Impression River Cruises Reviews

Great service. All done quickly & efficiently. Great cruise. Great price

Overall a great trip since my wife and I did a lot of things on our own with the Captain's blessing like riding bikes along the Danube and meeting the boat at the next port. If you are looking for an active trip with lots to do, Avalon's Active Discovery cruise would be for you.

Our Cruise Director Yony was fabulous our waiter/waitress

Everything was great with the exception of the last part of the trip, we were supposed to be staying at the intercontinental hotel in Prague and to our surprise we were at the Hilton and we had extended our time in Prague and had to switch hotels. Other than that it was a great trip! 

Absolutely a wonderful trip! The Capitals of Europe River Cruise was excellent, and we added Berlin to our experience. I would recommend Avalon Waterways as the "only" way to travel down the Danube. We are looking forward to another River Cruise in the future!

Had a wonderful time. Everything was to our expectations and more. Will do it again.

These Avalon guys are great! Food, accommodations, people - hard to find fault with anything. We saved quite a bit by booking an early season cruise and could see why. The weather was okay, but not great, and the flowers in The Netherlands were a little short of their peak.

Everything was well done - including late breakfast!

Avalon provides great service, excellent meals and a beautiful ship to travel on.

Highly recommend Avalon River Cruises. Great value for your money.

Nina was just terrific, very informed about traveling with tips to help novice travelers. Any questions we had she answered promptly, found all the discounts she could which made the tip more affordable for us. I would highly recommend her as we are going to use her to book again for our next adventure.

Best experience ever! From booking to traveling, just what was expected.

all was great

The hotel in Prague was not near the city center, requiring a subway ride to get to the historic area. The hotel was very nice, but staying in the historic area has benefits. Also the choice of restaurants at the hotel we stayed at were limited.

Avalon had all details worked out, never felt confused or unsure of the daily activities. Worry free vacation

The cruise director was was excellent. The entire staff on the Avalon Impression was amazing!

Sailing with Avalon was fantastic. The ship was really nice - like new even thou it was 4 years old, The food and drinks provided were gourmet cuisine. The tour director Monica was wonderful- extremely knowledgeable and helpful. The crew was great - so friendly and bent over backwards to serve us with a smile. Avalon did a great job getting people to feel comfortable and interact with each other. We all felt like good friends at the end of the trip. The included tours were excellent - led by knowledgeable persons native to the countries who shared much local history. Since the Danube was low we were unable to start our cruise in Nuremburg as planned, but Avalon took us all at no additional cost to a great classical concert in Vienna which was an optional excursion previously. The optional excursions were also excellent - a good variety led by knowledgeable locals who really wanted to share with us everything they could to help us understand the history as well as the present day political and economic situations in these various countries. I admit the great weather may have helped our overall great experience, but I cannot say enough good things about traveling with Avalon. I would definitely recommend them to friends and would love to travel with them again soon.

Staff on the boat were great ! We had a serious problem with luggage on the trip. No luggage for 4 days. The staff helped in any way they could. Because of Easter we were unable to shop for anything and they washed clothes for free and gave us some badly needed toilet articles.

Avalon continues to provide a superior class service for the price. Our river cruise boat had a large cabin with ample space, and a bathroom big enough that two people could use it at the same time when getting ready. The personal service by not only the cruise director, but all the staff on board, was excellent. I would not hesitate to use Avalon in the future.

This was my fourth river cruise with Avalon, and I love everything about them! The ships, the rooms, the staff, the food - all excellent. The staterooms have every imaginable convenience. The variety and quality of the meals are top notch. The staff was incredibly helpful and cheerful, and they are welcoming to solo travelers, like myself. I would happily book a fifth European cruise with them, until I run out of rivers!

We were very pleased with everything. Only one area that was somewhat disappointing. Our train ride for our extended days in Paris. There were four couples, eight people. We all had first class tickets and two couples, four people were in one car and were offered two meals; breakfast, lunch and drinks. Two couples, four people (us in our car) were not offered any food. So upon arrival two couples were able to start touring immediately. We had to find something to eat first at our own expense.

Due to low water, on the Danube, our itinererary needed to be modified. Avalon did a good job, considering the condotions. They could/should have given us more advance notice. We received an e-mail when were enroute to Budapest.

Unfortunately, the water level on the Danube river, was too low for safe passage for many of the days. We were therefore, bused for long trips and had additional hotel stays instead of enjoying the river. We were told by the cruise director that we should anticipate a small reimbursement for one lost sea day. This itinerary change also altered some of the days/itineraries in port. Feel like we paid alot of money for a bus trip, not a river boat vacation. Cruise director often provided confusing information to passengers and chaotic plans.

Food was poor quality and taste and service at dinner slow as they seemed to be understaffed. Food never very hot as it arrived at table. Menus were not well planned . Food bland. There was a large group of Chinese who took over the dining room and lounges and did not speakers English or did not try to interact. This was very awkward and uncomfortable.

Due to the low water levels of the Danube River, we lost two days on the ship and had to take long bus rides to see the sites we were scheduled to visit. Avalon said that we will receive a 50% refund for the days we were not on the ship, we feel we should have been reimbursed in full for those days. The tours were great as were the tour guides. Our only complaint was the quality of the food. We thought that Avalon would have better food. The food was really inferior to other cruise lines. The food was utterly unremarkable both in taste and presentation. We would not cruise Avalon again because of the quality of the food which is important to us.

Room: There was a terrible smell that was reported early in the trip. It wasn't until Sunday,near the end of the trip that a remedy was offered. Not enough Dutch/Belgium foods on the menu, not even herring or waffles.