2012_Alaska_bound

Mike Owen, owner of Crystal Basin Winery in the Sierra Foothills in California was our wine host on the 7 day Ama cruise. He held two onboard talks and worked with the chef to provide a pairing dinner. We tasted some of the Crystal Basin wines, but as I mentioned in my review, he had prepared and sent wines for a Rhone cruise 3 years ago. Mike and his wife went on all the excursions, but did not lead them. The guides at the wineries we visited were excellent, and each area had something new to taste and learn about. Passengers bought wine along the way and would often bring out a bottle to share before dinner. Each day there was at least one excursion on offer that did not involve wine tasting. Looking into doing a Rhone wine tasting cruise. Here is my full review:

Just to be clear, this was only at the Pulman Hotel, not on the ship, although our friends had a similar set up in their Chateaux room.

Post 3 discussing post-cruise Ama tour of Loire Valley 3 Nights Loire Valley/Paris CDG package (Post-Cruise) Group: As mentioned before, our Cruise Manager Marianna accompanied us for this portion of our trip too. Our post-cruise group was 37 people. By this time we were getting to know everyone pretty well. Some were on post-cruise that were not on the pre-cruise, but we all seemed to know each other from our time on the ship. This meant we only required one bus, and could all stay together. Hotels: Chateaux de Pray, Amboise, France: Wow! What a fun place to spend our two nights in the Loire Valley on the post-cruise tour. It is an actual chateaux that is used as a hotel now. Just beautiful, inside, and out. Our room happened to be in the former tack room by the stables and actually would have slept 4 with a loft bedroom above the main bedroom. Everything was very comfortable, and the staff was great! Unfortunately, it could only handle 32 guests, so the remaining 5 stayed in hotel actually in the town of Amboise. Breakfast buffet (small but good) was in the Chateaux sitting room with a beautiful view of the gardens. Only negative was only one server each day to take care of all our beverages. Hotel Pullman Paris Roissy CDG Airport: wonderful hotel right at the airport in Paris just across the street from the tram to the terminals. Just one night here in preparation to fly home the next day. Hotel had a very nice restaurant, which we chose for dinner. Breakfast buffet was served in the restaurant and was very, very good. Display of flights right in the lobby. Only downside was layout of the room, with a separate toilet room right as you enter, but with the bath/shower/sink room around the corner. This meant walking all the way around to wash hands after using the toilet. Room was very nice and comfortable, though. Tours: Tours, France: On the way from the ship to the Loire Valley, we made a stop for a tour of Tours. Tours is a very interesting town with buildings from Medieval times to present. Tours has a large university, so the town has a lively vib. We were dropped in the old town portion and given time for lunch on our own. We found a small restaurant off the main square and enjoyed French Onion soup and wine before going back for our walking tour. Our guides were local to Tours, and were able to show us what the town was all about in Medieval times. Amboise, France: Two guides joined us today and remained with us until we left for Paris. This is the first day of touring castles in the lovely Loire valley. First up was CHÂTEAU DE CHENONCEAU (This truly spectacular château and former watermill that spans the Cher River was turned into a palace by the French King Francis I for his Mistress Diane de Poitier.). We had a bit of rain that morning, but not enough to interrupt anything, just a little bad for outdoor photos. Our Gentle Walkers guide, Simon, was used to doing bike tours, so our slower pace was a bit of a challenge for him. On the other hand, he was a great encouragement when we got tired! Even in dreary weather it was great to have time to walk in the gardens. For lunch we drove into the town of Amboise, and our guides and Cruise Manager gave us some great suggestions for lunch. We chose a boulangerie highly recommended by Simon, and had quiche, wine, and delicious desserts. Then on to our meeting place to tour CHÂTEAU D'AMBOISE located right in town. This former medieval castle was remodeled in the Renaissance to a royal residence. The Gothic chapel contains the final resting place of Leonardo da Vinci. Then on to the final chateaux of the day, CHÂTEAU CLOS DU LUCE (Leonardo da Vinci’s last home. Here, during the final years of his life, he completed some of his most treasured works, The Mona Lisa, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the Saint John the Baptist.). This one was especially fascinating because on the bottom floor they have a museum of da Vinci’s drawings of his inventions with replicas of them produced with original materials by IBM. After touring 3 chateaux I was exhausted, but Cruise Manager Marianna held out a “carrot” to get us to the finish line, a wine tasting in Amboise! Amboise, France: Second day of touring castles before we depart to Paris. A joy to have our same guides again today. First up CHÂTEAU DE CHAMBORD (Located at the heart of Europe’s largest enclosed wooded park, its 156-yard façade, 426 rooms, 77 staircases and 282 fireplaces make this the largest castle in Loire Valley.) Also described as “astoundingly massive, it was the high point of all the chateaux visits for me, but oh my, lots of stairs! After the tour, we were off to Blois, France for lunch on our own and a tour of CHÂTEAU DU BLOIS (residence of seven kings and ten queens of France). By the time we were done, I had my fill of chateaux, but even though I was tired, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of them. Now for the 3 hour drive to Paris, with a rest stop along the way. Dining: All breakfasts were included on the post-cruise tour. Lunch was on our own, with suggestions of good restaurants wherever we were. Dinner the first night was at the Chateaux de Pray in their Michelin star restaurant L’Orangerie. We had a fixed menu, since our group took up the whole restaurant. Dinner was included, but drinks were on our own and could be charged to our rooms. We chose local wines, of course. It was such a lovely experience. The second night we were on our own, again with many recommendations on restaurants in Amboise or you could choose to eat at L’Orangerie again with their regular menu. Reservations are recommended to all. We ate at La Reserve in Amboise, and I would highly recommend it. A shuttle is provided into Amboise that evening, but you are responsible for getting a taxi back to the hotel. Final night in Paris is on your own, but only real option was the hotel restaurant. Luckily it was delicious. At first, I was bothered by not having lunches and dinners included, but came to actually appreciate the chance to try small local restaurants. Transportation: As mentioned above, there was one bus for the post-cruise group and our driver was with us from the ship to drop off in Paris. He was an excellent driver through small country roads and Paris traffic. (Don’t forget to tip the driver and guides! Cruise Manager tip can be charged to your shipboard account before the end of the cruise.) There was always bottled water available and replacement batteries for the Quiet Vox. Since we were only 37 on bus built for 60, we could spread out comfortably. Guides spent time pointing things out for us along the way using the bus microphone and it worked flawlessly the whole trip. Conclusion: Other than being really tiring with two full days of tours, the post-cruise was as excellent as the rest of our Ama experience. Well organized, interesting, and fun. Everything like hotels, meals, guides, was top notch.

I am now doing that even at home for long posts like the ones I've been doing for my review of the Ama River Cruise of Bordeaux I just finished. Much easier!

Exactly right! @pontac Scenic Diamond does indeed do the Garonne, Gironde, Dordogne route. Here is the description https://www.scenicusa.com/our-ships/our-space-ships/scenic-diamond---sapphire

Here are the pictures my friend took of the bridge opening in Bordeaux. 1. Regular street view 2. Scenic Diamond river boat waiting to go through the lock and bridge 3. Road blocked with straggler still on it 4. Bridge is lifting 5. Completely lifted and ready to rotate 6. Bridge in rotated position and the Diamond has sailed through

No, it was a river cruise boat. There was a side channel it was docked in. We weren't sure if they were there for repairs/updates or what, because we only saw crew onboard. There is a lock they go through at the bridge. As I mentioned, the bridge was not above the water like a normal bridge you would drive over, just at regular land level.

Here comes Part II of my review: the Cruise Taste of Bordeaux Wine Cruise AmaWaterways 7 days Amadolce Ship: Amadolce, max passengers 140, actual passengers on our cruise 110. Beautiful ship. Cabin: 302, Category A+. We chose this cabin because the pictures online showed a larger bathroom arrangement than the rest of the categories. When we cruise on Scenic last year in their lowest level cabin, we had to open the bathroom door to turn around, so bathroom size is now a priority. Unfortunately, the layout was not as shown on the deck plan, but was the same as all other cabins. Wouldn’t have paid the extra for this suite if we had known that! Good news was that the actual layout was manageable for us. Negatives about the cabin were lack of counter space as well as no drawer space. Found a pull out bin under one of the twin beds, which unfortunately was unusable in the twin bed configuration (provided feedback on cruise survey at end, since it would have been usable if placed under the other bed). Plenty of hangers though! No difference between a suite and A+ other than Suite has a bathtub. As typical in Europe, the beds have a duvet instead of a top sheet and blanket. Easily changed if you let reception know. Staff: Never met our room hostess, but our room was made up twice a day as expected, so think she did a great job. Only saw her picture on the t.v. As previous mentioned, our Cruise Manager Marianna was excellent. Everything well organized. Presentations each night about upcoming day during Sip and Sail hour. Captain and ship crew were visible everywhere, doing everything when they weren’t “driving” the boat. Bar staff were great. There were 3 people in the lounge serving drinks and food in the lounge and they were very responsive to any requests or questions. Reception staff was knowledgeable and helpful. Most crew seemed to be from Serbia and Romania, and this was the first cruise of the season, so some were brand new. Training was obviously going on, but pretty much transparent to passengers. Dining: Three meals served in the dining room each day in the dining room, as well as light lunch and dinner options in the lounge and one night per passenger at the chef’s table at the back of the ship. Breakfast had a small buffet option (bacon/sausage, eggs, bread, pastries, yogurt, granola), a cook to order omelet option, and a breakfast menu with a daily special. Hours are announced on the cruise schedule daily, depending on the sailing/touring schedule. Wine and sodas are free at lunch, and during Sip and Sail hour, and at dinner. Otherwise they can be charged to your account. They were fine if we brought our own wine anytime (after all, it was a wine cruise!). All the food was very good. There is always a Chef’s Suggested menu, as well as two or three other options for each course. Menus reflected the area we were sailing in. Wines offered were mostly (appropriately) Bordeaux regional wines, both red, white, and pink, as well as champagne, and the quality was good. You could ask for a different wine than what was offered both in the dining room and in the lounge. Ice cream is made onboard, so try it! Tours: I found all the tours to be very good. As mentioned in a previous post, “Gentle Walker” option was offered for everything with their own guide. There is lots of bus time when visiting vineyards and other sites outside the actual town. Buses were never full. There was also a bike option led by the fitness director for many tours, which my fellow passengers really enjoyed. Tour descriptions were accurate. The Cruise Manager Marianna went on the tours, rotating between the groups. Quiet Vox was used on the tours and provided for each passenger, with each group using a different channel. This is something I’ve experienced on all river cruises, and just wish ocean cruises would follow suit! Feel free to ask about any specific tours. Wine Theme: This was billed as a wine cruise, so many (but not all) activities had a wine component to them. We had Mike and Melissa, the owners of Crystal Basin Winery in California were the wine hosts for the cruise. This cruise had originally been scheduled for the Rhone river in 2020, so Mike had shipped their wines pre-Covid with the Rhone in mind. Here we are 3 years later in Bordeaux! We tasted the wines and enjoyed them, and learned about Bordeaux, Provence, and the Sierra Foothills in California. Mike was a great and humorous presenter. Never pushed their wines, as I have read in other reviews of wine cruises with hosts. It was a delight to have Mike and Melissa as fellow passengers. Passengers: Due to the nature of the cruise, most passengers were fellow wine drinkers. A large group from the Crystal Basin wine club, and another fairly big group from Toronto. The rest of us were a mix from all over the world (Canada, U.S., Panama, Brazil, Sweden, Scotland, etc.) Everyone was well traveled and enjoyed discussing a variety of things. Even though some groups were onboard, everyone blended beautifully. Great mixing of passengers in the dining room, since no assigned tables. Miscellaneous: AmaWaterways App was great! It had the daily schedule, all tours, access to your Guest Booklet which had your personal schedule which for us included pre-cruise, cruise, and post-cruise. You could see at any given time where on the river you were sailing. Never had a problem with the app. Internet is included, and very reliable. Never had a problem with it. Fitness classes are offered several times each day, stretch, pilates, yoga are some that I saw. Bikes are available to ride in each port. Free time was plentiful in each port, and you could always opt to do your own thing rather than take a tour. Weather this time of year (late March) was cool to cold, with rain on a few days. Just one day (in Blaye) was blustery enough to keep many people onboard. River currents can be strong. Conclusion: Would I recommend this cruise line and itinerary? YES! I had heard that these rivers aren’t as beautiful as the Rhine for instance, so was thinking I would be underwhelmed by the scenery. To my surprise I was not! Most of what you see is the French countryside with houses and buildings that looked as charming as I always imagined France would be. (Pre and post cruise tours are described in other posts in this thread.) Also a great evening cruise on the last night in Bordeaux.

Interestingly we saw a Scenic river cruise boat sail out of Bordeaux that required a bridge opening (we didn't where we were docked). We were at Citi du Vin right at the bridge when it happened. This bridge is a roadway at normal road level. They shut down the road, the piece of the road that is the bridge lifts straight up about 4 feet (maybe) and rotates, et voila, the river is open for the boat! Total process from closing the road to re-opening the road for traffic was probably 20 minutes. Just amazing! Was a highlight of the day for this engineer!

From personal experience last year, yes they will fly you from a different city. In my case, debarked in Barcelona, traveled for 2-3 weeks, and flew home from Lisbon on the air deviation. Was told by other passengers or my TA that the policy with an air deviation is you can fly up to 30 days before and/or after the cruise from any airport.

Just back from the fabulous Ama Bordeaux wine cruise, including both pre and post land tours. Since there is so much info, I will divide into 3 posts: pre-cruise, cruise, post-cruise. Pre-cruise in Spain's Basque region (Bilbao, San Sebastian) Transfer: Ama rep was at Bilbao airport right outside the luggage pick up. Introduced us to our driver, and off we went in a very nice van with another couple that became cruise-long friends. Only question we had here was whether we were supposed to tip the driver. We did, other couple didn't. Hotel: Ama is now using the Hotel Ercilla de Bilbao for the 2 night portion of the pre-cruise in Bilao. They decided to start staying at this hotel because it has a restaurant, which is appreciated by jet-lagged passengers on that first night! All of our group that I talked to loved the hotel; lovely staff, lovely rooms, wonderful breakfast buffet, well located with plenty of restaurants close by. Many took advantage of the lovely rooftop terrace for dinner the first night. Concierge kindly made reservations for several of us at a restaurant a couple blocks away for the second night, which was recommended by hotel staff and guides. Dinner and lunch reservations seem to be the norm for the places we went. Restaurants are often tiny, and can't handle a large crowd. Tour Group organization: One thing I liked about Ama (vs. Scenic) was that the Cruise Manager was with our group from pre cruise through post cruise. Can't praise Marianna (our Cruise Manager) enough for her organization and friendliness. Our pre cruise group was 55 people, which was half of the total number for the cruise. We had two buses for us, with local guides accompanying both buses along with Marianna. All tours included a "Gentle Walker" group that was a bit slower and tried to avoid stairs. I took advantage of this option the entire trip. Usually 5-8 people in this group, and we agreed we always had the BEST guides everywhere we went! Some guides stayed with us for multiple days. Don't forget to tip your local guides! 3-4 euro was about right at this time, though I tended to tip more since "Gentle Walkers" was such a small group each day. Also tip the bus driver a couple euro each day. Tours: GUERNICA EXCURSION AND BILBAO "A CITY OF CONTRASTS" TOUR took us by bus up to Guernica where we toured a market and visited the highlights of the town, including a mural of the "Guernica" painting by Picasso. Then headed back to Bilbao for pintxos (pronounced "pinch-os") and a tour of the old town. Very nice and interesting tour. Dinner was on our own that night. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM VISIT AND TRANSFER TO SAN SEBASTIAN was the tour for the second day. Also included a visit to the Hanging Bridge. Museum guide led tour at the Guggenheim, lunch on our own, then headed off to San Sebastian. Lunch at the museum cafe was delicious and reasonably priced. About 1.5 hour ride to San Sebastian. Part II San Sebastian: Hotel: Hotel NH Collection San Sebastián Aránzazu is an NH chain hotel, similar to a Hilton. It is a 20 minute drive to the Old Town of San Sebastian, which is where all the action takes place on this part of the tour. The breakfast buffet was fine, but certainly not as nice as the one we had in Bilbao. Tours: EVENING WALK OF OLD TOWN SAN SEBASTIÁN takes you on a tour the first night of Old Town then dinner on your own with either a bus or taxi ride back to to hotel after you are done with dinner. Warning: eating at pintxos bars means you choose your pintxos at a counter then stand up at a table to eat. We chose to have a sit down dinner at one of the restaurants, and would recommend making a reservation. Guides and Cruise Manager can make a recommendation. "CITY BY THE BAY OF BISCAY" TOUR was the morning tour on the second day. Beautiful views mostly. The afternoon is on your own, so we took this opportunity to eat lunch at a restaurant recommended by a friend. We did make reservations, but they wouldn't have been necessary. We went to Bodegon Alejandro in Old Town ( http://www.bodegonalejandro.com/en/menu/menu/#bodegónalejandro). They have a great tasting menu of traditional Basque dishes with or without wine pairings. Rest of the day was on our own. We were so full from lunch we didn't need dinner! Transfer to Bordeaux: Finally the next morning we were off to Bordeaux to board Almadolce for the river cruise portion. On the way we were scheduled to visit Bayone, but at the last minute we went to Bairritz instead due to protests in Bayonne over the change in pensions in France. From a passenger point of view, this change was seamless, but we supposed the Cruise Manager and Guides were stressed by it for a bit. Our guides from San Sebastian stayed with us for the transfer, which was a great idea. In Bairritz we had a tour of the town (ritzy seaside resort) ending with a tour of the market with delicious tastings. All long bus rides include a "comfort stop" at a nice truck stop. To be continued....

We are on that cruise as well and doing both pre and post cruise tours. I will be flying to Athens through Atlanta. Look forward to meeting you.

A week from now I will be flying to Bilbao. Thanks for all the good wishes. Look forward to reporting back in 3 weeks.

Agree with everything you said. When Japan first opened to family visits last summer they were requiring a family visa obtained in person from the embassy, a previous website even more complicated than Visit Japan, being booked on a tour. But those of us who couldn't see our family for three years were willing to do it. Slowly but surely the backed off on the restrictions. By December when I finally made it to Okinawa it was down to 3 blue screens on Visit Japan, masks on all JAL flights, and masks in public. I'm sorry you all are at the beginning of the cruise ship phase, but if it follows the pattern it should relax soon. Haven't seen many masks in the pictures from Grand Asia cruise on Explorer which is 2 ports in out of 16 in Japan.

Did he say what his objection to hand sanitizer was?

Taking same cruise with pre and post tours in two weeks. I will report back!

Japan doesn't have "requirements" only "recommendations"!

Anyone interested in starting an excursion review thread? Location of excursion Name of excursion Date taken Impressions Others who have taken the same excursion could reply to the post with their input. Then thread would be searchable by location. I know I value the opinions of my fellow passengers, and keep notes for future cruises that I have booked, sometimes 2 years in advance!

MJ, Were South African wines available? I think they touted in the recent Society Pages, that they do stock South African wines in that part of the world. Martha

That was the thing I most looked forward to on our TA last April when I turned Gold! No more logging out so that my roommate could get online!

Ahh. Stavanger! I always remind my self I went to see the Stave Church! Had the same guide on another tour in the area. Same result.

Interestingly, the one time we booked concierge and came into Copenhagen 2 days early and had already booked a hotel, we took the hotel night credit from Regent, and it actually paid for our two night reservation! Remember you get the credit for each person!

Always love a deck BBQ! Regent does indeed know how to throw a party!

Wonderful food pix! Sorry you had a bumpy ride, but glad you didn't miss any of the delicious food because of it.

Love the location, but haven't sailed in a window suite. Easy walk to the coffee connection!