Crusin-Suzan Posted February 3, 2018 #1 Share Posted February 3, 2018 We are doing a 14 day cruise out of AMS in June!!! Any tips from former Ama sailers? This is our first river boat cruise!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibs4evr Posted February 4, 2018 #2 Share Posted February 4, 2018 We were on the Amadaggio back in 2012, Lyon to Arles, with 3 days in Paris, then 3 days in Barcelona. Loved it, ship, crew and staff were all excellent. Cant believe we havent managed another one yet, but we're booked on the Serena from Budapest to Amsterdam for next Christmas and New Year, really looking forward to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamperCali Posted February 17, 2018 #3 Share Posted February 17, 2018 We are on the Amadara 3/19/18 for the Mekong River Delta - can't wait to report back, everything sounds amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2travelc Posted February 17, 2018 #4 Share Posted February 17, 2018 We're going on our first river cruise with Serena from Vilshofen to Budapest in June. Really appreciate hearing about experiences and tips anyone might have. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaroleLee Posted February 18, 2018 #5 Share Posted February 18, 2018 We are doing a 14 day cruise out of AMS in June!!! Any tips from former Ama sailers? This is our first river boat cruise!!! Just booked our 3rd AMA( prior Provence, Normandy)to Bordeaux. Would not have booked if service, food, personnel etc were not outstanding. An example of their attention to details/customer service- Last July we landed @ CGD at 6:30am -they were waiting for us-transfer to AMA Lyra. Arrived at ship some 45 minutes later. Anticipated that we would have to wait for our cabin to be ready-however as soon as we checked in reception announced that as they knew we would be early cabin was ready. They also told us to enjoy breakfast. Note all meals were excellent.Wine poured at meal time was very nice.Excursions were well organized- NOTE: If you want to DIY at any stop just tell the guide and be sure you know were the ship will be. Your headphones will fit the quite vox system. Be sure to book Chef's Table. Enjoy Carole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2travelc Posted February 19, 2018 #6 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Wow that sounds great! Thanks Carole! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilstinger Posted February 22, 2018 #7 Share Posted February 22, 2018 I've been on 4 AMA cruises (Paris to Normandy, Tulip Time, Prague to Budapest, Taste of Bordeaux) & loved each one! Everyone I've met onboard has been a delight and you won't find better crews anywhere. I happen to be sailing on my 1st Viking river cruise (Christmas Markets) this November with a friend & I'm already regretting we won't be travelling with AMA after seeing all the nickel & diming Viking does with their excursions! Needless to say, next year, I'll be back with AMA for my Lyon to Arles trip;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdroho34 Posted February 28, 2018 #8 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Does anyone in this roll call know if AMA, specifically AmaKristina has binoculars on board? Doing Captivating Rhine July 23-30 as a family of four (two boys 16 and 19) and wondering if we need to bring our own as I imagine there is plenty to look at along the shore. Also hoping that since it is summer there may be a few younger passengers on board. Also, does anyone know if it is hard to get the bikes in the ports? We are fairly active so can see us using them in a few ports. Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linkerbink Posted March 1, 2018 #9 Share Posted March 1, 2018 We were on AmaLegro from Paris to Normandy. It was wonderful, great food, wine at every meal, excellent service, pleasant and efficient staff. Just today we booked AmaPrima for the Tulip Time cruise in April 2019... can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 1, 2018 #10 Share Posted March 1, 2018 We are doing a 14 day cruise out of AMS in June!!! Any tips from former Ama sailers? This is our first river boat cruise!!! We sailed the AMA Serena last April. First river cruise after many ocean cruises and we were hooked. Loved everything about the river cruise and AMA Waterways. Be prepared to be somewhat busy if you want to be. We are quite active and took a tour most days. We thought we had picked out our excursions, but realized that when we were sailing and the cruise director was going over the excursions that we had more options to pick from and changed our original choice. From the moment you board your ship, the crew will be there smiling and helping you enjoy your trip. The food was excellent. After many years of ocean cruising, it was nice to have the intimacy of the smaller group and each night you could move to a different table and meet your fellow cruisers. The bonus of having local beers or wines served at meals was a great option. This year, 2018, there is an added cocktail hour each afternoon. You will not go hungry. Food stations are put out mid morning and mid afternoon. There are several options if you do not wish to go to diningroom for your breakfast - they have a late risers breakfast available in the lounge. Coffee/tea/ other drinks are available 24/7 for you to help your self. Afternoon tea time with sweets and sandwiches even if no one is on board. If you decide you do not want to go on a tour you signed up for, you can opt out. We explored several towns on our own getting a later start on days that we just felt we wanted some down time. I cannot say enough about how much we enjoy river cruising and wish there were more threads on Cruise Critic to help newbies like ourselves find out more information before we travel. We are booked for our second river cruise with AMA in May. If you have any questions that I can answer for you, please reply. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 1, 2018 #11 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Does anyone in this roll call know if AMA, specifically AmaKristina has binoculars on board? Doing Captivating Rhine July 23-30 as a family of four (two boys 16 and 19) and wondering if we need to bring our own as I imagine there is plenty to look at along the shore. Also hoping that since it is summer there may be a few younger passengers on board. Also, does anyone know if it is hard to get the bikes in the ports? We are fairly active so can see us using them in a few ports. Thanks everyone. I don't recall binoculars on board our AMA ship but everything else was there. Staterooms were well equipped. Umbrellas in room, hopefully you won't need them. Shoe horn in closet. Lots of storage especially for luggage under the bed. Amenities in bathroom are quite good quality. I believe each ship has its own bikes onboard that you can reserve. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdroho34 Posted March 2, 2018 #12 Share Posted March 2, 2018 I don't recall binoculars on board our AMA ship but everything else was there. Staterooms were well equipped. Umbrellas in room, hopefully you won't need them. Shoe horn in closet. Lots of storage especially for luggage under the bed. Amenities in bathroom are quite good quality. I believe each ship has its own bikes onboard that you can reserve. Hope this helps. Thanks. I will bring a small pair of our own, thanks for the extra info, we have done ocean cruises but never river so this is new to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdroho34 Posted March 2, 2018 #13 Share Posted March 2, 2018 We sailed the AMA Serena last April. First river cruise after many ocean cruises and we were hooked. Loved everything about the river cruise and AMA Waterways. Be prepared to be somewhat busy if you want to be. We are quite active and took a tour most days. We thought we had picked out our excursions, but realized that when we were sailing and the cruise director was going over the excursions that we had more options to pick from and changed our original choice. From the moment you board your ship, the crew will be there smiling and helping you enjoy your trip. The food was excellent. After many years of ocean cruising, it was nice to have the intimacy of the smaller group and each night you could move to a different table and meet your fellow cruisers. The bonus of having local beers or wines served at meals was a great option. This year, 2018, there is an added cocktail hour each afternoon. You will not go hungry. Food stations are put out mid morning and mid afternoon. There are several options if you do not wish to go to diningroom for your breakfast - they have a late risers breakfast available in the lounge. Coffee/tea/ other drinks are available 24/7 for you to help your self. Afternoon tea time with sweets and sandwiches even if no one is on board. If you decide you do not want to go on a tour you signed up for, you can opt out. We explored several towns on our own getting a later start on days that we just felt we wanted some down time. I cannot say enough about how much we enjoy river cruising and wish there were more threads on Cruise Critic to help newbies like ourselves find out more information before we travel. We are booked for our second river cruise with AMA in May. If you have any questions that I can answer for you, please reply. :) I agree, I like to be well prepared and there is limited info from previous river cruisers available. Thanks for all the info, my teenage boys will appreciate the snacks between meals :) With ocean cruising I picked my shore excursions months in advance, how does it work with Ama? We cruise in July on the Rhine and our final payment is due in April. Will I get all my info after final payment is in and that is when I pick my excursions or do you just decide once on the ship? Much appreciated. Maureen, Calgary, Alberta Canada Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 2, 2018 #14 Share Posted March 2, 2018 I agree, I like to be well prepared and there is limited info from previous river cruisers available.Thanks for all the info, my teenage boys will appreciate the snacks between meals :) With ocean cruising I picked my shore excursions months in advance, how does it work with Ama? We cruise in July on the Rhine and our final payment is due in April. Will I get all my info after final payment is in and that is when I pick my excursions or do you just decide once on the ship? Much appreciated. Maureen, Calgary, Alberta Canada Maureen, you will be pleasantly surprised at the information you will get from AMA. Probably at least a month or more before you cruise. You can go in on the AMA website where you put in all your online information and there is quite a bit of information on the tours they offer. They have the gentle walk/tour or the regular one or the biking usually for every port of call. When you receive your package from AMA it comes in a lovely zippered wallet type holder and there is a nice book of maps and information plus a book that has all the information on your excursions for you to read and check out. It is a good review of what to expect but when you being your trip, they will have an information session on the ship, and show a slide show of each excursion. They give you a paper to fill out and submit when you do your final decision on which excursion you want to do. We thought we had ours picked until we watched the presentation and then made a few changes. Very professional and well done. If you decide at last minute you don't want to do an excursion but want to explore on your own, its no problem. We did that two times when in smaller towns as we wanted to relax and take some time to explore ourselves. River cruising is a wonderful new adventure for us and we enjoyed it so much. We cruise in May on the Rhine. I don't mind asking any questions you might have at all if you think of anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 2, 2018 #15 Share Posted March 2, 2018 I agree, I like to be well prepared and there is limited info from previous river cruisers available.Thanks for all the info, my teenage boys will appreciate the snacks between meals :) With ocean cruising I picked my shore excursions months in advance, how does it work with Ama? We cruise in July on the Rhine and our final payment is due in April. Will I get all my info after final payment is in and that is when I pick my excursions or do you just decide once on the ship? Much appreciated. Maureen, Calgary, Alberta Canada Maureen, I meant to say that you can go on the AMA website now, and login to your account, and you will get lots of information there on the excursions. Gives you much more time to plan prior to getting your documents and tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 2, 2018 #16 Share Posted March 2, 2018 We were on the Amadaggio back in 2012, Lyon to Arles, with 3 days in Paris, then 3 days in Barcelona. Loved it, ship, crew and staff were all excellent. Cant believe we havent managed another one yet, but we're booked on the Serena from Budapest to Amsterdam for next Christmas and New Year, really looking forward to it We were on Ama Serena last April. Great father and son team for the bar and diningroom. Wonderful crew, captain and cruise director. Beautiful ship. Enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusin-Suzan Posted March 3, 2018 Author #17 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Thanks for all the great info! We make final payment next week and so looking forward to viewing the excurions! Does anyone use the swim up bar????:cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 3, 2018 #18 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Thanks for all the great info! We make final payment next week and so looking forward to viewing the excurions! Does anyone use the swim up bar????:cool: Our cruise was April and it was cool and somewhat wet. There were a few that used the pool as it was nicely heated. Nice bathrobes in the rooms as well. I don't think the swim up bar portion was open due to weather but in the summer it definitely would be. Looked very inviting. Enjoy. Have you logged into your reservation on the AMA Waterways site and put in your online checking information? There is a lot of information on their site about each port and type of excursions. Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoosier2017 Posted March 4, 2018 #19 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Cruising the Danube in November and see that Bratislava is not a port the cruise will stop in. Has anyone cruised in November on a Romantic Danube itinerary and if so, which port is in lieu of Bratislava. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 4, 2018 #20 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Our cruise was April and it was cool and somewhat wet. There were a few that used the pool as it was nicely heated. Nice bathrobes in the rooms as well. I don't think the swim up bar portion was open due to weather but in the summer it definitely would be. Looked very inviting. Enjoy. Have you logged into your reservation on the AMA Waterways site and put in your online checking information? There is a lot of information on their site about each port and type of excursions. Have fun. My travel agent just advised us of a new app that AMA Waterways has for river cruising. Might make things easy to check out while travelling. AmaWaterways recently developed an app calledAmaCruiser, which is available for free and features a live cruise-tracking mapas well as photos and information about each of the destinations and theavailable shore excursions. The app gives users the opportunity to upload theirphotos and create a personal cruise album or share images via email or onsocial media. The daily cruise newsletter is also made available during thesailing, with the daily schedule of events” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22travel2 Posted March 4, 2018 #21 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Thanks to everyone who has provided some great information. We are from British Columbia, Canada and booked the 7 night Paris/Normandy cruise in June 2019 on Ama Lyra This is our 2nd River cruise the first was with Viking in 2014. Looking forward to the AMA experience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusin-Suzan Posted March 4, 2018 Author #22 Share Posted March 4, 2018 My travel agent just advised us of a new app that AMA Waterways has for river cruising. Might make things easy to check out while travelling. AmaWaterways recently developed an app calledAmaCruiser, which is available for free and features a live cruise-tracking mapas well as photos and information about each of the destinations and theavailable shore excursions. The app gives users the opportunity to upload theirphotos and create a personal cruise album or share images via email or onsocial media. The daily cruise newsletter is also made available during thesailing, with the daily schedule of events” Thanks for sharing this! Downloaded it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdroho34 Posted March 5, 2018 #23 Share Posted March 5, 2018 My travel agent just advised us of a new app that AMA Waterways has for river cruising. Might make things easy to check out while travelling. AmaWaterways recently developed an app calledAmaCruiser, which is available for free and features a live cruise-tracking mapas well as photos and information about each of the destinations and theavailable shore excursions. The app gives users the opportunity to upload theirphotos and create a personal cruise album or share images via email or onsocial media. The daily cruise newsletter is also made available during thesailing, with the daily schedule of events” Thanks for letting us know about the App. I downloaded it but can't sign up yet. I can't sign in on the AMA site either yet. I booked with a travel agent and suspect AMA won't get my file until my final payment is due in April as AMA doesn't seem to recognize my name yet. Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachbumsns Posted March 5, 2018 #24 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Thanks for letting us know about the App. I downloaded it but can't sign up yet. I can't sign in on the AMA site either yet. I booked with a travel agent and suspect AMA won't get my file until my final payment is due in April as AMA doesn't seem to recognize my name yet. Thanks everyone. We were able to sign into the AMA Waterways site as soon as we put the down payment on it. The confirmation # is an 8 digit number on the top of our invoice on the right side. Seems strange that you cannot log in, as this information is usually available immediately after your booking. Perhaps check with your TA to find out your proper confirmation # so you can log in and check out the site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cambriah Posted March 8, 2018 #25 Share Posted March 8, 2018 Hi All We are two Seniors who have taken many ocean cruises ,and will be taking our first river cruise with AMA on The Prima in about a month. Any thoughts/suggestions regarding such things as dress code, tipping, land tours, dining, etc would be greatly appreciated. Over 80 and still loving the cruise experience. Thanks in advance! Cambriah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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