Avalon Waterways Reviews

Gorgeous weather, excellent service, delicious food and fun excursions on Avalon Vista from Amsterdam to Basel.

The Avalon Tulip Time Cruise (May1-8) was fantastic. My husband and I enjoyed the daily excursions with wonderful guides, the meals, the evening entertainment, happy hour, and other events. The tour director on the ship was awesome. Everything was well organized. The room was comfortable and very clean. The staff were efficient and friendly. I would highly recommend.

It was absolutely wonderful!

All I can say is that it was a magical trip. Wonderful crew and cruise director Melinda. Weather was perfect. Can’t wait for the next one.

Awesome experience! The small ship was a great venue for meeting new friends. Our travel agent, Stacy was super helpful.

Our River Cruise along the Rhine exceeded our expectations. We started with a stay at Lake Como, traveled to Lucerne Switzerland, with stops in France, Germany and Amsterdam. Our travel advisor Penny helped us plan every step of the way answering all of our many questions and assisting us with our extensions in Amsterdam and Paris. Adrian, our cruise director added to our amusement with his friendliness and wit! He was very organized and helpful throughout. The Panorama was a gorgeous ship with fabulous accommodations (larger than expected), incredible food and service beyond imagination. We are already considering which cruise will be next! Thank you all!!!

We loved everything about our trip-the food, the staff and crew on the Passion, the tours we took-all tremendous! We highly recommend this trip!

Loved the cruise. We were very fortunate to be able to make it the whole way in the Rhine. The captain told us that at one point on the river there was just 12” of water between the bottom of our ship and the bottom of the river. We met a couple from North Carolina while we did the boat tour around Lake Lucerne. They had been on a Viking cruise and their ship had to turn around at Strasbourg and go back to Worms, Germany because of the water levels. They then had to go either by bus or train to either Basel or Lucerne, so they never made it to Breisach and the Black Forest which was one of my favorite places. The excursions were wonderful, the food on the ship was excellent and the staff did everything in their power to make it an enjoyable experience for everyone onboard. My only disappointment was in flying on Icelandair. We chose BWI as the airport since it was near my cousin’s house and Avalon used Icelandair from BWI. On a 6.5 hour flight we were given a small nonalcoholic drink twice during the flight - no food or snacks unless you purchased them, and this was on a Boeing 737max8 with very cramped seating. People who flew economy on Delta were on the nice wide body planes and were served dinner, breakfast, snacks and drinks. They were even offered wine at no additional cost - so if that was the same airfare package that we had, we definitely got ‘the short end of the stick’. Also, the airport at Reykjavik was the most inefficient airport of all the airports we had to go through on our trip. The airports in Zurich and Copenhagen were much better. Other than my disappointment with the flights to and from the cruise, it was a wonderful trip.

Cruise was wonderful! Staff were amazing. Recommending it to family and friends.

Another great cruise! I chose Avalon once again because of their professionalism, comfort and always joyful smiles. I would give my second experience another 5 stars. Everything from the service, food,excursions and wonderful atmosphere I find hard to beat. Getting ready to book another excursion with Avalon. I want to also thank my wonderful Avalon travel agent Colleen Baez, who has made these cruises possible for me with a wealth of knowledge and professionalism.

Our 6 night cruise stopped in Vienna Austria - Melk Austria - Passau Germany - Regensburg Germany and Nuremberg Germany - the Avalon Ship Impression certainly left an impression on us in a great way. The staff was wonderful to work with and the food was delicious. The accommodations were top notch and we loved the intimate experience. Thank you Avalon for doing it right! The tours in each city were very enjoyable and very organized. Our Cruise Director Mihai was the perfect person to keep us informed and motivated - and had such nice surprises for us - Elena our Hotel Manager looked after all of us with such care - the Captain was very visible and we appreciated his expertise and thank him and his crew for sailing us up the Danube safely!!!!! We will absolutely think about Avalon when we plan our next France journey.

Wonderful work by the crew. They were top notch.

This was my first river cruise, and I was thrilled with the trip. I added the optional extension that included one extra day in Amsterdam before the cruise, and three extra days afterward in Switzerland and Como, Italy. Avoya took care of all of the details and I was able to put all of my energy into experiencing Christmas in five countries. With only 154 other passengers, it was a personal and intimate ship experience.

Working with my travel agent Connie was a 5 star rating. I wasn’t impressed with the service or food on Avalon. I have been on Viking so I do have a comparison. The tours were good. Our Marriott hotel in Prague was excellent.

The travel arrangements were perfect. Hotel in Amsterdam was great and the Rhine River cruise was more than what we expected.

What a wonderful vacation we had. We were sorry to say goodbye to the friends we made and the crew who did a wonderful job in taking care of us. From the arrival at the airport to the departure Avalon took care of us, In addition to a wonderful time we had on board, Avalon supplied great hotels on our early arrival in Budapest and extend stay in Prague. The included tours were great with very good tour guides on all. I have nothing but good thigs to say on our first cruise with Avalon and can see us going on other cruises with them.

The negatives included bad experiences both ways with British Airways - direct flight outbound arbitrarily split into 2 flights and on the return, massive difficulties getting special needs passengers onto the aircraft LOADING US ONTO THE AIRCRAFT USING A FOOD SUPPLY LIFT TRUCK ON THE TARMAC!!!!!! The cruise itself had a lot of positives, including the wonderful service and housekeeping personal. My cabin had heating problems for 5 days - “resetting a fuse” for 4 days and finally REPLACING THE HEATING COMPONENTS ON THE 5th day. Trip leader was very good and other staff were good also. Enjoyed most things about the trip otherwise.

The trip was perfect...Great hotel, great guides (Victor & William) and exceptional crew aboard the ship.

The trip was supe! The staff was top notch from the captain to the housekeepers. Great food and excursions