watcher30

I'm still waiting for my review to be published here; the short version is that I gave it four stars (I would have rated all my other Ama cruises five stars). The room was good (a little small but not uncomfortably so), and most of the crew was excellent (especially our waiter and room steward). Food was good (not quite up to other Ama cruises, but we never had problems finding something we liked) and the Internet service was fast, at least for uploads. The bar service was the weakest part of the cruise - we had a "free drinks" package which probably caused more confusion than it was worth. I don't know how much of the difference between this cruise and previous Ama cruises was because of the restrictions on the Douro (to the best of my knowledge, Ama doesn't own the ship), how much was because of Covid, how much because of the post-Covid labor shortage, and how much was because we were on a part-charter with some issues between the charterer and Ama. I haven't sailed Uniworld yet (we're booked next year for a B2B on and around the Rhine) so I can't compare the two lines directly. I'll email you my full review and we can chat about ACL offline.

You can charge the Apple Watch using the USB port from the ship with no problem. Your phones should charge overnight using the USB ports, but if you want to charge faster, use the charger that came with the phones or a multi-port USB charger (I use Anker chargers of various vintages and descriptions) and plug it into the 220 outlet with a suitable adaptor. I had an iPad, a MacBook Air, an iPhone 13, an Apple watch, and a USB charger for my camera batteries; my wife had an iPad, an iPhone, and a camera battery charger that had to plug into the wall, so we used all the outlets. It was much easier than on most ships!

We were in a “B” cabin (205). All outlets were 220v 2-pin European; there was one outlet in the headboard on each side of the bed and two by the desk (though one was occupied by the QuietVox charger). The outlets in the headboard were covered and looked just like the switches. There were 2 USB-A ports on each side of the bed, probably only 1 amp. I brought a US cube-tap and a 1-foot US extension cord to give me a little more flexibility.

I was on the same cruise as Carol (hi, Carol!) and liked it a lot, even though it wasn't quite up to the usual Ama standards. I have a review here in the queue to be posted, and I blogged the trip (with too many photos) at https://readthisblog.net/category/travel/iberia-2022/?order=asc Go for the wine; go for the scenery. Some of the excursions (Salamanca, Lamego) were great; others, like the one to Mateus Palace and Quinta de Avessada, could have been better. Unlike most European river cruises, you don't dock in the middle of big cities, so your choices are limited.

I was just on AmaDouro last week and the wifi was mostly excellent (not in locks, of course). I sent all my photos home every night with no problems (more than 1GB of data on some evenings); I didn't try any FaceTime or Skype calls.

Just curious - were the photos full-resolution (probably 4000x3000 pixels or more) or something less? Thanks!