We were in cabin 216—portside, middle deck, towards the back of the ship (or abaft as they say in crossword puzzles). This was the largest stateroom we’ve enjoyed in our five cruises. Avalon is somewhat unique in having its beds face the window and having very large windows so that we effectively have a balcony that you can close off, reclaiming the space as part of your stateroom . Avalon has also pulled a neat trick by slanting the wall that the bed backs up to. It really expands the bathroom and especially the shower (see layout below). Larry and Ann were right across the hall in cabin 215.
There’s a 220 volt outlet in the bathroom and two 220 volt outlets in the room—one on the desk and one beside the bed on the side away from the door. Needless to say, we have LOTS of stuff plugged in. There’s a wall-mounted flat screen television with English language news channels, movies, etc.
Public areas
The layout is pretty typical. Deck plans are on the Avalon site. There is a nice lounge at the back of the ship on the third deck where there’s always coffee and cookies. Just outside of it is a sitting area where smokers are allowed. Some friends of ours tried it this afternoon and left pretty quickly due to the diesel fumes. At the front of the second deck—just outside the lounge—is a very nice seating area that’s shaded with comfortable chairs. It has seating for about 18 people. There are chest high glass plates that help to block the wind.
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| Lounge at front of ship |
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| Omelet cook at breakfast buffet |
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| Breakfast buffet bread station |
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| Dining room |
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| Lounge |
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| Lounge |
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| Lounge bar |
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| Reception |
Things that stand out for Avalon:
The rooms. Except for rooms on the bottom deck, all staterooms (Avalon likes to call them suites) are 200 square feet. The bed faces the window, and the slanted bathroom wall really does make a big difference. Vikings Veranda rooms are 205 square feet, but that includes an outside balcony. Their French balcony rooms are only 135 square feet. Most river cruise cabins are 150-165 square feet.
No announcements. Generally there are no announcements. You’re given information you need in the evening port talk and in the daily that appears on your bed while you’re dining, and Avalon assumes that you’re an adult and that you can follow directions.
QuietVox replaced with Meder Commtech devices. No more “Can you hear me now?” Turn it off and turn it back on again.” “No, move over here and turn it off and turn it back on again.” etc. Devices are kept at registration desk. Pick up a color-coded device as you leave the ship. Turn it back in when you return. Colors are specific to tour groups. Devices are preset on the correct channel. If you start getting interference during the tour, the guide can simply say, “Change to chanel 5.” You rotate the little indicator to 5, and you’re good to go. The system uses a standard headphone jack, so you can use your iPhone ear buds if you want. Also, a charger doesn’t take up one of the outlets in your room.
No sales talk! We didn’t have a lecture that all of a sudden started talking about all the other wonderful Avalon cruises we could take, and guess what, if you book now, you get an additional $100 off.
Décor. Avalon’s décor fits somewhere between the stark simplicity of a Viking longship, and the fru-fru over the top style of Uniworld.
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| Panorama Stateroom (professional photo) |
Passenger count: 128 passengers max. This is, of course true only for the 110 meter ships, but even the 135 meter ships (same length as Viking’s longships) hold 166 people vs. Viking’s 190. This translates into more public space and extras like hair salon and exercise rooms. For our trip we had only 80 passengers.
“Stepped” sun deck: The front section of the Artistry II’s sun deck is a few feet lower than the larger back section. That’s not much, but for passengers it means that some of you can stay on the sun deck even through river sections with low bridges. I may be wrong, but it’s my understanding that on Viking’s Grand European, the entire sun deck is closed for a week when traversing the Main-Danube Canal. For a ship like the Artistry II®. The front portion of the deck is open all the time.
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| Lower sun deck area |
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| Lower sun deck behind wheel house |
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| Lower sun deck in front of wheel houser |
Avalon vs. Viking vs. Vantage Comparisons
Finally, a quick comparison of the three lines based on our five cruises.
Ship: Avalon a clear winner. We liked the size, decor, staterooms, and public spaces better on Avalon.
Dining: Avalon and Viking similar and a little better than Vantage. Of course, Viking offers free beer and wine at lunch and dinner, whereas it's only free at dinner with Avalon if that's important to you. Vantage gets dinged for letting groups reserve the best tables for the entire cruise.
Excursions: Vantage may have an advantage here. For example, in Amsterdam, Avalon and Viking both offered canal cruises with a walking tour. Vantage's standard tour started with a guided tour of the Rijksmuseum with free time afterwards. We then walked across the street and boarded canal boats for the cruise and were dropped off a block from the ship. One negative for Vantage was that they often had long bus rides. For instance, the day before we did our Trier excursion, we were docked at Schweich, about 15 minutes from Trier. The next morning when we got ready to leave for the excursion, we were docked in Bernkastel, over an hour away. Why didn't we just stay in Schweich and have more time to spend in Trier? I wondered if anyone had a map.
Onboard Entertainment/Lectures: Here, I'd probably rank Viking at the top, with Avalon a close second, followed by Vantage. On our 12 day Vantage cruise, we had one good entertainment night out of four. Two were just OK, and the final one was terrible.
Passenger Demographics: Obviously this is subjective, but we give Avalon the nod. Fairly young (river cruise wise) group, mostly Americans, but a significant number of Canadians, British, and Australians. Both Viking and Vantage were almost all Americans. Also Vantage's demographic was significantly older.
Staff/Service: We've had consistently diligent, friendly, and efficient staff on all our cruises. This includes room stewards, restaurant staff, and hotel staff. I think that the key is the cruise director. We've had two great ones, two average ones, and one not-so-good director. The one bad director was very young, and one wonders if he was properly trained in a period of rapid expansion. The best was Hendrik, the director of our Avalon cruise. Number 2 was Monique, the director of our first Viking cruise. So for cruise director, it's the luck of the draw.
Staff/Service: We've had consistently diligent, friendly, and efficient staff on all our cruises. This includes room stewards, restaurant staff, and hotel staff. I think that the key is the cruise director. We've had two great ones, two average ones, and one not-so-good director. The one bad director was very young, and one wonders if he was properly trained in a period of rapid expansion. The best was Hendrik, the director of our Avalon cruise. Number 2 was Monique, the director of our first Viking cruise. So for cruise director, it's the luck of the draw.
