MrsP_29

I recently cashed in most of my points to offset the cost of our upcoming cruise. Since then I've accrued a few more and was planning on using them as OBC. Maybe I need to cash them out earlier than planned.

Anyone here booked on the Nov 2 sailing of the AmaLucia, Europe's Rivers & Castles?

Our trip on the AmaSiena has been cancelled so now we're booked on the AmaLucia next year.

On 5/13/2020 at 8:39 AM, notamermaid said:

So AmaWaterways will resume 1 August, which means the maiden voyage of the AmaSiena needs to be postponed, too. Currently on the website I see her scheduled to do cruises in August and the christening ceremony is supposed to take place in August (according to an older press release). It appears the AmaSiena was successfully shipped from Serbia to Germany and I presume she is now being outfitted in the Netherlands. But it is mid-May and she is not signalling yet. It is still a good two months to go and I am confident she will be ready in time. Will keep a look out on marinetraffic and Binnenschifferforum. The guys on that German website are great at ship spotting.

 

notamermaid

 

Any updates info on AmaSiena? I don't read German so I wouldn't know where to click.

On 5/13/2020 at 8:39 AM, notamermaid said:

So AmaWaterways will resume 1 August, which means the maiden voyage of the AmaSiena needs to be postponed, too. Currently on the website I see her scheduled to do cruises in August and the christening ceremony is supposed to take place in August (according to an older press release). It appears the AmaSiena was successfully shipped from Serbia to Germany and I presume she is now being outfitted in the Netherlands. But it is mid-May and she is not signalling yet. It is still a good two months to go and I am confident she will be ready in time. Will keep a look out on marinetraffic and Binnenschifferforum. The guys on that German website are great at ship spotting.

 

notamermaid

 

I am still optimistic about sailing on the AmaSiena in late October. She would have had about 12 trips under her belt, time for the little kinks to be worked out. So maybe she'll have a little less experience, I'm okay with that. I'm sure the trip will be every bit as memorable as I hope.

9 minutes ago, Cellagirl said:

I went to Amawaterways website and their recommendation for a 7 night cruise is 100E per person. This does not include the cruise director .  Why did you pay $300.00?

I went to their site as well. We prepaid for the crew and the cruise manager. That's 125€. Convert euros to US dollars and it's roughly $141 on xe.com. We paid $150/person. Can't choose the exchange rate and I'm not going to quibble over $9.

On 2/16/2020 at 4:13 PM, Annie11455 said:

I thought our TA said we can't add them in now. It's worth asking again just in case I misheard.

Update: I was able to pre-pay our gratuities about two weeks ago. It was $300US for 2 of us on a 7 day cruise.

3 hours ago, beachbumsns said:

We had our travel agent add them to the bill and paid in Canadian funds.  We tipped extra to wait staff during our cruise.

I thought our TA said we can't add them in now. It's worth asking again just in case I misheard.

20 minutes ago, CaroleLee said:

Thx for your response. American has dumped gates @ JFK so to fly to Amsterdam we 1st have to go to PHL.  Have AA Delta AF & KLM on Google fight alert as well as my TA. We have free transfer from AMA

That's a haul for you. Philly is about a 1½-2 hr drive for us, depending on traffic. Baltimore is slightly closer but if we leave from there, we have a layover in Philly!  🙂

22 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

How under construction?  we are looking at the August 2 10 day

I think that might be her first voyage. 🙂

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

About the AmaSiena: she is not signalling yet, so does not have bridge electronics completed. I could not find a definitive photo of her, so she might not even have been fitted out yet, i.e be a hull and not much else. For those interested, she is being built at Vahali shipyards and should appear in this list some time this year: http://www.vahalishipyards.com/vahali_ships

 

notamermaid

 

I think her first trip is in August.

31 minutes ago, hoosier2017 said:

Hi Annie11455. We were in one of the smallest cabins in 2018.  There are pictures(I recall) on tha AMA website and in their brochure. We found the cabin  sufficient for us. Just two windows just above the water.  Our luggage fit under the bed and there was plenty of closet space, shelf space and night stands with a drawer on each side.   Our ship sometimes tendered to other ships so those with balconies had a “view” of someone else’s room.   We spent very little time in the room since we were put all day on excursions or in the dining room or lounge. We booked again in 2021 and took the same room.

I was hoping to see "real" pictures. Kind of like the photos you see of a representative hotel room compared to what you get. It's "bad enough" that the AMASiena is still under construction. I want to see her! LOL

I'm really glad to see that other folks like to try to save a little money on the room so they can spend it on the experience.  🙂

49 minutes ago, GrammaRama said:

I guess my name GrammaRama explains why the question was raised.  FB and Book of Face is not part of my vocabulary and I intend to keep it that way.  Thanks for the explanation.

 

Sorry - I didn't see this until now.

Yes, FB and Book of Face are Facebook. I didn't know if even mentioning that would be "illegal". 

I've seen many, many posts on Christmas Market trips and other itineraries but very few ever mention the Rivers & Castles trip. Just like I've yet to see any "real" photos of the cabins on the lowest level. We opted to save a little so we can splurge elsewhere. This will probably be our last chance to see Paris because we'll be retiring soon'ish and I don't foresee being able to go on grand vacations after that. 😞

 

1 hour ago, VirginiaTraveler said:

sueleekey,

River cruises are wonderful, and you can'tgo wrong with Ama!  We're doing Nuremberg to Luxembourg in June (just the river part).  Be sure you try the chef's table at the stern. 

VirginiaTraveler

I assume you're doing the Rivers & Castles trip. We're doing that in October (same direction, with pre and post stays). So few poeple have commented on this trip here and on the "Book of Face" page for AMA. I hope you post reviews and/or photos.

We're booked for the Prague pre-cruise stay in late October. Well be staying at the Alcron Hotel. Looks lovely! (Thank you Google Stree View.)

22 hours ago, SkygirlSue said:

AmaVenita? There is no ship by that name.

https://www.amawaterways.com/ships/amavenita-river-cruise-ship

We will be crusing on the AmaSiena October/November 2020. It will be our first river cruise and *everything* I've ever read about AmaWaterways promises an unparalleled experience. 

I've noticed there's not a lot of activity about Ama cruises; I assume that's because the of the number of passengers. I've started a roll call for our trip but will be surprised if any of our fellow travellers sees it. But maybe!

On 5/23/2017 at 12:22 AM, Lucky TGO said:

 

I was on the Royal Princess in January and stayed in C323 inside sideways cabin it was very good. I asked Pam from California. If she like it when she stayed in the same cabin and she liked it also. It was very quiet and in a good location.

It was not a quad and it was more spacious.

Tony

It's been a while since you posted this but... My husband and I will be in that room in September 2019. Any chance you have photos? It's our first Princess cruise.

Good thing you bought it. I checked today and the prices are now starting at $15.99/day. I bought mine at ~$12/day a couple of weeks ago. I keep checking hoping for a quick sale. Or even the same price - we have a second cruise booked for next year.

Nope. Not fake news. They really were helpful and the process was much easier than I assumed it would be. :D

Fake news?:confused:

Ship - Grandeur of the Seas

Deck - 3

Stateroom # - 3608

Stateroom Category – H

Starboard or Port Side - Starboard

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – Yes

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – Does not apply

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - Does not apply

Was wind a problem? - Does not apply

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - Does not apply

Any specific problems with this cabin? - None

Any other comments? - Good location. Convenient to elevators and stairs. Quiet. Room is below the Conference Center on Deck 4 so no noise from above.

I had booked a cruise for next year on the phone back in January. While we were on a cruise last week, I talked to the Next Cruise folks and we decided to downgrade to an interior room and save a nice chunk of money. I was told that I would have to call in and cancel the original reservation. I assumed that was going to end up getting messy so I waited until today to call.

Wow - I was wrong! I was able to easily cancel the original reservation and have the payments transferred over to the new reservation. It took maybe 15 minutes to get everything taken care of. I have my cancellation number and the receipt indicating the payments were applied to the new reservation!

I just wanted to post this because we rarely hear about things that go right. People normally only post the horror stories. Not this time. Have an awesome day everyone!

Self-serve ice cream is still available. There are two machines but they are not always both operational. We're on the Grandeur now and my husband loves ice cream. We were just up there getting some a short while ago.

We were supposed to be there today but they are calling for high winds so we're in Nassau until tomorrow evening

No aerial shows. I didn't even see the riggings. We're on her right now.