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 importantly subscribe to Tips For Travellers because you'll get much more about river cruising, much more about
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