This post is mainly directed to people who are thinking of trying a river cruise and want some idea of what to expect. That's why I left it out of the numbered series on my travels.
A few days ago, I completed my second European river cruise, and it was with a different company from the first one, last year. Since these two companies are often mentioned in the same breath as being of comparable quality and service, a comparison of the two is appropriate. The two lines are Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways.
Note: This is only my own personal experience. Other people would see things from other perspectives, and that's okay too.
First of all, just to mention a few things where there is no substantial difference.
The ships are of virtually identical size, since the size is dictated by the size of the locks and bridges on the rivers in Europe.
Itineraries are comparable, since all cruise companies tend to take in the same destinations, much like what happens in ocean cruising.
Both lines have English as the working language of the cruise, including all crew members' interactions with passengers, and all tour guides on shore.
Both lines give you a room, all meals, free walking tours at every stop, and free wine or beer at lunch and dinner. Other services such as drinks-any-other-time or laundry cost extra.
In order to maximize port time, much of the sailing takes place at night. But that's okay because there's no rocking and rolling motion, and the beds were equally comfortable on both companies.
All lines have to moor side by side with other ships from time to time, so passengers may have to walk through another ship to reach the shore or have passengers from another line walking through their ship.
Most important of all, all river cruise lines are at the mercy of the weather, since either too much or too little water in the river can stop the cruise dead in its tracks.
The ships are of virtually identical size, since the size is dictated by the size of the locks and bridges on the rivers in Europe.
Itineraries are comparable, since all cruise companies tend to take in the same destinations, much like what happens in ocean cruising.
Both lines have English as the working language of the cruise, including all crew members' interactions with passengers, and all tour guides on shore.
Both lines give you a room, all meals, free walking tours at every stop, and free wine or beer at lunch and dinner. Other services such as drinks-any-other-time or laundry cost extra.
In order to maximize port time, much of the sailing takes place at night. But that's okay because there's no rocking and rolling motion, and the beds were equally comfortable on both companies.
All lines have to moor side by side with other ships from time to time, so passengers may have to walk through another ship to reach the shore or have passengers from another line walking through their ship.
Most important of all, all river cruise lines are at the mercy of the weather, since either too much or too little water in the river can stop the cruise dead in its tracks.
Now, the comparisons:
[1] The Cabin
In both cases, I had a cabin on the middle deck, with cabins above and below me. Avalon's cabin is called a "Panorama Suite", and has a total area of 200 square feet. AmaWaterways' cabin sounds marginally bigger at 210 square feet. But see the diagrams and photos below.
First, the Avalon cabin.
Avalon Waterways illustrations.
And now the AmaWaterways version.
AmaWaterways illustrations.
Simple truth: the lovely little balcony is a huge thief of space. It leaves you with barely any room to get out of the double bed without either hitting the wall or the window. If it's two single beds, the space between them is equally narrow. The balcony sounds like a wonderful idea, but it's so tiny that you can't do anything except squeeze around the furniture just to get out the door. There's certainly no room to rearrange the balcony furniture. And the tiny "Juliet balcony," on the right side of the photo, isn't much good for anything either -- just enough space for one person to stand by the window.
The Avalon version does away with the balcony, and with another tweak to the basic design places the bed(s) facing the window at a slight angle -- and 2/3 of the entire window can be converted into a "balcony" by sliding back the glass doors. Now, there's more room to get out of bed on either side, and the shower in the bathroom is just that little bit wider right where it needs to be -- close to the shower head. As well, Avalon is able to have more storage space in drawers and closets, and still leave room to move around. Both cabins are tight, but Avalon didn't leave me so conscious of lack-of-space. And in each case I had the room to myself.
Winner: Avalon Waterways, because of ingenious and effective use of the limited space.
[2] Housekeeping Service
Nothing to choose between the two companies here. Both companies provide thorough, twice-daily housekeeping with waste baskets emptied, beds made or turned down, cleaning service, and replenishing of towels (as requested) and other supplies.
Winner: Tie.
[3] Menus
Both companies provide comparable buffets at breakfast Avalon's lunch buffet was more diverse than on AmaWaterways. Both companies presented four-course dinner menus, with a single set time for dinner each night (that time could vary, depending on other aspects of the ship's operations). Food at all meals was comparable for quality, as was the selection of wines. I'm not a beer drinker, but whether it was wine or beer there was one choice per day. You got either the red wine, the white wine, or the beer of the day. The biggest difference was that Avalon used many more regional dishes and regional wines/beers whereas AmaWaterways stuck more to fine dishes and wines/beers, often regardless of the ship's geographic location each day. Personal preference will dictate your choice here.
A further note: AmaWaterways offers a small "Chef's Table" restaurant with a seven course tasting menu partnered with appropriate wines -- reservations required, but no extra charge. I didn't take it in. Friends who did were impressed with the food quality, preparation and presentation. However, the advertising made it sound like paired wines would be served with each course, but in practice they told me that the same red and white were used throughout -- although they were more upscale wines than the ones served in the main dining room. I gather that the Chef's Table serves the same menu each night, so you would likely only do this once in a week-long trip. This restaurant doesn't enter into my comparison, since I didn't try it myself.
Winner: Tie.
[4] Dining Room Service
Avalon's service was outstanding at every point, and the servers made a point of chatting up the customers at free moments. Partly this was possible because the ship was not completely filled. No hassles, no glitches, and a good feeling of being welcome guests.
AmaWaterways was a huge disappointment by comparison. Every day, at either lunch or dinner (or both), something went wrong for me or for one or more of the other people with whom I was sitting. This included, but wasn't limited to, wrong dishes delivered, dishes with missing ingredients, a couple of servers whose English was so limited that they could barely understand questions asked of them, servers who poured coffee or wine for half the table, and then vanished, leaving the other half hanging, and servers who were too busy chatting with their colleagues to pay attention to their clients. Let's face it: when a cruise line that leans so heavily on its reputation as a member of the gourmet network, "La chaine des rotisseurs," has poorer service than my local roadhouse chain restaurant at home, something's seriously wrong.
AmaWaterways was a huge disappointment by comparison. Every day, at either lunch or dinner (or both), something went wrong for me or for one or more of the other people with whom I was sitting. This included, but wasn't limited to, wrong dishes delivered, dishes with missing ingredients, a couple of servers whose English was so limited that they could barely understand questions asked of them, servers who poured coffee or wine for half the table, and then vanished, leaving the other half hanging, and servers who were too busy chatting with their colleagues to pay attention to their clients. Let's face it: when a cruise line that leans so heavily on its reputation as a member of the gourmet network, "La chaine des rotisseurs," has poorer service than my local roadhouse chain restaurant at home, something's seriously wrong.
Winner: Avalon Waterways. No contest.
[5] Cruise Directors
On a river cruise, the cruise director (a combination administrator and concierge) can make or break the entire experience. Both cruise directors were thorough, attentive, approachable, and helpful -- in short, consummate professionals. No complaints from me on this critical point.
Winner: Tie
[6] Attention to Details
In addition to the daily excursion on foot, Avalon provided some extra excursions to more distant destinations which could be taken for an added fee. AmaWaterways offered an assortment of daily free excursions, but always relatively close to the ship. One day we had a bus ride of about an hour to our destination. Some of Avalon's off-ship bus tours (the extra-cost ones) took a full day, and travelled so far that the bus returned to the ship at a different port from the one where it departed.
Both lines had a nice selection of toiletries, but Avalon surprised me by putting out two complete sets of toiletries in two different scents. It seemed like an excessive number of little plastic bottles to be slinging around. Really, it's high time both lines moved to the refillable wall-mounted squeeze bottles of soap, shampoo, body wash, etc., which are so common in Europe's hotels.
AmaWaterways had the all-day coffee machine in an easily-accessed location right off the main lobby. Avalon's was all the way at the back of deck 3, and involved a lengthy walk for anyone living on deck 1 or 2.
Both lines provided a narrated commentary during the period of sailing through the Rhine River gorge between Koblenz and Rudesheim. AmaWaterways' commentary was somewhat more thorough.
Winner: variable, but AmaWaterways wins for most of these items.
[7] Troubleshooting
This isn't exactly a comparison, since our AmaWaterways cruise ran right to schedule for the most part. The Avalon cruise last year was a whole other story, because of the very low water levels. At one point it looked like we might have to finish the tour by bus -- and, at that point, Avalon promised us a full refund for every night we'd paid for but had to spend off the ship, while still taking us by road to all the scheduled stops and putting us up each night in 5-star or better hotels, with all meals and drinks included, as on the ship. We did in fact spend one night off the ship, in a good but slightly eccentric hotel, and the refund was on my credit card account less than 24 hours after we got back aboard. Impressive. I would certainly hope for comparable attention if I were on an AmaWaterways cruise under similar adverse conditions.
[8] Booking Your Cruise
For internet-savvy travellers who feel comfortable doing it (me, for instance), Avalon Waterways offers online booking and cabin selection. AmaWaterways still requires you to phone, or go through a travel agent.
Avalon also allows you to pre-pay your gratuities on line, and I did. On AmaWaterways, there is no such option (although our gratuities were pre-paid for us by the Canadian travel agency which arranged the entire tour and chartered the ship).
Avalon also allows you to pre-pay your gratuities on line, and I did. On AmaWaterways, there is no such option (although our gratuities were pre-paid for us by the Canadian travel agency which arranged the entire tour and chartered the ship).
Winner: Avalon Waterways. AmaWaterways needs to get with the programme.
[9] Prices
The two companies have comparable prices for most cruises. For me, travelling alone, the big question is the accursed "single supplement." Avalon offers "no single supplement" on many sailings, for a few cabins on each such trip. That policy saved me over $8,000 dollars on the two-week cruise I took with them last year. AmaWaterways offers only "reduced single supplement," again only on selected trips -- and it didn't apply to the chartered cruise which I was on this year.
Winner: Avalon Waterways, as long as they keep offering "no single supplement."
Overall: Avalon Waterways, because of the room layout, the dining room service, the online booking, and especially because of "no single supplement."
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