mrsm88

On 3/28/2023 at 10:25 AM, cruzsnooze said:

I have Medjet annual. You aren't covered for the cruise fare but that's not where the big expense would be . it's getting medical care and evacuation from anywhere in the world. 

We have Medjet also, but what about if you have an issue & need to cancel a cruise before you go? Do you get a policy for that? It seems that Amex might cover this issue if I charge my entire cruise on my card.

On 12/31/2019 at 1:40 PM, TheKingD said:

Poochi24 - one more thing.  We were in an aft cabin on the Debussy (one of the smaller ones about 3 from the back) and we were on Deck 3 rather than the lower one.  We did not have any noise issues at all, and we have booked a similar cabin, also on Deck 3, on the Ravel.  We loved being near the doors at the back to step outside to sit on the back deck or have easy access to the top deck with all the lounge areas.

That is good to hear as I believe we booked the same cabin location on our cruise next fall on the Mahler.

22 hours ago, Coral said:

I found these blogs helpful: 

 

https://www.themodernpostcard.com/2018/11/  You may have to click on a few countries but she posted the blogs from the cruise around the same time.

 

https://johnken3.blogspot.com/2016/12/dinner-on-board-crystal-mozart.html

 

The other blog post I want to find, the link is no longer valid (Keith).

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the links! You are the best😊

We booked a Vienna to Budapest river cruise on Crystal for Oct.  Is there any where else on these boards for any other feedback- seems to be sparse info on their river cruises.

Thank you CORAL for posting the shore excursion itinerary, that was helpful to see timing on things so we can do morning & afternoon tours.

For those of you who did the Melodies of the Danube, did you do the day or 1/2 day Salzburg tour? We are thinking about the 1/2 day since that will enable us to see Linz in the morning.

Also, after revisting Uktog's journal of their trip, it sounds as through the food on the ship is well worth having dinner on board. Did any of you choose to dine off the ship in any particular port for lunch or dinner?

ReaderGirl57, when you did chef's table, was that night #2?

Just starting to get into intense planning mode, we are on the April 12th AmaLea from Budapest. We are spending a few days in Belgium, then arriving  Weds in Budapest for Fri cruise. Post cruise we hired a driver to take us to Czesky Krumlov en route to Prague where we will spend 4 nights.

We have booked dinner at Caviar & Bull in Budapest & also an Eat & Meet in a local's home for dinner our other evening pre cruise. Has anyone tried either of these dinner venues?

This is our 1st river cruise, but it is also the 1st time we will be bouncing around this much. We usually go to the port city for our ocean cruise & spend a few days & then come home directly after. Plus the weather will be chilly in April, so it is going to be a very different experience for us & packing will certainly be a challenge. Anyone been on the Danube in April? Thinking I might need a warm jacket for the evenings & layers during the day.

Thank you so much for this review, we board the AMALea in April for the Melodies of the Danube & all of your info is so appreciated as well as the wonderful pictures.

We are doing pre & post on our own & will be going to Prague with a driver via Czesky Krumlov, so glad to hear it is a well worth it stop.

You have raised my excitement level with your post, as this is also our 1st river cruise after quite a few ocean ones.

Many thanks~

We are cruising on the AMACerto in October 2019 doing the Blue Danube Discovery cruise. This will be our first river cruise and we are very excited. I am one of those people who likes to plan ahead and know everything, so I was glad to find this board as there isn't much information anywhere. We are traveling with one other couple and we plan to do several days in Budapest before the cruise and then several days after the cruise somewhere else - we can't decide where to go. Have already been to Munich and Prague, so trying to think of somewhere different but close by. We've done many ocean cruises and I usually book our own excursions for those trips vs. using the ship's ones - would that be ill-advised for the river cruise? I'm also interested in the Chef's Table, but we have food allergies and super picky eaters, so I'm not sure it would be worth it? Thanks everyone, and can't wait to hear and learn more over the next year!

We are doing Melodies of the Danube & I wanted to fly somewhere direct pre cruise & couldn't get to Budapest direct, so....we are going to Belgium for a few days. It is a 90 minute flight (Brussels air has 3-4/day) from Brussels to Budapest. Plan on a day to Bruges & a 1/2 day to Ghent.

I haven't booked anything yet but am looking for something in April too:)

We booked AmaLea Melodies of the Danube- it is our 1st river cruise.

Hi mrsm88, which date in April are you sailing?

April 12th from Budapest - you?

Thank you so much Migelito for the daily sheets and the photos. We are on AmaLea Danube in April so our weather will be significantly cooler, for sure! I didn't realize that there were some evening activities off ship, so it was good to see the Vienna choices. Much appreciated :-)

We decided to stick with the smaller cabin & treat ourselves on the post cruise to 4 nights at the 4 Seasons. Figured the fact that we will be spending so little time in the cabin for the 1 week cruise, that we would appreciate the nice splurge after it in Prague. We are doing Prague on our own as well as 2 stops before the cruise: 1st to Belgium, then to Budapest 2 days before embarkation. Thank you for all your responses :-)

We've done Danube cruises with Ama twice, and have spent 1-2 extra nights in Budapest. There is a company called Eat Meet Hungary and we've gone to dinner in their home twice. It was fantastic! http://eatmeet-hungary.com/

That sounds wonderful, going to inquire about doing this- we are spending 2 nights in Budapest pre Melodies of the Danube in April.

We ate lunch on the ship most days. From Linz we took the train to Salzburg for the day because we wanted to do the Sound of Music tour, so we ate there.

I just downloaded the app and picked a cruise for 2018 that is the same for my 2019 cruise so I could see the information that is provided. I just skipped adding the booking number. Maybe you can do that to at least see the information that is provided. I am impressed with the detail on the excursions that I could not get on the website.

We did the Melodies of the Danube. We reserved the Category CB French Balcony on Deck 3 and we’re assigned cabin 334 which is right outside the Chefs Table. The restroom for the Chefs Table is literally right next to the cabin door entrance. We were shocked at the small size of the cabin. There’s no way the cabin is 155 sq ft unless maybe you’re counting closet and drawer space! That in itself was manageable. However, once the ship was underway, I swear the cabin must be sitting right on top of the engines. The noise was very loud and constant. Even worse was the vibration in the room. Everything in the room rumbled especially the beds which made it almost impossible to sleep. We met with the hotel manager the next morning and were very nice about explaining our concerns. They were able to move us to a double balcony cabin on Deck 2 that morning and it was wonderful. So happy they were able to help us out and were very understanding. I would strongly recommend not booking one of the category CB cabins.

This concerns me- we are on AMALea in April in cabin 332, but it appears there is a room under us while 334 didn't have a cabin below. Now I am wondering if we should look for a bigger cabin on the other side of boat:confused::confused:

Great question. I’d love to know the same in regard to the Danube cruise.

Me too, didn't even think to consider that you could see the scenery, wow!

We did not book our pre and post stay with AMA. When I figured in the pricing I thought it was very high for hotel rooms even though it included our breakfast and some tours. Many of our fellow passengers did the booking with AMA and were quite pleased. Another reason we didn't book with AMA pre and post cruise was because we wanted to have time to ourselves for the first few days to wander around Prague and do the Hop on Hop Off bus as well as the river cruise, which we enjoyed immensely. It gave us the time we needed to adjust to the time change and not be on any schedule. That is what I was considering also- I have them booked through AMA as of now, but can cancel & just use their transfers.

 

We did end up booking the same hotels that AMA used but I have memberships in many hotel reward programs and we got a much more decent price for our stay in Prague and Budapest. We stayed at the Hilton Old Town in Prague, (great location) which is where the AMA group stayed and the cruise director was in the hotel daily so we were able to pick up our luggage tags from him for the transfer to the cruise ship. We also stayed at the Radisson Blu hotel in Budapest which was one of the hotels that AMA had recommended. My husband and I too went on our own and we met several people from our home town as well as from the next Province to us. It was great to sit with different people each night at dinner and meet people from everywhere. We too had the French balcony and the weather was such that we could only open it a few times but it was great to have the option for taking pictures while cruising. There is no cost for shore excursions, they are all included even the few special activity excursions. That is so great to hear, I wasn't sure from reading online what that situation was, but no additional costs on the boat is a nice perk compared with ocean cruising & shore excursions.

 

With regards to entertainment, each evening a group of musicians or dancers or a dj come on board and entertain you after the dinner hour. In Vilshofen, there was an Octoberfest event beside the ship where we were entertained and given beer and pretzels. Very nice. Great!

 

Highly recommend a trip to Fisherman's Bastion in Budapest. We are on the countdown to our next AMA cruise on the AmaDante in 41 days. Happy travels.

We sailed the AMA Serena last April. First river cruise after many ocean cruises and we were hooked. Loved everything about the river cruise and AMA Waterways. Be prepared to be somewhat busy if you want to be. We are quite active and took a tour most days. We thought we had picked out our excursions, but realized that when we were sailing and the cruise director was going over the excursions that we had more options to pick from and changed our original choice. From the moment you board your ship, the crew will be there smiling and helping you enjoy your trip. The food was excellent. After many years of ocean cruising, it was nice to have the intimacy of the smaller group and each night you could move to a different table and meet your fellow cruisers. The bonus of having local beers or wines served at meals was a great option. This year, 2018, there is an added cocktail hour each afternoon. You will not go hungry. Food stations are put out mid morning and mid afternoon. There are several options if you do not wish to go to diningroom for your breakfast - they have a late risers breakfast available in the lounge. Coffee/tea/ other drinks are available 24/7 for you to help your self. Afternoon tea time with sweets and sandwiches even if no one is on board. If you decide you do not want to go on a tour you signed up for, you can opt out. We explored several towns on our own getting a later start on days that we just felt we wanted some down time. I cannot say enough about how much we enjoy river cruising and wish there were more threads on Cruise Critic to help newbies like ourselves find out more information before we travel. We are booked for our second river cruise with AMA in May. If you have any questions that I can answer for you, please reply. :)

We just booked AMALea for April 2019, our 1st river cruise. We are doing the Budapest precruise & Prague post cruise. Have you used them to extend your trip? Also, did you have to purchase any shore excursions, or was everything they included enough to see what you wanted?

I agree, doesn't seem to be much info for the river cruises as opposed to the very active roll calls for the Celebrity cruises I have used cc for.

I like that you say you can move tables in the dining room. Hubby & I are going by ourselves, but we are not adverse to socializing. Do they generally have night time entertainment? I recall seeing something about them bringing on local groups.

!st cruise without a "real" balcony too. Since we are going in cooler weather, we opted for the french balcony.

Thank you for all the info. We booked the smaller cabin & as of now we think we will do pre & post on our own but use the AMA transfer from ship to Prague. I booked the post, just in case. & will see what I opt to do after more research. I just figure as long as we have the French balcony & the cruise is only 7 nights, we can deal with the smaller room. On an ocean cruise, the full balcony & larger room is more appreciated with the 12 day cruises we have done.

Thank you for the feedback:D

Looking @ Melodies of Danube for April 2019 & I know it will be too chilly to sit on the balcony with my morning coffee. Debating about the french balcony & the smaller of the 2 rooms- the CA vs the CB. The CB is a less $ & 15 sq feet smaller & on the violin deck, which is under the walking track. I don't really think that would be an issue. The room is near the chef's table restaurant, which I also don't believe will be an issue. Any real pros/cons to room type? I don't expect to spend much time in room.

Also- for those of you who have done AMA, is it better to be pre & post cruise with them or on your own?

Haven't done a river cruise before & liked their itinerary.

Thanks:D

We have done two land trips to Iceland and also did an Iceland-Ireland itinerary in 2016. We have encountered heavy rain in addition to the country being on the windy side. For those who have packed for an Alaska cruise just pack the same items (i.e., a waterproof -- not water resistant -- outer layer over fleece with gloves and hat).

 

On the ship folks dressed like they would on any European itinerary.

When we did our other cruises in Europe (except for Baltics where we were in Aqua class so we didn't do MDR at all), it was back when there were formal nights, this new "chic" dress code changes things up. We are dining in specialty restaurants for 8 nights, off the ship for 1, which leaves 3 nights in MDR which I hope to do the "chic" nights. Hubby isn't planning on a sports jackets just slacks & dress shirt.....if I am dressing for "cold weather", will I be ok in slacks & a sweater or very under dressed?

Ditto, we cruised in July and it was very cold in Scotland but lovely in Ireland. I found it useful to wear a warm top (long sleeve T or pullover) with a hoodie and my windbreaker in Scotland. I had gloves and a scarf. All layers. If things are good, you can take bits off. It’s not just the temperature specifically, it’s the wind which can be brisk. So you find yourself wanting more than the temperature might suggest. If you have one of those little puffa jackets that pack in a pocket that would be really useful. Also, I had sneakers that were waterproof. Something like that is really useful.

Sounds like my luggage is going to be pretty full, lol! Going to search for waterproof footwear, thanks!

Going in May. I will not be packing any sandals or open toed shoes even for the ship. But I'm from FL, 50s is still very cold to me!

I have been to Alaska & I wish I could remember what I wore on the ship! This has me totally perplexed as far as what to wear on the ship! In NY, I will have changed over my wardrobe to spring summer, but it sounds like I need to really rethink my packing for the ship.:confused:

Did Iceland in mid June as a pre-cruise stop before a British Isle cruise. It was cold and windy in Iceland - dress in layers and warm. And, The British Isles were also on the cooler side and windy as well. We had jackets/windbreakers and jeans on every day (just scanned through my pics). In early May, it will be even cooler. Check out average temps online for each of your ports.

Average temps are 50's, but I think the wind is the factor. Thanks!