Avalon Impression - Amsterdam to Budapest - advice! First time river cruiser!!!

Hi all, My husband and I are taking our first ever River Cruise on the Avalon Impression this April/May. We leave from Amsterdam and 15 days later arrive in Budapest. Any advice? Top questions we have...how the heck do you pack for such a long cruise? What types of clothing is expected at dinner (jeans/slacks, dress shoes/tennis shoes?)? What is the typical weather that time of year? Any excursions that are a must or a don't do? We have extra time in Amsterdam and plan on seeing the Keukenhof Gardens - should we take a tour to get there? Other things we must try in Amsterdam? One extra day in Budapest...any must dos? We are really excited but just have so many questions and not sure what to expect!! HELP!!

You'll have a great time. I would probably do a tour to Keukenhof, but there are lots of other thing to do in and around Amsterdam on your own. Dress will be informal. I think that the only real no-no is shorts in the dining room in the evening. Avalon will do laundry for you--not for free though. You'll have a great time. If you want, I can email you a list of activities that we put together for a week in Amsterdam. Send me an email at fuelscience dot gmail dot com.

I forgot about a blog by a river cruiser from back in 2014. She went into great detail about packing for an Amsterdam to Budapest cruise on VIking. Go to the bottom of the page for the first post. If you then go forward a couple of months she reviews and list things she wished she'd left at home along with things she wished she'd taken.

https://rivercruisenewbie.wordpress.com/2014/07/

Keuknhof is easy to do yourself, that way you can stay there as long as you want.

Take oneo of the frequents trains to Schiphol airport. There are special buses to Keukenhof from there.

More on this website:https://keukenhof.nl/en/plan-your-visit/how-to-get-there/

In case you plan a visit to Anne Frankhouse, you need to book 2 months prior on their website. Due to contruction it is impossible to visit without prebook. http://www.annefrank.org/en/

We took this cruise a couple of years ago. You can read my review here. https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=536622 We did not give much information on the cities and tours but in general we found all the tours included in the cruise to be excellent with very knowledgeable guides. Your best bet is to take the list of tours when you receive it and select the tours that appeal most to you. For example, we selected Cesky Krumlov over Salzburg preferring a small older place to the larger "Sound of Music" City while our friends selected the reverse. We went in late May and the weather ranged from cool to very hot in Budapest. As always, bring clothes that you can wear in layers and wear the number of layers dictated by the day's weather. We had no specific plans for Amsterdam and just walked around and obtained a bit of the atmosphere. The boat cruise with Avalon is very good and gives you a good idea of the layout of Amsterdam. If it is not too late, try and take a couple more days in Budapest. It is a beautiful city with a great deal to see and do. The Parliament Buildings, Castle Hill, Chain Bridge, Fisherman's Bastion, Roch Church and much more.

Whatever you decide to do in the towns and on the boat, I am sure you will have a wonderful time.

Try to get tickets for Anne Frank House.

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Due to the popularity of the Anne Frank House, we opted to book that tour through the ships excursions. We did not have to wait in line and could go through on our own. At the end there was a little cafe where we had coffee and met back with the tour guide.

If you like flowers and don't mind getting up early, a visit to Aalsmeer for the world's largest flower auction is a must. A local bus will take you right to the door( okay, really it is across the road from the front entrance). There are many youtube videos you can check out.

RB