Currently on the Avalon Vista Amsterdam to Budapest - any questions

[2nutz4travel]

On the Avalon Vista for the Magnificent Europe Christmas cruise. We departed Amsterdam Tuesday evening, were in Cologne yesterday and will be arriving in Rudesheim shortly. So far everything has been great! The low water levels have slowed us down a little, but that's not a problem.

 

If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to try and answer them for you.

[MNPlease]

Sounds like a wonderful Christmas present!! I hope you have been having a blast! Thanks for the post!

 

I have a slew of questions...Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

1. Would you be able to take some pictures of the variety of daily menus (including wine and nn alcoholic beverages).

2. What is your favorite thing you have eaten and drinked so far?

3. Have you signed up for the bistro tapas dinner?

4. What were your first impressions of the ship?

5. Favorite highlights so far?

6. Have your days felt full and busy or full and relaxed?

7. How are the motorcoaches?

8. Why did you pick river cruising?

9. What is thr thing or things that you are most glad you packed or things you wish you had left behind?

10. What were your top things you did in Amsterdam? Anything you wish you had more time to do?

11. Is there much diversity of ages on the boat?

12. Any issues that have come up so far?

13. What time do most people seem to go to bed on the ship so far?

14. Did you plan in pre travel before boarding the ship?

15. What time did you board the ship? Did you have lunch on the ship? Did you get off the ship after dropping off luggage or stay on the ship?

16. Did anyone get motion sickness

17. Have you had much time to just enjoy cruising the river?

18. Have you stayed up for the 1030 evening snacks? If so what was served?

19. What is in your mini fridge. Is there enough room to store some cheese and other beverages if we picked some up during our travels?

20. Any issues with the boat? Smokers? Noise?

21. Being it is colder out...have you spent any time e on the outside decks? If it was chilly did staff bring you free hot coco and blankets so you can enjoy sitting outside despite the cold?

22. Is it warm enough to have your window open in your room if with heat on and blankets?

23. How long do dinners usually last? How about lunch?

24. Are people wearing jeans to dinner at all?

25. How is having to dry wet clothes (from being outside in thr weather) going on thr boat? Any suggestions?

26. Is dinner filling? My husband is 6'3 and sometimes doesn't get full on usual meals. Can you get more of something if still hungry or really liking something?

 

Ok those are just a few of my questions...any yiu get to are great! Thanks! We (6 of us) are doing the rhine on avalon in April!

[MNPlease]

One more question..do they seem to be offering a non alcoholic wine with dinner?

[caviargal]

 

I have a slew of questions...Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

 

6. Have your days felt full and busy or full and relaxed?

7. How are the motorcoaches?

 

 

10. What were your top things you did in Amsterdam? Anything you wish you had more time to do?

11. Is there much diversity of ages on the boat?

 

13. What time do most people seem to go to bed on the ship so far?

 

16. Did anyone get motion sickness

17. Have you had much time to just enjoy cruising the river?

 

19. What is in your mini fridge. Is there enough room to store some cheese and other beverages if we picked some up during our travels?

 

22. Is it warm enough to have your window open in your room if with heat on and blankets?

23. How long do dinners usually last? How about lunch?

24. Are people wearing jeans to dinner at all?

25. How is having to dry wet clothes (from being outside in thr weather) going on thr boat? Any suggestions?

26. Is dinner filling? My husband is 6'3 and sometimes doesn't get full on usual meals. Can you get more of something if still hungry or really liking something?

 

Ok those are just a few of my questions...any yiu get to are great! Thanks! We (6 of us) are doing the rhine on avalon in April!

 

I will provide my take on some of your many questions, though cannot comment on this boat specifically.

 

Days can generally be as relaxed or as busy as you prefer, depending on what you choose to do. Excursions are optional and unless you are sailing, you have the option to stay in port and explore on your own, instead of or after excursions.

 

Avalon uses very nice motor coaches. They are owned by Globus so have a built in on the ground infrastructure.

 

Amsterdam has a lot to offer. I recommend the Ann Frank Haus if you have an interest in history, a canal cruise to see the sights from that perspective, and then wandering around the city. Amsterdam has some great museums and interesting neighborhoods.

 

Age range on river cruises is always diverse but IME skews 65 and up as a rule, with some exceptions. During the Christmas markets we have always found a more mixed demographic, with more women traveling together and more families.

 

There is no motion sickness on river boats.

 

How much time you can spend enjoying the river is a direct result of your specific itinerary. And some rivers are far more picturesque than others.

 

The mini fridges ares standard size and yes, there is room to store smaller items.

 

Not sure why you would want to have windows open in your cabin if the weather is cold, blankets or not. Generally the AC/heat turns off when door is opened but it has been several years since we were on Avalon and cannot specifically remember.

 

We have seen some wear jeans to dinner on every river cruise we have ever been on.

 

Dinners are at a relaxed pace. We generally like to linger and take our time and are there about 2 hours. There are multiple courses and I don't see why your husband could not order additional items if he does not get enough to eat.

 

Breakfast and lunch are buffet and people generally are in and out.

 

We used the boat's laundry to have our clothes washed and dried as needed. It can take awhile to dry jeans, etc, by hanging them in your cabin.

[Peggy Tuten]

Was there anything special for Christmas Day? I've thought that doing a cruise over Christmas might be fun.

 

Enjoy Budapest. We were there for New Years Eve 8 years ago -on our own. Christmas markets still on and lots of music.

[caviargal]

We have been on two cruises over the Christmas and New Years holiday. AMA did a wonderful job with both holidays, with lots of festivities aboard. Caroling with the crew, a visit from Santa with gifts for all guests and a lovely dinner and decorations made it very special.

[MNPlease]

caviargal thank you for your very thoughtful response and helpful advice! So very appreciated! Merry Christmas and safe travels!

[Hoyaheel]

However, if you are interested in the Christmas Markets, be aware that most close the day before Christmas (there are websites with dates for various markets) Many places in Europe are closed on Christmas, day after Christmas, New Years etc. I know Caviargal has mentioned the special arrangements that the cruiselines made to work with the closures if you look in her past reviews.

 

For me, the Christmas Markets were the only reason I did a river cruise, so I made sure the timing worked out for what I wanted to do. And we didn't have Santa, but we did have a lovely decorated ship!

 

MNPlease - from your questions it seems you're new to river cruising, so be aware that in addition to all the extremely helpful posts in this forum - and esp the threads stuck at the top - you can also read ship & itinerary reviews in the Member Review section!

Edited December 26, 2015 by Hoyaheel

[2nutz4travel]

See my answers below in red, hope this helps! Sorry for the delay, things got busy :)

 

1. Would you be able to take some pictures of the variety of daily menus (including wine and nn alcoholic beverages).

Sorry, I didn't get any pictures. Every day there was a meat dish, a fish dish and a veggie option for the entree, your choice of 3 appetizers, 2 soups and 3 desserts as well

 

2. What is your favorite thing you have eaten and drinked so far?

Most of the entrees were great, the lamb, beef, pork and veal were all great, but the venison was the best I've ever had

 

3. Have you signed up for the bistro tapas dinner?

Did it one night, it was awful. The food either lacked flavour or was too salty. Supposedly they changed the menu after I went, but I didn't want to risk it again

 

4. What were your first impressions of the ship?

Very good, the lobby is nice but not over the top. The rooms are well thought out and a very good use of space. Beds and pillows comfy and I loved the floor to ceiling windows

 

5. Favorite highlights so far?

Someone asked me that today, we covered so much it's hard to say. We had a really great group of people on board, so I think that would be the highlight for me

 

6. Have your days felt full and busy or full and relaxed?

The first week was very relaxing, we typically had 1/2 a day in port and the other half cruising. The second week was much busier with full port days

 

7. How are the motorcoaches?

Every single bus we were on was clean and new. Very nice.

 

8. Why did you pick river cruising?

I wanted something different for the holidays.

 

9. What is thr thing or things that you are most glad you packed or things you wish you had left behind?

My camera! There was nothing I felt I needed.

 

10. What were your top things you did in Amsterdam? Anything you wish you had more time to do?

I just wandered around taking pictures, that's what I enjoy doing. I didn't go to any of the museums

 

11. Is there much diversity of ages on the boat?

There were more people in the 40-60 range than I thought there would be, a few 20 somethings with their parents/grandparents.

 

12. Any issues that have come up so far?

We had to dock in Komarom, the river level was too low to sail into Budapest. Nothing Avalon could do about that, but they handled it magnificently

 

13. What time do most people seem to go to bed on the ship so far?

Many went to bed right after dinner, a core group were there to the bitter end most nights. The bar closed at 11, but many nights people were still around later than that

 

14. Did you plan in pre travel before boarding the ship?

Yes, I had 2 nights in Amsterdam pre cruise

 

15. What time did you board the ship? Did you have lunch on the ship? Did you get off the ship after dropping off luggage or stay on the ship?

I did an excursion before boarding, we checked in at the hotel and then they took us right to the ship afterwards. I think they took everyone else to the ship around 4 pm

 

16. Did anyone get motion sickness

Not that I'm aware of

 

17. Have you had much time to just enjoy cruising the river?

See #6

 

18. Have you stayed up for the 1030 evening snacks? If so what was served?

I was up, but never looked at them, not hungry after dinner!

 

19. What is in your mini fridge. Is there enough room to store some cheese and other beverages if we picked some up during our travels?

Beer, wine, alcohol, coke & diet coke. Not much room, but you could probably empty it?

 

20. Any issues with the boat? Smokers? Noise?

Rooms very quiet, a little hall noise but couldn't hear the neighbours. Smokers go out the back. As the weather got colder you could feel it around the door and the ship seemed to creak a little more.

 

21. Being it is colder out...have you spent any time e on the outside decks? If it was chilly did staff bring you free hot coco and blankets so you can enjoy sitting outside despite the cold?

The day we sailed the Rhine Gorge we were up top. It was cold, they did bring us mulled wine. There are blankets in your room you can use if you like

 

22. Is it warm enough to have your window open in your room if with heat on and blankets?

I opened my door a few days and enjoyed the sunshine

 

23. How long do dinners usually last? How about lunch?

Dinner usually a couple of hours, we were normally done by 9 and usually started at 7. Lunch is buffet, so you can take as much time as you want

 

24. Are people wearing jeans to dinner at all?

I think there might have been

 

25. How is having to dry wet clothes (from being outside in thr weather) going on thr boat? Any suggestions?

We had amazing weather, so no wet clothes

 

26. Is dinner filling? My husband is 6'3 and sometimes doesn't get full on usual meals. Can you get more of something if still hungry or really liking something?

Portions are small, which is fine for me. I was certainly never hungry after dinner. I didn't see anyone order multiple courses but the staff are so accommodating that I'm pretty sure they would bring you whatever you wanted!

[CarolinaKathy]

One more question..do they seem to be offering a non alcoholic wine with dinner?

 

We were on the Vista in May 2015. They offered 3 non alcoholic wines at dinner and they were all quite good. I loved having that option since I do not drink.

[Got2Cruise]

On the two Avalon cruises we've been on the 10:00 snack has been sandwiches. There is also 4:00 tea time where cake plus sandwiches are served.

[MNPlease]

2nutz4travel you are awesome! Thank you for such great responses. Very helpful! I hope you made great memories on your trip and are now getting to enjoy being home.

 

CarolinaKathy I am also looking forward to having the option of not drinking if needed. I don't drink much as it is but..we are trying to get pregnant and I just wanted to know what options I would have if I wasn't drinking at all. :) Thank you for the info!

 

Got2Cruise The 4pm cakes and tea look amazing but it doesn't seem like we will be on the ship that much during that time with the Rhine itinerary but I could be wrong :/ Thanks though for the tip! :)