This cruise had a great variety of large cities and small towns and 4 countries to visit. The High speed train ride to Paris was what clinched it for me. The cruise went like clockwork. Avalon took care of everything. Our cruise director Mark was superb. He was extremely thorough, smart, and had great sense of humor. He is also fluent in 6 different languages.

The crew was mostly young. They all worked very hard and we enjoyed getting to know them a little bit. The ship was "just right" in size and scale. We had 85 passengers and 40 crew. This created a very intimate and comfortable environment. The total opposite of the monster cruise ships with 3,000+ passengers on board. The excursions were well thought out and went like clockwork. We would highly recommend Avalon to anyone that asks me for a cruise line. A river cruise is definitely the way to see Europe.