Spartantartan

I think he means that you can only carry a bag that will fit on your lap on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Your luggage, including luggage that would be small enough to fit under a plane seat, will be placed in storage under the shuttle bus.

I've been on three Avalon cruises and have had a checked bag plus a carry on each time. For my carry on, I use a rolling backpack. While not as large as a 22" suitcase, it's too big to fit under the seat in a bus nor would I want it on my lap. I have never ever had a problem with this. In the packet sent a few weeks prior to the cruise, Avalon has always included two tags for each person where you write your cabin number. One is for your big suitcase and the other one is for your carry on. Both go under the bus and are delivered to your cabin. In addition, I carry a purse that stays with me.

We are at the end of our journey down the Rhine on the Avalon Felicity and are docked in Amsterdam. The river is still very high with lots of flooding along the banks, but we had no problems with bridges once we started in Strasbourg. Hopefully, those of you going later this summer will have no problems. Happy sailing!

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Thanks for you good wishes and the invaluable reports, notamermaid. We're in Mannheim and looking forward to the rest of our cruise.

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Update from the Felicity: We're moving!

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We are on the Avalon Felicity and also docked in Strasbourg. We passed the Tranquility this afternoon around 5:15 and it was still docked relatively near us. I hope you are on your way to Mannheim by now, zentricia. We are supposed to leave Strasbourg any minute now and get to Mannheim tomorrow around lunch time. And we've been told that it's smooth sailing from then on. However, it's past the time when we were supposed to be on our way, and we haven't moved. That's the report fro, the Avalon Felicity.

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Thanks, notamermaid. We are on the ship, but it is in Strassbourg. The river was too high to get the ship to Basel. We missed an optional tour but Avalon will refund our money and they are offering three optional tours tomorrow, gratis.

Hopefully, the rest of the cruise will go as planned,

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It's our day to embark and I am distressed and surprised to read zentrisha's report. Yesterday there was a group embarking on an AMA cruise that met at our Zurich hotel. I spoke briefly with the cruise director who told me that the Rhine was high but navigable. I guess we will find out as we will be meeting our cruise director in an hour or so.

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Thanks for your update, notamermaid. Yes, yesterday was very, very hot and humid. Nevertheless, we managed to have a great day touring around Switzerland and going into Liechtenstein. There was no rain until late afternoon, but it looks like there will be scattered showers today. You are lucky to live in a good climate, and I do also. Perhaps that's one of he reasons I'm stressed out about the weather.

Do you have any reports about possible closings of the Rhine? Curiously, we crossed the Rhine yesterday fairly near Liechtenstein, and it was very low there.

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Excellent news! Thank you notamermaid!!! After a long travel day, we are in Zurich. Weather is hot, humid and nor rain today...perhaps a little tonight.

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I cannot thank you enough for these great reports, notamermaid. And this latest gives me hope for smooth sailing (pun intended). We are flying to Zurich via London later today, a long journey from California, and I will think positive thoughts the entire way. I'll keep watching for more reports and will contribute my own (wifi permitting) on board. Thanks again.

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Thank you VERY much!

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notamermaid, as usual, I am extremely appreciative of your reports, and the photos certainly do tell a story. Yesterday I spoke with a rep from Globus/Avalon who said that they were cautiously hopeful but that conditions can change within a hour.

A friend of my me just returned from a Viking cruise on the Rhine where she had to change ships midway through the cruise, spend lots of time on a bus and deal with daily rain. Such is the nature of river cruising, but I hope our trip will proceed as planned.

We are set to arrive in Zurich Thursday eve and are signed up for a trip to Liechtenstein on Friday. We will most likely go to Luzern on Saturday but will skip the tour that takes us on the aerial tram and cogwheel train up Mt. Riga as the weather forecast doesn't bode well for good views. We are scheduled to embark our ship on Sunday. Meanwhile I will think positive thoughts and look forward to more of your reports.

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Thanks to all, and especially to notamermaid, for all this important information. Seeing as the weather seems to be changing, is there hope that all will be back to normal on the Rhine within a week?

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Thanks for your great review. We will be sailing in the opposite direction in a week, and I especially enjoyed reading your impressions of the tours. They will definitely guide my choices. Glad to read all the nice words about Avalon, too.

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Thanks for the invite but we are going on Avalon, not Viking.

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Again, thanks so much for these reports. We are booked for a Basel to Amsterdam cruise starting June 26, so I'm hoping for some drier weather coming up.

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I agree with Got2Cruise. In addition, you usually get time during the overview tour to go inside some of the attractions. By the way, I recommend the evening tour in Budapest. It's outdoors and by bus, but Budapest at night is wonderful. Have a great cruise!

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Many thanks for your updates, Notamermaid. We are booked for a Rhine cruise at the end of this month, and I check for your posts every day or so.

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We took the same cruise several years ago but stayed at the Holiday Inn Montparnasse. It was about a block and a half from the Pullman at a fraction of the price. It was a perfectly lovely hotel, and we were extremely pleased. Montparnasse is a great neighborhood within walking distance to many sites. Lots of great restaurants, too.

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We are booked for the April 23rd cruise and were told that the gathering place is the Pullman Montparnasse. We will arrive the day before and booked a room at the Holiday Inn about a block or two away as the Pullman was too pricey for us. This way we can take the Air France bus from the airport to the train station and walk to our hotel, and the next day, we will be able to walk to the Pullman. We like the Montparnasse area but haven't stayed there before, so we're looking forward to it.

One question: Can we move our luggage to the Pullman in the morning or should we leave it at the Holiday Inn until the afternoon when we are taken to the boat?