RobInMN

1 hour ago, TechKnowBabble said:

Giving this thread a little kick....haven't been on CC in forever and was surprised to find almost NO posts for this Oasis 10/24/24 sailing.    Who is still going?  This will be our 21st cruise but our FIRST transatlantic    So excited!!

Try the Roll Call thread. 34 pages. Seems pretty active:

Announcement made in May's C&A Newsletter:

Now we need the official announcement of exactly what they will do, and whether they stick completely with the original plans or alter those plans in any way.

As a reminder, here's the original press release:

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1403/new-amplified-adventures-on-royal-caribbeans-allure-of-the-seas-to-make-a-summer-splash-in-europe/

This is not "news" per say, as the Allure Captains and hotel directors have been saying this. Also, the dry dock in March of 2025 is 6 weeks, running from the end of February to the beginning of April. There's been discussion in many threads. Here's one dedicated to the amplification that was last posted to February:

This is the first we've seen any official public statement however. I also think this is the first time we've seen the term "Amplified" post-COVID. Previously, I think just "refurbished" was used.

We were booked on her 2020 post-Amplification TA. We booked the 2025 TA within a couple hours of it begin released (I believe it was a Wednesday night about 8PM central).

Now, the big question is: Will they stick to the original plan? or will they alter it in any way? For instance, the original plan was to replace the Champagne bar with the Bionic bar. The Hotel Manager has already indicated that the Champagne bar is going away (as is Sabor). Since I think we can all agree that the Bionic bar has run it's course, might they do something like Utopia's Pesky Parrot (which is in that same location) instead?

Being Diamond has no affect on any suite related benefits. C&A and suite benefits are completely separate.

But as indicated, a JS is basically an extra large balcony with a tub, and you get 2 points per night instead of 1. You also get access to the CK for dinner if there is availability. The older ships have a large walk in closet. You really get no actual "suite" benefits.

That said, my wife really likes the tub over the tube shower. Those new showers on Icon look doable though.

A mod should pin this!

(originally used the term 'sticky')

49 minutes ago, Sinders99 said:

@twangster what a shame they take the first sea pass card off you. I like to keep ours as souvenirs 😔 

Interesting that is a little different from our experience.  When we did the B2B Attic Circle and Iceland & Ireland in 2022 also on Jewel, we were given our new cards and an In Transit card and sent to a single security podium where they scanned our old card then our new card. Never took the old cards. So we do have both cards. Otherwise fairly similar experience.

20 minutes ago, ellasabe said:

@RobinMN, the more I read and see with the AMAMagna, the more I realize what a great design that ship has. 

It really is an amazing ship. I almost hate to recommend it to someone as a first river cruise ship, because when you take subsequent cruises, it will be difficult for the ship to measure up 🙂 

AmaMagna does do a Christmas Market cruise. 😉 

Maybe other lines are different, but Ama has hand rails on both sides. Found a couple videos for you timestamped where you can clearly see the outside stairs that go to the top deck.

1 hour ago, screwsmcernst said:

 

Viking is very heavily marketed here in the US.  So I would imagine there would be quite a few North Americans  We are sailing Ama Waterways.  Not much is heard about them here.  I figure there will be more Europeans and Australians.  We shall see.

On the 3 Ama cruises I've been on, I am not aware of anyone outside of the US and maybe Canada. It is a US company, and while they don't seem to have the same marketing budget Viking does, it does market to the US, and maybe somewhat exclusively in the US, I have no idea.

@gnome12,

AmaMagna's elevator goes to the top deck. It pops up 🙂

I am pretty sure that all AmaWaterways ships have elevators that go to all floors. AmaMagna's elevator even goes to the top deck (not really an issue if you are doing Christmas Markets 😉 )

We've only done 4 river cruises, 3 with Ama, 1 with Grand Circle, and I want to say that every port we stopped at had a ramp (degree of incline varied greatly), with the exception of Passau, where we went to the top deck and took a ramp across. Once on land, there might be other ramps and/or steps. I don't recall ever needing to "climb an embankment" that did not have standard stairs or ramp.

When rafting, I think they prefer people go up, over, down. But I have experienced walking through, and even going in, down their stairs, and then out. I want to say there was an instance where someone with mobility issues was allowed to go through instead of up & over, but can't confirm.

The outside stairs from the inner deck to the top deck can be steep, but not like a loft ladder. 

I do know that there was an elderly lady on my last cruise that needed to use those forearm crutches to get around. Her husband was very patient.

One of our cruises was a Christmas Market cruise from Nuremburg to Vienna. This one was on GC. There were many nights where you could go to the market at night. None of them were right at the port. Depending on distance, you'll need to walk or they might run a shuttle. I am pretty sure there was at least 1 case where they got someone a car/taxi when it was just a bit too far. Uber (or similar), can be an option in some countries/cites.

I've never been woken up by any locks at night. I assume we've gone through a couple at night, but can't really say as I never looked up if we would or not.

I have never needed to switch ships (so far), and not sure if this is an issue during Christmas market season, but my parents did this once and they just packed their luggage and left it in their room, went on an excursion, and when they returned, they returned to the other ship on the other side of the bridge, and their luggage was in their room waiting for them. I imagine most cruise companies will make this as easy as possible.

Obviously, I don't know you or your husband, or how sever his mobility issues are, but if it's important to you, go for it. Even if you don't get to see every market at every port, go and enjoy what you feel you can manage. Again, only 4 cruises, on only 2 different lines, I feel like every crew member we've had so far would do whatever they could to help you and your husband make it to the markets and back.

That said, if there's snow and/or ice, things could be that much more difficult. Make sure he's got good shoes/boots.

First time I saw "S2S" my brain went "Ship to Ship" instead of "Side to Side"? 🙂 

Made sense to me

I do know that certain cruise lines cater and market to certain countries. I don't know if there's one that is truly multi-national and market equally to everyone. But there's others that have a lot more experience than I do.

I can help with AmaWaterways.

On the 3 Ama cruises we've done so far, I think everyone might have been from North America, if not specifically America, but not totally sure.

The Grand Circle cruise we did was the same.

I am not sure if these companies (or others) are exclusive to US and Canadian travelers or if that's just where they focus their marketing. It's possible that there are companies that only accept reservations from people with addresses in certain countries.

There's at least 1 that I've see referenced here more than once that is targeted to German travelers - where the primary operating language is German - but don't recall the name. They don't market to the US.

And I think I recently saw something mentioned about a Chinese company may be operating now? And I would assume they are all Chinese and operate in Chinese.

Interesting question. Look forward to see what others add.

1 hour ago, Kristelle said:

From Australia, APT ( which  I think markets as AMA elsewhere) offerred very similar itinerary and very similar costs, also as all inclusive - what won in the end was simply the Scenic dates suited better for us.

 

I've seen this reference before, and was curious, so I did a little Google searching.

As I believed, they are 2 separate companies. APT is owned by the McGeary family. Ama is owned by husband/wife team Kristin Karst & Rudi Schreiner, and original third owner Jimmy Murphy's share appears to now be owned by his son Gary Murphy. The Wikipedia page for APT indicates that APT was an investor with Jimmy Murphy in starting Ama. The Ama page makes no mention.

Apparently last year, APT chose not to renew their 18 year partnership with Ama which ends after this year. It sounds like they chartered AmaWaterways ships? Sounds like this will be the last year. They have launched their own (owned?) ship on the Duro, and it appears that they are launching 2 new (owned?) ships for the Rhine, Main and Danube. I can't see anywhere on the APT site to book, so I can't confirm if they fully charter certain Ama sailings or what. But the APT site says they use AmaWaterways cruise managers.

1 minute ago, Ocean Boy said:

Probably the same group created a week long charter. I'm sure it's annoying to those with bookings.

They did

That sucks!

I Google searched your sail dates, and it looks like you got bumped for the Atlantis Cruise group. Now I wish I had used Incognito mode.

44 minutes ago, malted muse said:

 

Love it - be interested to know if you put a soundtrack to them - couldn't hear one.  Also how are you mounting the camera?

 

No sound or editing. Just straight from the camera.

Joby GorillaPod

secured with some safety tethers

And for the full PC transit, connected to a 10,000 mAh power bank.

If you peruse this forum, just going back to threads even in the last 6-12 months, there are a many threads asking for opinions on or comparisons of various cruise lines. There are fans and detractors for almost all of them. There are things about some cruise lines that people like, and other people don't like the same things. Also note that many people, when they find a line they like, they stick with it. Don't try searching, just go back thread by thread looking at subject titles.

Anyway, to answer your question, for us, that's AmaWaterways. We did 1 cruise on them, and loved it, and haven't looked elsewhere. My parents, they love Grand Circle. We did a GC with them and hated it. I've re-hashed the differences between the 2 in a few threads, so I won't do that here.

Many, many people love Viking. If they were that bad, they wouldn't have so many ships, but others don't like them.

That said, I can't say I've really ever seen anyone post negative things about Ama or Avalon.

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

@RobInMN, not going to argue, but my camera and power banks require a USB A "outlet" to plug into, or in the case of my camera, a regular 2 prong plug. The cables for them are proprietary, so of course I have to have them, but they pack into their cases. Our new power banks (which will probably be coming sooner than later) will be USB-C in/output thereby eliminating another cable to worry about. Until I find another camera that provides the quality of photos without the bulk of packing my SLR and lenses, I'm stuck with that.

 

Ah! OK. The phone and power bank are not USB-A, the issue is that they have proprietary connection ports, and the only cable you have is for USB-A. That is another option I have seen before, that I neglected to mention. I hated when they did that. While I believe that was common with cameras, I can't say I recall ever seeing a power bank with a proprietary power connector for charging. Interesting.

BTW, you can still use a USB-C charger with a USB-A cable with something like this (there's also products without the short cord):

Also, what do you use for a phone? Almost any phone camera in the last 4 or 5 years should be able to take better pictures than a compact digital camera. Basically the only thing that will take better pictures is an SLR. As such, I think the whole compact digital camera market has essentially disappeared. Phone cameras are so good, there just no market anymore.

My Samsung S20+ takes excellent pictures. It's 4 models old and I don't even have the Ultra one.

9 hours ago, twangster said:

 

 

 

Love this shot!

3 hours ago, Daisi said:

@Canal archive, that’s actually simplifying our lives, as we don’t have to take so many different cords. Both phones and tablets are USB C, as we’ve been updating, it’s only our older power banks and my camera that are still USB-A. So much nicer than carrying around cables for each device, and so much easier to replace a cable when travelling.

Your older power banks and camera are not "USB-A", they might be MicroUSB. Device inputs are never USB-A. They started as USB-A is mono-directional. In the really old days the other end was USB-B. Then came MiniUSB, then MicroUSB. All mono-directional with USB-A on the source end.

USB-C is bi-directional. You can have devices that output and/or input USB-C. My power bank has a USB-C port that I use to charge the power bank as well as use the same port to provde power.

You can charge you older devices using charges and power banks that are USB-C, you just have to have the correct cable.

You can have cables of the following types:

USB-A -> USB-B

USB-A -> MiniUSB

USB-A -> MicroUSB (most common "legacy")

USB-A -> USB-C (common transitional as devices had USB-C as inputs, but still using legacy chargers)

USB-A -> Lightning (for those Apple People)

USB-C -> USB-C (Ideal - for now anyway)

USB-C -> Lighting (again, for those Apple people)

But you can also find:

USB-C -> MicroUSB

USB-C -> MiniUSB(Really? why???)

And then there's USB-C Thunderbolt, which can also be used for video:

USB-C to HDMI

USB-C to MiniHDMI

USB-C to DisplayPort

Basically, I would sum up the EU law as doing 2 things:

1. Force Apple to switch from their proprietary Lightning connector to USB-C
2. Force consumer devices to abandon the legacy MicroUSB on new products.
3. I'm all for both of these. While I don't use Apple products, it frustrates me to no end to be looking for rechargeable products only to see that they are still using MicroUSB. Seriously. It's been almost a decade since USB-C was introduced, and 6 years since it was really mainstream. Stop using MicroUSB ports on new products!

Also, just remembered another device we charge on a cruise:

1 travel lighted makeup mirror

Lots of devices that need charging.😁

2 phones

1 tablet

1 set of earbuds (could be 2, but my wife almost never uses hers on the trip)

1 smart watch (special charger - uses a USB-A)

1 Nook (eReader) - only occasionally needs charging, but needs MicroUSB

1 GoPro - depending on trip

1 power bank

1 laptop - while it can use the PD USB-C, usually use it's actual charger

And after we land from a flight, 2 sets of Bose QC45's, and 2 sets of Bluetooth Transmitters (that we use instead of a cord since the Active Noise Cancellation feature only works when in Bluetooth mode.

5 minutes ago, BND said:

This, but the reality is, Royal is not going to abandon Tampa or Baltimore so they need ships that will fit in both. Baltimore cruises routinely sell out weeks before a cruise.

Yep, hence my comments about height being a factor.

When we were on Radiance in April on the PC cruise, the captain straight up said that bridge heights for ports they want to service was a large?/main? consideration in the design.

The same son that did a summer internship with royal and said that the Quest was never coming back after COVID?

I think I'll put a bit more weight on what the captains are telling people at the Q&A's.

But until there's some official announcement (or a very well sourced leak), it's all speculation.

6 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Yes, seen many Videos posted River Cruises where the Line has 50 Bikes to use on stops or Bike Excursions

Yes, this is a thing for some European river cruises. We have sailed on AmaWaterways, and they have a number of bikes and even have bike tour options for some ports, and when we were in Amsterdam, we saw some river cruise ship docked among the many river ships that appeared to be some sort of all biking thing. It's definitely not all companies, and not sure if this is a thing only in Europe or if you find it elsewhere.