The Legendary Danube Reviews

Thoroughly enjoyed the holiday. The staff on board were amazing, the included tours were fabulous. Food was great and not too much. When the cruised finished, we were able to stay on board until 4pm in the afternoon. This was great as we had accommodation in Budapest and unable to get into the room before 2pm. Would absolutely recommend this holiday ...read more to all my friends - we will be back!

It was our first ever river cruise and we had medium expectations. Well, we simply loved the whole experience. Everything was perfect. The food was exceptional, the cabin was large with a balcony which we enjoyed and we were surprised how well the bathroom was designed. The cruise manager, Hendrick, was confident, humorous, organised and left us with ...read more no doubt that we were in good hands. We have been back home for five days and tonight we are already planning our next Avalon river cruise.

This river cruise base cost included many off shore excursions. However, to get maximum value, the extra off shore activities are an extra cost. This needs to be taken into account when working out the total cost of the trip, but does add flexibility. Avalon is clearly trying to be the best company to travel with on the waterways of Europe. This is ...read more our second cruise with this group and we will be booking our next trip with them.

Another very proficient Avalon cruise. All very good. Maybe, too late in the year as the weather was cold (30 Sept - 10 Oct). Our only complaint was that the quality of food provided at dinner was not as good as on our earlier Romantic Rhine Cruise. The vegetarian fair was particularly poor. Breakfast and lunch were fine. Table service was not attentive ...read more and to get a wine glass refilled was often difficult.

The trip was very well organised, the included tours good, the range of optional excursions quite varied and most were good, the crew were magnificent and very friendly, the food magnificent and in no short supply by any means. The cruise director was very professional and helpful (even organised a short ANZAC day event for the Australians and New Zealanders). ...read more The cabins and beds were very comfortable and well sound insulated, and the floor-to-ceiling door sliding open to allow full view uninterrupted views was magnificent. Couldn't fault any aspect of the cruise.

Excellent holiday - especially in Autumn with tree colours and fewer crowds. The cabins and lounges were comfortable. The boat handling and locks and other ships were intriguing. The crew members and guides were efficient AND friendly. The daily information was inspiring. The food was healthy and plentiful with lots of choices - even though I'm vegetarian. ...read more The museums and shops were entertaining at every shore stop. The architecture was intriguing and sometime awesome - took lots of photos to absorb the details later. So many highlights - electric biking through Dutch farmland, patisseries in Strasbourg etc. The Prague hotel was very classy and the city was fun to explore. Salzburg was so lovely I'm tempted to go back and live there for a while.

The highlights of our Legendary Danube trip were the tours of the cities of Prague, Regensburg, Vienna and Budapest and the tour through the beautiful Austrian lakes region.

First time with Emirates and could not fault the experience. Avalon River Cruise just great , well organised with excellent tour guide. One small criticism was after paying for balcony room to often we berthed at locations only to be looking into adjacent boat bed room only half a metre away.

We expected all cabins to have large windows but, we were on the bottom deck and had just two small windows which were high up and could hardly see anything. We understand why but could have been told about this so we could book cabins on the upper decks. This aspect was really very dissapointing.

The Legendary Danube Cruise was fantastic!! We loved the location of the Intercontinental in Prague. It is certainly a beautiful city. The Expression was a great ship with a great crew! Nothing was too much to ask for - exceptional service! The days when we were cruising along the Danube was spectacular. You felt like you were gliding along - very ...read more relaxing!! Even going through the locks was an amazing experience. I also loved Passau and Budapest. Would have liked to have had a few more days in Budapest - maybe next time, as I well definitely be doing another river cruise!

The onboard entertainment was not up to the standard of the Avalon cruise we were on last year. There were no ship tours of wheelhouse, galley etc. Overall the cruise was a wonderful experience that we did enjoy. Much to our delight we had the same wine waiter, Dimi, as last year. Different country, same waiter, excellent, the service was exceptional. ...read more Well done Avalon, we will sail with you again.

After having been on a couple of ocean cruises with 2000 odd people on board it was such a pleasure to only have 160 fellow passengers. This cruise has changed our minds regarding ocean cruising. River cruises are the way to go! We did however find the excursions a bit hectic leaving little time to actually enjoy the ship. We will definitely cull some ...read more of the optional tours on our next trip and spend more time relaxing on the ship.

Overall we had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday with Avalon. However we were a little disappointed with the limited on ship activities. Having cruised before by ship we would have thought there might have been more on ship entertainment from the local areas. The overall pace of the days tours etc was full on which meant that the cruise was not as relaxing ...read more as we had expected. Cabin air conditioning was also too variable for our liking and with the duvets we were often very hot at night or cold without it. Staff were excellent. The food was great however the organisation for the buffet and breakfast was quite chaotic with people going in all directions. One small glitch in that our documentation indicated cabin 223 however we were put in cabin 233.

Thank you for the very professional manner in which you handled our recent Avalon Legendary Danube booking. The pace of the tour and the inclusions were spot on. The two days at the Prague Hilton were a great introduction to the quality and wonderful experience of what was to come. Special thanks to Yvonne.

The cruise was an amazing experience, and like staying on a floating five star hotel. It was a great way to see a lot of Europe in a little amount of time, and with no hassles. As very independent travellers we would have liked a little more time to explore on our own, however we realise there are constraints due to scheduling and travel time. Another ...read more thing we would have liked would have been more tables for 2 in the restaurant for dinner - there were only two tables configured that way, and they were always in hot demand, so other travellers obviously felt they same way. Our tour guide was excellent, very efficent, patient and 'no fuss'. The crew were all good, service excellent. The captain did an amazing job getting us through all the lochs, as most of the other cruise ships were 'bussing' their guests between locations due to low water issues. Global Journeys were great to deal with in arranging the river cruise, and all my many queries were answered professionally and promptly - thank you Hannah!

WOW. Where to start. Had an amazing time on the Visionary. The whole experience was wonderful. We started our adventure in Prague staying at the Hilton. Prague is a city like no other. The buildings, the river, the flowers, the people, and everything is so cheap. I am so glad we arrived 1 day earlier and had time to settle in and take a good look around. ...read more 1 day before we were to depart for Nuremberg we were advised that the German Lock workers were conducting rolling strikes so we would be bused to Regensburg instead. The Visionary was docked in Regensburg and we didn't sail until Friday (instead of Thursday) but we still did get to see Nuremberg even though it was by bus instead of cruising the river. Not a great start to our 'river cruise' as we hadn't left dock, but on a positive note Avalon did what they could with a situation that was beyond their control. If you had to be 'stuck' well then Regensburg would be the place. Absolutely beautiful city and again so many beautiful flowers..

When we actually did sail on the Friday it was special and everyone was excited to get moving. I can not describe the next morning as we cruised into Passau. Just breathtaking to wake up to the most quaint little German town. To be docked so close and be able to walk into town at your own pace was just wonderful. The sad thing then was that the ones that had booked the 'extra trip' to Salzburg had to leave the ship at 8.30am and we sailed at around 11am and had the most amazing day sailing thru the most spectacular scenery that you could imagine. We sailed all afternoon past gorgeous villages and past castles and we arrived in Linz at about 5pm when the other passengers that had been to Salzburg then met the ship. They missed an amazing day. Linz was the most Vibrant place we visited. Saturday night and a summer festival happening. Again another city where we were docked so close to town we could just walk and explore...fantastic.

We sailed that night and the next day arrived in Melk. The tour of the Melk Abbey included was wonderful as it was so informative about the different ages but sadly we didn't have any time in the town. The view from the top of the hill was wonderful, but we would have loved time in the town as well. We sailed then for Vienna. Wow! The most beautiful buildings ever. Not as many flowers as the other cities but the buildings are unbelievable. Tuesday morning and we sailed for Budapest. Sailed in to Budapest on Tuesday afternoon and wow again! Cruised in slowly past the Parliament Building and into another gorgeous European city. That briefly covers the cities and towns that we visited. Words can not describe how we now feel about that part of the world. But now to get onto the actual Avalon experience.

Firstly the cabin, unbelievable. The bed would have to be the most comfortable thing I have ever slept on in my life. The other passengers saying they had pulled the sheets off to try and see what brand the bed was. You just sunk into the bed and the pillows and not to mention the feel of the doona, just heaven. The cabin was so spacious and well designed, so much space in the wardrobes and heaps of room to move around. The bathroom was fantastic, great hot shower and heaps of space in there as well. The beauty products were great, and plenty of them. The food was great. I have a different view to my husband - I like a little fancy and he likes a good old fashioned feed. What ever view you take, there was plenty. The breakfast buffet was full of the usual fruit, yogurt, cereals, breads, bacon, eggs, beans, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms, pancakes, pastries etc. The lunches in the restaurant were of course wonderful, everything you could ask for. The luches on the sky deck were just like a good old fashioned BBQ back home in the land of OZ. The Gala nights consisted of many courses of little bites followed by starters, followed by entrees followed by mains and then incredible desserts, and then you could have cheese and crackers and fruit. OMG, and I wonder how come I put on weight and hubby had to let his belt out a notch or 2. The wine and beers were included, and there was plenty of both. Oh and the 24/7 lounge also had help yourself cappuccino / coffee / hot chocolate / tea machine with choc chip cookies - not to mention fruit and juices and also iced tea was pretty cool as well.

The staff - wonderful - as you can see by my brief summary of the 11 wonderful days of our Legendary Danube cruise I quite enjoyed myself. My husband has a few things he was not happy about. eg Wifi dropping in and out, even though they warned us about this - it is 2013 and maybe they really need to look into improving this as it is how many people communicate with loved ones back home. Overall I would have to say that I loved the whole experience, of course you can never please 100% of the people 100% of the time - but Avalon certainly tried.

Due to weather conditions in Europe just prior to our cruise we missed 1 night of sailing and had to change boats after our Vienna stop. Despite these difficulties everything was done to compensate for the changes and the cruise went very smoothly. Staff were friendly and helpful and our cruise director Erik kept us informed re any changes. Some extra ...read more excursions were included free of charge. Overall it was an extremely pleasant experience! Food was of an excellent quality and presentation had you feeling you were in a 5 star restaurant.

The cruise on the Visionary was excellent and went without a hitch. Georgie from Global Journeys was excellent - her communications were excellent and timely and when we arrived in Prague everything had been organised and went like clockwork. The Prague Hilton is an excellent hotel and started our holiday in great fashion. The tour organiser on board ...read more Visionary was first class and had everything organised to a tee.

Of Global Journeys - wonderful, helpful, pleasant and always obliging. One thing I think could be added that we noticed we weren't offered until we asked - Avalon discount on airfare, we were unaware of this until we chased for quotes on fares. On Avalon - the tour was all and more than I expected - full on with sight seeing, food and wines, care by ...read more staff and comfort. One thing we noticed when pricing our trip late last year was that in Australia it seems we pay a higher basic cruise price than the English and often Americans. If Avalon could explain the difference in basic costs it would be appreciated - especially as we have to pay higher airfares than those from UK etc. I realise the gratuities are prepaid here but that doesn't absorb the difference - and this is an excellent idea. Of the cruise ship itself - admittedly beds are narrow to fit into room, but the were doonas too narrow for the bed and kept slipping off during the night. Also the dining room is very noisy. The house staff were unbelievably consistent in their attention to our room. Regardless of all this, we had a marvellous and at times a tiring tour - our choice of course to take extra tours. The organisation of such cruises was mind boggling, everything went so smoothly to our eyes and we offer congratulations to all. We would recommend anyone contemplating such a holiday to go for it.

This river cruise exceeded my expectations. It was fantastic, much better than a Mediterranean cruise I did in 2006 with Cosmos. Our tour consultant, Frances, also did a wonderful job in organising the trip for us.