Avalon will still be my first choice for any river cruising 3
Karl Smith, Australia, Oct 2014
I felt the overall standard of this cruise was a little bit lower than the Avalon river cruise I did in 2012. Although my points of disappointment are very minor I was not the only passenger to have similar views. 1. Previous cruise. Cake/pastry selection for afternoon tea had several choices. This cruise. Only one choice. 2. Previous ship looked immaculate. read more This ship had rust showing through in a number of places. 3. I thought housekeeping standards, although very good, had dropped a little. 4. Noise in the restaurant at meal times was abominable. This comment was made by others in the Tour Operator survey. Avalon definitely need to consider sound absorbent ceiling tiles. 5. The tour guides for the shore excursions, although excellent at what they do, tend to load you up with so much information that your brain hurts when you are getting this every day. This is not limited to Avalon but common across all the cruise operators. The longer the cruise went the more people opted out of guided tours in favour of 'doing their own thing'. Despite the above negatives Avalon will still be my first choice for any future river cruising.