Euro River Cruises
 

Viking or Avalon and why?

Don't think you can go wrong with either. Viking is a larger company with more routes but I think Avalon's boats have ~20 fewer guests.

I really want to go on the Ama Waterways AmaKristina down the Rone. I'm not really a cruise person, but this looks like a lot of fun!

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I would be interested in hearing experiences. Next year is our 25th and I was planning a 7-day Viking up the Danube with a 3 day extension in Prague.

These cruises need to be booked a year + in advance which is part of my issue with Viking.

Need to pay in full by end of July 23’ for a Sept 24’ cruise.

Just sits wrong with me. Yeah I can and will get trip insurance but still not comfortable with it.

My Father remarried after my Mom passed.

Carol, his 2nd wife, was a hardcore travel organizer. She worked it hard and was the only person I have ever met that played the timeshare game like Serena Williams.

By far his favorite trip was the Euro River cruises she arranged. I don't have the details but as I have written here before my Dad was a "penurious" and even he thought it was the best bang for the buck.

I am also interested in any first hand, more up to date impressions.

Best.

I used to go on exclusive music cruises which sold out to returnees and had a waiting list even before they were announced a year in advance and which required $$$ up front.

One of the "guys" committed suicide, the "business" declared bankruptcy, and lots of folks lost $$$, myself included .... fortunately it wasn't the total cost of the cabin .... around $7K back when....

Yeah .... it was all my fault .... shoulda, coulda, and didn't :(.

edited: I did go on 4 more after the "company" reformed as a new entity a few years later.... I just did things a bit differently ;)

You couldn't drag my dead azz body on a regular cruise without me kicking and screaming, but those private music cruises were a hoot . .. as would be a Euro river cruise imo... my bud is going in the fall .... I think ;). Because I don't think he's already booked .... shoot ... he ain't in charge anyways :D...

My late father used to cruise with Avalon and never had a bad word after any of his trips. Lots of folks I work with have Viking trips under their belts. Every one of them finished their first Viking cruise and booked another shortly after returning. They are small vessels and sell out the trips. Limited availability and lots of repeat customers mean book early and pay the freight. I am booked for a Rhine River trip with Viking for next May. Yep, pay in full this month. The business model works, higher end trips and no empty cabins.

^^^ My buddy & wife are planning on a Rhine cruise .... I'll pass this info along to him.

Out of curiosity I went looking for info on an Avalon Rhine cruise .... couldn't find the rates ;)

'Bout how much for a cabin for two .... ballpark, and I'm sure they vary?

Depends on which route, number of days, time of year but for an 8 day 7 night outing figure ~$5,000 per person on Viking and ~$5,500 pp on Avalon.

You do get more stops with Avalon and they don’t pack their ships as densely as Viking.

I’m told the Avalon crowd skews younger as well so less wheelchairs to deal with?

For me the cost differential is justified, it’s not paying more simply for the sake of paying more and getting nothing for it.

My wife just returned from a Viking River Cruise last Tuesday. She really enjoyed it but grew tired of church & castle tours. Started in Amsterdam and ended in Prague; 20 days or something like that.

She says that she would do it again if I want to go. I do not.

I’m told by my long term agent who we use for group trips and who has cruised both lines that Avalon is the higher end cruise by about a 1/2 star at least.

She attributes Vikings popularity more to their aggressive advertising/ marketing than any demonstrable difference in service or offering.

She says both are great products and one can’t go wrong with either but gives the nod to Avalon as the better experience.

The reason i’m asking is we are going with at least one other couple, most likely, two.

The other confirmed couple is leaning Viking because they’ve not really heard of Avalon, advertising and marketing is influencing them and i’d rather hear from people who have 1st hand knowledge.

For us, a week long river cruise was part of the trip to do the Paris marathon in April every year. Until the last year, we went with a river cruise line that is now defunct. The last year (8 years ago) we went with Viking and the difference was night and day. The Viking "Paris" cruise didn't even dock in Paris, it was at some town down river. Rooms were comparable, the food wasn't as good, and the crew wasn't so friendly. They tolerated some really surly crew members, particularly the bartender. They tried to do a hamburger and fries lunch and totally blew it. Cold french fries - in France?

I've never heard of Avalon. I only have that other company to compare with , and I don't like Viking. The river cruise business was getting crowded 8 years ago and it's probably worse now. At some stops the boats were docked 3 deep. If you were last in line you had to walk across two other boats to get to shore. If you were first in line two boatloads of passengers were tromping across your boat to get to shore.

Get off the boat and eat at a local restaurant as often as you can.
Skip some of the organized excursions and go hang out in whatever town you are docked at.
Make sure you know when departure times are. Don't be caught out on the down when the boat leaves.

After our experience with Viking we decided not to do anymore river cruises. The rivers seemed more crowded, and it was becoming less relaxing and more frenetic. Twenty days would be brutal. We skipped most of the tours unless it was something really special.

My wife and I recently did a 7-night Viking cruise on the Rhine in late-May ... we went from Basel to Amsterdam. We had a great time and would definitely cruise with them again.

This was our first river cruise and we thought the food, service, boat, accommodations, excursions and fellow passengers were great. It definitely wasn't like an ocean cruise, which we have done several of and wanted something different.

Regarding the excursions, part of the Viking package (not sure about Avalon) is that you can do both 'included' excursions (no additional cost) or 'additional' excursions (for which there is added cost). We just did the 'included' and thought they were more than sufficient.

My wife did the initial research and decided on Viking over Avalon. Can't remember specifically why but believe it came down to pricing. IIRC, we paid 20% upfront last Sep/Oct, then the balance in November. Airfare was included but take a look at the options, seems like there are always promotions going on.

Only call-out I have is to be aware of the potential for 'rafting', as mentioned above when 2 or 3 boats tie up together at a dock. This wasn't something we had thought about so the first time it happened it took us by surprise. We quickly learned 'rafting' is done by all cruise lines, not just Viking. We lost the full use of our balcony for about a day and half, total, when we were rafted on our side of the boat. The rest of the time our side of the boat luckily had the better view when docked and we had some spectacular ones. Viking also seemed to own more of the docks I saw (i.e., they had they specific branding and logos on them) than other cruise lines, which I guess could help reduce the potential for rafting.

Stomachmonkey - feel free to send me a PM with any specific questions, be glad to share more information.

Viking sponsors PBS Masterpiece theater. Got my vote.

Plus we like saying the CEO's name during the pre-show on PBS. Thorsten Vorgen Horgen (or something)

I'll add: we lived in Germany and have been to the most popular Rhine area several times. It is nice from the land sides. I'm betting seeing it on a ship is even better, especially with the one castle in middle of the river.

Not a fan of cruises but if I were to do one it would be that.

Back in the day Opa used to take my brother and I on Rhine day cruises all the time.

Fond memories and why I'm looking forward to a multi day experience.

Funny I have a viking brochure sitting on the coffee table now. Definitely interested in first hand experiences.

We did the Rhine on AMA from Basel to Amsterdam. There are some things I wish I knew in advance:

1. Most of the Rhine is boring - factories and trailer parks. There is really only one day that you see the “castles on the Rhine.”

2. Having a balcony cabin was not necessary. In fact, at almost every port, we were tied up against another cruise boat and the only view was another tourist cruiser looking back at me. In fact, in one port, our view was a guy in a dirty tee shirt smoking a cigarette and doing the laundry for ship next to ours.

3. The tours are great, but they are short in duration as the boat needs to get going to the next port.

4. There is really only one place on the boat to eat meals and if you are traveling as a couple and don’t want to share a table, you may be out of luck.

5. There really isn’t much entertainment in the evenings.

Food was good, staff is great, but, you’ll probably have a better time if you are traveling with a group or another couple.