AMAPrima Danube Review - Cruise and Port Cities

A few days late but nevertheless we are on the Prima and having a wonderful time. We did our own pre cruise itinerary but chose to pay extra and use the AMA bus to transport us to Vilshofen via Regensburg. We left Prague at 8:00 and arrived at the ship around 3:30.

We were all anxious to get on board, unpack and tour the ship. We were ushered into the lounge where we waited for them to call out for the second deck passengers to go to the reception desk. It did not take long for us to go to our room. We were very surprised to see that the television is also a computer with a keyboard. The French balcony doors slide all the way to the right so you can sit and not have any glass doors in your view. They are on a track that covers the white panel outside your cabin. A few passengers who did opt for the full balcony have been disappointed that ships dock next to them and they can't enjoy their balcony. The shower is small and is triangular in shape as it is in a corner of your small but efficient bathroom. We each have an end table by our side of the bed with 2 small drawers. The closet has three doors with hanging racks for clothes The other door has shelves for more clothing. There is a cabinet above the TV that has a safe. Also small refrigerator below TV.

The weather has been hot and humid. About 85 degrees and that has zapped some of our energy. Some of our guides have been great, others not so much. The first day in Passau my husband did the hike up the hill and apparently the guide moved too fast as a number of people wanted to take photos and she didn't allow time for that. They ended up leaving the group. He did not feel that it was too strenuous. I did the walking tour and it was okay. Our guide did have to stop and ask directions though.

More to come later

The guide had to stop and ask directions? Wow. That's interesting!

Hope the weather cooperates and cools down for you! Looking forward to more posts.

Our stop in Regensburg was very nice. The only part that some of us didn't care for was that our local guides did not have the voice boxes and with garbage trucks and other street noise it was difficult at times to hear.

I love the rooftop at the front of the ship as it has unique seating arrangements. It is rattan sectional furniture set in a large U shape figure with lots of pillows. Inside each U are 2 square shaped coffee tables. There are also 4 person regular tables with rattan chairs. The lounge is very nicely appointed. There is a small game room to the left of the lounge with a fireplace glowing but no heat thank goodness. The two tables in there are too low to play games on. Also they do not have cards for your use since they sell cards but there is a nice assortment of games and books in the mini library.

They have kept us on the go with their morning, afternoon and sometimes evening activities. Since the towns are not too far away but most of the cruising is during the night and many people are disappointed with that; they feel they are missing the actual river cruising portion of the trip. That is more a problem with the itinerary than anything else. In fact today someone mentioned that we need a Sea Day.

There is a pool/ whirlpool with a bar and stools but no bartender assigned there. The pool is about 96 degrees and it is regulated remotely do it can't be cooled down. Nevertheless it felt good to me particularly when I got out.

I mentioned before about the small triangular shower and one person at lunch said he was unable to fit into it. There is a marble like flooring in the bathroom and shower and to me it is a little slippery do I put a towel on it before I get it. In the shower is an adjustable handheld sprayer and also a rain head.

We are traveling with friends and for our excursions they do the Gentle Walkers. However you still need to talk to the Cruise Director about how much walking and what type is ahead of you. The trip to Salzburg for the gentle walkers was especially very good as the van took them all over. The Melk Abbey would not have been good for these walkers as there was much walking to do. Again do your homework and talk with the cruise director.

More to come

Thanks for the review, and for taking the time to post while on board. But auto-correct is killing you! Sometimes it's even hard to figure out what you meant. If you let me know, I can make corrections.

Edit: with OP's permission I fixed the rogue spell-check items. But I had to guess on that "misled prayer" -- I meditated on it and hope that I was led to the correct answer!

Thanks for taking us along with you. We did this itinerary last Nov.with AMA so I'm enjoying your perspective We were on the Sonata and the shower wasn't in the corner and was quite large. We were in a French balcony/balcony so don't know it that makes a difference or just that Sonata is a bit newer than Prima.

Did you stop for lunch at the Sausage Kitchen in Regensburg? We thought the sandwiches were sooooo good.....or maybe we were just really hungry!

Looking forward to more posts and wishing you a wonderful time.

Thanks for the review, and for taking the time to post while on board. But auto-correct is killing you! Sometimes it's even hard to figure out what you meant. If you let me know, I can make corrections.

It might not be auto-correct. Maybe the shower does have misled prayer. We had some older nuns at school who did that. ;)

We were on the Prima in May 2014 on the reverse of this trip (Budapest to Prague). We had a cabin with double balcony. Not sure if this made a difference, but we were quite impressed with the size of the shower--not a small space at all. This was our first river cruise and we loved it! Have already signed up for 2 more. Have fun!!

I looked at the deck plans. Categories C-E have a triangular bathroom and shower. Categories AA-BB have a larger rectangular bathroom and shower. AA+ has a large square bathroom with a tub-size shower, and the Suites have a bathtub plus a good-size shower. I can see how the smallest shower would be a problem for many people, but the others look quite reasonable.

That explains it; we were in a BB cabin and everything about it, including bath, seemed much more spacious than we expected.

We stopped at Regensburg, Germany on our way from Prague to Vilshofen for our AMA Waterways Danube river cruise. Here is our report: https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/regensburg-germany-the-beginning-of-our-ama-cruise-down-the-danube/

I don't know how to add pictures here of our stateroom, a stateroom with French balcony and regular balcony and Aquarium Class stateroom so I am adding a link to my blog that has these pictures.If you ahve any questions, please ask.

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/vilshofen-germany-and-the-ama-prima/

We're doing the Disney Danube trip, on an AMA ship, next year. It's the first time they've done it, so any info on the AMA ships is appreciated. The ship looks beautiful. We also reserved the french balcony room. I figured the money saved was worth it. ;)

We're doing the Disney Danube trip, on an AMA ship, next year. It's the first time they've done it, so any info on the AMA ships is appreciated. The ship looks beautiful. We also reserved the french balcony room. I figured the money saved was worth it. ;)

Your ship hasn't been built yet, but it is very similar to the last five AMA ships built (AmaCerto, AmaPrima, AmaReina, AmaSonata and AmaSerena) -- the major changes are that the suites are larger to accommodate a sofa bed and hold a family of 4 and six pairs of cabins can now be configured as connecting. The food and service will still be all AMA (Disney staff organize the activities) -- so any reports on Cruise Critic about AMA would give you some insight.

Just two hours from Vilshofen, we docked at the port city of Passau. Read about my city tour and my husband's active walkers hike up the hill in Passau:

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/cruising-down-the-danube-to-passau-germany/

If you are enjoying reading about our cruise, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog.

Valley Girl: Please post updates to this thread instead of starting a new thread for each post. Thanks!

PS -- I'm enjoying your blog. Thanks for letting us sail along with you (virtually)!

I have been asked by Host Jazz to put all of my reports in this thread so that there will not be separate entries for each port of call. I need to go by and respect the rules of this board.

Wondering if you would be bored on a river cruise? Read about our experience on our recent cruise on AMA Prima from Prague to Budapest:

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/boredom-while-river-cruising-not-in-the-least-info-about-future-cruise/

This is my blog post on visiting Linz, Austria home of the Linzertorte. Coming up tomorrow, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic - one of the options for afternoon tours while in Linz.

Here is the blog post: https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/linz-austria-ama-waterways-cruise/

If you are enjoying the post, please consider leaving a comment on my blog and/or becoming a "Follower" and having the posts delivered to your email box every time a post is published.

Jane

New blog post detailing our side excursion to another UNESCO World Heritage Site - Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic:

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/cesky-krumlov-czech-republic/

New blog post detailing our side excursion to another UNESCO World Heritage Site - Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic:

 

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/cesky-krumlov-czech-republic/

Visited Cesky-Krumlov in 1998 and can't wait to visit again on our newly planned river cruise in Sept of 2016.

Looking for all kinds of info and hints.

New blog post about Melk and its Abbey with pictures included:

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/melk-austria-and-the-melk-abbey/

Enjoy,

Jane

New post about cruising through the Wachau Valley. Tomorrow's post will be about biking through the Valley as my husband did

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/cruising-through-the-wachau-valley-austria-with-amawaterways/

Enjoy

Jane

My hubby writes about his experience on the offered bicycle tour of the Wachau Valley from Melk to Krems. He did this while I cruised and had an ice cream social which I wrote about yesterday. Here is his post:

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/biking-through-the-wachau-valley-from-melk-to-krems-while-on-a-river-cruise/

If you are enjoying these posts, please consider leaving a comment on this thread or on the blog post Also, I am about 3 people away from reaching 500 subscribers to my post - would love to have you become the 500th!

Jane

Loving your blog, thanks for taking the time!

Vienna, Austria

My newest blog entry and the one that I struggled the most to write. I wanted to do more than I did but the heat really affected me. I did not go to the Palace in the afternoon nor did I do the concert at night. In retrospect, I should have done the concert even though I am not a classical music fan. I did need the afternoon "off" because I had been dragging around so much from the heat.

https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/vienna-austria/

Jane