Danube River Cruise

We've never taken a cruise with Avalon but have taken 4 with Tauck that we were very happy with. Most recent was Budapest to Amsterdam when a Viking cruise ship hit and damaged a lock between the Danube and Rhine putting it out of commission. Tauck went above and beyond to make sure we saw everything on our original itinerary plus extras while we awaited word on the lock status. Their prices look higher than others but they are absolutely all inclusive - no hidden fees, no tipping of anyone on the cruise, airport and hotel transfers, all beverages included, no add on excursions fees plus they always give more than the minimum in the itinerary.

You will likely find a lot more information or get more informed responses from the website cruise critic.com

Look under River cruises.

We have done four river cruises and all were great. There are a plethora of companies that offer river cruises. Avalon is a good one, although their prices tend to be a bit on the high side.
I always price and compare several river cruises, usually book with Vantage World Travel. Their cruises are excellent.
Check Avalon, Viking, Uniworld, Emerald, Grand Circle, AMA and if looking for a good budget cruise check Gate 1.

Most of the river cruise companies include their tours (or at least 90%) in their prices. Also, most provide wine with lunch and dinner at no additional cost.

We always do a pre or post self guided land tour in conjunction with a cruise. Not sure where your cruise starts and ends, but all the places you mentioned are great. Salzburg is definitely worth the effort. Munich and Prague are great cities.

I have a couple of questions. Have you traveled in Europe before? If so, have you traveled independently? Have you taken a river cruise before?

We have taken one river cruise, the Viking Rhine cruise. We are normally independent travelers, but some long time friends asked us to join us on the VRC.

Here are some things you might want to consider. You are at the mercy of the river. From what I understand, things have gotten better, but there was a season a few years ago where lack of rainfall affected the navigation on the Rhine, Danube and others. For some, most of the trip turned into an expensive bus tour.

As river cruises become more popular, the rivers have gotten full of cruise boats. There's not enough moorings to service them all. We paid extra for a room with a small balcony, but more times than not we were tied to another VRC boat. Our view from our balcony was in the stateroom of the passengers on a sister ship. Our balcony was literally inches away from theirs.

Everything revolves around meals. The problem for us is we are early risers and usually start our day at least an hour before breakfast is served. That means you don't get to your first destination until mid-morning. You have a few hours, then you are hauled back to the ship for lunch. Then afternoon activities don't start until after 1:00, sometimes as late as 2:00. Then you have to be back to the ship for dinner, which normally begins serving at 6:00. Some nights you have to be back earlier because that actually start to the next destination while you are eating. There were a few days where we could opt to skip lunch and stay at a destination, but they weren't often. Carefully check the itinerary.

Luckily you are considering Avalon. Since they are a more premium cruise line, hopefully you'll have a better class of fellow passengers, though money doesn't necessarily keep people from being jerks. Most of the ~190 passengers were OK, but we had enough jerks on board to make for some unpleasant moments. The ships aren't big enough so you can avoid them. We had a couple of guys who couldn't hold their liquor and got loud and obnoxious. We had one guy who was just a jackass, abusive to staff and actually physically threatening another passenger.

It's an expensive way to travel. Circumstances had us spend the same amount of time in Tuscany on an independent trip 6 months before our cruise. The cruise cost us three times as much as our wonderful trip to Tuscany.

We had taken several trips before and have taken trips since. We quickly decided that cruising isn't our cup of tea. It's too constricting, it's too expensive and we had no interaction with folks in the areas we visited.

On on four river cruises, two were in Europe: Rhone/Saone in France and Douro in Portugal, Vantage didn't focus on being back at the ship for lunch. Sometimes we had lunch on the ship, sometimes we had lunch while on tour.

Also, we had breakfast early enough to get in a full day.

Don't remember having any nasty or rude people on our cruises. Our ships tended to run from 130-150 and we got to know half or more of our fell cruisers. That is one reason that we like river cruising, the cruises are more intimate compared to ocean cruises.

Yes, the weather can be a problem, that is probably the Elephant in the living room for river cruising.

4 of us took a tulip river cruise this spring with Gate one and we were very pleased. It is well priced but I would not consider it budget style with re to its accommodations or food.
The staff was professional, food was very good, tours were well done and rooms were very nice with slider door windows and all the comforts and style with daily housekeeping. No it is not the Cunard style of cruising which I have done but we all enjoyed the level of service , comfort and efficiency.
I have not taken Avalon waterways.

Your #1 Done about 10 river cruises including Avalon Poetry, a typical first class ship. The companies mentioned by others are all pretty much equal. Our travel agent, who never steered us wrong, says that Scenic is #1, despite being rather disorganize (and then a couple years later, Scenic hired him and some of his staff to take one of their cruises and tell Scenic how to fix them).

Your #2 Prague, and for twice as long as you are thinking. We have spent more than 600 days as tourists in Europe, and Prague is our top choice for a major city There is no second place. Munich ranks high on our blah!!! list. Best ignored.

Your #3 I assume you are stopping in Linz, one of the few EU cites less interesting than Munich. If you stop in Passau, consider it a mini-Salzburg and look at these two options. 1] There are 4 spectacular Baroque churches near Linz. Rent a car and go see them, or you can take a local bus to Wilhering and St Florian Abbeys. 2] Sign up for a local or ship's tour to Chesky Krumlov.
If you must go to Salzburg, the optional ship tour or a local bus tour will probably spend a lot less time in travel than the train.