RobInMN

2023. 2018 was a different cruise. 😁

2018, we did the pre-cruise package, and I want to say that there was a couple (or 2?) that met us at the hotel and had just purchased a transfer. I have no idea the price. The Airport to Hotel transfer is $30/person, but a transfer from Prague is like 4 hours, and I think includes tolls. We picked up our ship (AmaMagna) in Vilshofen, not Nuremburg, and included a stop in Regensburg. Not sure if a Nuremburg transfer also goes to Regensburg. Regardless of whether you are using a TA, I'd just call Ama directly and ask.

We originally told our Genie that we wanted to watch the show from our balcony one night and seats another night. After watching from the balcony, we told him not to bother with seats on a later show. He brought us drinks and popcorn both nights. 🙂 Here was out view from Deck 9 (9330)

I couldn't disagree more. I agree with @Host Jazzbeau. However, my parents absolutely love GC. You do have a way to spin GC's negatives to sound like positives though. 1 CM for 25-30 people the whole cruise? No thanks. I prefer smaller groups. Especially when they are broken up as "Active", "Gentle", or just "regular" While 1 CM being some sort of expert on the whole region might work for something like the Bordeaux region of France, That does not work so well on the Danube where you might visit 9 countries. I far prefer having local expert guides than a CM that is expected to be an expert for all stops. "Jack of all trades, master of none". The CM on Ama serves a different purpose than a CM on GC. The Ama CM is more of a coordinator. They coordinate all the tours with all the local expert guides. They figure out how many guides are needed for each tour. to keep the numbers per guide low. Our recent Ama CM always went out on one of the tours, and where ever practical, would bounce around from group to group to audit the guides and be available if anyone needed anything. There were 4 CMs on our GC Christmas Markets cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna. None of them were German. Let alone from Bavaria or Austria. So that is not always the case. No excursion choices? Again, no thanks. I like having options. There is no way you can see "everywhere of interest you need to go" in a way that satisfies everyone. I like "Cathedrals, Castles, Forts, & Ruins". Some people are more into wine tours. or even shopping. Any quality cruise line will give you a way to contact the ship or someone on the ship if there is an emergency (like getting lost). GC's food was "meh". And we are not foodies. Ama's food, while arguably good, tries to be a bit fancy for our preference, but we never went hungry. #1 complaint about GC for us are the cabins. We will not go on GC again by our choice. At least not on a European river cruise, due to the cabins. The dual permanent/fixed fold down single bunks is an absolute no-go for us. We'd even be fine with a double (that's what we get at my in-laws).

Since you live in the US, is there some reason you prefer an east bound over a west bound? is it just time of year? My thoughts on this is that I want to put the long flight at the front of my vacation, not the back end. West bound TA, East bound TP. Doing the WB Allure TA Fall 2025. When I retire, I want to fly to Australia, land travel, then do a couple B2B Australian & New Zealand, then TP back, and end with "only" a 4 hour flight home. Unless you're thinking EB TA, then travel and/or cruise for a few months then WB TA back. In which case, I salute you!

Yes. Mini Fridge. Yes, room steward takes care of your room Yes, you can get ice. I don't recall about other ships, but AmaMagna has an Ice Machine in the cabin hall you can get your own. Yes, as mentioned by others you can bring your own alcohol or other drinks on board.

Yes, they are all booked through Shore Excursions

That's true. The August 2024 is Jewel. She has spent the last few years doing Norway, UK, Iceland, and that season ends earlier. However, RCL appears to not be doing that from 2025 on due to new regulations. The other is the Ultimate World Cruise on Serenade. That one kind fo doesn't count. August 2025 is Brilliance. She appears to be spending her summer doing Greece, Italy, and Turkey. Not sure why she's coming back early, but I do see that she's not coming direct. She's going up to Southampton and taking the northern route, which may be why she's coming back in August. And she might be taking this route because she's a Radiance class. The larger ships seem to go direct. I wouldkKeep your eyes out for the Deployment 2025-2026 thread (July?). The 2024-2025 thread was started in July of '23. I would watch that to see if where the Radiance class ships will be during the summer of 2026. That would be my guess for the best bet for an August west bound TA.

For RCL and Carnival, it's an Argo situation:

Europe to the US will be Fall. The 2025 Allure TA 26-OCT-2025 was released the evening of 13-FEB-2024.

For the I-35W bridge collapse, it took 1 week before they started removing debris and vehicles, and it took almost 3 months to complete demolition and removal to start the new build. And that was for a 1900 ft bridge. The main span of this bridge is 1200 feet, Total length 1.6 mi Granted, the importance on removing the debris wo get freight traffic going was not a concern on the I-35W bridge, but I would not be surprised if its close to that.

Living in the Twin Cities, this reminds me most of the I-35W bridge collapse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge Collapsed August 1, 2007. They immediately got to work and I think by the next day they had everyone they needed in a room and made a plan using design-build project planning. Awarded a contract Sept 19, 2007, and the new bridge was completed 3 months ahead of schedule Sept 18, 2008. There was a MNDOT manager that was a frequent contributor to a local political pod cast (had been doing so long before the collapse) that gave updates. But since then also gave in-depth accounts of the process in the immediate hours, and days that was really interesting. Unfortunately, with the podcast defunct, I don't think those recordings exist anymore. Obviously, this is a lot larger span with a lot more serious economic impacts, but the immediacy of getting the bridge replaced is very similar.

Living in the Twin Cities, this reminds me most of the I-35W bridge collapse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge Collapsed August 1, 2007. They immediately got to work and I think by the next day they had everyone they needed in a room and made a plan using design-build project planning. Awarded a contract Sept 19, 2007, and the new bridge was completed 3 months ahead of schedule Sept 18, 2008. There was a MNDOT manager that was a frequent contributor to a local political pod cast (had been doing so long before the collapse) that gave updates. But since then also gave in-depth accounts of the process in the immediate hours, and days that was really interesting. Unfortunately, with the podcast defunct, I don't think those recordings exist anymore. Obviously, this is a lot larger span with a lot more serious economic impacts, but the immediacy of getting the bridge replaced is very similar.

I think they should pro-rate it per night. There are many cases where you get screwed, especially doing B2Bs We did a B2B Arctic Circle and Iceland & Ireland. Both cruises were 12 nights. We only got $100 OBC for each cruise. We did 24 nights total, but got much less than a single 14 night. If this was a 14 night plus a 10 night, that would be $350. We also recently booked the Allure TA post-Amp in Oct of 2025. For whatever reason, RCL made this 13 nights instead of the usual 14. So 1 night is the difference of $150 OBC. It's nice that they do anything, but when these things happen, it's hard not to feel a bit screwed. What I would love to see: $12 per night from 3-9 nights, that's pretty close to the current schedule, and would be $48 for 4-night, and $108 for 9-night From 10-16, it could jump to $18 per night, That would make a 10-night $180, a 14-night $252, and a 16-night $288. 16-night is currently the longest non-UWC I could find.

I like the ocean, but hate the beach. 😁 I like scuba and snorkeling, but much prefer to do it from a boat that I got on from a pier/dock, that I got to from a paved walkway. 🤣 And have zero desire to just lay in the sun doing nothing for more than about 5 minutes.

Congrats! Since the cheapest time to book a cruise (at least on RCI) is usually as soon as it's released, and on the rare occasion that it does go down, you can re-price (at least via US bookings), we try to plan and be ready as soon as they are released, so that ends up being a couple years out. We have had 4 vacations for 2024 & 2025 planned out since late 2023 (all though the Fall 2025 Allure TA didn't actually drop until February). One Spring & one Fall cruise. 3 are Royal Caribbean, and 1 is an AmaWaterways river cruise. The Ama one doesn't have the pricing fluctuation of a RC cruise, but it's still booked. Will probably be thinking about Spring 2026 after we get back from our Panama Canal cruise here next month, as some Jan-Apr cruises have already posted.

Same! 2BR Aqua on Allure last September. First Star class. And also had Jay! Jay was awesome! But yes, as others said, just be patient. 2 weeks out. Hope you get Jay!

I would assume that it will be more like the Royal Beach Club on Paradise Island (Nassau) opening next year(?). Last I read, that will be an extra fee. Basically, I think RCI is looking to take an extra cut of the "beach day" excursions to other private beach areas. Here's the RCI site for the PI one: https://royalbeachclubatparadiseisland.com/ And here's a RC Blog article: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/royal-beach-club-paradise-island

My parents love GC. We did a Christmas Markets cruise with them on GC. My wife & I can't stand the cabins. The twin single fold down bunks are a no-go for us. Also, can't say we are big fans of the PD format (there were 4 on this one). Basically there was a maximum of 4 good-sized tour groups, and the PDs did a number of the tours themselves. Very little local tour guide experts. This could have been because this was a Christmas Market cruise. I will say, everyone was very nice. We might consider them for a non-European river cruise, or OAT. We are fans of AmaWaterways. We've done 3 (1 plus the B2B Grand Danube), and have another booked for Spring '25. Ama has 1 Cruise Manager that coordinates all the local tour guides. Unless it's a simple wine tasting or something that the whole ship is doing as a group, every tour is done with a local tour guide. There are multiple excursion options at each port, and they keep the group sizes small by having multiple guides on the more popular options.

Try YouTube and CruiseDeckPlans for deck 6 ocean balconies, but if you look at any side picture of Wonder, the lifeboats are tucked up underneath deck 6.

Jewel out of Amsterdam was similar. You reported to the theater. Went in one side, they gave you your new Seapass card, step up to the security kiosk they brought up from the gangway, scanned you out of the first cruise, into the new cruise, and sent you on your way out the other side.

In September, we stayed at the Hilton Home2Suites/Tru on the seawall. We pre-booked an Uber to take us to the port (4 people). When I called before we arrived, they said they had no shuttle. When we checked in, I think I saw a flyer for a 3rd party shuttle you could call on the front desk, but didn't seem like it was the least bit coordinated by them.

I second that

Note: If you use the app, you can just pick your time and do the rest later. If you use the web site, you must go through everything (except for picture) before you can pick your time. It's 3 pages in. Passport, Onboard charges CC, Emergency contact, etc.