AMA Discover Africa safari-cruise May 1-15, 2018 Review

AMA Discover Africa safari-cruise May 1-15, 2018 Review

DW and I returned a few weeks ago from a wonderful river cruise-safari with AmaWaterways.

The blog and pictures are posted here:

https://jazzbeauxafricansafari2018.wordpress.com

Here is the text of the review [last post on the blog]:

This trip exceeded all expectations—and as past AMA cruisers our expectations were quite high!

• The Cape Grace is a wonderful luxury hotel in Cape Town, and AMA went for upgraded Table Mountain view rooms. We actually preferred the PortsWood Hotel in some areas, but it wouldn’t be suitable for a tour group that needs to have large coaches loading and it isn’t as centrally located to the V&A Waterfront—on your own, however, the price differential makes it an excellent choice.

• The included excursions in Cape Town are all excellent, and cover all the main things you would want to do outside the V&A area. The first day everyone goes to the 12 Apostles, Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach (penguins), and lunch at Harbour House on Kalk Bay.

The second day there is a choice between Robben Island/Bo-Kaap/Table Mountain or Table Mountain/Cape Winelands—we chose the latter and enjoyed it very much; others who did Robben Island also enjoyed it [if ‘enjoyed’ is the right word…]. You have to make this choice in advance; AMA sends out a one-page brochure explaining the choices—but it showed a different winery for the lunch stop than we had [ours was very good, and of course we don’t know what we missed].

• The third day is a long series of flights and immigration control stops. There was some confusion about this in earlier Cruise Critic posts, so I will explain in detail how our day went:

• The Zambezi Queen is very different from AMA’s [or anybody’s] European river ships. Very small [14 cabins]; most of the crew goes home at night; cabins are a nice size and fully air conditioned [earlier reviews said they turn the AC off at night—that is no longer true]; food is not as good as on AMA European cruises but is acceptable; however food is only available at the three meals, plus nuts and chips on the excursion boats; wine is quite good [all from South Africa] and the inclusive liquor covers a good range [G&T fans have the opportunity to sample several high-end South African gins at extra cost—but they don’t carry Fever Tree tonic]

• Excursions off the boat are varied—even if you go to the same area, the animals you see are likely to be completely different; not physically taxing [in fact, the lack of physical activity got to be a problem]. The excursion boats have a roof, and since they were not full we were able to move around to keep in the shade; at speed you do need to hold on to your hat, and I was glad that I had big sunglasses that fit over my prescription set to protect from dust and bug spatter!

The brochure mentioned one excursion on “a special double decker barge that will allow you to venture into the southern channels” – this was canceled on our cruise and we went out on the regular boats in the regular area. We were told that this is because there were problems getting on and off the barge. I don’t know if that was because of the extremely high water levels or is a permanent change. And of course I don’t know what we missed—but that was the afternoon when we saw the Peaceable Kingdom tableau, so we didn’t feel cheated.

• The land excursion to Chobe National Park, despite giving us four more visa stamps, was a highlight. We saw elephants and giraffes from the water, but in the park we saw large groups of them interacting in a natural way that gave us a real safari feel.

The Toyota Land Cruisers are as luxurious as you will find on any safari—a roof gives shade most of the time, and the ride is more comfortable than you might expect. But the dirt roads are nevertheless very bumpy—we concluded that a multi-day safari with two or three excursions like this every day would have been beyond our physical capability. So this day was both a highlight and a confirmation of our decision not to go to Tanzania or Kruger.

• The visit to the African village was eye-opening about what living conditions are like in the bush in two ways: the lack of running water and paving and the wattle and daub construction were like being transported back to Dr. Livingstone’s time, but on the other hand the people seemed happy and at peace [in that way it reminded me of people my age who grew up in the Bronx and say “we were poor, but everybody was poor so we didn’t know we were poor”].

• Victoria Falls is everything they say. But to really experience it you must take the helicopter ride—the falls and their setting are so huge that you have to see it from the air to experience it. If you add that optional extra, the combination with AMA’s included tours is a comprehensive experience and everything is arranged in the right order. The steam train comes first; you only get a glimpse of the falls but the focus is on the Victorian experience of a luxury train. The next day you walk along the falls as they gradually unfold (and unfold and unfold—this gives you an understanding of how big they are). Then comes the helicopter ride, and finally the sundowner cruise, which because of the high water and strong currents couldn’t get close to the falls, but was a very relaxing way to end what had been a pretty hectic trip overall; the lecturer about Dr. Livingstone was very good.

• Not every meal is included, but the optional ones are well chosen because often there was been an event with hors d'oeuvres that left us full enough to skip dinner. The final dinners onboard Zambezi Queen and at the Victoria Falls Hotel included African entertainment.

• The Lion Encounter was the absolute highlight of the trip for us, but because it isn’t offered directly by AMA we were the only ones who knew about it. There are two spots in the schedule that list free time, but they don’t work out with the Lion Encounter schedule so we had to get up really early on the last day to squeeze it in before the group headed to the airport. It would have been much more convenient if AMA had organized this like they did with the helicopter ride. But despite the early wake-up and the hectic schedule, we are SO glad we did this.

• AMA stayed with us all the way to the Jo’burg airport, and Delia had made the call to arrange a pick-up through our Jo’burg hotel so the driver was waiting for us which made the end of the organized tour go very smoothly.

• The DaVinci Hotel in Jo’burg is another excellent choice. It is located in the Sandton area (considered the safest part of Jo’burg) and connected to an upscale shopping mall with many restaurant choices.

• Felleng Tours was great to work with for our final day. Rather than take a package tour and then return to the hotel to get our luggage, we stored it in their SUV while we toured the area and then were dropped off directly at the airport. Easy peasy.

Downsides:

There really isn’t much to complain about!

• We knew the flights from NYC to South Africa were going to be long, but the delays on all of our flights over made a bad situation into an almost intolerable one. Thankfully the even longer flight from Jo’burg to Atlanta on the way home went smoothly. This trip was intended as a test to see if DW could handle the flights to New Zealand, and surprisingly – despite all the problems – that trip is now in the planning stage!

• The Zambezi Queen cockroach infestation needs to be addressed. We were disappointed that it existed, but we are even more upset that neither the ZQ management nor AMA has responded to our complaints.

Summary:

This trip goes up there with Galapagos as our top adventures, in the ‘trip of a lifetime’ category. Despite the few glitches, we are really glad we did it and highly recommend the AMA African Safaris.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for your review. We had the identical trip to yours except we went on the Stars of South Africa version which added on 3 nights at the end at the private Makanyi game lodge next to Krueger National Park. We arrived in Cape Town on April 20th for our 2 week trip.

The 6 game drives there were fantastic and we did not find them to be at all uncomfortable. The land rovers could seat 9 people , but these were modified to only seat 2 in each row with a storage bin in the middle for raincoats or warm wraps. We only had 4 of us in ours plus the driver and the tracker on the left bumper. The morning drive was at 6:30am till 9:30 am, breakfast at the lodge (which was magnificent). Then lunch around 1pm, second drive from 3:30 to 6:30 pm, then dinner. They even had brick staircase to make climbing into the rover easy.

The whole lodge was very well done and the rooms and meals

were great.

We saw all the major animals except leopards and cheetahs in abundance. This was the highlight of our trip.

We had 4 nights on the Zambezi Queen in Chobe and never saw a cockroach.

The Victoria Falls hotel was great, and we did plenty of walking just to get to breakfast and dinner restaurant.

In Johannesburg they took us to see Soweto where Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived. Then to Kliptown which is less than a slum. Horrible tin shacks with no water or toilets. You had to walk to pumps at the corner. Not an enjoyable tour.

We stayed in Joberg at the Fairlawn Boutique hotel in Sandton which is another 5 star hotel.

The worst part of this trip were the flights. We flew from Chgo direct to Capetown with only a stopover in London , Heathrow on British Air. Now I know why they tell you not to go through Heathrow if you can. We flew business class for a very expensive trip only made enjoyable by being able to wait in the bus class lounges..There were some long days with the 5 internal flights plus the 2 legs each way to get to and from Africa.

We also had Delia as our tour director and she is terrific.

She was always there to make everything go smoothly.

This was our 6th trip with AMA and as usual everything was first class.

Thanks again for reminding me with all the details of your trip. It was great to relive it with you.

Pat

Hi Jazz, good morning:) thanks for the review. Glad you both enjoyed so it much:) Definitely sounds like a different experience!

thank you Jazz for the wonderful review. We leave Wednesday for a land tour that in the beginning pretty much mimics your Cape Town experiences. Have one question, are you able to purchase bottled water at a store such as Clicks?

Sent from my iPad using Forums

You might want to check with your tour company. We were given water on every van, bus, or boat we were on.

Pat

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Our trip to Clicks was focused on replenishing the items that had been pilfered from our luggage, so I didn't notice whether they sell bottled water. But rphpcf is right: we were handed bottled water everywhere we went with AMA, so it was never an issue.

Are you glad you took the river cruise portion?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Are you glad you took the river cruise portion?

Absolutely! Just avoid cabin 23 [no one else noticed cockroaches].

Thank you for the replies, we arrive 2 days before the tour starts and just need a few bottles while we explore on our own. Pretty sure we’ll find some.

Which your did you do with felleng?

Which your did you do with felleng?

It was a private tour with a custom itinerary. They picked us up at our Jo'burg hotel, showed us around Jo'burg a little and then out to the Cradle of Humankind. We decided to skip the Sterkfontein caves because it was raining and they would be slippery, but spent quite a long time enjoying the Maropeng Visitor Center. Then since there was still time they took us for lunch and then to Pretoria to the Voortrekker Monument. Then they dropped us at the airport for our flight home. [We kept our luggage in the SUV throughout, so this also served as our airport transfer.]