AMA vs. Viking

[caviargal]

Actually, AMA is indeed one of the more children/family-friendly river cruise lines -- at least on their two newest ships which were designed in conjunction with Disney. Some of the dates on those ships are for Disney cruises and feature lots of children-oriented activities; on the rest of the sailings it's a regular AMA cruise but the ship does have special cabins designed to accommodate family groups. Other than these ships, the only river cruise lines I would recommend as especially family-friendly are the Tauck "Bridges" cruises.

 

It is IMO important to note that other than these specific Disney sold cruises, there are no programs or provisions or kids clubs or anything similar on AMA. Also, to clarify, the only AMA ships that have connecting cabins to accommodate families are the ships in this program.

 

Uniworld, Tauck and AMA all offer a special series of cruises for families.

[caviargal]

Based on your experience with AMA are you saying that you don't think children would be welcome or accommodated on AMA?

 

I did not say they would not be welcomed on AMA; I stated that we have not seen children on any but one of our 7 AMA cruises. As for "accommodated" it depends what you mean by that.

 

River cruises in general are not geared toward children. AMA has a series of special Disney cruises that would be ideal; however, on their regular cruises there are no activities, excursions, child menus, etc. that would make it a cruise geared to families with kids.

 

The same can be said for Uniworld and Tauck who offer particular sailings with family programs.

 

Many lines have a minimum age requirement for kids.

[Got2Cruise]

On our cruise there was one eight year old boy. He went into the pool each day. The child was such a trooper, he went on every excursion and was always in good spirits wherever he went. AMA always has hikes and those were the excursions he and his parents went on. Otherwise he went on the regular excursions and looked around and learned new things just like the rest of us. Bottom line if the child is used to being in an adult environment and can entertain himself he should do fine.

 

 

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[philw1776]

Actually, AMA is indeed one of the more children/family-friendly river cruise lines -- at least on their two newest ships which were designed in conjunction with Disney. Some of the dates on those ships are for Disney cruises and feature lots of children-oriented activities; on the rest of the sailings it's a regular AMA cruise but the ship does have special cabins designed to accommodate family groups. Other than these ships, the only river cruise lines I would recommend as especially family-friendly are the Tauck "Bridges" cruises.

 

Kids never got into anything Disney and are older and into European history, and would enjoy the adult tours. Tauck, AMA & Uniworld (excellent, except wife hates the decor) are on my radar. I'll be paying for 6 people & looking for a deal.

 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

[philw1776]

Should you ever cruise Viking Rivers again, definitely try Aquavit for dinner! We ate there about half the time on our August Rhine cruise and it was lovely. Service is top notch. If you don't care for what's on the buffet offerings, they'll gladly get you whatever is being served in the MDR that evening. If you notice there's a stairwell right behind the Aquavit buffet and that leads directly to the galley below so it's no trouble at all to serve the al fresco diners whatever they please.

 

Thanks for the dinner suggestion!

We'll try it this October's cruise.

Well aware of the stairway. We live on the Aquavit couches in the shaded area during the day when sailing or at lunch.

[nordski]

Hi - we have a story where we directly compared Ama vs. Viking. Give it a read!

 

Really appreciated this post.

 

Drew attention to features, such as swimming pools, which may not be important to some cruisers.

[nordski]

 

Luckily there are choices on the river and for us, there are several lines we enjoy and would cruise with again happily (Viking not being one of those).

 

Since you would not "cruise...again happily" on Viking, was your previous experience before or after the launching of the "longships"?

 

Thanks

[caviargal]

Since you would not "cruise...again happily" on Viking, was your previous experience before or after the launching of the "longships"?

 

Thanks

 

To clarify, there are three lines I would happily cruise again with - those are AMA, Uniworld and Scenic. I have never cruised with and will not be choosing Viking in the future, for many reasons. Nor would I choose to repeat Avalon as I much preferred the other 3 lines to my Avalon experiences.

Edited September 14, 2016 by caviargal

[nordski]

To clarify, there are three lines I would happily cruise again with - those are AMA, Uniworld and Scenic. I have never cruised with and will not be choosing Viking in the future, for many reasons. Nor would I choose to repeat Avalon as I much preferred the other 3 lines to my Avalon experiences.

 

Appreciate the clarification.

[tribbs1]

My first river cruise was on the Viking Helvetia on a Rhine cruise. We booked late and took the swan view cabin at the bottom of the boat. For us that was fine as we never spent time in our cabin.

We were the youngest passengers onboard by quite a bit - I was 50 and my husband 51. We had a great cruise director and the staff was very professional and accommodating. We both felt that the food was very good. The wine and beer choices were limited, but adequate.

The included tours were very good as well. I will say that the pace was slow due to the older clientele and there are not options for a livelier paced tour for the younger crowd. We did like that we had a lot of free time to roam the cities where we were docked.

Our second river cruise was on the AMALyra on the Danube. We added the pre-cruise in Prague and an extra day in Budapest. The cruise was very good. We were one of the only ships to make it all the way into Budapest (due to the high river) which is a plus with AMA. We enjoyed having 2-3 tour options in most ports to choose from, especially the bike tours. AMA is a better cruise line for younger and more active passengers. Besides the bike tours there are hiking tours and 3 different touring groups (gentle, regular and active). Our Cruise Director was excellent on this ship and I felt like the entertainment that was brought in was better. We had a French balcony on this cruise and it was nice to be able to stand at the balcony and watch the ship go through the locks. The food was very good on this ship. There were plenty of options, but by the end of the week I just wanted simpler food as we do not eat that heavy regularly. There were many more passengers in our age group this time - 50-55. I am taking a group of 26 passengers on the AMACerto on the Rhine River in 3 weeks so I will have a real comparison of Rhine itineraries after that.

Cons of Viking - their marketing of 2 for 1 pricing is a sham. That is their everyday pricing. They want final payment 30 days after the deposit. You can get this pushed out farther (I have done so several times for clients), but it is still a turnoff to pay out many thousands of dollars as much as a year in advance. No bikes or excursion options in port. Older clientele. Smaller cabins and more passengers. They have optional excursions that cost you money.

Pros of Viking - usually offer some sort of promotion and air inclusions.

They have a lot of ships so your chance of getting and itinerary you want when you want it is better.

Would I sail Viking again? We wouldn't hesitate if the itinerary we wanted was available for the right price. We prefer AMA for their excursions options and more active excursions and younger clientele.

Bottom line is that there is something for everyone and each river cruise company offers essentially the same itinerary. It is the little things that will distinguish one from the other, so do your research and see which line will best suit you.

[fnewman]

Another measurable difference is included excursions. On Ama there were only 2 or 3 optional excursions. On Viking there are more optional excursions you need to pay extra for.

I'm not sure I understand about the variances in the number of optional excursions. VIking has an INCLUDED excursion at each port of call, so you don't need to pay for any additions unless it is something you prefer to do. I have seen as few as 2 optional excursions on a Viking River cruise. As I recall both were cancelled because everyone was apparently happy with the included tours.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I'm not sure I understand about the variances in the number of optional excursions. VIking has an INCLUDED excursion at each port of call, so you don't need to pay for any additions unless it is something you prefer to do. I have seen as few as 2 optional excursions on a Viking River cruise. As I recall both were cancelled because everyone was apparently happy with the included tours.

 

The point is that AMA offers a choice of excursions at many ports, many of these are a second excursion of the day, and there is never an extra charge -- and they are rarely cancelled because people do sign up for them. Example: in Viviers on the Rhone we had a choice of 3 different excursions in the morning and then a choice of two additional excursions in the evening -- all were included and all were held.

[philw1776]

On my V Southern France cruise at Viviers we had morning afternoon & evening excursions with choices. Unlike AMA the afternoon excursion had a fee but not the others.

Edited September 16, 2016 by philw1776

[Sapper 190]

Based on your experience with AMA are you saying that you don't think children would be welcome or accommodated on AMA?

 

We have sailed 3 times on AMA and once on Uniworld. There have never been more than 2 families with children younger than teenagers on the boat. We don't mind kids around and I suspect that is the attitude of these 2 companies; they both welcome and accommodate children, as best they can given the limited space and primarily adult programming.

[Redtravel]

On my recent Viking cruise we had a lot of extremely hot weather. I would have enjoyed a dip in a pool. Sailing along I saw many people swimming in the river. It looked so nice. I really missed having a pool.

[Redtravel]

Viking ships often carry 190 guests. AMA ships have fewer guests. On Viking, I often did not find a seat at the evening briefing. On AMA there was always enough seats. ON Viking tour groups vary in size. On one tour there were 4 guides for 180 guests. My group was too big. They don't always have a leisure (slow) group. On the tours that include the slow walkers together with the standard pace, the pace is affected by the various walking levels. Too fast for some. Too slow for others. AMA always had a slow group.

[Kathy Q]

Hi all,

 

I've just booked my first River Cruise and the information in this post was very helpful!

 

Kathy Q

[JVilleGal]

Hi all,

 

I've just booked my first River Cruise and the information in this post was very helpful!

E

Kathy Q

 

Congratulations! But why keep us in suspense, who did you book with and what itinerary? What info on this thread was most important to you?

[Cyber Kat]

In all fairness, we have not cruised with AMA, so I can't and won't comment other than to say that bikes, hikes and pools weren't something we were looking for.

 

We had a Veranda cabin on Deck 2 and it was fine for the 2 of us. We were only rafted 3 times and 2 of three times we were on the outside and headed for a port excursion, so we used the Veranda quite a bit.

 

We had 185 passengers on our ship and it never felt crowded. We never had an issue finding a seat for the evening briefing (I had heard from others that this was an issue)

 

The food was good to great, and we never felt the need for a specialty restaurant. The included wine and beer fine. We could have brought our own on board with no issues, but we didn't feel the need for that either.

 

We had a fantastic cruise. We loved the ship. The staff couldn't have done more - they were all wonderful. We enjoyed the included excursions, and did 2 optional ones (for extra $). There was a "slow walkers" group for nearly every excursion. We did the regular ones.

 

I'm not good at guessing ages, but I'd say most on our cruise were from late 40s to early 70s. The average seemed to be in their 60s. We had one young couple who were in their late 20s to early 30s and they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

I would absolutely do another Viking cruise, but I have nothing against AMA. If the price and the itinerary were what we wanted, I'd consider them. We were next to one of their ships being used for APT at the dock in Amsterdam (not rafted). Looked like a very nice ship. We passed it or were docked near it several times.

 

So that's my tale and I'm sticking to it :D

[Boogwoog]

Hi all,

 

I've just booked my first River Cruise and the information in this post was very helpful!

 

Kathy Q

 

Hi Kathy, good luck with your first River Cruise. I cruised with you and other Tuggers in Alaska, 2006. My wife and I are cruising with AMA on October 10th from Budapest to Rousse, with a pre-cruise on our own in Vienna and a post-cruise stay in Istanbul. This is our second River Cruise with AMA (Paris-Barcelona was our first one in 2014). We had wonderful experiences with AMA on our first cruise and hope to replicate this on our second cruise.

 

With Marriott timeshares, frequent flyer miles and reward points (which we learned a lot over the years from the Tug Bulletin Board and FlyerTalk) we're able to front or back end our River Cruises with enjoyable land stays as well.

 

We hope you have a pleasurable experience with AMA.

 

Chris

[fnewman]

Hi all,

 

I've just booked my first River Cruise and the information in this post was very helpful!

 

Kathy Q

Hi Kathy! Good to hear from you again!

As you can see from our list, Debbie & I have gotten hooked on Viking - both River and Ocean. Hope we can end up on the same ship again one day.

Edited September 23, 2016 by fnewman

[JVilleGal]

Ok so it's a secret!

 

 

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[franski]

We have traveled both...

 

We almost always book lowest category cabin, so balcony space is lost on us.

 

Food and wine is subjective. So, to be honest, is satisfaction with the included excursions. Some people prefer detail from their guides, others do not...

 

In our river cruising history (just completed #11 earlier this month) we have found more similarities than differences. We look for itinerary (and, have learned to review carefully, as the devil is in the details), then date - then price.

 

We have found that the biggest single factor in any cruise is the Cruise Director --> and you have no control over that. Next, is the chef, and the kitchen crew. Again, you have no control over that. Things that would drive us nuts are not a big issue for others... And, things that are deal breakers for other people don't bother us.

 

You need to identify what is important to you. If paying in full months in advance is a problem, then Viking may not be your best option. We have traveled with them 3 times so far, and would travel with them again if the stars aligned. We have traveled with AMA once - and it wasn't stellar - but would book with them again if they had a product we wanted. I know many here on CC love AMA and are firmly committed to them. Lots of people are brand loyal --> we are not.

 

Right now, with the CDN dollar being so weak, I tend to look at Emerald. Any US based companies are much higher.

 

Do your homework, book what works for you - and don't second guess your decision. Travel with a "make lemonade" approach, and your risk of disappointment is reduced.

 

What ever you decide - enjoy!!

 

Fran

[terry&mike]

We are very similar to franski. We decide what area we'd like to cruise in, and then start looking at the itineraries offered by the different companies, that usually narrows it down. Then I compare costs, and go from there.

 

On river cruises we don't spring for the balcony, but do go with the larger windows (low cabins sometimes have small windows high up).

 

We have sailed a few different lines, and while I would not rule any line out, I have a leaning towards Viking as they have delivered a stellar performance for us in regards to food, service, tours, cleanliness.

 

I must add that I feel like river cruise lines are a bit like hotels though, in that different companies will appeal to different personalities, so someone else's favorite may not be the best fit for you.

[Kathy Q]

Congratulations! But why keep us in suspense, who did you book with and what itinerary? What info on this thread was most important to you?

 

Hi,

 

Sorry I didn't post that right away. I'll be on AMA, AmaPrima, 7 nights, Enchanting Rhine itinerary, departing October 31, 2016. Have a cabin with the picture window for this first time.

 

I can't wait!!!

 

Kathy Q