Avalon Blue Danube Discovery cruise - any questions?

[Queen of my Heart]

I am new to this forum so would like to start off with offering any info that people would like on Avalon's Blue Danube Discovery cruise (Budapest to Nuremberg via Vienna, Passau and Regensburg amongst others) which I will be on next week from 27 June to 4 July. I am a solo traveller in my 60s. If you have any questions about the boat, ports, tours, Avalon's admin etc etc I'll do my best to answer them (on-board wifi permitting).

[Daisi]

Thanks.  We are hoping to do that (with the extensions for Budapest & Prague) next Sept.., it's one that keeps getting re-scheduled.  I'd love to see if you could post menu's (dinner) , and what you do on your tours.  We will be taking the Chesky Krumlov tour in Passau.  Looking forward to hearing how your cruise goes.

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the offer. I am wondering which ship you will be on? Will you be taking a pre or post cruise extension?

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Queen of my Heart]

Hi. I think I will be on Illumination II. I'm not taking any extensions - I took advantage of an exceptionally good offer for solo travellers a couple of months ago for the cruise only. At that time I think they had a very small number of bookings (less than 10) so I doubt it will be filled to capacity, but I'm hoping there will be more than can be comfortably seated in a minibus.

[Queen of my Heart]

Daisi. I will definitely see if I can post some menus for you and let you know which tours I go on and what I think of them. Though I have been on river cruises before I've never done so with Avalon before so it will be interesting to compare with Ama, Riviera and Noble Caledonia (though the less said about them the better.)

[Daisi]

2 hours ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Hi. I think I will be on Illumination II. I'm not taking any extensions - I took advantage of an exceptionally good offer for solo travellers a couple of months ago for the cruise only. At that time I think they had a very small number of bookings (less than 10) so I doubt it will be filled to capacity, but I'm hoping there will be more than can be comfortably seated in a minibus.

 

Don't worry about the bus, when we were on our Rhine cruise, they had the big busses, and often 3-4 of them. We often had several empty seats empty seats on ours.

 

I can't access your cruise to see how many suites are available, so you may have more passengers now.  It just says call for availability, which usually means it's almost sold out. I'm sure you will love it, we were planning our Danube cruise on the plane home from our Rhine one. 🙂

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Daisi

[Queen of my Heart]

Hi Daisi. From my experience (admittedly limited) the Avalon website always asks you to get a quote - never gives any indication of suite availability. Riviera's is much better for that - shows in real time the exact suites which can be booked. I suppose it's to get your details so they can contact you and do a sales pitch. I know I will enjoy it though I am still getting to grips with travelling solo on river cruises rather than as half a couple.

[Daisi]

Nope 🙂  I go in and choose my suite. Click on Dates & Prices, then Reserve Now.  Once past the initial page, you will see how many cabins are booked.  I usually guess 2 guests per cabin, some will be solo, but at least it gives a rough estimate.

 

Here's our Sept 2023 cruise : https://booking.avalonwaterways.ca/book-vacation/?step=2

Edited June 22, 2022 by Daisi

[Queen of my Heart]

Daisi. Ah, I see now - thank you for clearing this up for me. I have looked and, as far as I can make out, only 12 suites are booked! I am amazed that they are still going ahead with the cruise and not combining it with any others (I wouldn't have minded over-much if they had done so as I am flexible on dates and to a certain extent on itinerary). Surely they must be taking a huge financial hit on going ahead with the cruise. 

[Daisi]

I am surprised that there are so few cabins booked, but then better for you possibly....although I can't see them splitting into gentle walker tours unless necessary. Enjoy the cruise!

[Daisi]

Just wanting to wish you a great sailing @Queen of my Heart.

[Queen of my Heart]

ah, thank you. I will post copies of the menus as and when I am able - let me know if there is anything else you would like info on while I am on board.

[notamermaid]

admin - How far in advance before your cruise date did you get the documents and do you feel well-informed by Avalonwaterways?

 

Have a great time on the Danube.

 

Hope you get to see Melk Abbey, it is splendid, especially the library. Gottweig Abbey must be pretty impressive too, I have read.

 

notamermaid

 

[Daisi]

@notamermaid, I'm not sure Avalon does "travel documents" anymore. They are very much into environmental policies, and use an app for all their paper work.  I hope Queen of my Heart feels they are informing her of what is going on, from others I hear from other boards, Avalon is very good for helping it's clients. I know I usually get a response back within 24 hrs. when I message them.

 

They are even purchasing trees to offset air travel for those who book their flights through them, and have eliminated a lot of plastic.

 

Here's a link to explain what they are doing:

https://www.avalonwaterways.ca/why-avalon/cares/

 

[Queen of my Heart]

Good afternoon from the Danube. Daisi is quite right, Avalon doesn't do paper info now - it's all electronic before and during the cruise, which means you end up printing it out yourself and it can be a nuisance when you just want to quickly scan a daily schedule or something. Also means no luggage labels etc. The info is drip fed between booking and departure and use of the app is almost unavoidable. As to their admin I will say more after the cruise is finished. Now to the cruise itself. The ship is lovely, staterooms excellent.. but only 20 passengers! It can't be making any money from running it and I have a few thoughts on why they would do so. The food so far is very good and I have downloaded the menus from today and yesterday for your info. Only 20 guests (a mixture of Americans, Canadians and British makes for an entirely different dynamic to any river cruise I've been on before and subgroups are already forming.

8z8zcd22-Day_1_Dinner_Menu.pdf 8duzfuaf-Day_2_Lunch_Menu (1).pdf mthmzp39-Day_2_Dinner_Menu.pdf

[Queen of my Heart]

Sorry, I meant to say that Schiphol airport was a total nightmare. Avoid if you possibly can. Almost an hour and a half queuing for passport control, lengthy walks made worse by many travelators being out of order and lack of baggage handlers (only one poor man to load all the baggage for our entire aircraft which was full). Also the aircraft fuel fillers forgot to do the plane equivalent of putting the fuel cap back on after filling up!

[Daisi]

Glad you made it ok Queen of my Heart, and are enjoying it. Unfortunately, the menu's are unavailable, I guess they didn't load correctly.  That's ok, as long as the food is good, I'm sure we will enjoy it.

 

20 passengers must make a very open cruise. I hope they are all good to get along with, you don't need one bad apple to spoil things with that few.

 

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip, have fun.

[Queen of my Heart]

Oh dear. When I get home I will try to reload the menus. I'm doing this on my smartphone and I'm not exactly proficient in its use.

 

[Daisi]

3 minutes ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Oh dear. When I get home I will try to reload the menus. I'm doing this on my smartphone and I'm not exactly proficient in its use.

 

 

 

Don't worry, I know the feeling!  I am going to try to live post once we get our cruise next year, but I never learned how to 1 finger type, so typing on a tablet is difficult for me. 

[notamermaid]

17 minutes ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Oh dear. When I get home I will try to reload the menus. I'm doing this on my smartphone and I'm not exactly proficient in its use.

 

Not to worry, it will be a nice post-cruise addition for us to read and for you to extend the happy thoughts and great impressions. Now it is time to enjoy your cruise and with just twenty people on board to really get pampered .

 

notamermaid

 

[*Miss G*]

2 hours ago, Queen of my Heart said:

Only 20 guests (a mixture of Americans, Canadians and British makes for an entirely different dynamic to any river cruise I've been on before and subgroups are already forming.

 

Wow, only 20 guests!  I imagine the crew find that a bit of a relief if they are short-staffed.

 

I am curious about your comment of a “different dynamic”.  What is typical, in your experience, and is this a positive or a negative?

[Canal archive]

Queen enjoy I know exactly what you mean about the dynamic. Plus so brave of you as a singleton.

[*Miss G*]

3 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Queen enjoy I know exactly what you mean about the dynamic. Plus so brave of you as a singleton.

 

What does she mean?!! 😂

[Queen of my Heart]

Daisi. Some random bits of info for you. The cruise has more daytime sailing than any other river cruise that I have been on. It's very pleasant to be able to sit in the sunshine on deck and the scenery lovely. I'm not doing the cesky tour as it's 2 hours on a coach in each direction but I will gather feedback for you. Salzburg is the same length of journey and seems to be sound of music focussed. The food continues to be excellent and a fellow passenger said that it's better than on Viking. The Vienna orientation bus tour was disappointing - too short and followed by only a moderately interesting walking tour (in temps over 30). There is more than enough time there to sort out your own tour or use the hop on hop off bus that stops at the cruise ship docking area.

[Daisi]

Thanks. We want to do the 2 tours that day, so will be going back probably to Vienna on another trip. I knew there was a full day of cruising just about to go from Budapest to Vienna, and another afternoon for the Wachau Valley. Those are the days we call "danger days" as we are onboard for that afternoon tea!

 

Did you leave Budapest in the evening? We will be sailing in mid-Sept, so just wondering if we should get our own evening cruise or if the ship leaves with time for pictures.  It will be a busy day the one full day in Budapest - morning tour, Parliament Buildings and evening cruise, but it will hopefully be good.

 

Thanks for the updates, hope you are having a great time.