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AMA Waterways Rhine River Cruise Onboard AmaKristina

AMA Waterways Rhine River Cruise Onboard AmaKristina

Old May 31, 2017, 5:17 pm
  #1  
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AMA Waterways Rhine River Cruise Onboard AmaKristina

My husband and I pulled the trigger yesterday and booked a cabin onboard the new ship, Kristina, for a cruise in August. We are wondering if any FT'ers have sailed from Amsterdam to Basel as those cities are our embarking and disembarking points. Would enjoy hearing your impressions of your experiences.
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Old May 31, 2017, 6:46 pm
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Did this cruise in reverse order last July on Uniworld. Loved the cruise, will never cruise on Uniworld again as I found the management (not the on-board crew) less than honest/reputable.

You will have a good amount of river cruising time and ample shore excursion time. Seems like every river cruise line does this route. Very funny to see, at some docks there were three boats abreast, so we had to walk through the lobby areas of two competitor's boats to get to the dock.

Try to spend as much time up top enjoying the castles/scenery along the Rhine, spectacular!

We haven't tried Ama yet, but they're definitely on the short-list. Another company to consider is Scenic: https://www.scenicusa.com/

They're an Australian company that's been around for 20+ years, and are now trying to gain greater US market with a new-ish Boston office. We are trying them out for a Mekong River cruise this December (your loss Uniworld).

You guys are in for a great time.
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Old May 31, 2017, 7:26 pm
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Absolutely loved my cruise on AmaSerena. Fantastic service, loved it. I did a Danube River cruise so no suggestions on that. I'm booked for the Rhine next year, again on Ama.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 1:10 am
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Originally Posted by fozziedoggie
Did this cruise in reverse order last July on Uniworld. Loved the cruise, will never cruise on Uniworld again as I found the management (not the on-board crew) less than honest/reputable.
Can you share more? Thanks.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 9:02 am
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Sure, I'll try to be somewhat brief

Like many of the folks here on FT, I carefully read all of the rules/T&C's associated with loyalty programs. At the time prior to and during our cruise, Uniworld has published in writing on their website the promise of one-cabin upgrade for their River Heritage members. I read up on the process employed by Uniworld for awarding cabin upgrades, made a couple of calls expressing my interest in an upgrade just to make sure I was on the "list." Come the day of the cruise, inquired with the on-board hotel manager about the one-cabin upgrade, she looked at me like I was from outer-space; no clue about what the home office website published. However, there was an empty cabin available to upgrade to, we were taken to the cabin and shown it. My bad, at this point I wrongly assumed that she was offering this cabin as an complimentary upgrade for a valued River Heritage member

Of course I said "yes, we would love the upgrade," to which the hotel manager replied, "great, that will be $400USD per pax." Since my husband was really looking forward to this nicer cabin, I felt somewhat boxed in and didn't want to disappoint. So in the short-run, Uniworld received an extra $800 from us, but in the long-run, they have now lost out on MANY more river cruises. Our next cruise is on Scenic (I have linked their website in post #2 ).

Since around the 1st of this year, I noticed Uniworld is no longer touting a one-cabin upgrade on their website; consistent now with all other luxury operators. Simply bad form on their part for not honoring my upgrade request when I followed all of their published guidelines.

From an objective point of view, I also note the following regarding Uniworld:
1. They seem like a company in disarray, recently replaced their president, but when I emailed her regarding this incident, I was basically brushed-off. Kind of got the impression that wanting a complimentary upgrade as outlined on their website made me common riff-raff.
2. Their on-line booking engine/software is crap, while waiting for this Rhine cruise, I was also trying to book their Mekong River cruise, but the exact date we wanted would not allow booking (404 error message). I passed this along to their customer service for follow-up, never heard back; two months later, still could not book that date on-line, all other dates were fully bookable
3. They seem to rely on their past accolades from years gone by and don't fully understand that today, there are quite a few more luxury river cruise lines out there that want your business. I like Scenic due to the fact that their fleet is newer (many of the Uniworld boats are quite dated, but well maintained).

So there you have it, hope it wasn't too long

Sorry OP for temporarily hijacking your post.

Originally Posted by 747FC
Can you share more? Thanks.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 9:45 am
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No harm done, whatsoever, fozziedoggie. You were asked a question and replied accordingly. We can all learn from your experience. I'm delighted by seeing all of the replies and hope there are more.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 10:03 am
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Is this your first river cruise?

Some of the things that made my first river cruise special for me (or at least impressed me):

Umbrellas were provided. They also had limited numbers of walking sticks available.

The availability and accessibility of excursions. I sailed with a group that had different capabilities. My very active friends didn't have to be held back by slow walker me and had their excursions (bike tours, hiking tours, faster walking tours, etc), while I didn't miss out on things solely because I couldn't walk without break for 2-3 hours. For example, at one town the normal bus parking lot required 64 steps each way. They had a small van for the few of us that couldn't handle those steps to take us directly to the town. That same day, one of my friends had work to do that morning, and the cruise director made sure a bicycle was held back for her so she could join everyone once she was finished.

Of note, my friend was a travel agent and it was the day of the yearly Princess one day sale and she had a list of bookings to make. The passenger wifi wasn't working well on our cruise, and so the cruise director arranged for my friend to have access to a computer with better internet access so she could make those bookings.

We did the Chef's Table two nights, once as just our group, and then another night with some of the friends we'd made onboard. It was worth it in our opinion.

In the lounge in the evenings, the musician would plug our phones into the sound system and play our music for us so that we could dance, which was nice as our group wanted something a little upbeat than his normal playlist.

At the end of our cruise, we had booked a few days in Budapest independently. Our cruise director helped us arrange post cruise transportation, tours, and even restaurant reservations.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 10:16 am
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Also, to contrast the above experience with Uniworld, for my trip next year, Ama has been really great for my trip next year. When we booked they were offering a special waiving the single supplement for lower category cabins, but only for the cruise itself, not for the pre- or post-cruise packages as my travel agent found out when she called to book for us. So a friend and I ended up deciding to share a cabin even though we'd wanted to book solo (normally we'd share a cabin no question, but there's a possibility I can't go and I don't want to cause her issues if I can't). About a week after we booked, our travel agent got a call from someone at Ama, who extended the deal (which was no longer available even for the cruise itself) to the pre- and post-cruise packages, so we were able to book as two solos after all.
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 10:18 am
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wrp96: What a fantastic customer service attitude. What line was this?
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 10:20 am
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Originally Posted by wrp96
Ama has been really great for my trip next year.
Originally Posted by 747FC
wrp96: What a fantastic customer service attitude. What line was this?
https://www.amawaterways.com/
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Old Jun 1, 2017, 9:08 pm
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Yes, wrp96, this will be our first cruise. I am so happy you wrote so extensively of your experiences on AmaSerena. Clearly, from your descriptions, Ama has some well thought out accommodations to assist travelers of various ability levels get as much from the shore excursions as possible. I am encouraged to read this as both my husband and I are not spry youngsters. It was not an easy decision to go with Ama as there are so many cruise lines vying for one's attention. We did know we wanted a Rhine cruise, and when we learned that the AmaKristina was recently christened, we decided that we'd like to book that vessel specifically. We are going to arrive in AMS several days earlier than our embark date and "do" AMS on our own. We are getting very excited!
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Old Jun 2, 2017, 7:51 am
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Take good care of AmaKristina. That's the ship I'm booked on for next year.
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Old Jun 2, 2017, 7:59 am
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Originally Posted by Tpa-flyer
Clearly, from your descriptions, Ama has some well thought out accommodations to assist travelers of various ability levels get as much from the shore excursions as possible. I am encouraged to read this as both my husband and I are not spry youngsters.
For the provided excursions, in addition to the regular walking tour, they will usually offer a gentle walkers group, and then sometimes an active walkers group depending on the activity level of the regular walking tour. You don't have to decide in advance which group you'll need - you can decide what you need when you get ready to go each day. If they aren't offering a bike excursion in a port, they also offer the ability to use the bikes on your own if that's something that interests you.
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Old Jun 2, 2017, 9:04 am
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I want to add that - while I've read great reviews of AMA - pretty much all river cruise lines (at least in Europe) offer gentle walker groups and accommodations for those who aren't able to walk as much or as far. And quite a few offer bikes now, too.
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