mtkprint

8 hours ago, suspaul said:

Well, we’ve pulled the plug and cancelled our upcoming river cruise, in some ways were breathing a sigh of relief.  Tho we were really looking forward to it, we received the dreaded itinerary change email yesterday and with many thanks to our tour company and TA we were able to cancel.  We will miss the river cruise, we enjoy meeting new people and find river cruises perfect for logistically getting us from point A to B and onwards, good food and great accommodations.  

 

Since water levels have been a huge concern for quite a while, , we worked out a Plan B several months ago (should this happen) booking  hotels and transportation also cancellable up to Dec 1,  so we’re ready to go pretty much.  We’ll fly to Prague Monday and make our way to Budapest before flying to Paris on the 14th.

 

 

When were you travelling and with which company?  We are seriously looking at cancelling ours in the next few days. we are supposed to sail on 22 December but have heard nothing from AMA. Every time we contact them all we get back is it is too far away and they will get back to us with the itinerary closer to sailing date and that any itinerary may change up to the date of departure. Future cruise money is absolutely no good to us. We are in Australia and are certainly not paying going to Europe just to do a 7 day cruise. We booked this because it worked in with other things we were doing as we were going to be in the UK at the time and for the experience of a white Christmas. if this has been going on for months why don't they have an alternative itinerary which can work and put it out so everyone knows what is happening. Probably because too many would cancel and they would loose money.

11 hours ago, pully8 said:

mtkprint We are also travelling from Australia next month for an APT/AMA cruise and we share your frustration with the lack of information and no indication from them when to expect a decision. 

We are not on your cruise but have been through the uncertainty before with high water, this event is more prolonged. Fortunately the season is almost over.

As you may know some are not being informed prior to departure, some prior to boarding a plane and some when they reach Europe. There are vague notices on their websites about modifications, last 1 we have seen was dated 20/11.

Did you book Vienna independently or via the cruise operator? Hopefully you will be informed at the latest in Vienna.  

Enjoy the ocean cruise, we are wondering if that may have been a better option given the circumstances, nevertheless we wait, watch and listen.

 

Hi pully8  Our pre cruise at Vienna and post cruise at Prague were part of the land/river deal which we took with AMA when we booked. All flights from UK and return to UK were booked by AMA along with transfers and accommodation for those extra nights. We booked this cruise as a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a white Christmas and all that goes with it and it worked in with our other arrangements whilst in the UK and filled in the spare days we had between ocean cruises.  We have read about people who weren't informed until they arrived at the boat etc but as AMA have provided the flights surely we would know prior to getting our transfer from Southampton to Heathrow to catch our flights to Vienna. We are actually seriously thinking of contacting them and finding out if we can cancel the whole river cruise thing and then just make our own plans for the 10 days we have spare. At this stage there still appears to be a few options on short ocean cruises so if we don't hear anything shortly that may be our next plan of attack. As others have said they have known about this for months and you would think by now they would have made amendments to the itineraries and advertised them so everyone knows where they stand.

I hope your cruise works out for you and the cruise companies get a bit wake up call from this event.

2 hours ago, camping mom said:

Thank you so much for reporting on this. We are on AMASonata Dec 16 for same route. We obviously have not heard yet of our changes but it was so helpful to know when you got your update and what your itinerary looks like. Keep us posted as you can. Have an amazing trip!

4 hours ago, FoxHallFamily said:

Greetings!  We are on the AmaCerto cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna departing on 12/1 and just received our alternate itinerary.  Now we start in Passau and cruise to Linz, Melk, Vienna and then Esztergom (with day trips to Budapest and Bratislava added to the end of the trip).  It's sounding pretty good to us but we are wondering how long the bus trips will be from Esztergom to Budapest and then I believe also from there (or maybe we cruise closer?) to Bratislava.  Thanks for any insights from the group! We have really appreciated all of the information available in this discussion!

We are on the AmaCerto cruise from Vienna to Nuremberg on 22 Dec and have not heard what our options are yet. We have a pre cruise night in Vienna and 2 post cruise nights in Prague. We are starting to wonder how many bus trips we are going to have as we booked a 7 day river cruise on a boat not a bus trip. We have absolutely no interest in busing around Europe or any other country let alone at Christmas time. Also appears we are not going to hear anything before we leave Australia as we fly out on 7 Dec and do a 12 day ocean cruise before flying to Vienna to get on the river cruise. As i said in my previous post i hope the wifi is working at sea or we will know absolutely nothing till we get to Heathrow to fly to Vienna?? or wherever. It is good to hear that AMA has finally produced some alternative itineraries for some travellers as we have heard or seen very little from travellers with them on this forum so far. If anyone going the same way as us on an earlier cruise and has received an updated itinerary we would love to know what plans you have been given.

Were Plan A and Plan B an option or does Plan B only come into play if there is no rain and Plan A can't work. Or is it majority rules? When will the final call be made on what is happening.  We are on AMACerto on 22 December from Vienna to Nuremburg. Are still waiting to hear what is happening as we leave Australia on 7 December for a sea cruise first and fly to Vienna the day we finish the sea cruise. Lets hope the wifi is working on the sea cruise or we will have no idea what is going on.