Dorotea

Thanks for the wonderful detailed synopsis of your Ama cruise. We are going for the Christmas market cruise on the Anabella in December. We did the Danube with another cruise line 6 years ago and can't wait to see the difference with Ama. I've heard that it's the best. 

Thanks for all the great info. Were coming in for a cruise the evening before and am stayng at the Hotel Alt. Is it within walking distance of Old Montreal or should we book a tour?

Thanks, besides not knowing where we dock, the agency hasn't given us our port times (despite asking many times). The agency is more than a bit SHADY as someone pointed out. So, I guess we'll just make the best of it all and maybe pay the higher price for each excursion we want since we aren't taking advantage of their "pre cruise discount" for excursions. I just hope others on this cruise understand that the company will not be giving refunds. It's just sad that we thought we were buying a great trip and now we find out that the agency is tricky and slippery, relying on fine print to make sure they make as much profit as possible.

 

Thanks for all the help with this.

We must be on the same charter cruise. We are not booking any of those tours but will try to do it on our own. Still don't have travel documents for Oct 16 sailing and leaving a few days early. Not happy.

Currently sitting in the KLM lounge in Amsterdam awaiting our return home.

 

We sailed the Emerald Sun which was slated to sail Amsterdam>Budapest from Sept 22-Oct6.

 

We had smooth sailing through to Regensburg. I had been monitoring this thread so was aware there could be a potential problem @Regensburg. We were asked to come to the lounge for a special announcement and sure enough, we were told we could not sail to Passau. Emerald would modify the day in Passau with a later bus trip in, 2-3 hours on shore then a bus to a port between Passau and Linz where we were to board the Emerald Sky, bags were to be packed and waiting outside your room by 8:30am. Our group wasn't keen on this, so we hatched a plan to deposit our bags in the hall @8am and then go to the Regensburg train station early the next day, get into Passau to enjoy the day and meet up with the bus at 4:30pm. The train took +/- 1hr. We are greatful we did, we loved Passau, had a great lunch overlooking Passau from the new restaurant @ the Fortress/Prince Bishops home. We met up with the bus and after +/-1:15hr bus ride we were on the Sky, our bags were in our room and we resumed onboard life.

 

Again, having monitored this thread I was aware we would more thank likely have an issue after Vienna. Our planned departure in Vienna was 2am. Our plan was to skip the concert and spend a Saturday evening in Vienna - going to dinner, having cocktails and enjoying the town (our demographic is a group of 40-47 year old's). The last shuttle from the ship was 5:15 and we had secured dinner reso's @8:30PM. We decided that 5:15 was a little early to go in and that we would use UBER or a taxi. Thank goodness. At 5:15 we were summonsed to the lounge where we were told that we would be sailing early due to water levels, and that all on board was 10pm. If we had gone to town, there would have been no way we would have known that the ship was sailing early. Very sloppy IMO. I am convinced we were sailing early to dock with Scenic (a division of the same company that owns Emerald). We could have easily missed the ship.

 

The ship made it to Komarom and that would be the end of the sailing. Emerald would give us a bus trip into Budapest and then back to ship. The next day airport transfers started at 3am until 9am. For those unware, Komarom is +/- 1hr45min from Budapest. Again our group wanted an evening in Budapest. We made our own arrangements in Budapest. We permanently disembarked on the 5th, joined the bus city tour and then said goodbye to our ship mates.

 

We had a superb time in Budapest. We toured the city independently, had an amazing dinner at Buddha Bar (for those that like Asian food, it's a must). We did a city boat tour at night and got all the amazing night pictures of Budapest that one would expect.

 

We did not witness any boats coming or going from Budapest when we were there on the 5th and 6th. There were no viking ships tied up, all we say were two boats from Avalon rafted together and one called the Albatross. Coincidently one of the Avalon boats, the Vista had left Amsterdam the day before us, and we saw it the whole trip. It did not have low water issues in Regensburg/Passau, nor in Komarom ;)

 

At the Captains dinner on the evening of the 4th the Captain apologized for our situation. He explained that the river police dictated ship traffic, after that it was his call. He then said ULTIMATELY it was the decision of the company ;) My true belief is that companies want to make sure they don't trap ships on one side or the other of a problematic zone, regardless if they can make it through at a given time or not. Having ships on opposite sides of a problem area is just good business.

 

Also..for those wondering. No rain at all during our cruise Sept 22-Oct 6.

Thanks for the Emerald Sun update. We're on it on the 16th Bud to Nuremberg and hope all is well by then. How was the cruise otherwise? Is it easy to get off and do your own tour in each city? We don't want to be stuck on a bus tour all day.