All Ama cruisers!!! Share expierences and ideas

[SCHappilyRetired]

Beachbumsns..Thank you! We picked this cruise because of Strasbourg and Prague, areas we have not been to. We have already been on the Main so a repeat but want to get back to Rothenberg.  Appreciate the info!

[beachbumsns]

Enjoy, loved Strasbourg and we did Prague on our first river cruise, it is an amazing spot as well. 

 

[twincheryl]

5 hours ago, SuzCruise said:

We just booked our first Ama cruise from Nuremberg to Luxembourg in October.  We've only done 1 other river cruise on Crystal, so we've got some newbie type questions.  Our itinerary says we disembark in Luxembourg, but we'll actually be docked a ways outside of town, evidently.  Will Ama shuttle us in to Luxembourg as we disembark?  Is there a list or catalog of excursions that we see closer to our cruise or when we board?  We've seen the brief description of excursions in the itinerary, of course.  But if I recall correctly on Crystal there was a more detailed list of available excursions.  I've looked for something similar on the Ama website but didn't find anything.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

We received an email about shore excursions on June 18th for our cruise that begins on August 29th.  It directed us to the My Cruises page where you log in with booking number and have two or more choices of excursions to pick from.  The bicycle excursions are there, as well as an active and regular excursion on most days... sometimes morning, afternoon, and/or evening choices.  Strangely, my sister is traveling with us and she didn't get an email so she just logged in on the Ama site and all worked fine!  

[KruznKimmie]

14 hours ago, SuzCruise said:

We just booked our first Ama cruise from Nuremberg to Luxembourg in October.  We've only done 1 other river cruise on Crystal, so we've got some newbie type questions.  Our itinerary says we disembark in Luxembourg, but we'll actually be docked a ways outside of town, evidently.  Will Ama shuttle us in to Luxembourg as we disembark?  Is there a list or catalog of excursions that we see closer to our cruise or when we board?  We've seen the brief description of excursions in the itinerary, of course.  But if I recall correctly on Crystal there was a more detailed list of available excursions.  I've looked for something similar on the Ama website but didn't find anything.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

We are on the same cruise the beginning of November & here is the info posted from the AMA tour book we received with our last cruise about the docking location close to Luxembourg.  We are renting a car & driving to Bruges but apparently Uber does not operate here so we will order a taxi to take us to the airport to pick up a car.  AMA will ask the night before you arrive in Luxembourg who will need a taxi & they can pre-arrange a taxi for your requested time of departure.

[KruznKimmie]

On 7/18/2019 at 7:30 PM, kjbacon said:

We are looking forward to it! We are red wine drinkers (when we aren’t having a martini) so might they give us a bottle of red at the cocktail hour so we can enjoy it on the balcony of our room without running back and forth to the lounge?

 

We are considering a AA+ room on the AmaPrima. Can anyone verify that there is more space between the bed and the wall/balcony than a AA room? The room layout diagram looks like it could be an extra foot or two, which would make a huge difference for my claustrophobic husband.

You can carry bottles of wine onboard so in most ports we would purchase some bottles and drink them on board.

[SuzCruise]

Thanks to everyone for the replies about the Luxembourg docking location and excursion info.  Very helpful and appreciated!  I actually called Ama before I saw your reply, Aly, and they did confirm that Wasserbillig would be our disembarkation point and that there is no shuttle to Luxembourg.  Looks like we can easily take a train from Wasserbillig into the city of Luxembourg.  We are also now flying out of there the following day.  I'll keep checking my account on line to see if the excursion info shows up.  

 

Thanks again all!

[SCHappilyRetired]

On 8/13/2019 at 2:29 PM, beachbumsns said:

We did Medieval Treasures which was a brand new itinerary on the AMA Dante May 2018.  It was a great.  One of the excursions was in Strasbourg, France which we loved.  It was our first stop and we booked the Strasbourg City Tour (Tour A).  If I was doing this trip again, I would take my own transportation into the town and go directly to Petite-France.  We did a lot of walking to get to this area, which was a highlight for us.  The ship's excursion spent a lot of time walking through the business district and Parliament buildings.  The park, Orangerie which is the town's oldest park, was nice but we really would have liked to have more time in Petite-France.  We found our time here very limited after doing the long walk to get here.  The Strasbourg Cathedral is worth seeing with the famous astronomical clock.  If you were doing this tour on your own, you would have much more time in these areas that what is allowed on the ships tour. On our ship, they brought a great entertainer on board to sing and play.  Enrico Novi, a one man band who sang/played all songs that many of us knew.  A great highlight of our trip.

 

 Rudesheim is a wonderful stop.  The wine tasting at night is great and interesting.  We stayed on the ship in this port overnight so the next day we took the Rudesheim Gondola Ride.  Very scenic.  We happened to have a local guide who was passionate and knowledgeable but also talked way too long on each subject.  We left the tour to go back down on the Gondola and spend some time in town enjoying a Rudesheim coffee.  I'm sure if you didn't want a guided tour, you could take the Gondola yourself and allow yourself much more time to enjoy the attractions in the town area.

 

When we got to Miltenburg, we had a short stop to let off the people on the tours.  3 of us in our group decided to stay on the boat and cruise with it.  We ended up having the most wonderful relaxing afternoon up on deck enjoying the scenery and going through all the locks.  It was one of the most scenic parts of our cruise.  This is a great itinerary and it was AMADante's first time on the Main River. 

 

We flew into Zurich overnight and took the train to Lucerne.  We spent 3 days here touring around and it was great.  Our hotel was two blocks from the train station.  It was called Hotel Central Lucerne.  Nice hot breakfast and comfortable rooms for a reasonable price.  You could walk all over Lucerne and your hotel gives you a pass for the bus system.  We also took the tour up to Mount Pilatus which included the boat trip on Lake Lucerne back to town.  Well worth our time here.  We then took the train to Basel.  We picked up a taxi at the train station and went across the river to our hotel which was called Hotel Restaurant Resslirytti.  It was very close to the bus system and the hotel again gives you free passes for this transportation which is so easy to use.  Hotel has a wonderful Italian Restaurant on site.  No breakfast included but you can purchase with your stay.  Very convenient location for walking along the river.  We actually could walk across the bridge to get to restaurants.   Taxi to ship on morning of embarkation.  Our Medieval Treasures cruise and our stay in Switzerland was one of the best trips we have ever had.  If I can be of any assistance on what we did to help you with your planning, please let me know.  I hope you enjoy this river cruise as much as we did.

Was the ship docked close to Petite area where we can get off and Do our own thing? Also, is the cathedral close to that area? Thank you.

[KruznKimmie]

19 hours ago, SCHappilyRetired said:

Was the ship docked close to Petite area where we can get off and Do our own thing? Also, is the cathedral close to that area? Thank you.

When we were in Strasbourg the ship docked across the border in Germany & we took Uber from the port to downtown.  You could probably also have the ship call for a taxi.  Or you could go with your tour to the location in town & leave the tour & do your own thing.

[SCHappilyRetired]

3 hours ago, aly7859 said:

When we were in Strasbourg the ship docked across the border in Germany & we took Uber from the port to downtown.  You could probably also have the ship call for a taxi.  Or you could go with your tour to the location in town & leave the tour & do your own thing.

If taking the tour, does Ama have a meeting point once in town or do we need to return to the ship on our own?  Thank you.

[KruznKimmie]

2 hours ago, SCHappilyRetired said:

If taking the tour, does Ama have a meeting point once in town or do we need to return to the ship on our own?  Thank you.

There is usually not a meeting up point but what you could do is ask the tour guide if you could meet them somewhere & take the transportation back to the ship or you could get the tour guide's phone # & call them to determine where you might meet them.  But Uber is really cheap here...if you get an international SIM card & add it to your phone then you have international access.  We pre-purchase SIM cards online @ Amazon before we leave & install them before we leave the US.  Just make sure your cell phone is unlocked.

[SCHappilyRetired]

Thank you!

[twincheryl]

21 hours ago, SCHappilyRetired said:

If taking the tour, does Ama have a meeting point once in town or do we need to return to the ship on our own?  Thank you.

On our Ama Christmas Markets cruise a couple years ago, we left the group at every port and the guide told us exactly where the bus would be and at what time because we didn't want to take as long shopping as they allowed.  We never had an issue meeting up with them.  One port we decided to walk back to the ship and the guide told us the easiest way to get there.  We're leaving on the 27th for a Rhine cruise and plan on doing the same thing!

[Got2Cruise]

On 8/17/2019 at 4:39 PM, SCHappilyRetired said:

If taking the tour, does Ama have a meeting point once in town or do we need to return to the ship on our own?  Thank you.

We were always told exactly where the group would meet up to go back to the ship before the walking tour began. Usually the bus has to drop you off and has to wait away from the pick up spot. Even if you are with the tour there is always free time at the end. 

[SCHappilyRetired]

 Yes, our other AMA cruises we had transportation back but wasn't sure on this particular port. Thank you!

 

 

Got2cruise...Did you take Princess to the Mediterranean? We stayed overnight in Cairo and I think I remember your name.  It's been awhile though.

[Got2Cruise]

1 hour ago, SCHappilyRetired said:

 Yes, our other AMA cruises we had transportation back but wasn't sure on this particular port. Thank you!

 

 

Got2cruise...Did you take Princess to the Mediterranean? We stayed overnight in Cairo and I think I remember your name.  It's been awhile though.

I wish it was me but sorry no. But I’ve been around CC forever. 

[2islandhoppers]

On 8/13/2019 at 6:30 AM, SuzCruise said:

We just booked our first Ama cruise from Nuremberg to Luxembourg in October.

 

SuzCruise, are you on the Ama Dante departing 03October??  We are as well.  My experience with Ama is that they arrange taxi's for the disembarkation point - usually they organize it the night before.  We will probably take a taxi to the train station in Luxembourg but Ama is very good in helping you with onward transportation.

[SCHappilyRetired]

You can ask your cruise manager the day before for a taxi, time and they will make all the arrangements. All our taxis were on time at the dock and staff helped us with our luggage. All the AMA cruises we have taken they did that.  

[vacation baby]

Hi.  

We just booked AmaKristina for Aug. 17, 2020 from Amsterdam to Basel with 2 days pre-cruise in Amsterdam and 2 days post-cruise in Lucerne and 2 days post-cruise in Zurich.  This will be our first river cruise.  We have 16+ cruises with Princess and thought it was time to try something different.

We leave for Japan next month on Princess.

We met an Ama tour guide in Paris last year, and our TA had an Ama presentation in his office.  We are hooked!  Love reading all the posts for Ama. Love to hear about shore excursions! 

 

[Cellagirl]

We too WERE avid ocean cruisers.  After our first river cruise with Amawaterways,we are in love with this style of travel.  One recommendation is to NOT compare ocean cruising to river cruising. IMO, it is apples to oranges.  The quality of food, service and all around atmosphere is first class.

Excursions are included and are well planned for different levels and interests.  No urgent need to pre book but know which one you want to do.  The staff is very accommodating and go out of their way to help.  Enjoy your new adventure!!!!

[vacation baby]

22 hours ago, Cellagirl said:

We too WERE avid ocean cruisers.  After our first river cruise with Amawaterways,we are in love with this style of travel.  One recommendation is to NOT compare ocean cruising to river cruising. IMO, it is apples to oranges.  The quality of food, service and all around atmosphere is first class.

Excursions are included and are well planned for different levels and interests.  No urgent need to pre book but know which one you want to do.  The staff is very accommodating and go out of their way to help.  Enjoy your new adventure!!!!

Yes everyone says do NOT compare ocean cruising with river cruising.  Thanks for the tips!

[SuzCruise]

On 8/20/2019 at 2:08 PM, 2islandhoppers said:

 

SuzCruise, are you on the Ama Dante departing 03October??  We are as well.  

We embark in Nuremberg on the 24th of October and our cruise ends in Luxemburg on Halloween.  Is that the same cruise you are on?  It looks like we will disembark close to the train station and there are regular trains into Luxembourg city, so travel  should be fairly easy to handle on our own.  After our Crystal river cruise there were lots of transportation options provided, so I thought this might be the case here as well.  

 

We can see the shore excursions on the Ama website now.  Only issue is the itinerary seems to be a bit different than that stated for our cruise.  I'm going to assume it is just a bit of a snafu and our itenerary isn't changing at this point.  I would love to hear feedback on the excursions for the "Europe's Rivers and Castle's" itenerary from Nuremberg to Luxembourg if anyone has some to share.  

[2islandhoppers]

 

SuzCruise, we embark from Nuremberg on October 3.  We are actually taking the Medieval Treasures from Basel to Nuremberg on Sept26 on the Ama Dante, and then doing the back-to-back to Luxembourg.  We are taking the train and flying out of Frankfurt and from what I can find out, it will be easier to take the train from Wasserbillig than take a taxi into Luxembourg City. 

 

I find it interesting that you are able to see your shore excursions on the Ama website.  We've received the Ama documentation with the detailed itinerary for the Sept 26 cruise, but not for the second cruise.  Ama would like us to select our shore excursions for the first cruise  but we are reluctant to do that until we have a look at both cruises and can compare excursions.  There is some duplication of stops, but some of the excursions are different and we want to make sure we see what we were looking forward to.  We've contacted Ama and asked for the second set of detailed shore excursions so we can make comparisons, but were told we'd just have to wait until they send out the complete package.  Rather disappointed in Ama in this respect as we won't receive the second set of excursions until the cut-off for the earlier cruise.😕

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SCHappilyRetired]

3 hours ago, 2islandhoppers said:

 

SuzCruise, we embark from Nuremberg on October 3.  We are actually taking the Medieval Treasures from Basel to Nuremberg on Sept26 on the Ama Dante, and then doing the back-to-back to Luxembourg.  We are taking the train and flying out of Frankfurt and from what I can find out, it will be easier to take the train from Wasserbillig than take a taxi into Luxembourg City. 

 

I find it interesting that you are able to see your shore excursions on the Ama website.  We've received the Ama documentation with the detailed itinerary for the Sept 26 cruise, but not for the second cruise.  Ama would like us to select our shore excursions for the first cruise  but we are reluctant to do that until we have a look at both cruises and can compare excursions.  There is some duplication of stops, but some of the excursions are different and we want to make sure we see what we were looking forward to.  We've contacted Ama and asked for the second set of detailed shore excursions so we can make comparisons, but were told we'd just have to wait until they send out the complete package.  Rather disappointed in Ama in this respect as we won't receive the second set of excursions until the cut-off for the earlier cruise.😕

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On all of our AMA cruises we found that once we paid in full, we were able to view and pick what we wanted online. We could change our excursions once onboard with no problems.  Actually, some passengers did not pick beforehand. However,  if your going on a "special limited excursion", I would secure that as soon as possible. I did a cooking class on our Rhone trip and that was limited to only 12 people.

 

Medieval Treasures will be our next cruise and I hope you post a review.  Enjoy your cruise!

[SuzCruise]

2islandhoppers,

 

I'm happy to share the info I have for excursions for our sailing, if we can figure out the easiest way to do so.  As I said, there are some differences in the itinerary we booked and what is now showing up for our excursions, but I'm going to assume that is an error.  It seems no cruise line can master technology, so I'll blame technology for this also.  We "booked" some of the excursions we were interested in, but because of the inability to book bike tours and the weirdness with the itenerary/excursion info, we didn't book them all.  Based on everything I've read I thought we didn't really need to choose excursions before sailing.  We haven't received any documentation via mail, yet.  But we recently booked and have a couple of months until sailing.

 

We are going to take a train from Wasserbillig into Luxembourg where we will spend our last day and night and then we are flying from Luxembourg to Frankfurt and then on to Austin the day after the cruise.  That worked better for us timing wise than taking the train back to Frankfurt.  

 

 

[2islandhoppers]

On 8/27/2019 at 2:35 PM, SuzCruise said:

2islandhoppers,

 

I'm happy to share the info I have for excursions for our sailing, if we can figure out the easiest way to do so.  As I said, there are some differences in the itinerary we booked and what is now showing up for our excursions, but I'm going to assume that is an error.  

 

We ended up contacting our travel agent, who informed us that all we had to do was enter the confirmation number from our second receipt.  Duh!!  Never thought to try that!  However, we've now booked our excursions for our second cruise, and although we still don't have our detailed itinerary, I'm sure there's no problem changing once on board.  On our last Ama cruise I don't recall prebooking the excursions, but I'm sure it gives them an idea of how many guides/transportation/etc to plan for.

 

Only 3 weeks to go for us.  I've booked the hotel in Basel and in Frankfurt, and the train from Wasserbillig to Frankfurt.  I may have to take the train ticket to my German speaking friend to translate, 'tho.