CastleCritic

As far as I know cruise ships are still not allowed to just go out and circle around in Budapest, yes they used to. But there was a fatal accident between Viking and a sightseeing boat (who can still do it) in 2019 or 2018 and they put a stop to it. I mentioned it to the captain of the AMAMagna first night while we were still in Budapest and he didnt seem to indicate it had been allowed again. However, if you are there and you are willing to just walk around or book one of the sightseeing boats...its an amazing sight. Are there no late night food options on Viking? Ive never made it that late but AMA DOES put something light out at least at like...10pm. Im guessing sandwiches or something.

No except the cruise director Ive never seen any man dress up that much at any point on the cruise. I wear slacks and a collared polo shirt. And id say thats about average.

I mean I could have 7 straight steaks on amawaterways but why would I do that? I’m a creature of habit but dang. that’s too much of a good thing. yes people will complain about anything.

I see this is a necropost and I have no skin in the Viking game, but most review sites for everything on the internet could remove all their rankings between 0 and 5 and the scores wouldn't change that much. People either love or hate things, and theyre MUCH more vocal about it when they hate it.

ah, I dont drink so I've never seen the drink tickets (but on the other hand...Ive literally never seen the drink tickets....and Ive spent a lot of time in the lounges). Hopefully it improves a bit. I liked that cruise, though I did it as the one way from Paris from Le Havre (when we did the Normandy beaches the ship was already in Le Havre to end the cruise from the day before) which should cut down a bit on the rush to get onboard the ship so it can move (or it sounds like perhaps in your case..longer bus rides. and that was already a long one). I think that week was the best cruise weather week Ive ever had too..

I do wonder if any of this has to do with the question the always ask on the "future cruise" promotion form which is "do you want to keep working with your current travel agent".

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the bar staff, make sure you note it on the feedback form. Was this the one way cruise or the Paris->Paris loop? Like everything else they can be a bit short staffed, they were having some issues with service on that ship when I was there last year (a new Maitre d' was brought onboard that week specifically to address it and they shuffled waiters several times during the week, and this was a cruise with only about 45 passengers it went fairly well but I can see that staff getting stretched on a full ship). The box lunch was a neat idea, last year they gave us friend chicken drumsticks (yes this sounds like it would be disgusting hours later...but they were really good), sandwiches and a bunch of other stuff, but we ate them at Aeromaches, on the beach, during free time not on the bus. Not sure I get the last comment, issue with having to pay reception for tips?

I suspect letting it go was probably part of the reason they didnt 🙂

I don't know why that exists, of the 5 trips Ive taken thats been the only exception and Im not entirely sure its that way for all the shonbrunn excursions they do. I know of one other, in Egypt when you have to fly there and back.

I still find this curious, so I dug up the invoice from my very first cruise which was booked by A travel Agent friend of my mother (now retired) and her name was on it along with the agency name, but since then my other...I guess it would be 8-9 including all the ones I lost to 2020-2021 are definitely straight with AMA. Even the one where I got transferred is lacking anything that would lead me to believe it had an agent attached. (actually I do see an agency number but the pattern is low and repeating which makes me believe its just theirs unlike the one on my 2019 reservation) Ive never submitted a "lead" or question on their web page, I just call them on the phone.

I’ve never been sent to a travel agent when I’ve booked directly with them. well, the first time I put a date hold my Egypt trip I got transfered somewhere but both when I made and and when I moved it I worked directly with ama like I always do. did you call them or fill out a form on their site?

$900/nt is a lot no doubt, even paying for solo supplement I didn't pay that much (Close it was $836/nt) for my past cruise on AmaMagna booked in a fixed window cabin. But even not factoring in not getting the upgrade in room that happened, I would have had no regrets (in the end it was $8732 after adding 4 more nights land extension and insurance to be completely clear). If you are looking to save money AMAMagna is not the ship, its one of a kind and AMA knows it. Especially right now. But the old saying "you get what you pay for" applies, the AMAMagna is an amazing ship. Though again if you can convince your other cruiser to go on a normal AMA ship you'll be fine, and pay less.

They are small, and one thing is that even if you have a balcony room, that doesn't always mean the room is larger in fact the balcony may have actually reduced the living space. Thats one reason why AMAMagna is a great ship all the rooms are larger, even the class D and E rooms. for the higher categories they are much longer as well (sadly the middle of the ship where the 2 lower balcony and the fixed window rooms are has a large walled off space in the middle of the ship though this also means you *dont* have a door on the other side that is opening and closing when people enter like you do on a smalerl ship or even with the suites. But this is why I dont really sweat the category, for the most part the room is a place to store stuff and sleep. If I want to watch the river go by I'll go up on deck or sit in the lounge. If I can get it cheap I would get a balcony, but every cruise I have booked has been Class E, the lowest (though I have enough loyalty to get auto-upgraded a few feet into a class D, sadly it doesn't work to book a Class D and then get a balcony for free...wish it did).

I suspected at the time that I got the suite because I was gold loyalty yes, But I looked at the available rooms a few days after they sent the email and EVERYONE was moved off 1st deck for that cruise except one room (not sure the story there, but there were still SA rooms available though I think that mass upgrade filled all the balconies at that point. I suspect a lot of the others were move to the normal balcony rooms (which would also be fine) This was on a cruise with about 145 people of the 180ish capacity of the AMAMagna. Ive. been upgraded twice, they did NOT upgrade me (and my mother) last year on the AMADante when there were only 48 people on the cruise

I swear I think RobInMN and I took the same cruise and then cloned ourselves every time I see them post about it (we kind of did just 3 weeks apart). Ive done 5 Cruises with AMA, 3 of them in the fixed window rooms. If you dont spend any time in the room, theyre fine. You only really want a balcony if you are going to spend time sitting on it watching the river go by (and you can do that sitting on the top deck or in the loungue) For AMAMagna, much like RobInMN I was moved from a fixed window to an SA room but I suspect they are pretty similar to the other ships. AMA is not an "inelegant" line. I don't know that I would have use for more "high society" than that. Food, I get where you are going with "limited" in that any river ship is going only to have about 2 places with different menus. AMAMagna does have 4, but for dinner 2 of them serve the same thing (the second just brings them family style on platters rather than individual services, and the third is the "tasting menu" which is something you will do once, so realistically its 2 places to eat. ) But the menu is fairly diverse and the quality is REALLY good, better than Ive seen examples from other lines. usually 2-3 options for each course, main will be a meat, fish, and veggie options as well as the "bailout menu" of steak, chicken, salmon and..Im sure something veggie but I dont recall. This is one place where the presentation is above what I really need, its pretty "fancy" and I almost always end up. ordering additional plates because of the small size. Excursions, I think Rob covered it, the guide really helps, often the excursion wont be right at the dock so you need the bus to get you there. In some place like Vienna can you do it on your own? you sure can and AMA will have a shuttle bus running every hour to the city center so you can do exactly that if you want. The day is pretty structured. But the excursions themselves are rarely taxing...unless you chose one to hike up a hill to a castle or something. If you are doing a river cruise on the Danube, the AMAMagna is the best choice, but a normal AMA ship is good as well, and you will find recommendations for other lines as well on this forum.

The Serbians really dont feel like they did much wrong. When we did the bus tour of Belgrade the guide made sure to point out the still completely destroyed Military hq and point out who did it. And on the bike tour the guide made sure to point out a monument to the people killed by Nato and that "the UN didn't like that very much". Our cruise manager was a bit of a mixed bag on the whole thing, she's Serbian but part Croatia, but said like a majority of modern Serbia she considers herself Yugoslavian. She at least had a little first hand experience with the event she was near a bridge right as NATO remodeled it. (Novi Sad). She's the second Serbian cruise director Ive had on AMA, neither of them seemed to really think highly of politicians though.

Not the first Ive heard of "needing the Egyptian cure" for stomach issues, I think somewhere on the AMA site they even list the price for buying it from reception. Obviously its something that is purchasable outside of Egypt but is it just unobtainable or requires a prescription.

Sounds good. I don’t think they were having trouble filling the ship as is but they put Egypt on the cover and feature of this years “not Europe” cruise brochure which is what peaked my interest in it. (And my mothers who will go with me). There are definitely some good reasons to do an organized and secured tour in Egypt that don’t exist in Europe.

I did Budapest to Bucharest (Giurgiu) in May with AMA. Constanta is further than most cruises go so I have nothing on that section. you say "and back" how long is this cruise? Another poster did the entire river a few weeks before, on the same ship, with mostly the same opinions on things. I spent a day and change in Bucharest as part of the land extension. Its neat to see but we really didn't do all that much, the big full day in Bucharest excursion target (parliament) got canceled. I wont say "dont go" but I didnt find it all that exciting to be honest. Not compared to say Vienna or Budapest

Glad to see the river getting back to normal

Its going to be 2025 before I can give you firsthand knowledge of that particular cruise but..... That's an odd one to pick as your very first cruise because its different in several ways from a European river cruise. AMA doesn't even run the ships (wings Egypt does, its Egyptian law). There is a YouTuber (tips for travelers, I think we can mention YouTube channels) who did it. His only negative was noise near the bow due to how ships dock in Egypt(which again isn't an issue in Europe for a few reasons), other than that it was a stellar review of the ship and the excursions. You can book straight with AMA if you want, of the 6 cruises Ive booked, only the first was booked through a travel agent. But if you have one you work with by all means ask them to book it. Theres no real difference in booking that cruise vs a European one you just call them and say "AMALilia March 30, 2026, cabin class A" which is all the TA is going to do. Theres no real use for ship credit or similar past alcoholic drinks, all the excursions (except one optional day excursion on that cruise that involves a flight to and from the site which Im told is a must do, and so I will) are already included. For general "Ive never done a river cruise" and again from doing 5 AMA European cruises. The ship is just there to be a hotel and place to eat for the most part the day will be fairly rigidly scheduled most days. 8am eat 9am leave to go see something back at 12 1pm eat 3pm leave to go see something 5pm back 7pm eat (I dont think this one will apply and is rare even in Europe but) 9pm leave to go see something EVERY day for a week. Much like in Europe they will provide a guide for all the excursions who will .take you through everything. I gather in Egypt that you will have the same guide/egyptologist every day The food choices will be more limited on a river ship, you will have one restaurant to eat at (technically there are two on most AMA ships but the second is a very specific thing you do once a week) and while you wont have a firm seating time, there is one period where the restaurant will be open for each meal. In Egypt apparently most of the meals are more buffet rather than table service, its just the. way its done in Egypt, in Europe its much more table service with some meals (like Breakfast) having a few self serve options. There will usually be some kind of entertainment, usually a local musician or dancer or similar or just the ships musician playing piano in the lounge. But no actual shows water slides/bumper cars etc. There is a pool though. For Egypt think about time of year, it gets HOT over there, I was originally supposed to go next June, but I was looking at 115 in Luxor. They actually stop cruising for a few months in the middle of the summer because it just gets to that point. But the prices will be cheaper in the hot months. Now Im going in January 2025. AMA has two ships, the AMADhalia which is a ship they rebuilt with Wings Egypt (in 2021 so its still fairly fresh) and the AMALilia which is being built and will come online next spring. Any reviews you do find will be the older ship at this point. If you've looked at the itinerary you probably already see that the first few days and the last night are in a land hotel in Cairo.

I haven't done the extension but I did stay at that CDG hotel coming back from the AMA Normandy cruise. its literally a "go to Paris and stay at the airport so you can leave" hotel, sitting on top of the CDG TGV station (which is also a stop on the CDG terminals train so don't expect a normal transfer, just a walk to the train). Nice hotel, I recall enjoying both dinner and breakfast the next day, but Paris proper was a little ways away.

Have a good cruise! AMASerena was the first ship I cruised on.

You'll have fun thats basically their most common itineratry. That was actually my first cruise, though with a side trip down the Moselle on the way, and the third started in Basel before turning down the Main.

yes