or dinner, but it is an extra option.

@Kozkan, just a heads up, we sailed Sept 18-28, and temps were in the 30's. I felt so bad for the poor woman at the kiosk we stopped at on our initial tour in Budapest, no one had Forint's on them, as we were only there for a bit so we were using our CC to buy bottles of water. We had taken some with us but it didn't last long in those temps. Hopefully when you sail, it will be much nicer weather. We find beginning of May to be high teens, low 20's, but not sure how your hay fever would work.

@Kozkan, just remember that in the Autumn, things get darker earlier. We sailed the Danube in Sept., and that was one thing I really noticed. We like to sail in May, so when you start cruising during dinner, you can view the landscape. When we sailed in Sept. it was dark, so you missed the nice scenery.

Thanks Jazz, it's been a while since we've made it down that way... Yes, NB is the only the only official bilingual province, although Cape Breton has signs in both Gaelic and English, and parts of PEI and Ont are also bilingual. Kitchen Ceilidh's are quite common between NS & PEI, and great entertainment. Oh...and the Canso Causeway is the deepest causeway in the world and replaced the ferries in 1955. 🙂