AMAWaterways Rhine River Christmas Markets blog

[Valley Girl of VA]

If you decide to add on a few days after your river cruise ends, Dusseldorf is a good choice.  We enjoyed the time but now it was time to go back to Amsterdam to go home:  https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/dusseldorf-to-amsterdam/

 

My next blog post will be my reflections on the river cruise and whether I would go again or not.

[ural guy]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, enjoyable read.

[Coolcruise02]

Loved your blog and all the helpful info!

[Valley Girl of VA]

Final blog post on this cruise:  Did I enjoy it?  Would I do it again?  Read to find out:  https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/did-i-enjoy-this-cruise-my-personal-opinion/

[Coral]

10 hours ago, Valley Girl of VA said:

Final blog post on this cruise:  Did I enjoy it?  Would I do it again?  Read to find out:  https://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/did-i-enjoy-this-cruise-my-personal-opinion/

I was sort of sad to read your last blog. I sailed in November along the Danube with Crystal and did not have all the drama you did with switching of itineraries and I was pleased with my cruise. I agree - it is a weird balance between seeing the town and seeing the markets and I erred on seeing the markets as I am not sure if I will return during November/December again. We also had less "sailing time" during the day and we did spend longer days in ports. 

 

On the flip side - your markets looked more varied compared to the ones I saw. I agree though - it would be best to do a train/hotel trip to see the Markets. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed your blog and wish I was retired (or had more time) so I would have time to create such a great blog like you did. I am sure it will help many in the future when researching this type of cruise. BTW - I also enjoyed your Falkland Island blog when I was on your site!

Edited January 26, 2019 by Coral

[Valley Girl of VA]

12 minutes ago, Coral said:

I was sort of sad to read your last blog. I sailed in November along the Danube with Crystal and did not have all the drama you did with switching of itineraries and I was pleased with my cruise. I agree - it is a weird balance between seeing the town and seeing the markets and I erred on seeing the markets as I am not sure if I will return during November/December again. We also had less "sailing time" during the day and we did spend longer days in ports. 

 

On the flip side - your markets looked more varied compared to the ones I saw. I agree though - it would be best to do a train/hotel trip to see the Markets. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed your blog and wish I was retired (or had more time) so I would have time to create such a great blog like you did. I am sure it will help many in the future when researching this type of cruise. BTW - I also enjoyed your Falkland Island blog when I was on your site!

 

You are so kind to take time and and let me know that you enjoyed my blog posts.  I agree, every cruise, every sailing is different and if I did the exact same cruise again next year I'm sure I would have a very different opinion.  I think we must know to take opinions like mine with a grain of salt.  Yes, that was what happened on my cruise and may never happen again with the combination of having an itinerary change twice, a rookie cruise director, change of stateroom locations without our permission or even notifying us.  I think if you hear these complaints over and over, then you need to give some credence as to what is being said.  Thankfully, I've been on AMA twice before and knew how good it could be.

 

I have more posts coming up and hope that you have subscribed to read all that I will be writing about as well as a cruise I'm inviting anyone on.  Please feel free to write me, if you want, at janeschwalm@gmail.com

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, Valley Girl of VA said:

 

You are so kind to take time and and let me know that you enjoyed my blog posts.  I agree, every cruise, every sailing is different and if I did the exact same cruise again next year I'm sure I would have a very different opinion.  I think we must know to take opinions like mine with a grain of salt.  Yes, that was what happened on my cruise and may never happen again with the combination of having an itinerary change twice, a rookie cruise director, change of stateroom locations without our permission or even notifying us.  I think if you hear these complaints over and over, then you need to give some credence as to what is being said.  Thankfully, I've been on AMA twice before and knew how good it could be.

 

I have more posts coming up and hope that you have subscribed to read all that I will be writing about as well as a cruise I'm inviting anyone on.  Please feel free to write me, if you want, at janeschwalm@gmail.com

I will subscribe. I planned on looking at your site this weekend as I tentatively have a South American trip planned for Christmas. Thanks for email address if I have questions.

 

You did seem to have better weather on your trip than mine. We had some rain during our trip and we had some very gray days so some of your pictures are "more cheerful than mine". Your markets were more varied than the ones I saw. Sometimes I felt like it was the same market, different location.

 

As odd as this sounds - I don't think we had a CD on Crystal! Maybe we did and I didn't know it. They ran it like a cruise line and sent itineraries to our room every night. I have sailed AMA once and knew exactly who the CD was every day as there was daily interaction. I just didn't see that on Crystal. We also didn't have nightly meetings as we had open dining times so there wasn't a quick meeting before dinner. There did seem to be one person some senior status outside the buses in the morning but not the same way as a CD on AMA was.  I may have only known this as she checked me in, showed me my room, said she worked with the tours  and she did deliver our tour tickets. When I mentioned her to others, they didn't know her. Many individuals who went on tours with us were front desk individuals.

 

The first night we had "Meet the Captain" which probably included more people but I skipped it - I was unpacking. We only had 1 meeting during the week and that was to say we couldn't sail to Bratislava and that our excursions would go on as scheduled, just with a bus ride. We spent 4 days in Vienna -2 on each end (one day bused to Bratislava), 2 days in Linz (I went to Salzburg and then Austrian Lake district, some went to Cesky Krumlov), 2 days in Passau (went to Munich and Regensburg) and then 2 days with half days sailing Wachau Valley with the other part of days visiting Melk and Krems. So we only had 2 (1/2 days) sailing during the day and spent many nights in ports. It worked great this year due to low waters.

 

So oddly - if we had a CD, I didn't know about it and it didn't affect my cruise because things ran like clockwork. I know on other lines - the CD is the 2nd most important person next to the Captain. My AMA CD was always frazzled and always changing things around - I think she created her chaos. 

 

Crystal did have a lot of cancellations - I just don't know when (final payment?) - my butler indicated such. Since they have had drought since early summer - some may have seen the writing on the wall by final payment. We also had people who were scheduled to be on a longer itinerary that had to be cancelled on our sailing - they did have a choice to be cancelled or rebooked on another ship as their sailing did not go.

 

Again, thanks! I have some cold weeks coming ahead and will enjoy reading your blog!