A ship scheduled for refit during the year you travel
The Avalon Expression is the third hull of the 135-metre series, delivered in
2013 by Den Breejen. Eighty-three staterooms, one hundred and sixty-six
travellers, eleven metres forty-five wide. The line names her rivers: the
Danube, the Main, the Rhine and the waterways of Holland.
One thing to read before picking a date. The fleet refurbishment programme,
spread over three years, lists this hull for 2026. Depending on the month of
your sailing you will therefore travel on a ship freshly redone or on one still
waiting its turn. The difference covers interiors, the fitness room, a second
satellite antenna and the bicycle fleet. It does not touch the hull, the
staterooms or safety.
A widely spread calendar
This ship alone covers almost the whole of the line's central European river
geography: Amsterdam to Budapest, Budapest to Prague and Munich, Holland and
Belgium in a loop, and the Christmas markets between Nuremberg, Prague and
Vienna. That means long repositioning transits between seasons, partly at night
and without port calls.
The Amsterdam-Budapest routes cross the Main-Danube canal and more than sixty
locks. A traveller who sleeps badly with noise should choose a stateroom well
away from the engine room and accept that the glass stays shut inside the
chambers.
The other ships in the fleet
The Avalon Vista covers the same basins and has already been refitted. The Avalon Illumination runs down
to the Romanian lower Danube. The Avalon Visionary is a shorter hull, also scheduled for refit
in 2026. The Avalon Impression belongs to the same 135-metre series.
The fare, line by line
Included: the stateroom, every meal aboard, wine and beer at lunch and
dinner, sparkling wine in the morning, the lounge's all-day self-service, a
daily happy hour, guided excursions in each port, and use of the bicycles on
the European ships.
Not included: air travel, gratuities, optional excursions and the spa. On
gratuities, be careful. The contract leaves them to your discretion.
Promotional offers cover them on chosen departures, never across a whole
season: an agency page that presents them as a standing feature of the line is
wrong, and you would find out when the invoice arrives.
Included excursions come at three effort levels. Active means walking a long
time, often uphill and on cobbles. Classic exists for good reasons and nobody
will judge you for taking it. You choose the evening before, port by port,
which leaves time to read the weather and your own legs.
Satellite Wi-Fi is provided in Europe with no contractual service
commitment. The link drops under bridges, inside locks and in closed
valleys.
What the glass wall does, and what it does not
Across two full decks, the stateroom opens through a full-height glass panel
more than three metres wide that slides back about two. A second pane rises from
the floor as a guardrail. The bed looks at the river. The line calls this an
open-air balcony; a specialist in the trade describes it more accurately as a
French balcony at large scale, and that description is the right one.
In practice you gain air, sound and light across the full width of the room,
and a view from the bed that few competitors offer. You lose private outdoor
space. To take a coffee outside you climb to the sun deck, which is shared. A
traveller attached to a personal patch of terrace should know that before
booking, not after.
The lower-deck stateroom is a different category rather than a smaller
version of the same thing: two fixed windows high on the wall, which do not
open. It costs less for exactly that reason.
The rest of life aboard is quickly told. Shower only, no bathtub. European
outlets, so bring an adapter. A lift serves the cabin decks and the public
rooms, never the sun deck, which is reached by stairs.
Leaving from Quebec
This trip really starts at the airport, and the flight is not part of the
cruise fare. Depending on the embarkation city and the season, the trip from
Montreal is either direct or routed through one European connection.
One simple rule, learned the hard way: arrive at least a day before
embarkation. Jet lag does not clear in a few hours, and a late bag needs a day
to catch up with you. On the way home, keep the day free.
We put the flight, the cruise, the hotel nights, the transfers and the
insurance into one file, with the protection of Quebec's compensation fund for
travel agency customers. Tell us about the trip before you pick the date.
