RobInMN

Doh! Forgot that one!

Think of a JS as an Extra Large Balcony room with a tub and on older ships, like Brilliance, a walk-in closet, and you get 1 extra C&A point per night. (2 instead of 1).

We did the Grand Danube on AmaMagna. This could actually be booked as 2 B2B cruises, with one leg being the Gems of Southeast Europe that you are on. My review of that week is here: @CastleCritic did the one you are on a couple weeks later, the same direction you are going, and his review is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2934524-amawaterways-gems-of-southeast-europe-430-on-amamagna-with-romania-extension/ We both did the Romania extension. 1) Ama has an on-board Cruise Manager that arranges all the tours. All tours are led by local tour guides. For our Romania extension, our ship CM came with us and we had the same local guide and bus driver from the ship, through Brasov, and to Bucharest. Once we were at that hotel, they left us, but we still had our Ama Cruise Manager. 2) Crew wants Euros. We tipped tour guides and bus drivers in Euros also. This seemed standard. We never got any local currencies. I don't know if it's policy or just a good CM, but on the post-cruise, anywhere we had a bathroom stop that needed paid for, she would give everyone the necessary local currency. 3) I believe sailing? I don't recall ever being docked for any extended period of time where there wasn't an excursion option. Possibly some late afternoon or evenings, but unless you skipped dinner onboard, I don't know that there would be time there either. I could be wrong as this wasn't anything we were concerned with.

Technically, Ama does not want you to bring Curling Irons: https://www.amawaterways.com/connections/top-faqs-for-first-time-river-cruisers "Can I bring my curling iron or hair straightener on board? For safety reasons, the use of your personal curling iron or hair straightener is restricted on board the ship. A limited number of curling irons / hair straighteners are available for you to borrow at reception. However, you may leave your hair dryer at home as there is one in every stateroom." This will be in your Cruise Documents under Travel Information & Tips: "Curling Irons For safety reasons, the use of your personal curling iron is restricted on board the ship. A limited number of curling irons are available at reception." That said, the current is 220v, Type C or E/F (I have some of both and they both seem to work) Make sure any device is dual voltage (110v/220v), then you just need something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058EG0KC I also have this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YDF8GCT

That doesn't usually stop anyone in this crowd. 😛

On our AmaMagna cruise, there was a very elderly lady who had severe mobility issues. I dont' know if she had any vision issues, but sounds like she was probably on par or possibly worse than what you are describing. I think she may have even used those forearm crutches. Her very patient husband was assisting her anytime I saw them. Most walking tours have a "Gentle" option on AmaWaterways that could be a possibility, especially if she is escorted. If you read my trip review, she's the one that went on a tour in Rousse that she arguably had no business going on as there was not a gentle group. But she absolutely had to see the orthodox churches. To further complicate things, the group she was in was joined with the "Active" group, and even though each sub group had their own tour guide, our tour guide took over both groups and kept us together, leaving the other poor tour guide to help baby sit her. However, that also mean that the "Active" group did not get to do what we were supposed to be able to do while other groups that weren't technically supposed to were allowed to. really pissed me off, and when I told our cruise director/manager, she was livid as she explicitly told him not to do exactly what he did! Anyway, Rant off. If she could do it, I imagine your mom could get along ok.

I'll be boarding for the PC in 3.5 weeks. This is the first I've seen rumor of Samba Grill possibly being removed from Allure during it's "Amplification". It's been pretty much established that Sabor will be going away, likely replaced with Portside BBQ. Edit: I just looked at the cruise planner for our PC cruise, and I can still book Samaba. So I guess it's either sticking around (not necessarily in the same location) or they'll be refunding people that pre-booked it. 🤷‍♂️

Did you see my tip in post #5? 😉

From other threads, it sounds like if you can produce your own evidence (like pictures aboard the ship??) that you might be able to get credit?

Since you're only on a 4 night cruise, have one person use the 4 free days that you get total, and buy a 1 device plan to cover the other person when it's on sale in the cruise planner.

I believe so, but when considering bridge clearance, the Oasis class (all at this point???) have retractable stacks allowing them to clear bridges with less than 236 ft of clearance. For instance, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a clearance of 228 ft (69.5 m) at mean high water, and I believe I've read that you need 15 additional feet of play on most any bridge like this.

I mixed up m & ft, but corrected it right away. Apparently not fast enough I also corrected depth vs. draft

236 ft above the waterline. The first 4 Oasis ships should be very similar. Not sure if Wonder or Utopia are very different. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis-class_cruise_ship Add 30 ft for below the waterline. This one says 210 ft, but I wonder if that is not counting the stacks, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/11/world-largest-cruise-ship-harmony-of-the-seas-sets-sail-first-sea-trial#:~:text=The ship%2C with a height,height of the Eiffel Tower.

In 2018 we did the Western Med from Rome to Rome on Symphony. This was the last stop for us, and by this point, we were kind of exhausted. We had originally booked this tour, but changed it to Florence-only. My wife was told by people in Rome that if you want Italian leather, Florence is the place to go, so Florence beat Pisa. Pisa is 1.5 hours from port, Florence 2 hours, and there's 1.5 hours between them. The bus time is 5 hours. As it was explained to us by the Shore Excursion team, Pisa was essentially a 30 minute photo-stop. Florence requires (or did at that time) that busses park about a 30 minute walk from where you want to go (so that's another hour). I want to say that there was also some walking distance in Pisa also, but don't recall exactly. The ship's tours did not include tickets to the museum where David is. Switching to the Florence only tour added a stop at a leather factory. That was just a shopping stop for overpriced leather goods. The guided tour was limited, but there was a lot of free shopping time. Could have probably used this to go to the David museum also. There was a lot of waiting for others. I don't know if I could honestly recommend either ship's tour here. If I were doing this stop again, I would seriously look at a private or small group tour that might be able to park closer and only do the things you want to.

Nice choice! We are booked for Enchanting Rhine on AmaSiena May 15, 2025. We are doing the 4 night pre-tour to Zurich and Lucerne package, and will spend a couple days in Amsterdam post on our own. For reference, I book all our ocean cruises directly. I do all the excursion research whether it's ship or independent. I am very, very hands on. This is our 3rd Ama cruise. Ama seems to prefer that you book through a TA. If you google the TA we used, she appears to be highly recommended, and supposedly specialized in AmaWaterways. However, I really am not sure what all she really did for us. I had very little contact with her other than to book it and pay. That said, when it cam time to book the May 2025 cruise, I looked around for an alternative, but ended up just using her again. On an Ocean cruise, at least with Royal Caribbean, if you book through a TA, you have to do everything other than on-board pre-purchases through the TA. With river cruises, or at least Ama, there really isn't anything extra to worry about booking. So even if I don't necessarily see where the TA has been advantageous for us, I don't feel like there has been any downside from having used one.

We had a great experience using Galveston Saltwater Moms from IAH to out hotel in Galveston pre-cruise.4 of us in a minivan

Yeah, the map is overly simplistic. That's why they have the long table at the bottom. 🙂

Actually, it does have that in the "Additional Details" for Germany in the long table at the bottom. It says: "It is prohibited to sell, serve or supply fermented alcohol beverages (beer, wine, cider and sparkling wine) to anyone under 16 years of age. However this age limit drops down to 14 if a minor is accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. It is generally prohibited to serve, sell or supply any beverage containing spirits and foods containing spirits above negligible amounts, to anyone under the age of 18 years. Violation of the "Protection of Young Persons Act" can be fined up to €50,000."

"All" is a bit strong, and makes your comment false. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/drinking-age-by-country

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them... maybe you can hire the A-Team.

On the pre-massage questionnaire, write "no sales pitch please" somewhere in the notes. In our experience, they've followed that. I believe that there's less options for couple's massages than solo. I think we've done the hot stone couple's massage, and I put deep pressure for mine. Not sure what my wife put. There's usually an embarkation day special that will give you the longer massage time for the shorter time's price (or something like that) for that same day.

Agree 100%! Especially the screaming into the PA that has horrendous audio quality.

I use the following 2 adaptors (don't have a need for a full convertor): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058EG0KC/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YDF8GCT And I use this, which negates much of the need for needing to use multiple outlets (recently upgraded from an all USB-A one): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BX3V6ZZX

Monday's Thread:

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