ROUEN, France — Midway through last week's christening cruise for the 128-passenger Tapestry II, Avalon Waterways made an adjustment to the bed configuration in my stateroom that had me getting a bit confrontational with my housekeeper.
Beds on the company's Suite Ship class of river cruise vessels face outward toward the floor-to-ceiling, panoramic windows, an arrangement unique to Avalon ships. To illustrate why, Avalon had the housekeeping staff temporarily move the beds to face the wall, something my unassuming housekeeper tried to do while I was in the room working. Much to his misfortune, I was not aware of the marketing team's experiment.
I asked in what I thought was a polite tone (though, looking back, it might have come off as a bit of an indictment) what he was doing and why. He handed me a postcard that explained.
"This seems silly, right?" the postcard read. "The bed facing the never-changing wall instead of a window with ever-changing views?"
I had played right into the experiment. I was upset about the bed change, and clearly it did seem a bit silly to me (as my housekeeper can attest). The bed facing outward is actually a rather agreeable setup; I find it surprising other river cruise operators haven't done the same.
While the outward-facing bed is by no means a new feature on Avalon vessels, there were several newer tweaks and adjustments made on the Tapestry II, the company's first Suite Ship class of vessels to sail on France's Seine River.
The 361-foot vessel is among a handful of Avalon Suite Ships that have been built slightly shorter in length than their larger, 443-foot, 166-passenger Suite Ship counterparts. They were shortened in order to better navigate certain waterways, such as the Seine, and to have better access to some docking locations, according to Avalon's managing director, Patrick Clark.
But despite being technically smaller in size than some of the vessels in the Avalon fleet, the Tapestry II does not feel it.
The Tapestry II's lobby.
The main lobby, for example, has been opened up to enable more natural luminance through the skylight, and the lounge area has been rearranged to make the social hub of the river cruise ship feel simultaneously larger and more intimate, with partitioned sofas and seating areas offering a subtle sense of privacy.
Like the other Suite Ships, the Tapestry II's lower-deck staterooms are 172 square feet each, and the staterooms on the second and third decks are 200 square feet each and echo the Suite Ships' defining feature: a floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall sliding glass door that can be opened to create a French balcony. There are also two 300-square-foot suites onboard. All the stateroom bathrooms are finished in marble.
Avalon prides itself on building choice and flexibility into its product. The company has for several years been building up its onboard and off-ship options, ranging from a choice of pillows on the bed to a choice of breakfast in bed or a full-service breakfast in the restaurant.
Along those lines, at the start of last week's christening cruise, Avalon tested another possible choice that it might soon be offering guests in Paris: the option to take a cooking class at the world-famous Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.
The Tapestry II will sail eight-day itineraries along the Seine from Paris to Normandy and can also be combined with Avalon's south-of-France sailings.