Considering Amawaterways-details please!

[need2travel1]

Hub & I are considering Amawaterways "Impressions of the Seine" for late July this year on the AmaDante.  This would be our 5th River Cruise (all Uniworld-loved all of them, the only reason we aren't sailing w/ them this year is that the itinerary/date we were interested in is booked).  Having never traveled with Ama before we're interested in any & all info/opinions on this cruise & the company overall.  Also interested in what their Covid protocal is onboard.  We're excited already & haven't even booked yet.  Details please-the good. bad & ugly.  

Thanks in advance!!

[beesKate]

To be candid, I have not traveled on AMA... however if we book another river cruise, I anticipate trying them out.  We have done all our cruises with Uniworld.  The last one, we met a couple who were on their first Uniworld after having sailed with AMA.  They kept on comparing U with AMA saying they preferred AMA.  The last couple of years, my sister and her husband have done several AMA cruises with extensions and have loved them all.  They even did two in the last year with covid restrictions and limitations.  They had nothing but great things to say about the line.   We did book with Uniworld for a cruise this October, but that may be our last one for a while.  

[need2travel1]

BeesKate,  

Thank you!  It's a new line for us & short notice too.  I'm trying to learn as much as I can but it's starting to feel like a daunting task!

[CastleCritic]

I did that cruise with my Mother back in late April to Early May.  Was my 4th cruise with them.  I thought it was one of their better itineraries.  Vs their normal Paris loop over the same river and most of the ports it certainly looked much more relaxed (she normally reaches Le Havre/the end of the seine on about the 3rd  and then has to power back to Paris) where as on this cruise it was on the 5th and even then we were off the ship all day while it made the final leg).  Its still a new itinerary (I was on the third sailing) so they may be tweaking it a little I can see that they dropped one of the excursions I did that I felt was a little redundant in the offerings so thats good.  I also recommend heavily the st.malo land extension on which ever end of the week that is for the week you were looking at.  Mt St. Michel is definitely a bucket list place to see.

 

The only downside is that the Le Havre end of the trip can (if you take the all day excursions) end up being a lot of time on a bus going to and from normandy for a few days in a row (literally 3 including the repositioning to or from st. Malo with the extension).  day 5  leaving from Paris the all day option is a bus from Caudebec to Bayern/Caen then to meet the ship in Le Havre. day 6 CAN BE   (there is a second excursion to honfleur area as well) bus to the normandy WWII beaches and then back to Caen for a museum then back to Le Havre). We did have a fairly decent packed lunch in the town with the remnants of the British mulberry/mobile harbor.  Dont get me wrong these are both REALLY good excursions but they are all day and in the same area for both but you can do something else closer to the ship instead if you want.

 

I was a little worried about the AmaDante as she is both one of their old ships and did NOT do cruises last year but they used the time to paint pretty much everything and the ship showed no signs (or smells unlike the Ama...viola I think it was in late 2021) of having been mothballed for nearly 2 years.

 

We only had 52 guests on the ship and 26 (they had it capped for at least the week I was on) in St. Malo.

 

We didnt do the pre-trip in Paris but it might have been worth it.  Between jet lag and May1 being a scheduled holiday/demonstration/riots day in Paris we didn't really get to see a whole lot but that was a scheduling quirk not AMA's fault.

 

Covid protocols...this might change but no pre-cruise test.  They tested everyone for fever on embarkation and every morning at breakfast.  No actual testing.  They are pretty serious about filling out their pre-cruise health forms though.

 

We were (great this is going away) tested for the return trip either on the ship or at the hotel at CDG the night before we flew home.

Edited June 13, 2022 by CastleCritic

[RobInMN]

We do not have much river cruising experience, but plan on doing more. We have a lot more experience doing ocean cruises (doing Norway and Iceland/Ireland here in a week).

 

We did Rivers and Castles (Nuremburg to Luxemburg) on AmaDante in 2019 with my family (parents, sister's family, & our family). We liked it a lot and (just the 2 of us) subsequently booked the Grand Danube on AmaMagna for Spring 2023. Not really knowing much about the different companies, one thing that sold us on trying AMA was that when Disney Vacations has river cruises, they charter AMA ships. Huge age range of passengers. There were a number of families (at least 1 larger than our group), some kids young than my sister's kids. But everyone seemed to have a great time. Staff was wonderful. Really appreciated the normal cabin/bed configuration.  

 

Prior to that we had only done 1 other river cruise back in 2005(?) with my parents and my sister and her husband on Vantage. My sister and I and our spouses were the youngest passengers on board by a good 25 years. The daily itinerary always listed the number of steps that day. Room was a double banquet table that converted to separate fold down single beds. When people would ask us if we had a great time or if it was fun, we would say, "mmm, it was very interesting (in a good way), and somewhat educational".

 

[CastleCritic]

In my experience kids on Amawaterways cruises aren't common (probably excepting those disney charters) Ive been on 4 AMA cruises and was usually the youngest (at ~47) on the ship for 3 of them (the exception being an early 20s passenger on the first).

 

 

[Wings55]

On 6/12/2022 at 4:43 PM, need2travel1 said:

......  Having never traveled with Ama before we're interested in any & all info/opinions on this cruise & the company overall. ......

@need2travel2 We've sailed with Uniworld twice and this past August we sailed two AMA itineraries back-to-back. We enjoyed all four cruises, but we thought Uniworld was superior in most cases. The decor on Uniworld isn't exactly our style and our cabins were smaller. On the other hand, we felt the food, the service and the 'extras' were better than what we found on the AMA ships. 

Whichever you choose I'm sure you'll enjoy your time on the Seine. 

Paul

[need2travel1]

Hi All,

Thank you so much for all the replies!  We decided that trying to research a new line/itinerary etc. on such short notice (for me anyway) was too much. We've put this AMA trip high on the list of maybes for next year so I have more time to research & plan-which to me is almost as fun as the trip itself.  

 

With that being said we have booked a cruise on Uniworld (Brilliant Bordeaux in mid August).  We're more familiar w/ them obviously since we've traveled w/ them four times.  So. now I'm off to start a new topic on this forum.....

 

Thanks again!!