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Avalon Waterways - Things You Need To Know Before European River Cruising With Them!
Jan 29, 2025
In this video you will discover the five things Avalon Waterways does the same as other European river cruise lines, and the seven things that are different about Avalon Waterways. If you are considering going on a river cruise in Europe you have a choice of many lines, so how can you make sure you go on the right one? In this video Gary Bembridge, cruise expert and author, reviews Avalon Waterways and explains what is very much the same and what makes them unique. This should help you decide of they are the right line for your European river cruise.
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0:00
hi I'm Gary Bembridge of travelers I'm
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gonna tell you things that you
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absolutely need to know about Avalon
0:06
waterways to help you decide if this is
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the right River cruise line for you so
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the first thing you need to know about
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Avalon is what do they do the same and
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what do they do different what makes
0:15
them unique so it's probably about five
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things that they do that are very
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similar first of all the ships in terms
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of their size are basically the same as
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everybody else
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River cruise boat is constrained by how
0:25
long Jara wide and how high can be by
0:28
the nature of the rivers that it cruises
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on so their ships are basically the same
0:31
size and look very similar from the
0:33
outside to pretty much all of the other
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ships that you'll see so this means of
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course like all river cruise boats the
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facilities are relatively limited so on
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the ship you'll find that main lounge
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will find a second lounge you'll have a
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dining room a very small hair dressers a
0:45
fitness center and a very large deck on
0:48
top also very importantly there's no
0:49
medical center or medical facilities on
0:51
board so if you have any medical issues
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they have to be dealt with on land
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that's true of course across all river
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cruise boats the second thing that they
0:58
do that are very similar is the rivers
1:00
and itineraries there are only so many
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rivers of it you can basically go river
1:04
cruising on and their two knees are very
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similar because of course everyone's to
1:07
go and see them and attractions whatever
1:09
at Tenri you want or look at it's
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probably likely that Avalon will have an
1:12
itinerary that is the same I can off you
1:14
know tannery that covers all the main
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sites that a cruise on the Rhine the
1:18
Danube the main the muscle of the Rhone
1:20
River Seine in France the third thing
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they do the same is in terms of phase
1:24
their fares are largely all-inclusive
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and this is pretty consistent across
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river cruising so your fare will include
1:30
your accommodation include your food so
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three meals a day
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also in Avalon you will get afternoon
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tiered around about four o'clock in the
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afternoon and also you will get a late
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night snack around about 10:30 drinks
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with meal times are included so at lunch
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and dinner you can have soft drinks
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beers and wine are included on board
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enrichment activities so the port talks
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are included Wi-Fi is included there's
1:52
also 24-hour coffee and tea and little
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snacks available as well excursions are
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included there's normally at least one
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excursion included every day get that's
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fairly consistent with other river
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cruise lines when you go on tours they
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use the Vox system like most of the
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cruisers do and these are great bases
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little receiver and you have an earpiece
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and the guide then transmits to
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whatever channel that you all set on and
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it's great because you can actually
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wander away from the guide to go and
2:19
take pictures but stay in touch and hear
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the whole comedy so you don't have to
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huddle closely around the guide the
2:25
dress code is also very similar to other
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river cruise lines it's a pretty casual
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so people generally don't dress up they
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might wear you know gentlemen might wear
2:33
long sleeve shirt and slacks for dinner
2:35
but it's pretty informal the food on
2:37
board is also very good and has some
2:40
local spins to it so again that's also
2:42
fairly consistent with most you know
2:44
river cruise lines so those are all the
2:46
things that they do similar so what does
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actually Avalon do different what are
2:49
the things that you should consider if
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you're thinking about Avalon over other
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river cruise lines well first of all
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it's part of Globus so it's part of a
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very big Travel Group and that's very
2:57
important because what they do is they
2:59
have obviously lots of expertise in most
3:02
the places that call upon and also they
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have guides which they have personally
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through Globus used verified and tested
3:09
ever times they do have a lot of
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expertise in all of the destinations
3:12
they go to and lots of resources they
3:15
can draw on so this is quite unique to
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many of the other river cruise lines
3:18
which either are very specific river
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cruise lines or perhaps are spinoff of
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ocean river cruise lines the fact that
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they're part of Globus and all that they
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can leverage and bring is very important
3:28
the second thing is what they call the
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signature sweet ships the cabins are
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bigger than pretty much every other
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River cruise line certainly any other
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luxury river cruise line on average
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they're about 30% bigger so great thing
3:42
is you have beds that point towards the
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window because they have room to do that
3:45
and so you can watch the scenery pass by
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the other thing that's very important is
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they have these massive big windows
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which stretch from one side of the cabin
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to the other side and bear in mind the
3:54
cabins are bigger they can open up
3:55
nearly seven feet certainly as the time
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recording this nobody has windows that
4:01
open as big as this the other thing that
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I think makes them very different is
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they have a lot of special interest
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cruisers some of these include things
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like wine appreciation culinary beer
4:10
music and jazz art an impressionist
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history with a focus on World War two
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history that's where oil teachers
4:16
heritage Christmastime cruises the Gulf
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cruises cruises focused around specific
4:20
authors garden nature lots of other
4:23
cruise lines are experimenting with
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those but certainly in my experience
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what I've looked at is Avalon really
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have a lot of special interest cruises
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and I think that does make them kind of
4:31
interesting the other thing that makes
4:32
them very different is that they do have
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a big focus around a much more active
4:36
way of sightseeing now they have some
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very specific cruises which are active
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discovery cruises and the idea would be
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there are more hiking biking even
4:44
kayaking excursions they have bicycles
4:47
on board older ships which you can then
4:48
use to kind of cycling they also those
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Nordic Walking poles the other thing
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which they do which I find very
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interesting is they have a focus on
4:55
healthy eating there's also an
4:56
appreciation that people are much more
4:57
diet away and one of the things that I
4:59
really struck me on this is they make a
5:01
big issue around allergies and dietary
5:04
requirements all the menus are listed in
5:06
lots of detail the different potential
5:08
allergy issues they spend a lot of time
5:11
talking to guests understanding what
5:13
their issues are and making sure that
5:15
they are tailoring the menu or
5:17
identifying on the menu what you can't
5:18
eat you'll always find healthy eating
5:20
options and these have been developed
5:22
with a partnership with two Austrian
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chefs called Karl and Leo wrench part of
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a very high quality vegetarian
5:30
restaurant in Austria so these are all
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vegetarian and vegan dishes the other
5:34
thing which I personally really like is
5:36
they are very adult focused so why a lot
5:39
of river cruise lines are trying to
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attract more families more kids on board
5:43
actually what Avalon do is they are much
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more adult focus so you can't bring any
5:47
children under the age of 8 on board and
5:50
they don't provide kids clubs or they
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didn't provide very kids specific
5:54
itineraries or kids specific programs so
5:56
they are very much focused on catering
5:58
for an adult audience well one of the
6:00
things that really struck me onboard a
6:02
velar is that the sort of average age
6:04
and the mix onboard Avalon were much
6:07
more diverse than many other river
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cruise lines so I would say the average
6:10
age is younger than many other river
6:13
cruise lines up you know now river
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cruising is still seen very much as a
6:16
slightly older activity so many cruise
6:18
lines will have people in their 60s and
6:20
70s as the main age group I would say
6:23
have a LAN in based on my experience
6:26
it's younger than that it's still
6:27
probably averages around you know 50
6:29
late 50s but much more diverse in terms
6:32
of age range much wider age range and
6:34
that could well be because of their link
6:35
to Globus it is an english-speaking
6:37
experience so people on board are
6:40
English speak
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King so you'll find a lot of Americans a
6:43
lot of Canadians a lot of Australians
6:45
New Zealanders a lot of people from the
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UK I've spoken about what's very similar
6:50
what they do different and hopefully
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that's helped you make up your mind if
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avalon waterways is the right company
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for you to go on your european river
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cruises i'd love it if you enjoyed the
6:59
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