Magnificent Rivers of Europe Reviews

Not our first trip with Avalon and if we do river cruising again will look to them first. Great trip and met all our expectations. All staff were great on board and their expertise and friendliness added to the experience. Global Journey's support from Yvonne, was again great.

I could not rate this trip on Avalon highly enough. We had a fantastic time. The cruise director was fantastic. Would have no hesitation to recommend Avalon to anyone. The boat and the facilities were excellent. We had a problem with a loch being faulty on the first day. We spent two nights off the boat in a lovely hotel in Vienna. Avalon did all ...read more they could to make that issue as less impact as possible.

From our experience on the Avalon Expression recently we could not recommend Avalon highly enough. They were magnificent. The cruise director was a class act and the food, drinks, service and accomadation was wonderful. The lengths they went to when the first loch was faulty was excellent. I do not believe that anyone on board complained of what ...read more the alternative was. Two nights is a lovely motel in Vienna was a suitable replacement.

Could not fault Avalon's river cruise, everything was perfect especially the ships crew & tour Director 'Helmet'. This trip far exceeded our expectations.

As you will see from my ratings, I loved every minute of our river cruise and have no complaints whatsoever. In fact the tour exceeded my expectations. Would like to do another river cruise at some stage when finances allow!

It was a wonderful experience and we thoroughly enjoyed being with Avalon on the Panorama. The ship was clean and comfortable and the crew very pleasant and obliging. It was a good, restful and interesting vacation. Thank you.

Everything about the cruise was perfect with VIP treatment the whole way. The staterooms were comfortable and provided every need. The meals were a real treat and of fine restaurant quality. The crew were attentive, friendly and dedicated to ensuring you had everything you needed. Best holiday I have had in years.

We really enjoyed our first river cruise. Quality of service was excellent, meals were excellent and of course the views were magnificent along the Danube, Mainz and Rhine.

The cruise was smoothly executed, obviously an outcome of thoughtful planning and accumulated experience. The Avalon Panorama was similar in layout and standard to the Viking Rurik which took us from Moscow to St Petersburg a year earlier. We did a lot of optional excursions and fully filled the cruise time, but putting one's feet up and enjoying the ...read more rivers/canals and the ship-board pampering are also enticing alternatives.

We would have to be mad to have gone elsewhere. Everything was 100% perfect. Will be going through you guys in future. (Ed. That's what we think! Spread the word :)

It was a great experience with all activities being very well organised. The included walking tours sometimes took too long with a lot of information being provided. We decided if a town was close enough to the ship we would take off and do our own thing, this just gave us a break from information overload and gave us a chance to explore at our own ...read more pace. We were very with the optional tours we decided to undertake. The Tour Director, Robert, was exceptionally well organised and communicated the day's activities very well and was quite humorous when delivering his briefings. However we found him to be a little brusque and stand offish to deal with one on one. The food was excellent and could not be faulted. A minor criticism was that the bar staff seemed to be under trained. Often they would get the drink orders wrong and drinks were often a long time coming, particularly during happy hour. On most occasions you could only manage one round of drinks during happy hour. Our cabin was very comfortable and above what we expected of a lower deck cabin. Overall we enjoyed the experience and have come away with some great memories.

Overall Avalon was to a very high standard and we were very lucky to be on a new ship. High points were Salzburg tour and excellent presentation and professionalism of the crew and ship. The two low points were the Bistro dinner which was way too rushed (either serve so the food in a timely way or do not offer the bistro) and night tour of Amsterdam ...read more which was a waste of time and money. We had a great time and a most enjoyable tour and appreciated the lovely Sekt wine given to us for our 30th anniversary (even though I didn't tell anyone in the crew!)

Overall our Avalon experience was far better than any expectation we had. Our cruise director, Stefano, went well beyond any duty he had to us - even organising for us to hire a wheel chair when one of our group was ill. All staff were exceptionally friendly and helpful. Food was wonderful and at dinner the accompanying wines were top notch. Bar drinks ...read more were very reasonably priced (even more so during half price happy hour just before dinner). Our Stateroom had ample storage. Would have been nice if there had been room for a second chair but the lack of the chair would have to be my only negative comment. The whole ship was immaculately clean. I cannot give high enough praise for all staff and the whole experience.

Overall a very good and enjoyable holiday. Staff on board provided great service. Will recommend this river cruise to family and friends. This cruise was recommended to us by good friend Alan Jupp who did the cruise with his wife one year ago. (Ed. Great to hear Alan gave us the thumbs up!)

Prompt and informative communication. My booking went as planned with no issues at all. Will definitely book again with Global Journeys. Great support from Yvonne.

Almost every aspect of the tour we found excellent. Other aspect that Australians dont usually experience, like our American counter-parts, tipping. Although we paid for tipping as part of our package and in addition paid for our optional tours costs, tipping always seemed to be an expectation and some times an embarrassment, because we only had large ...read more Euro bills. After a couple of days we grew accustomed to the practice and always made sure we had sufficient 1 & 2 Euro coins at the ready. That doesn't seem a lot but 1 Euro was about $1.33. (Suggestion): Let Aussies' know 2 to 3 Euros is acceptable, given there are 10 to 16 couples on most optional tours that tallies to a nice tip. Don't include it as part of the tour cost, but as an optional extra. Our whole experience was beautiful, the staff bent over backward to assist our every need. The Captain so friendly and his Ship wonderful accommodation like a five star hotel. The menu's and beverage selection first class, really didn't have a single thing to complain about. Our tour guide Tibo, what can one say to a person who is such a perfectionist. The optional tours and guides he selected were the best we've ever experienced. Tibor was a great host and joined in with us a meals, on tours and was always available if or when we needed something sorted, day or night didn't matter. One unfortunate incident that happened to us, was credit card fraud and our Bank cancelled our card. This occurred on the day our Ship docked in Amsterdam and I reported the matter to Avalon Waterways as we paid our onboard account and optional tour invoices with the Mastercard in question. Our Bank assures this is but a coincidence, as computer fraud can happen anywhere, anytime nowadays. After such a wonderful experience, our next holiday will probably be another Cruise but of 7-10 days duration and possibly be through France in a couple of years. All we are going to work on to improve our travel is something for jet lag!

The Avalon Panorama was the most amazing 'hotel on water'. The room was very comfortable (not that we were in it much)! Room service was excellent. The layout of the boat was very practical and our cabin towards the front of the boat was in a good position. Tours were very well organised and range was also very interesting with experienced guides in ...read more each town. We enjoyed being able to choose some optional extras online before we left home. Could not fault the lounge or dining room service and the food was simply wonderful....such a variety everyday. Entertainment on board was excellent and nice to get a feel for the different countries performers. All the staff without exception were amazing and could not do enough for us. Would go again tomorrow and definitely with Avalon. I would also be open to giving testimonies for you if it were required. We have since talked 4 other friends into going on the Panorama next April (2014). They have also booked through Global Journeys. Global Journeys were also wonderful to work with. Yvonne - our consultant was very obliging and answered all our questions. Yvonne contacted us by email when we needed to communicate. She was always available to take phone calls too. Her suggestions on room placement on the boat were spot on and made our travels very easy and comfortable. Our holiday experience was amazing and our memories will live on forever.

Our river cruise was everything we expected and more couldn't fault any of it. Would recommend Global Journeys to all those wishing to do river cruises. Special thanks to Yvonne for all the help with our booking and friends bookings. Thank you we had an awesome holiday.

The whole Avalon experience is a class act, except, one of the touted highlights of the Danube cruise is the trip down through the spectacular Rhine Gorge. We had seen it on a Trafalgar tour last year and eagerly looked forward to a return trip. For reasons that were not apparent, we entered the gorge just on dark and lost the spectacle completely. ...read more There was bitter disappointment on board. To our way of thinking, the shore excursion to Rudesheim that afternoon should have been shortened by at least an hour to have allowed sailing through this Unesco World Heritage Site in daylight. Missing the Rhine Gorge is close to a money back disaster in our mind. Five weeks later, I still seethe at the thought of missing this highlight through what appears to have been poor planning. There may have been a reason, but we could not get it on board.

Wonderful holiday and the cruise met all expectations. The staff and service was second to none. Thank you.