Back from Europe, Wallace Immen had a good time on  the new Avalon Vista. He’s posted several stories about the new vessel on his blog, a sister site hosted on Avid Cruiser.

Avalon Waterways calls its new river ships “panorama class,” and from the moment I stepped aboard the latest, Avalon Vista, I could see why. You’re on the water and you want to see the view, so why use walls when you can use windows? Avalon’s solution for opening a bigger panorama  is to divide the floor-to-ceiling windows into panels that slide on a track into the corner of the room, creating a full height opening. It’s a neat trick that makes the suite seem almost like a big open verandah. The accommodations are almost 30 percent larger than the average room size on river cruises, which has led Avalon to call Vista and her sisters, Avalon Visonary and Avalon Panorama its “suite ships.”