Canals, Vineyards & Paris—Northbound 8/30-9/8

Pre-Cruise Arrangements
For this trip we worked through a travel agent who arranged things for all four of us traveling—two from Nashville and two from Dallas. Nan Wesselink of Avoya Travel made our arrangements and provided support and advice when we needed it. The cruise is our 5th (following 3 Viking trips and 1 Vantage cruise), and the first for Larry and Ann (Vicki's brother and sister-in-law). The Avalon web site was particularly helpful in that it showed actual flight options for the trip rather than just stating a single price with no information on airlines or connections. We made arrangements in May for a cruise beginning on August 30, and there were plenty of options for air travel with the different pricing shown on the Avalon web site. 

So when we were ready to book with Avalon, we’d already picked out flights for our travel agent to select for us. We were able to route through DFW so that we could meet up with our Texas siblings there and fly to Paris together. Later our agent was able to find us an earlier flight from our US return connecting airport (Philadelphia) to Nashville, saving us from 3-4 hours of sitting in the airport. 

Another nice feature of the Avalon web site is the easy ability to see how crowded the ship will be. One can easily go through the process to book the cruise on line after you’re already booked and see deck plans showing unreserved cabins. So I could check every few days and see how many cabins were still open (11 out of 64 two weeks out). The “My eMaterials” section of the MyAvalon site also has downloadable travel guides for the countries you’ll be visiting and the rivers you’ll be sailing. The “My Excursions” page describes optional excursions and allows one to prebook them, although one can also book after embarking on the ship. 

Avalon ticketed our flights shortly after we booked them so we were able to go online and upgrade seats with the airline (American). 

Our cruise e-materials were available for download between 5 and 6 weeks before departure, and the actual materials arrived via FedEx a few days later. 

Cruise Materials
Our FedEx package contained: 

• Two cloth/plastic packets with magnetic closures to hold materials
• Booklets describing the cruise for each of us (same as the downloads)
• Two luggage tags 
• Four yellow paper luggage tags to be used when luggage is transported from Paris to the ship
• Two “Hints for Cruise Passengers” booklets 

 I was a little surprised that we didn’t get name tags. Although they tend not to get used by most people, they’re a nice option—especially for absent minded folks like me who can’t remember the names of the people we ate dinner with when they show up the next morning for breakfast. As Avalon cruisers will know, the luggage tags are a big metal piece with an Avalon “A” stamped into it, along with a plastic piece to write your name on. I prefer the simpler design where I can just stick a business card in, but to each his own.