KruznKimmie

Oh how it's so nice to see those giving others that Stink Eye in the Lounge, similar to those eyes when you take a Blue Cheese Ball and God forgive the last one, or the look one gets when they enter in shorts. [emoji33]

 

 

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With all the talk about blue cheese balls I am now craving some blue cheese. Wish we had a DL on our next cruise so I could have some. :)

Maybe the parents need the dummies for themselves to shut themselves up.

There seems to be a massive lack of parenting skills these days maybe through laziness or ignorance.

 

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Lack of discipline is more prevalent as parents do not choose to discipline their children because they want to be seen less like a parent & more like a friend...at least this is what I see with the new parents where we live.

So true!!

I was in the grocery store today and it was awful! All I heard was screaming, screeching, crying children. It reminded me of this thread, with the exception of no wine. Stopped on the way home a bought a bottle!:eek:

Good one..cheers!

The problem is not with the children but with the parents & grandparents who have no consideration for others. When my children were young they would not have lasted long in a lounge until they would have been bored. Parents do not disciple their children then expect others to tolerate their poor behavior and have no concern if EVERYONE in the lounge is giving them the stink eye because they are disrupting the environment. Also, a passive lounge attendant does not make the situation any better. Our situation with a poorly behaved family and child last year was so bad the ship officers had to be called to the lounge to asses the situation.

Who eats in a Waffle House? I bet if they do they don't wear shorts...:eek:

There is nothing like a greasy Waffle House breakfast...

Just a point of clarification. With the obvious exception of the restroom, changing a child's diaper in a Waffle House is also unacceptable.

Believe it or not I have seen this in a Waffle House and those hash browns on that trip just were not very appetizing.

We have cruised AMA twice and always do most of the bike tours and this is why we cruise AMA. We are also in our fifties but cycle at home regularly. We found the groups start rather slow for us until the guides can gauge how fit the group is & will often increase the pace based on the group. So, some of the tours were a mediocre pace but biking through the mountains in Germany could be quite rigorous. There is nothing like biking through the vineyards in Austria & Germany...so beautiful. If you are fit you should be fine with a bike tour. The bike tours did fill up quickly on our cruises so if you have any interest in a bike tour you can sign up and if you change your mind based on weather or another reason you can easily cancel. Have fun!

We would not consider taking an ocean cruise without a balcony but found on our 1st river cruise we never spent any time there other than to sleep and shower. So, reluctantly we booked the "aquarium" room on our last river cruise because there were no French balcony rooms available and we found it worked just fine. Next river cruise we will probably do the same without a balcony. The price difference was remarkable without a balcony.

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If you like craft beers this was a great find the last time we were in Key West. We spent all day on the porch.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34345-d3595312-r92697950-The_Porch_Craft_Beer_Wine_Bar-Key_West_Florida_Keys_Florida.html

We LOVE ocean cruising and have been on too many to count as there is huge variety for the whole family and reasonably priced (if you don't drink too much). Our preferred line is Celebrity and have status. My husband had talked for many years about doing a river cruise and I was reluctant thinking a river cruise would not be active enough for us. I certainly would not recommend a river cruise for teenagers or children. I did a great deal of research before we booked our 1st river cruise several years ago and we booked with AMA because there were many active excursion options. We have now been on 2 river cruises to include the Rhine & Danube far exceeding my expectations. The 2 experiences ocean vs river are completely different. There are pros and cons to each but our river experiences were fabulous. You cannot compare the experience cruising into Budapest at night (stunning) or cruising the Rhine castles while on the top of a deck with a beer. Our 1st river cruise we booked a balcony as usually an ocean cruise is not complete without a balcony but we found we never used the balcony on the river cruise so the last cruise we had no river balcony and did not miss the balcony because we were never in our cabin. Also, consider your alcohol is included during meals on some river cruises so your alcohol tab should be less and with AMA all tours are included in the price so there will not be any tour costs. We did like the smaller more intimate setting on the river cruise. When we docked in ports on the rivers we would usually go into town instead of staying on the board so we could experience the local bars and communities. Now we are looking at booking our 3rd river cruise with AMA but just can't decide which one. And we also have another ocean cruise booked in Sept. So any cruise is good for us.

We cruised the Rhine on the AMA Certo last October and we did the bike tour in Rudesheim. We were docked there overnight, so we had time to do the bike ride, visit the local wine bars, eat in town and some even rode the Gondola. There was plenty of time for all of those things. We did not get a docking in Strasbourg and had to dock on the other side of the river, so that bike tour was cancelled.

Thanks so much for the reply and all 3 sound good to me too and we might attempt more than just the bike ride if the weather is decent.

Hello All,

 

My wife and I are considering our 1st river cruise for sometime in 2018. For those of you who booked a cruise with AMA Waterways, did you use a travel agent or did you book directly with the cruise line? I usually book our ocean cruises directly with the cruise line but may consider using a travel agent for our first river cruise since it will all be new.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Brian

Brian, we priced our 2 AMA river cruises with AMA and 2 separate travel agents we use regularly for our ocean cruises and 1 of the agents provided discounts for both cruises of about $200/person so it could be worth your time to do some shopping with different agents. Also, we leave in about 1 month on our 2nd AMA cruise and received a surprise $150/person ship board credit coupon in our paperwork for every member in our party of 7. We were somewhat reluctant to take our 1st river cruise due to the lack of active options but found AMA meets our interests perfectly.

My wife and I were on the AmaPrima this past November that sailed down the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel. Our cruise was a wine cruise with a lot of great folks from the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma, CA. We had a wonderful trip.

 

We signed up for each of the three bike tours, but only ended up doing the first one in Rudesheim. In both Strasbourg and Briesach, the weather turned colder, cloudier and windy and it just wasn't hospitable to be on bike for 10 to 14 miles.

 

Our ride in Rudesheim was just about 14 miles long. We rode with about 20 or so fellow cruisers, and there were 2 guides the lead the group. The route we took went east along north side of the river on paved paths that were not crowded, except for a few walkers with dogs, etc. About six miles out we went up away from the river through a small town called Winkel. There were a few hills involved here as we climbed up into some vineyard areas. The views were great. We took mainly paved paths back through the vineyards and past the Schloss Johannisberg. Nice pictures along the way here. Then back down into another little town called Geisenheim and back down to retrace our tracks along the river and back to the ship. The ride took almost two hours, so the pace wasn't real fast. My wife and I had plenty of time in Rudesheim that afternoon and early evening to tour around the town there, but we did not do the gondola ride to the top of the hill over the vineyards.

 

About 8 to 10 folks took the Strasbourg ride and the route into town and back was much more urban and was about 10 miles round trip. Those bike riders had less time in Strasbourg as well because of the time it took to ride back the ship, and they were pretty chilly from what they told us. By the time we got to Briesach, it was even colder and everyone had opted out of the bike rides by then. We opted instead to take the bus tour to Riquewihr, France, so we didn't see the countryside along the route to Briesach much past the dock areas.

 

Have a great trip.

Thanks so much for the detailed response and we might also have the same issue as we leave in about 1 month so the weather could dictate our choice. The pace in Rudesheim sounds easily manageable. We will also be on a wine cruise and we do have to exercise so we can drink more:D

Could someone provide their experiences with the AMA bike tours on the Rhine? Specifically we are looking at the bike tours in Rudesheim, Strasbourg, and Breisach. Which one is the most scenic if we have to make a choice even though I would like to do them all? I am also conflicted in Rudesheim as I want to do the hike, gondola, and bike tour but can only choose one.

The two items highlighted above are beyond un-acceptable. Get the food for the child. Change the child in the BATHROOM!! As far as children being allowed I understand RCI making the change but there needs to be proper parenting. My son made Diamond 2 years ago and he is very well behaved and will do fine hanging out for a bit and then going to do whatever he wants.

Oh my, parents changing diapers in the lounge is so classless..when did Royal become a Waffle House environment? Does make me prefer Celebrity at this point in my life due to parents not having any interest in managing their children.

We were on the Brillance last week in the DL and there was a 2 year old stomping on the outside rim of the window sealing making a tremendous amount of noise disturbing the entire lounge. Even though everyone was looking at the family, both the parents and grandparents did nothing to silence the very bored child. When my husband could take it no longer he said be quiet and it quickly descended from there. The parents and grand parents began calling us names. When I could take it no longer I spoke to the DC ambassador and she was also passive. There were 3 of us in our group who had to speak to the attendant before anything was done. I don't mind behaved children but narcissism from the parents and grand parents was unbelievable.

Does anyone know if there are any places we can buy discounted Busch Garden tickets or should I just buy the tickets through AAA before I leave home?

Found this article and it looks the google option might be a good choice:

http://thepointsguy.com/2016/04/how-to-stay-connected-while-traveling-abroad/

Our first river cruise was last year from Vilshofen to Budapest on AMA and even though I fought my husband on the idea of a river cruise for many years because I did not think the cruise would be as active as it was, we had a fabulous time. I did tons of research and learned AMA offer many physically active excursions and we loved the bike trek through Austria and the hike to the fortress. The food was also a pleasant surprise and we enjoyed the themed meals local to the areas. In fact we had so much fun we have booked our next AMA adventure in March next year on AMA Sonata from Amsterdam.

Last year we were on the Danube from Prague to Budapest and have an open SIM so we bought Vodaphone cards for about $20 in both cities but found the service did not work at all the ports. We found using Facebook messaging convenient and easy and free if we had internet service. We will be returning next year to Europe and will attempt to order the cards from Vodaphone before we leave next time.

Thanks for the response and it looks like the group has voted to do the bike tour as we have already been to Versailles. Reading reviews on tripadvisor it looks like the gardens are not great at the palace. If anyone has done the bike tour, I would love to know your impression.

We are looking at tour options in Vienna to determine if the bike ride to Klosterneuberg Abbey is worth the trip for the sites or if we will do the Schonbrunn Palace? Any experiences you can share would be helpful. Thanks so much!

Aly 7859, there was plenty of room on ship's excursions EXCEPT for the Slovakian Sweets as I mentioned in the blog. People made a reservation but didn't show up which prevented others from going which was too bad. I would not recommend the Apricots optional excursion in Durnstein- a waste of time.

 

When is your cruise?

Jane, we leave on Nov 18th and we were interested in the Slovakian Sweets tour (maybe) so I was just wondering if we should just wait until we get on the cruise to book or did you book in advance? We are travelling with my 2 adult children and my son-in law so we have varied tastes so I thought it might be better to book on board. Thanks for the info on the Apricots which we will avoid.

Jane, I am enjoying your posts and thanks so much for sharing as this is extremely helpful information for me as my 1st river cruise is scheduled in November.

Were there any tours affiliated with AMA you reserved in advance or is this even an option? Was there plenty of space to choose any tour you would prefer?

Thanks for your help!

We were on our 1st Celebrity cruise last month on the Summit and found the overall experience good and had a great vacation. We have cruised multiple cruise lines with Diamond status on Royal. We chose the Celebrity cruise based on the drink package promotion and ports of call (we did come out money ahead on the drink package).

The food was a huge improvement over Royal but the desserts were average which is just as well because probably decreased my weight gain.

We found the classic drink package to be adequate which surprised us...Kettle One vodka was an option on the package and to our surprise the Cabernet wine served in the main dining room was good and sells for about $30/bottle in the US, however, at the end of the cruise they ran out of this wine so we had to resort to another red wine. The white wines on the classic drink package were not very good in our opinion. Each night when we arrived at our dinner table we had a bottle of red wine waiting for us and the opened bottle was left on the table as well.

The Elite cocktail event was held in the Reflections Lounge and even though we did not think we would attend every night, we decided to because the drinks were much better than at other bars...don't know if this was due to the liquors or the bar tenders or both. There was a limited drink menu at this event but varied options.

I did not believe the scones served during tea time could be as good as described on these boards but even though I do not like scones...they were amazing!

Our cabin was serviced by Connie and we called her the Ninja because she was efficient and we never saw her but provided good service.

The only request we made of our butler was we wanted some additional cookies that were on our pillow the formal night. The cookies were so yummy and reminded me of fudge covered oreos. However, something must have gotten lost in translation because he never understood what we wanted.

Now for what we missed from other cruise lines:

The entertainment was not very good and the only show we stayed for was the comedian brought on board for the show.

The live bands and music were average to not very good.

We missed the comedy club.

We missed the piano bar.

The casino was a bit quiet.

So, we entertained ourselves at the martini bar:D

If only we could combine all we liked from each cruise line...now that would be a great cruise.

Would definitely cruise Celebrity again.