Hi I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers. I'm going to tell you things that you
absolutely need to know about Avalon Waterways to help you decide if this is
the right river cruise line for you. The first thing you need to know about
Avalon is what do they do the same, and what do they do different. What makes
them unique? So there are about five things that they do that are very
similar. First of all the ships. In terms of their size, they are basically the same as
everybody else. River cruise boats are constrained by how
long, wide and how high they can be by the nature of the rivers that they cruise
on. So their ships are basically the same size and look very similar from the
outside to pretty much all of the other ships that you'll see. So this means of
course, like all river cruise boats, the facilities are relatively limited. So on
the ship you'll find a main lounge, will find a second lounge, you'll have a
dining room, a very small hairdresser, a fitness center and a very large deck on
top. Also very importantly, there's no medical centre or medical facilities on
board. So if you have any medical issues, they have to be dealt with on land.
That's true, of course, across all river cruise boats. The second thing that they
do that are very similar are the rivers and itineraries. There are only so many
rivers where you can go river cruising on, and their routes are very
similar because of course everyone wants to go and see the main and attractions. Whatever
river cruise you want or look at, it's likely that Avalon will have an
itinerary that is the same. They cover all of the main rivers like
the Rhine, the Danube, the Main, the Mossell, the Rhone and
River Seine in France. The third thing they do the same is in terms of
their fares, which are largely all-inclusive - and this is pretty consistent across
river cruising. Your fare will include your accommodation, includes your food so
three meals a day. Also on Avalon you will get afternoon
tea around about four o'clock in the afternoon, and also you will get a late
night snack around about 10:30. Drinks with meal times are included, so at lunch
and dinner you can have soft drinks, beers and wine are included. On board
enrichment activities, so the port talks are included. Wi-Fi is included. There's
also 24-hour coffee and tea and little snacks available as well. Excursions are
included and there's normally at least one excursion included every day. That's
fairly consistent with other river cruise lines. When you go on tours they
use the Vox system like most of the cruisers do, and these are great. They are a
little receiver and you have an earpiece and the guide then transmits on
whatever channel that you all set on. It's great because you can actually
wander away from the guide to go and take pictures but stay in touch and hear
the whole commentary. So you don't have to huddle closely around the guide. The
dress code is also very similar to other river cruise lines. It's pretty casual.
People generally don't dress up although some gentlemen might wear
long sleeve shirt and slacks for dinner, but it's pretty informal. The food on
board is also very good, and has some local spins to it. So again that's also
fairly consistent with most river cruise lines. So those are all the
things that they do similar, so what does Avalon do different? What are
the things that you should consider if you're thinking about Avalon over other
river cruise lines? Well first of all, it's part of Globus. So it's part of a
very big Travel Group. And that's very important because what they do is they
have lots of expertise in most the places they call upon, and also they
have guides which they have personally through Globus used, verified and tested
over time. They do have a lot of expertise in all of the destinations
they go to, and lots of resources they can draw on. This is quite unique to
many of the other river cruise lines which either are very specific river
cruise lines or perhaps are spinoff of ocean river cruise lines. The fact that
they're part of Globus, and all that they can leverage and bring, is very important.
The second thing is what they call the "Signature Suite Ships". The cabins are
bigger than pretty much every other River cruise line, certainly any other
luxury river cruise line. On average they're about 30% bigger. One great thing
is you have beds that point towards the window, because they have room to do that,
and so you can watch the scenery pass by. The other thing that's very important is
they have these massive big windows which stretch from one side of the cabin
to the other side - and bear in mind the cabins are bigger. They can open up
nearly seven feet. Certainly as the time recording this, nobody has windows that
open as big as this. The other thing that I think makes them very different is
they have a lot of special interest cruises. Some of these include things
like wine appreciation, culinary, beer, music and jazz, art and impressionist,
history (with a focus on World War Two history and Hapsburg History), Jewish
Heritage, Christmastime cruises, Golf cruises, cruises focused around specific
authors, garden and nature. Lots of other cruise lines are experimenting with
those, but certainly in my experience and from what I've looked at, is Avalon really
have a lot of special interest cruises - and I think that does make them kind of
interesting. The other thing that makes them very different is that they have
a big focus around a much more active way of sightseeing. They have some
very specific cruises which are "active discovery" cruises and the idea is
there are more hiking, biking and even kayaking excursions. They have bicycles
on board all ships, which you can then use go cycling sightseeing. They also those
Nordic Walking poles. The other thing which they do, which I find very
interesting, is they have a focus on healthy eating. There's an
appreciation that people are much more diet aware. One of the things that
really struck me is they make a big issue around allergies and dietary
requirements. All the menus list in lots of detail the different potential
allergy issues, and they spend a lot of time talking to guests understanding what
their issues are and making sure that they are tailoring the menu or
identifying on the menu what you can't eat. You'll always find healthy eating
options - and these have been developed with a partnership with two Austrian
chefs called Karl and Leo Wrench (part of a very high quality vegetarian
restaurant in Austria). So these are all vegetarian and vegan dishes. The other
thing which I personally really like is, they are very adult focused. So while a lot
of river cruise lines are trying to attract more families and more kids on board,
actually what Avalon do is they are much more adult focused. So you can't bring any
children under the age of 8 on board, and they don't provide kids clubs or they
didn't provide very kids specific itineraries or kids specific programs.
They are more focused on catering for an adult audience. One of the
things that really struck me onboard Avalon is that the sort of average age
and the mix onboard Avalon was more diverse than many other river
cruise lines. I would say the average age is younger than many other river
cruise lines, up to now river cruising is still seen very much as a
slightly older activity. So many cruise lines will have people in their 60s and
70s as the main age group. I would say Avalon, based on my experience,
is younger than that. It's still probably averages around 50 to
late 50s, but much more diverse in terms of age range and much wider age range.
That could well be because of their link to Globus. It is an english-speaking
experience, so people on board are English speaking.
You'll find a lot of Americans, a lot of Canadian,s a lot of Australians,
New Zealanders and a lot of people from the UK. I've spoken about what's very similar,
what they do different and hopefully that's helped you make up your mind if
Avalon Waterways is the right company for you to go on your European river
cruise. I'd love it if you enjoyed the video if you'd "like" the video, but very
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