Amadeus vs Viking

[6miles]

I am ready to book my 08 river cruise on Amadeus. My question is: how can there be such a disparity in price from Amadeus to Viking? Is Viking so much better? I have researched and compared the itineraries, ships, options, and extensions and thanks to many of you I am now looking into the insurance costs. When I asked my agent at Affordable Tours.com why Viking charged so much more for essentially the same trip, she said, "because they can." Is that the case, or am I missing something?

Thanks for any insight.

[Coral]

Just a couple of comments. I recently returned from the Tolstoy and thought the food was undesirable. I did not have too high of expectations. I had been to Russia previously and had thought the food was acceptable. I also work at a university and eat dorm food 9 months out of the year. The food did rank several steps below dorm food. While food probably should not be an issue when seeing great sites, 12 days is a long time for bad food when there is little time to get food elsewhere while on the tour.

 

My posts before I left indicated that I wasn't looking for gourmet and thought things would be ok. I was greatly disappointed in the food along with many others on our tour. Heck, the Head Chef said he knew people didn't like his food and that he could do better "but his hands were tied".

 

As far as going on Tolstoy - I wish I had done more research before choosing the ship. The ship had very little time in Moscow and this was a big disappointment. I also thought several things were cut short in St. Petersburg due to logistics (making the trip back to the ship every day for lunch which was about 45 minutes each way plus lunch and then another 45 minutes back to town).

 

There is someone from this board going on GCT and they are staying in hotels for Moscow and St. Petersburg. This would be far desirable and I would go that direction if I had to choose again.

[Coral]

Oh BTW I talked to a lovely gal at Amadeus and discussed the food issue with her and she said they have a new chef and while the food may not be gourmet it is wholesome and delicious. She also noted Russia does not have the ability to have gourmet. Just thought I would pass that on. Home style cooking is fine with me.

 

Having experienced this first hand (which I doubt the phone rep had), the food did not taste like home style food to me.

 

I don't mean to be negative as I went in with a positive attitude concerning this but the food quality was the lowest quality of food I have ever experienced in my life and it was poorly prepared. Ham tasted like spam (I am actually wondering if it was spam), hamburgers tasted like meatloaf, the beef was a quality of beef that I have never seen served in the US. The chicken had so many different names but was the same over cooked chicken with yellow sauce. On a side note, the breakfast with the family had great quality food (excellent ham and cheese), etc...

 

Breakfast was tolerable because it was a buffet but there was very strange food for breakfast. Meatballs in a cheese sauce (smell made me gag), eggs cooked with green beans, eggs with cottage cheese, sausage looked like hot dogs, fried bananas (potentially could be good but the oil had a very bad flavor)....

 

I really wished people had warned me and I would have brought more snacks with me. I was thankful I brought the snacks I did.

 

This has nothing to do with the quality of food in Russia as we ditched the group and ate in a restaurant one night plus I had spent 7-8 days in Russia previously and had no problems with the food (stayed at hotels). This was Amadeus/Vodohod cutting corners.

 

As stated earlier, I eat dorm food 9 months out of the year and I would have been thrilled to have had dorm food for this trip.

[pacmom]

I have not seen this message personally but Viking is supposed to be gutting her Russian ship and creating 160 sq. ft. cabins. I am inclined to agree with Coral about staying in hotels in Moscow and St. Pete. It would surely save a lot of bus and standing in traffic time. Good luck to all going this summer. Please report back. Pat

[hcross888]

Coral,

Your description of the Amadeus food was very detailed, and it sounds just gross. Do you think it would be that bad on the Danube, or was it just the Russian trip? I have booked on Amadeus because they were the only trip that did Bratislava.

 

hcross888

[Coral]

Coral,

Your description of the Amadeus food was very detailed, and it sounds just gross. Do you think it would be that bad on the Danube, or was it just the Russian trip? I have booked on Amadeus because they were the only trip that did Bratislava.

 

hcross888

 

I am in the process of writing my review but just haven't finished it.

 

The main thing that surprised me about the Amadeus Tolstoy was that it didn't feel like an Amadeus experience (not that I know what that is...). The ship is not owned by Amadeus, it is owned by Vodohod. The funnel on the ship says Vodohod, all but 3 employees were Vodohod employees. The 3 employees were the CD, Asst CD and surprisingly enough, Chef - these were the only Amadeus employees on the ship. Everything else said Vodohod which happens to be a huge Russian company. We took a boat ride and the boat was owned by Vodohod, the minivan that transported us to the airport said Vodohod. I met someone on the ship who was in the aerospace industry and he was familiar with Vodohod from an aerospace perspective... So I really feel that I went on a Vodohod cruise and not an Amadeus cruise.

 

I would hope that the European cruises in which Amadeus owns the ships and operates them all year (the Russian ship is only operated 4 months out of the year) - that they would have more of an Amadeus experience that was described in the brochure.

 

On the other hand, I really liked the concept of river cruising and before this trip, I had tentatively planned to do a Tulip cruise and/or Christmas Market cruise with Amadeus. I am now scared to do that because I don't want to be on a trip for 12 days with crappy food. I would like to think that the European ones are different but am not ready to chance that right now in my life (I am in my 30's - so vacation money is still tight). For the most part - I did enjoy the rest of my trip. I thought Amadeus cut corners in a few places but overall, besides the food - it was a good trip.

 

Hopefully someone who is currently on a European cruise with Amadeus can report some current information on Amadeus food.

 

Theresa

[seapine]

Just back from our road trip to Sacramento and catching up on CC comments especially related to the Tolstoy.

2travelers - Ronnie, I really hope you have a great trip. Just a thought, Coral came back with the names of the employees including the chef. Perhaps you could find out if it is the same person. I'll do the same on our cruise in Aug. If you get the name, we can compare.

Our visa's are promised to arrive on Tues.

Looking forward to hearing from you when you return.

Evie

[terpla]

Hey Coral I just emailed you. How do you do that: just put email there and your email comes up? Very clever.

 

Actually I have gone on GCT many times but am going on Vantage to China in October because they stay at better hotels and the ship is much nicer for the Yangtse. Vantage offers more excursions in Russia and a better hotel in Moscow. How far is the ship in St. Petersburg from the sights. That's a concern.

 

Thanks again for your input.

[Coral]

Hey Coral I just emailed you. How do you do that: just put email there and your email comes up? Very clever.

 

Actually I have gone on GCT many times but am going on Vantage to China in October because they stay at better hotels and the ship is much nicer for the Yangtse. Vantage offers more excursions in Russia and a better hotel in Moscow. How far is the ship in St. Petersburg from the sights. That's a concern.

 

Thanks again for your input.

 

That makes sense (Vantage). The ship is about 40 plus minutes from DT St. Petersburg. Quite the distance depending on traffic.

[Medic2012]

Coral,

Your description of the Amadeus food was very detailed, and it sounds just gross. Do you think it would be that bad on the Danube, or was it just the Russian trip? I have booked on Amadeus because they were the only trip that did Bratislava.

 

hcross888

 

We just got back from the Amadeus Amalegro on a Danube cruise. We enjoyed the food quite a bit. The breakfasts were repetitious (buffet had pretty much the same stuff all week), but the lunches and dinners were made from fresh foods the chef picked up as early as that morning. There were always at least 3 choices, and there were options of "old standbys" like steaks or burgers if you didn't like the daily choices. We enjoyed trying something new every night, and never had something we didn't enjoy. Also, seconds are always available and offered.

 

I've read some of the disparaging reviews on here related to food, and I can honestly say we didn't experience those horrors. We were very pleased and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them based on what we had.

[tban]

medic 2012, I could not agree more with you. We have been on three Amadeus cruises icluding The Russian Waterways on the Tolstoy and have had no reasons to complain about the food. Just to the contrary. We found the meals on the European cruises outstanding. The food on the Tolstoy was not as refined but also exeeded our expectations - after all Russia is not western Europe. To label the food as "crappy" is an unqualified statement. We just booked again the Black Sea Discovery program on Amadeus for 2008 !

[steamboats]

As for Amadeus Waterways their ships Amadagio and Amalegro are operated by Seachefs (www.seachefs.com) which are also responsible for the Hapag-Lloyd ocean ships Europa (5 star), Bremen, Hanseatic and Columbus. This is only valid for the two European ships. The Russian ship is not listed in the Seachefs reference list.

 

steamboats

[Coral]

tban - on the Tolstoy, we had a different Chef then you did. I had been to Russia previously (on a trip that cost significantly less than the Tolstoy) and the food was pretty good back then. The food at our home visit was excellent. So, it is not that Russian food is bad or less gourment it was that the food presented on the Tolstoy was significantly sub par on our ship. I have no problems with Russian food overall.

 

I am glad that you had good food last year on your sailing. Several last year reported the same. I can tell you that things changed quite a bit from last year to this year in reference to food. Many people said they would never sail Amadeus again because of the food.

 

Our options on the Tolstoy is nothing like they had in Europe on the other ships. I wish we had those options but on the other hand, the quality of beef was so poor, the one day we had hamburgers they were really bad (gray, tasted like meat loaf).

[mcintyre9454]

Food is such a subjective subject. I just returned from Amadeus' European Heartland cruise and I personally thought the food was pretty darn good! In addition, the service and the presentation were excellent too. The only downside was that the portion sizes were so small. Fine for me, but if I had a bigger appetite I would be ordering a second helping (which is perfectly acceptable, as I saw it being done on the cruise). Like a previous poster said, usually a choice of three different appetizers/salads, entrees and desserts...plus standby items available every night. I know that "I" did not personally hear anyone complaining about the food while on this particular cruise. Bon appetit!

[hcross888]

I really appreciate all of you sharing your impressions of Amadeus's food. A river cruise is a pretty big cost, and while I will make the best of whatever, it is nice to know that they appear to be doing pretty well in non-Russian Europe.

 

Hcross888

[fozzy]

Coral,

Your description of the Amadeus food was very detailed, and it sounds just gross. Do you think it would be that bad on the Danube, or was it just the Russian trip? I have booked on Amadeus because they were the only trip that did Bratislava.

 

hcross888

 

Have you looked at Peter Deilmann? When I went last year we stopped at Bratislava. The Mozart is a beautiful ship.

[AliceS]

Food is such a subjective subject. I just returned from Amadeus' European Heartland cruise and I personally thought the food was pretty darn good! In addition, the service and the presentation were excellent too. The only downside was that the portion sizes were so small. Fine for me, but if I had a bigger appetite I would be ordering a second helping (which is perfectly acceptable, as I saw it being done on the cruise). Like a previous poster said, usually a choice of three different appetizers/salads, entrees and desserts...plus standby items available every night. I know that "I" did not personally hear anyone complaining about the food while on this particular cruise. Bon appetit!

 

 

How good to hear that you enjoyed your cruise and the food. Were you on the Amalegro? Did anyone use the bikes? Have you done a review?

[hcross888]

Fossy,

 

I did look at the Deilmann tour, but I'm not sure they went to Bratislava for the shorter cruises. I was set to go on the Avalon "Waltzing the Danube" cruise, but it was discontinued for next year. Did you like Bratislava?

 

Hcross888

[mcintyre9454]

Alice,

Yes, the bikes were used. My daughter was with a group that biked from one port town to the next actually (about 21 miles). We had so much rain during our trip, unfortunately. I signed up to go biking with the group, but backed out at the last minute due to the weather.

 

I haven't written a review....but if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer!

[steamboats]

Hcross,

 

Deilmann´s Mozart is doing 7 night cruises out of Passau and they do stop in Bratislava.

 

I did like the town although we had heavy rains coming sideways and got completely soaked that day.

 

steamboats

[AliceS]

Alice,

Yes, the bikes were used. My daughter was with a group that biked from one port town to the next actually (about 21 miles). We had so much rain during our trip, unfortunately. I signed up to go biking with the group, but backed out at the last minute due to the weather.

 

I haven't written a review....but if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer!

 

 

I'm sorry to hear that you had tons of rain. The weather can make such a difference. How did you enjoy the tours? Did you do many optional tours? What did you find people wearing to tour? I don't want to take too many things along if I won't use them.

[JMAUST]

Six of us have today returned from 7 weeks in Europe and the UK. As part of the trip we spent 2 weeks on the Amadagio on the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise. Prior to leaving I was somewhat concerned about the reports I was reading especially about the food. Our experience was very different. Without exception our group could not fault the trip except for a couple of fellow passangers not arriving on time at pick up points much to our annoyance.

The food and wine(FREE AT DINNER) were first class with ample supply of both, The rooms were very comfortable and the service and entertainment was very good. All in all a great 14 days. You would have been hard pressed not to enjoy this cruise.

 

JM

[terpla]

JM glad your trip was so wonderful. I think most of the comments about Amadeus food was on the Russian trip. The other European trips seem to be OK. At least that is what I am getting from the posts.

[mpbmark]

In looking at the OP, it seems this thread has wandered off course with most of the responses being related to food.

 

While the issue of food does have some bearing on the overall cruise, it has been discussed at nauseaum (no pun intended). I am looking at a European river cruise in the next year or so. At this point, I anticipate traveling from Vienna to Amsterdam and would be most interested in having someone who has experience on both cruise lines (Viking and Amadeus) actually discuss and/or compare the ships, facilities, ports, value for price paid on the cruise and general all-around experience.

 

Thank you for any assistance.

[letsgo39]

In looking at the OP, it seems this thread has wandered off course with most of the responses being related to food.

 

While the issue of food does have some bearing on the overall cruise, it has been discussed at nauseaum (no pun intended). I am looking at a European river cruise in the next year or so. At this point, I anticipate traveling from Vienna to Amsterdam and would be most interested in having someone who has experience on both cruise lines (Viking and Amadeus) actually discuss and/or compare the ships, facilities, ports, value for price paid on the cruise and general all-around experience.

 

Thank you for any assistance.

 

I guess you would have to have traveled on both lines to compare them. I just returned from a cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam on the Avalon Tranquility. It was just fantastic. Beautiful,brand now ship!While you are comparing take a look at Avalon. There are never any complaints about them.