Another Midwesterner

Try these websites for itinerary ideas for short stays.

https://www.thediscoveriesof.com/2-days-in-paris/

https://www.earthtrekkers.com/2-days-in-paris-itinerary/

https://www.findingtheuniverse.com/2-day-paris-itinerary/

Has anyone been on the Cambodia/Vietnam cruise?  If from middle america how did you survive the 27-30 hours travel time to get to the origin?

We had air through Avalon (it's actually Globus) on one of our cruises because it was a very competitive fare and made it easy.  I was able to upgrade our seats when it was closer to the trip.  The rates to upgrade were the same as the airline would charge anyone.

There are included options almost daily if not every day. Some days will have all of the 3 options available.  You can choose a classic, which is usually a walking tour, active, which is often biking or hiking, or adventure which might be going down into a mine or cave or food tour.  Those options don't impact the cost of your cruise upfront so they won't impact your deposit.  Some of the daily activity options available will have a fee and they can be reviewed, signed up for and paid from 3 months in advance of your cruise until the day before the activity takes place.  If you look at the previous year descriptions for your cruise you can get a pretty good idea.

On 8/9/2019 at 2:09 PM, FuelScience said:

We did this cruise (northbound) a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Avalon uses the Poetry II on the Rhone, so you might want to check out the reviews at the link below. 

 

Also, when you're in Tournon/Tain L'Hermitage, I would suggest skipping the walking tour and set out on your own and visit the Valrhona chocolate store across the river (about a mile walk). There are tons of incredible free samples, and when I checked out with my chocolates, the clerk dropped another handful of samples into my bag! You only have half a day there, but you should have plenty of time to load up on chocolate. Valrhona has a tour that gets mixed reviews, but everyone loves the shop. 

 

Enjoy!

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=822 

 

https://www.citeduchocolat.com/en 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g674303-d3704337-Reviews-Cite_du_Chocolat_Valrhona-Tain_l_Hermitage_Drome_Auvergne_Rhone_Alpes.html 

FuelScience thanks for the information.  I think the chocolate store sounds like a good option.  I have read the reviews for Poetry II which appears to be about the same as the Luminary.

Has anyone been on the Burgandy & Provence cruise?  We are going in September with 3 optional nights in Barcelona.  Any comments about this cruise?  We have done other Avalon cruises.

Thanks! Will start doing some upper body strengthening. :) Our bike tour is in the countryside so if there aren’t too many steep hills we should be OK. I’m enjoying reading about your trip.

Suz, thanks for your posts. We are signed up for the kayak excursion and now I'm a little worried. We are a lot older than you are but pretty fit but this sounds like it might overextend us. Do you know anything about the biking? We are signed up for that also. We like the active excursions but maybe we are too optimistic.

We are going in September, I will be very interested to hear how your cruise is. Love to hear about the excursions. Unless we get upgraded we will be in aquarium class but don’t mind since we spend very little time in the room. This will be our second Active Discovery Cruise. Did Budapest to Linz last year.

We were in "aquarium class" on Avalon Luminary last September and didn't mind at all. We weren't in our room much anyway. There wasn't any engine noise. We have booked that class again for next September.

We chose aquarium class on Avalon this past September on our first river cruise and we will select aquarium class on our next river cruise. We didn't miss the large windows of the French Balcony rooms because we were rarely in our room. We were either off the ship on an excursion, dining, taking in the sights from the top level, or relaxing in the lounge. If we needed some respite from people we could easily find a corner of the lounge or top deck.

We were at the Sofitel Chain Bridge in September.

We did the Active Discovery on the Danube in September and loved it. The ages of the passengers varied from 40's to 80's but all were interested in and mostly capable of the activities. There were 3 biking excursions, 1 canoeing, 1 woodland/vineyard hike, 1 run. There was also a cooking class and participatory craft and medieval knights tournament. Also there were normal group tours. Lots of options. The guides were all fun, helpful and knowledgeable. Happy to help if you have other questions.

I have a CapOne chip card and I spoke with Capital One and they said I should use my cash advance pin. The card would then function as a true chip & pin in Europe. The transactions would be credit transactions, not cash advances, I was assured. I will find out for sure in September.

We will take this cruise on Sept. 9th. Will let you know how it went. Anybody else? This is our first cruise of any type so I'm reading the board a lot trying to get ideas for tipping, packing, general stuff.