Just got back from my first rivercruise

[jbinbi]

Just did a trip with ama on the danube. Fantastic time. Great food, great service, great planning, great tours.

 

We are in our late 50s, I think we were about 10+ yrs younger than the average, so things moved a bit slower than we wanted, but not terribly so, and didn't really affect us.

 

AMA did a fantastic job in all aspects, including the pre and post tours. The cruise manager , couldn't praise him enough.

 

Not sure how AMA compares against uni, avalon, etc., but would certainly use them again!

[emdmistycc]

Great to hear that you enjoyed your cruise.

 

We will be sailing on amavioloa in September on the Danube. Did you do any of the optional tours? Did you do the special dining ? Any tips you could pass on to us as first time river cruisers?

 

Thanks

Elaine and Jim

[jbinbi]

saw the concert in vienna. thought it was the right thing to do. enjoyed it very much.

 

choose a few of the more challenging excursion, hike to top of the castle in durnstein, bike ride, etc.

[Lois R]

Glad you had a great cruise:). I took my first River Cruise in April

(also on AMA)......it was also fantastic.....so much so, I booked another

cruise on AMA for next year:D.....I am 58 and things moved fine for me.

(I am not in good shape).....actually, I was pretty exhausted at night's

end.

[mmsoko]

Just did a trip with ama on the danube. Fantastic time. Great food, great service, great planning, great tours.

 

We are in our late 50s, I think we were about 10+ yrs younger than the average, so things moved a bit slower than we wanted, but not terribly so, and didn't really affect us.

 

AMA did a fantastic job in all aspects, including the pre and post tours. The cruise manager , couldn't praise him enough.

 

Not sure how AMA compares against uni, avalon, etc., but would certainly use them again!

 

We too will be river cruising for the first time on AMA on the Danube. Will be on Serena in September. Anything you were particularly glad you did/or packed? Any way you wish you'd prepared better? How was wifi? Will you be writing a review?

[jbinbi]

hope to get to a review, but trying to catch up at work now....

 

wifi worked fairly well at almost all times on the boat. we packed light, carry on size bags, and didn't want for more. Wore shorts, sandals and polypro shirt during the day, long pants and collared shirt to dinner. Nothing more formal is necessary. Was able to do this in June, not sure if you go in May or late Sept/Oct you can do this.

 

Food was amazing, 5+ star kind of ratings. Great wines as well.

 

Would love to know how AMA compares to Viking/Avalon/Grand Circle. If there is a person who has done several cruises on the various lines, it would be great if they put up a post about their experiences, not just lots of the hearsay we get.

[caviargal]

 

Would love to know how AMA compares to Viking/Avalon/Grand Circle. If there is a person who has done several cruises on the various lines, it would be great if they put up a post about their experiences, not just lots of the hearsay we get.

 

Have not and will not try Viking or GC for a multitude of reasons. You can see my river cruising history in my signature and I have reviews posted of all of my river cruises.

 

IMO and IME, AMA blows Avalon out of the water in all aspects. Never looked back.

[cormike1]

We haven't done a river cruise for quite a few years now but we did our first, the Danube on Viking, 2nd the Rhine on Avalon and 3rd AMA Moscow to St. Petersburg. They were all different and all wonderful!

 

AMA had the oldest ship...it was supposed to be a "high class ship" at one time for Russian Military and the wealthy to get away from it all lol. Being old didn't bother us in the least as it was sparkly clean all the time. Staff and food were wonderful. The other 2 lines were great also. Each had its own personality and we had wonderful times on all 3 of them!

 

I have to tell you that we always book the most reasonable cabin as we are not in our room a lot and a window is fine with us. We are always out on the top deck if weather permits....we don't want to miss a thing.

 

I would book with any of those 3 companies again. I think the prices are about the same but I always look at the itineraries to try and choose places we haven't been before.

 

We were on our Danube River Cruise during 9/11 and I can tell you that Viking handled the 34 U.S. citizens on our cruise with the utmost compassion, allowing free calls home, and keeping the news on in the lounge 24/7. Thank goodness no one had any family directly affected.

 

I am researching now for the Fall of 2017 as it is our 35th in Nov. and we are trying to choose something different to celebrate.

 

Who knows....it just might be a river cruise.

Edited June 13, 2016 by cormike1
spelling

[mmsoko]

Did you stay in Prague for the pre-cruise ? Considering the Folk Dinner show, di d you or anyone you talked to go to this? thoughts?

 

Are considering the limited edition tours...any thoughts here?

[caviargal]

Did you stay in Prague for the pre-cruise ? Considering the Folk Dinner show, di d you or anyone you talked to go to this? thoughts?

 

Are considering the limited edition tours...any thoughts here?

 

We always find a Limited Edition tour or two that appeals to us, on each AMA cruise. Read the detailed description to see if there is something you would enjoy and book it as soon as you can.

 

We have stayed in Prague pre cruise and post once, both times independently.

[4774Papa]

We haven't done a river cruise for quite a few years now but we did our first, the Danube on Viking, 2nd the Rhine on Avalon and 3rd AMA Moscow to St. Petersburg. They were all different and all wonderful!

 

AMA had the oldest ship...it was supposed to be a "high class ship" at one time for Russian Military and the wealthy to get away from it all lol. Being old didn't bother us in the least as it was sparkly clean all the time. Staff and food were wonderful. The other 2 lines were great also. Each had its own personality and we had wonderful times on all 3 of them!

 

I have to tell you that we always book the most reasonable cabin as we are not in our room a lot and a window is fine with us. We are always out on the top deck if weather permits....we don't want to miss a thing.

 

I would book with any of those 3 companies again. I think the prices are about the same but I always look at the itineraries to try and choose places we haven't been before.

 

We were on our Danube River Cruise during 9/11 and I can tell you that Viking handled the 34 U.S. citizens on our cruise with the utmost compassion, allowing free calls home, and keeping the news on in the lounge 24/7. Thank goodness no one had any family directly affected.

 

I am researching now for the Fall of 2017 as it is our 35th in Nov. and we are trying to choose something different to celebrate.

 

Who knows....it just might be a river cruise.

 

Was the Russian ship the Tolstoy? We had that ship on our Vantage River Cruise in 2011.

[mmsoko]

We always find a Limited Edition tour or two that appeals to us, on each AMA cruise. Read the detailed description to see if there is something you would enjoy and book it as soon as you can.

 

Thx...we did book a couple of them.

[Hydrokitty]

Was the Russian ship the Tolstoy? We had that ship on our Vantage River Cruise in 2011.

 

We went on Tolstoy either trip before you or trip after...I wonder if she's still sailing..That was an amazing trip. Did you do the Kiev pre-trip?

[jbinbi]

Did you stay in Prague for the pre-cruise ? Considering the Folk Dinner show, di d you or anyone you talked to go to this? thoughts?

 

Are considering the limited edition tours...any thoughts here?

 

we went the other way on the river, so prague was post cruise :).

 

Anyway, we did both prague and budapest, we had never been to either place and it didn't make sense to go so close to each and not see them...

 

We did not do the folk dinner show, we found a wonderful restaurant by the US Embassy, high on a hill, and had a great dinner. Others who went on the folk dinner had a good time as well. There was nothing AMA had that was bad IMO.

[4774Papa]

We went on Tolstoy either trip before you or trip after...I wonder if she's still sailing..That was an amazing trip. Did you do the Kiev pre-trip?

 

Yes, we did with the Kiev pre and Baltic post. Amazing trip around. On on Kiev pretrial, we had a home hosted dinner with a woman and her granddaughter. Our small group heard all about Chernobyl. Her husband worked on the cleanup and sealing the old reactor (died four years later). The Soviet Gvt did not cancel a parade in Kiev with thousands, including school children even though the air was filled with radiation, because they didn't want to admit the reactor failure. Also, we learned about the Soviet Union and how the KGB was everywhere and seemed to know everything about everybody.

[Hydrokitty]

Yes, we did with the Kiev pre and Baltic post. Amazing trip around. On on Kiev pretrial, we had a home hosted dinner with a woman and her granddaughter. Our small group heard all about Chernobyl. Her husband worked on the cleanup and sealing the old reactor (died four years later). The Soviet Gvt did not cancel a parade in Kiev with thousands, including school children even though the air was filled with radiation, because they didn't want to admit the reactor failure. Also, we learned about the Soviet Union and how the KGB was everywhere and seemed to know everything about everybody.

 

We didn't have home host in Kiev and it was optional in Chernobyl, an option we chose not to take. We visited St. Michael's Square and St. Sofia's, Percheska Lavra and Pirogovo open air museum. We had our farewell dinner in a restaurant with wonderful singing, dancing and chicken kiev, of course. I'm going back to St. Petersburg on Celebrity Baltic Capitals cruise next year...also going to Tallinn....anything you can tell me about Tallinn?

[4774Papa]

We didn't have home host in Kiev and it was optional in Chernobyl, an option we chose not to take. We visited St. Michael's Square and St. Sofia's, Percheska Lavra and Pirogovo open air museum. We had our farewell dinner in a restaurant with wonderful singing, dancing and chicken kiev, of course. I'm going back to St. Petersburg on Celebrity Baltic Capitals cruise next year...also going to Tallinn....anything you can tell me about Tallinn?

Tallinn is a old walled city with cobblestone streets. Our tour of the old city was a walking tour. We stayed two nights and also visited the open air festival grounds. In 1988, Estonians gathered at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, to sing patriotic hymns in what became known as the Singing Revolution that led to the overthrow of Soviet rule.