RobInMN

50 minutes ago, Mikewa said:

Ovation's sister - Odyssey.  I realize they are the same class, and Odyssey is a bit younger

Technically, Ovation is a Quantum Class with Odyssey being a Quantum-Ultra Class. 

So step-sisters? Cousins? 

I've never been on any other Quantum/Ultra other than Odyssey, so other than things mentioned, I'm not sure what the big deal was that made them give Spectrum and Odyssey a slightly different class designation. According to Wikipedia, Odyssey has the smallest gross tonnage of the 5.

While I've done a few Ama cruises, bringing my own wine was never anything I needed to look in to 🙂

I did a google search and there is nothing on the Ama site itself.

It's a bit difficult since so many cruises talk about wine! But anyway, I did find a couple statements from peoples reviews (one was on CC somewhere). One stated that you can bring your own wine and open it in the room. The other added that you can bring your own wine to dinner. Since wine with dinner is included and not charged extra (unless you're picky I guess), they don't mind if you bring your own.

Don't see anything about bringing it to the lounge and drinking it there. But since wine in the lounge is not included, that might not be appreciated?

Anyway, sounds like you should be able to bring your own and enjoy it in your room at least. And since you were wondering about buying in a port, there is opportunity to confirm where they would prefer you enjoy it before you do. BTW, from other posts, I recall that you can definitely buy alcohol to take home and keep it in your cabin. They don't hold it for you. So based on that, I can't see how they'd care if you also drank it.

To add the companies I'm familiar with:

GC - River Adagio/Aria - 418' x 38' - 162 Passengers

AmaWaterways:

• Older ships: 360' x 38' - 140 Passengers (4 ships)
• Newer ships: 443' x 38' -152-162 Passengers (15 ships)
• AmaMagna: 443' x 72' - 196 Passengers

7 hours ago, SelectSys said:

We are currently on our first ever river cruise and are traveling between Amsterdam and Bucharest.

I'm guessing a 4(?) week cruise, nice! I think it would be very cool to do that in one continuous trip. After we do the cruise next spring, we'll have covered basically that same itinerary, but it will have taken us 4/5 different cruises (had some overlap 🙂). 

• Rhine - Amsterdam to Moselle - Enchanting Rhine (Ama)
• Rhine - Moselle to River Main - Enchanting Rhine (Ama) & Rivers & Castles (Ama)
• River Main - Rhine to Main Danube Canal - Rivers and Castles (Ama)
• Main Danube Canal (to Nuremburg) - Rivers and Castles (Ama)
• Danube - Nuremburg to Vilshofen - Christmas Markets (GC)
• Danube - Vilshofen to Vienna - Christmas Markets (GC) and Grand Danube (Romantic Danube/Magna on the Danube) (Ama)
• Danube - Vienna to Budapest - Grand Danube (Romantic Danube/Magna on the Danube) (Ama)
• Danube - Budapest to Bucharest - Grand Danube (Gems of Southeast Europe) (Ama) and the Vantage one

To add one note to clarify @Sunshine3601's response, the specialty coffees at the cafes (like cafe270) are Starbucks brand coffee.

My wife and I were on a 2 week cruise by ourselves and were never bored. We socialized when we wanted, and kept to ourselves when we didn't. (We like Ama)

We did a Christmas Markets with a company we have less experience with, and so I can't really do a direct comparison, it seemed to me that with the Christmas Markets there were more evening activities, like extra time to go back to the Christmas Market in the evening after dinner where they might not have something normally scheduled.

Coincidently, did you see @notamermaid's post in "The ever increasing popularity of River Cruising"? Ama is working with Celiac Cruise to provide gluten free cruises.

https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaWaterways-partner-celiac-cruise-gluten-free-cruises?ct=river

We've done 4(5) so far:

• Danube - Budapest to Bucharest on Vantage in 2005. My sister, our spouses and my parents. Vantage is no longer, but it was basically just like Grand Circle. We were the youngest on board by far. I think my parents were actually on the younger end
• "Rivers and Castles" - Danube-Main Danube Canal-Main-Rhine-Moselle - Nuremburg to Luxemburg on AmaWaterways in 2019. Same as before, but with the next generation (10, 13, & 19). We were a family of 9, and there were 2 larger family groups and a few kids younger than my niece (10). This is probably my favorite port stops so far, as I am all about "Cathedrals, Castles, Forts, and ruins" 🙂 This also turned us on to Ama. I would highly recommend this one (even if a different company) to anyone as a first cruise. The reason we chose this is that their minimum age was like 7 or so, and when you look at river cruises on Disney Vacations, they fully charter AmaWaterways cruises. Figured if they held up to Disney standards, it should be good enough for our 3 generation family, and they held up. Only complaint would be that we sailed end of June to beginning of July, and it was unusually hot. The ship was not designed to handle that kind of heat, curtains on the south side of the ship had to be kept closed to help.
• "Christmas Markets Along the Danube" - Danube - Nuremburg to Vienna - Grand Circle in Dec 2022. Same group as before minus our daughter who had just started her first post-college career job. My wife and I hate the cabins, the pullman beds are a no go for us. Crew was nice. Ship was ok. Food meh. My parents love GC. Passenger age skewed higher, but there were a few families and younger kids. I believe the crew said this was the most kids they've ever had on that ship. December, so it was cold and snowed a few times. But we were prepared.
• "Grand Danube" - Danube from Vilshofen to Bucharest (2 weeks plus extensions) on AmaWaterways Spring of 2023. Just my wife & I. We actually booked this prior to my dad springing the whole Christmas Market thing on us. This can be booked as a B2B as "Romantic Danube" (or "Magna on the Danube") with "Gems of Southeast Europe". If you are considering Ama and Danube, I highly recommend taking a close look at AmaMagna. The ship is amazing! However, I almost don't recommend it as a first river cruise, only because nothing else will live up to it if you do more 🙂 . There were no kids. The first week (Vilshofen to Budapest) ended up being a wine cruise and the ages skewed a bit younger (40-60) than the second week (Budapest to Bucharest). Food was probably a bit "too fancy" for our pedestrian tastes, but everything we ate was very good, and we didn't go hungry. For a first time cruise, I would not necessarily recommend the Budapest to Bucharest portion. Do it someday, but it's not quite what you would picture for "River Cruise", it's a lot older former communist eastern block countries. Do the Nuremburg to Budapest first (or with) as it is more like what you are probably picturing. Weather wise, we went last week of March to middle of April. A couple cold days, mostly cool days. maybe 2 really nice days. I have a review on here, as does @CastleCritic, just search this forum for "AmaMagna".

Next up for us for river cruises is the "Enchanting Rhine" from Basel to Amsterdam in May 2025 on Ama. We will be taking our daughter and her fiancé (both will be 25). Hopefully the weather will be nicer than the Danube was in March-April.

Ama ships have fewer passengers and bigger cabins than something like GC. More like what you would be used to coming from an ocean cruise ship. Other comparisons between these 2:

• Ama has a single Cruise Manager that coordinates the local expert tour guides. GC divides the whole ship between 4 CMs and they lead all tours that are not visiting a location that has their own.
• Ama has multiple excursion options, some ports have biking options. Walking tours are usually broken up into easy, normal, and active groups. GC has 1 "option" (do it, or don't).
• Ama uses multiple local guides even if doing the same excursions to keep groups small. GC's groups are 1/4 of the ship. 

We are big on ocean cruises also. D+ on Royal Caribbean. We love the Oasis class ships and really liked the Western Mediterranean (Symphony in 2018) that you must be on. We did a week in Rome prior (we did the Rome to Rome interporting).

The only other one we've done so far is Nuremburg to Luxemburg. AmaWaterways calls this 'Rivers and Castles'. I would highly recommend this in general. 

Have the Rhine booked for next spring.

That said, other than the Mississippi, everything mentioned are ones we'll look at doing at some point. We've lived within an hour of the Mississippi our entire lives, currently a 10 minute walk. It's not that exciting to us🤣

BTW, the Danube is usually split into 2 distinct sections by Budapest They are pretty different. You didn't say which section you did, or if you did the whole thing, but doing the other section could go on your list. Depending on which one, not as high as others. 

I didn't see Nuremburg to Luxemburg? Ama calls this "Rivers and Castles". If you do that, you'll have completed Amsterdam all the way to the Black Sea (minus the last few miles, and possibly Vilshoffen to Nuremburg). This was our first Ama cruise, and we loved it.

Ama has also started 2 Columbia cruises that look interesting.

There are river cruises in Southern Africa that are usually combined with safaris.

My dad was looking at some Amazon river cruises, but eventually never did one...yet, there's still time.

24 minutes ago, di T said:

So looking forward to this! We sail from Barcelona on Allure in April taking our Grandson on his first cruise also just 4 days duration, we always  cruise for a minimum of 20 days. He said what if we hit an iceberg like the titanic😂Don’t think so in the Mediterranean lol.Enjoy your time Megan! 

Just an FYI. That is the first cruise post amplification. She will be in Dry Dock from Feb 23rd to April 10th. You might want to be mentally prepared to switch sail dates. If things don't go as planned, I think this 4 night (and the following 5 night) is the buffer cruise(s) that can be "easily" cancelled before starting the regular 7 night Western Mediterranean itinerary (interporting with Rome). Also note that it's possible that there are some things that might not be 100% complete. Things that they can complete on the move and don't require the dry dock facilities.

We did an almost identical B2B in 2022. It was 12 & 12, so we did not hit any of those England/Scotland ports, just Iceland & Ireland. And some of the Norway ports were different. We did Arctic Circle first. I think the order you are doing it is better. As amazing as Iceland is, it sort of lost some of it's thunder after seeing Norway first. I think this way, they can both amaze you.

This was our favorite cruise so far. You are going to have a great time! We will be following along and re-enjoying it vicariously. 🙂 

7 hours ago, Pratique said:

Royal Caribbean owns many patents with Nick's name listed as an inventor. Such as this one. So likely he assigned away all of his rights to them.

Did you skip over the entire patent discussion after the initial question?

7 hours ago, orville99 said:

Traditionally, inventions by an employee under contract to an employer are the property of the employer

This. When you invent something in the course of doing your job you don't "assign away" your rights to your patent, you are only the inventor. The company owns your patent. It is their "IP" (Intellectual Property). If you invent something on your own time not pertaining to your job, then you can fully own your patent, but you will have to prepare it and file it yourself. You may need to hire a patent agent/attorney.

The patent lists: Applicant, Inventor, and Assignee. You will note that on every one of the related patents, Royal Caribbean is listed as the Applicant and the Assignee. Nick is only 1 of 3 listed inventors on most of the related patents, but not all of them. Nick may have had a hand in the invention, but Royal Caribbean prepared and filed the patent. It is their IP.

This is the same for the company I work for. Individuals, working on behalf of the company will be the inventor, but the company will prepare and file the patent. We have at least 2 in-house patent agents/attorneys.

20 minutes ago, sjde said:

I thought twin beds became Kings when pushed together.

Royal Caribbean does not have any river cruises,  do they?

Hmm.. I swear I saw something on the Ama site that said 2 twin beds or queen, but now all I am seeing is "Option A: Two twin beds Option B: One large bed (larger than queen size)"

But while there are some Google results reference a Queen, yes, 2 twins make the same width as a King. However, a King is longer.

Nope. RC is Ocean only. But we do both ocean and river cruises. As our only river cruise references are GC and AmaWaterways, it was the only comparison I could make.

11 minutes ago, sjde said:

RobInMN-

What are the beds on the M/S River Chanson?   I couldn’t find that information but I see they have one itinerary,  in Provence,  13 days , 83 passenger ship , average group size of 38, about $3700 including international airfare.A good deal!  That’s for November. All other dates are +$1000-$2000. 

https://www.gct.com/about/leader-in-river-cruising/our-fleet/ms-river-chanson

I believe the picture is of a main deck cabin. The description says: "Main Deck cabins 2-15 feature double beds that cannot be separated". No description of Lower deck cabins

https://www.cruisemapper.com/cabins/MS-River-Chanson-1271

Says that the lower decks have 2 configurations. 2 singles that can become a double. or a permanent 2 singles.

It's a smaller ship that most. Only 86 passengers, 43 cabins.

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Interesting. I had never thought about the bed size before, I am kind of fine with the twin bed set-up. I am not familiar with the American terms so I just say that you would like a double bed without the mattress break/gap? I wonder if one can easily find out from online descriptions what the other lines offer, by that I mean Riviera Travel, Viva Cruises and Arosa.

 

Also, would all cabins be the same on each ship of a company, or could they differ from ship to ship or even on a single ship?

 

notamermaid

 

To the best of my knowledge, all the GC cabins on all their river ships have the same bed configuration, with the exception of the newer M/S River Chanson. In this picture, the left side is in the daytime configuration and the right side is the sleeping configuration. Both sides fold down.

Call them pullman, or twin bunk, or what have you, they are both of the size "twin" (~ 38" x 75"), only large enough for 1 person each.

Again, to the best of my knowledge, all AmaWaterways cabins (other than the few designated solo cabins) have 2 twin beds that convert to a queen.

In a queen configuration, they have been much nicer than the Royal Caribbean beds in queen configuration. In both cases, there is a thinner queen size mattress or pad that sits on top. But Ama's is much nicer than the very thin one that Royal Caribbean uses. I don't even recall being able to tell that I was on 2 twins pushed together, where as on RC it was very obvious.

2 minutes ago, BND said:

My dad was a research chemist working for the Federal Gov when he and two others obtained their patent.  While their name is on it, it belongs to the Federal Gov.  It happens quite often.

To add to that. Like many companies, the company I work for has at least 2 full time patent agent/attorney, whose job it is to prepare and file the patents created by our engineers on behalf of the company. One of them is a friend of mine.

14 minutes ago, Vince C said:

Now that Nick Weir has left Royal, whether on his own or forced out by Royal, what will happen to the eMuster Drill in the Royal App since he holds the patent on it?

So, you asked in the Nick Weir thread, and while 2 people were answering you over there, you post the same question in this thread?

What I posted there:

@smokeybandit beat me to it. When you work for a company, while you may be the listed inventor of a patent, the applicant and the assignee will be the company that you are employed by.

BTW, apparently there are 6 or 7 related patents, and I count at least 7 different individuals, no more than 3 on any 1 patent. Nick is not even listed on one of them.

@smokeybandit beat me to it. When you work for a company, while you may be the listed inventor of a patent, the applicant and the assignee will be the company that you are employed by.

BTW, apparently there are 6 or 7 related patents, and I count at least 7 different individuals, no more than 3 on any 1 patent. Nick is not even listed on one of them.

30 minutes ago, cusematt4 said:

From what some people are saying...

= Speculation

The fact that he was immediately replaced the way that he was (actively posting Friday) makes it seem like this RCI's choice, not his. If this was his move, there might be an intermediate or temporary replacement until they make a decision on a permanent replacement, but they already had his replacement lined up and ready to go. RCI has made their official statement, at this point, I doubt we we know much more until Nick posts his side.

But the theory that he left because he was not happy with upcoming budget cuts isn't necessarily a bad theory. Just that until we see something official, or even hard insider info, it's nothing more than social media speculation and needs to be labeled as such and not reactionary pseudo fact.

Don't know where you are getting your information on imminent budget cuts, but the fact that Nick Weir has parted ways (by his choice or theirs wasn't announced) was already being covered in this thread:

Didn't really need to start a new one

Still on page one

Yes you should get an email either way, which can come anytime up until about 9 PM embarkation night (99% likely to be a denial at that point).

42 minutes ago, AC Stew said:

Just a thought ... what would happen if you strolled in 30 minutes late for a doctor or dentist or even a hair appointment?! 

At the doctors office, if you're 30m late, you will still probably wait another 30m 🙂 

I've been on cruises where we had an all day excursion and were not going to make it to the MDR by our early seating time. When telling our servers that we would not make it the next night, we've been told that there is a 30 minute window, and if we get there in that 30m, then no problem. They did add that after that window, please go to the WJ.

When this has come up on other threads, other people have reported 15 minutes. So I suppose it's ship dependent.

When we have done that, I am pretty sure that we were still out of there at the same time, so it's not like you push everything back, they just condense your visit, which is fine by me.

So, there is a window in which they happily accept passengers. You don't have to be there by your seating time.

Only been on GC and AMA, and I couldn't disagree with you more. I would completely agree that GC is a budget line.

We Hated GC, love Ama. My parents love GC and didn't really like Ama.

• We can't stand the GC cabins, especially the pullman beds (we spoon). Ama cabins are so much better.
• Love the excursion options you get on an Ama. Don't like that GC only has a single excursion.
• Love the small groups they break the excursions into, even if there's many people doing the same thing. Love that they will break up walking tours into easy, normal and active. GC you are with the same 1/4 of the ship for everything, and your pace is limited to the slowest person.
• Love that Ama uses local experts. Don't like that GC has multiple CMs that act as tour guides at every port (unless you are doing a specific venue that has their own).
• Love that Ama has 2 & 4 top table options. Not a fan of how every table on GC is 8.

I will say that I found the crew of GC just as friendly as the crew on Ama.

10 minutes ago, joepeka said:

The salient point in response to HicksRA is that the assertion that the Texas state flag is the only state flag allowed to be at equal height to the U.S. flag is false. I sense from your comment that you agree?

Nope. Not at all.

I was just saying that the quote from the Vexillologist that "All state flags can be flown at the same height as the US flag" was a bit simplistic. The actual Flag Code has a couple different situations. Then added some additional interesting parts.

2 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Nope, not true.  All state flags can be flown at the same height as the U. S. flag:

 

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-515351943107

 

 

That's a bit simplistic. Full Flag Code:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/7

to me, e & f has a slight contradiction. 'e' says that in a group of states or localities, the US flag should be center and higher. But 'f' says that no state or locality flag can be to the right of the US flag (or higher, but that's the same). Only really implying that state flags can be at the same height. So maybe group vs. just a single state or locality?

Moving on from just state flags.

The only place where it's explicitly stated "same height" in the code is in reference to 2 or more nations. It further says that In a time of peace, all nations flags should be at the same height.. The code differentiates between states, localities, and societies versus flags of other nations.

One last note, the UN flag can not be higher than the US flag anywhere in the US except at the UN.