Avalon Waterways has confirmed it will add a 14th Suite Ship to its European fleet in 2020, called Avalon View. The announcement comes ahead of the delivery of Avalon Envision in April this year.
“This year, for the first time, there’s only one point of view on an Avalon Waterways river cruise: the suite view,” said Pam Hoffee, Managing Director of Avalon Waterways. “Avalon’s entire fleet of ships, worldwide, is comprised of new Suite Ships giving our travellers exclusive access to the industry’s only open-air balconies, and beds facing the incredible views for which river cruising is famous.”
Avalon’s Suite Ships were launched in 2011 with the Avalon Panorama and have garnered industry awards including the “Best Cabins” in river cruising from Cruise Critic for four years in a row. They have also won over river cruisers across the globe. Avalon View will be the company’s 17th Suite Ship worldwide.
According to a survey of nearly 700 past Avalon cruisers:
- 95% prefer Avalon’s Panorama Suites to other cruise line cabins and would choose Avalon Waterways again, based on their Panorama Suite experience.
- 95% also would choose Avalon’s open-air balconies over traditional French balconies.
- 92% of travellers said beds facing the views are “important” or “extremely important” when booking a river cruise.
Survey respondents said their favourite feature of Avalon’s Panorama Suites are open-air balconies which feature wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows that offer the widest-opening windows on two full decks (they open 2.1 metres wide in Europe; 3.3 metres wide in SE Asia) . These invite the outside in, without compromising room space. Avalon’s Panorama Suites also feature large marble bathrooms and beds facing the views.
Both the Avalon Envision (new for 2019) and Avalon View (new for 2020) are 135 metres long, with two Royal Suites (91.4 square metres) and 65 Panorama Suites (61 square metres) on two full decks, as well as 16 51.8-square-metre staterooms. The Avalon Envision will sail on the Danube River, while the Avalon View will ply the Rhine River.