Why Should You Cruise on Avalon Waterways?

For empty nesters looking for a destination-immersive, relaxing and easy vacation, it is hard to beat a river cruise, regardless of brand.

Industry leader Viking earns the lion's share of business with great marketing, including specials that attract attention, and they deliver a wonderful experience.

Uniworld and Tauck take the inclusiveness of most river cruises to a more encompassing level, including pre-paid gratuities, adult beverages on demand any time and anticipatory service, and I assume Crystal Cruise Lines foray into river cruising will give them a run for their money.

What about Avalon Waterways?

As a member of the Globus Family of Brands, Avalon Waterways capitalizes on 88 years of tour experience to enhance their land experiences with certified local guides in each port.

That association with Globus allows them to offer a much wider range of seamless land experiences before and after the cruise beyond the typical 2 or 3 nights, including multi-country land tours on industry leader Globus Tours or modular independent regional stays with Monograms.

In the final analysis, however, the big appeal of Avalon are the unique Open Air Balconies found on their Suite Ships.

Words can't compete with the video above, but if you don't want to watch it, know that the freeze frame is not one of two suites on each ship.  80% of the rooms on the Suite Ships have 11 foot wide glass doors that open to become a 7 foot wide Open Air Balcony.

The room setup allows you to enjoy the features of a balcony in the comfort of your in-room seating area or while snuggling in bed.

While not all the ships in the Avalon fleet are identical to this, they have similar concepts for most of their rooms, and even the smallest river view room is 172 square feet, which makes comfortable room, and the price differential between their Suite Ships and others in the line is only about 6%, whereas some other lines may charge a 40% premium to be on their newest ships.

Everyone seems to want to be on a new ship, though there certainly is a good argument to be made for older ships that are well-maintained as a means of saving vacation dollars.

Avalon Waterways, however, is committed to never having a ship in the fleet more than eight years old, selling aging ships to other lines rather than retrofitting them to their newest concepts.  As an example of the opposite approach, higher priced Tauck will retrofit its own fleet over the next two years to include their newest design features, just so you know that I am not intending to disparage the practice.  It is simply part of Avalon's unique marketing proposition to say you will never be on an old ship if you choose Avalon.

You may not be surprised to learn that Avalon costs less than those more inclusive lines like Tauck and Uniworld, but it may surprise you that in comparison with Viking, the net pricing can be quite similar, and often less when it comes to their balcony rooms.

It should also be noted that Avalon has fewer rooms on ships of the exact same dimensions as Viking, translating not only into larger average sized staterooms but also 15% more space per guest throughout the ship.

What do you give up on Avalon? 

Like other lines, Avalon has introductory shore excursions in all ports (though Avalon claims theirs to be better in quality and selection), free wifi and wonderful meals, but you'll only get free flowing local wines and beer with dinner, whereas Viking includes them with lunch, too.

And while some lines like Uniworld and AMA Waterways have bicycles on board for the use of guests, Avalon does not, although they do offer optional bicycling tours.

Bottom line, if you've enjoyed ocean cruising with lines like Celebrity, Princess, Crystal, Oceania, Azamara and Regent Seven Seas and want an immersive, port-intensive vacation, you'll love river cruising in general and Avalon Waterways in particular.