Avalon Poetry II

Avalon Poetry II is a beautiful new ship that was just recently launched.  Our room on the Penthouse deck, P311, was spacious & modern.  I loved our panorama suite.  Avalon asks the question “Is it a stateroom that feels like a balcony or a balcony that feels like a stateroom?”  They call it an open air balcony and it was wonderful!  We could just open up the floor to ceiling sliding windows and enjoy the gorgeous scenery from our stateroom sitting area.  The bathroom was nicely designed and roomy too, marble with L’Occitane toiletries.

Dining on Poetry II:  We went to the full buffet breakfast each day which was from 7 to 9 am.  There was an early riser breakfast in the lounge from 6 to 7 am and a late riser breakfast in the lounge from 9 to 10 am, with limited options.

Lunch was generally from 12 to 1, but varied according to port stops.  Lunch was also a buffet in the dining room or you could choose the “light lunch” in the lounge, also a limited option buffet. 

Dinner was served from 7 to 9 pm in the dining room and you ordered from a menu, with several choices of starters, entrees, and desserts.    Our particular sailing was a wine cruise, so we enjoyed a special wine pairing dinner one evening which was excellent. 

The wine flowed at dinner time… our glasses were never empty.  One evening we had signed up for the special Bistro Dinner, which was limited to only 20 people.  This was served in the lounge at tables for four.  It was a tapas style menu and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Nice alternative to the dining room!  The wine pairing dinner was excellent.  Presentation and service were superb.  We never went hungry or thirsty!

Entertainment:  There's not an abundance of entertainment onboard the ship.  Stefan provided the nightly entertainment in the lounge, and seemed to get a little livelier as the cruise progressed.  Humm… I think that we may have even contributed to that as we brought Elliott, our purple monkey mascot to enjoy some dancing and singing!  We enjoyed local entertainment a few evenings.

Cruise Director and Crew:  Excellent in all regards.  We had superb service.  Loved Jean-Loup, our cruise director!  All of the crew was superior… way to go Avalon!

Included Excursions:  We enjoyed those that we took; but after a couple of days of those, we made the decision to do it ourselves and wander independently so that we could have a chance to pick up a souvenir or perhaps stop at a café for local cuisine.  The local tour guides were excellent. Optional Excursions:  We only took one & the tour guide was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed that.