We just returned from our 3 weeks away land and cruise on AMA. I've received numerous requests to post some thoughts and impressions. Here is just a brief overview of our experiences. Quite tired and I may have missed some things, but here it is


AMA ASSESSMENT:

MS AMACELLO was launched in March of this year. Based upon the fact that the ship was a new-build and our fantastic experience on Peter Deilmann in 2006, we opted to try AMA Waterways out. The itinerary we chose, Budapest to Prague, was just the itinerary we were looking for when planning this trip. Unfortunately, Deilmann did not offer starting and/or ending in both cities; otherwise, we would have cruised with Deilmann again.

Choosing Budapest to Prague was not only about cruising the Danube. This itinerary was very personal, focusing on a pre-stay in Budapest in a quest to trace family roots/Jewish Budapest as well as a post-cruise Prague stay. Touring Vienna, sandwiched in between, was also high on our list of cities to visit. Perfect itinerary, cruising on a new vessel.

Budapest pre-visit was incredible and nurtured our spirits in ways that we had not thought could be realized.

Rather than give huge dissertation on all the events of our journey, I would like to give a brief assessment of our AMA experience.

Pre-stay at Kempinski Corvinus was first-rate. Stellar service and accommodations. Great, central location. Breakfast buffet was outstanding. Cruise Director's desk at the ready to help with any and all questions and services. Post stay at Hilton Old Town Prague - Centrally located hotel. Nice accommodations. Adequate breakfast buffet. Helpful Concierge.

AMA Amacello - New, clean vessel.

Cabins were spacious by riverboat standards. Lots of storage space. Luggage was stowed under our bed. Bed was quite comfortable. Free internet in the cabins. Connection weaved in and out during our cruise, dependent upon where you were cruising and docked. Bathroom space worked out well for us. Shower was very nice. Toiletries overflowed in a basket and never dwindled down. Room attendant kept our room clean and spotless.

Public space was comfortable. Main lounge was always busy. Coffee and tea bar were always available. The coffee machine made far better coffee than the restaurant's. Piano entertainment in the lounge, was pleasant.

Finding seating in the Main lounge for the evening's entertainment was on many nights, problematic. Not enough seating for late-comers. If you were sitting in the area closest to the bar in the lounge, those drinking and not interested in seeing a performance made it hard to enjoy the entertainment. There was one night we hadn't gotten into the lounge early enough, had to sit in the back and were disturbed by bar chatter.

Aft lounge was cozy and quiet. Many looking for some "alone time" were planted up there.

Lots of seating on sun deck. No real shade seating. It was more filtered shade.

Dining - Dining room was furnished nicely. Various seating arrangements to accommodate table for two and up. More about dining to follow.

Cuisine - Here is where AMA got very low marks. Meals ranged from not too bad to flat out bland, tasteless and lacking in creativity. Fish had bones. One fish we tried at lunch was horrid. It was promptly returned to the kitchen. Breakfast buffet was ample. Requests for egg preparation, waffles and french toast were prepared if so requested. Breakfast breads and cakes were all right; some fairly tasteless. Nothing special. Considering that Europe is known for it's great pastries and breads, we were quite surprised. Lunch buffet ranged from simple to a touch better. You could select from the buffet and/or menu. Dinner choices were limited. Once again, food started out pretty bland and then slowly inched it's way up just a couple of notches as the cruise progressed. We ranked the cuisine on this cruise to be simply OK. Nothing special for discerning taste buds. Throughout the cruise numerous people complained about the cuisine and preparation.

Crew - Our Cruise Director, Adrienn, was cheerful and quite helpful. She was with our cruise from check in at Kempinski in Budapest throughl the post stay at the hotel Hilton Old Town Prague.

At the beginning of our cruise, most crew members were courteous. We did encounter some less-than-pleasant servers in the dining room. We promptly made adjustments to steer away from their dining stations. One server, in particular, was a standout. We tried to ensure getting a table at his station. Wine stewards Viktor and Eva were wonderful. They never left our wine glasses empty for long. These three individuals made our dining experiences more palatable. The Chef was young and eager to try and please. Unfortunately, he and his staff missed the mark more times than not. Food is subjective and these are our impressions. We had others expressing the same thoughts throughout the cruise.

On-board entertainment was surprising. Using local performers on most nights was the way to go. Folklore dancing on the first night was fun. On two nights we were really impressed with musicians who played classical and popular songs. The crew show was dismal. Many in the audience left before the conclusion. Oompah duo was terrible. T
two guest lecturers were very good and informative.

Tours - Included in cruise costs. Optional touring available. Color-coded groups. You could switch groups if you wished at any time during the cruise. Headsets provided so you could wander off, yet still hear the guides. Tour busses were clean and comfortable. If you love tour bus touring, this will give you more than your fill. Guides provided through AMA were just basic. If you wanted your curiosity to really get some insight into what you were touring, making each tour a more fulfilling learning experience, you will be disappointed. I arranged private touring in Budapest, Vienna and Prague and we were so happy that we did. If you like just basic touring, AMA local guides will be adequate. If you detest bus touring, this is not for you.

Optional Vienna concert and Salzburg excersions were good. Optional touring of Szentendre was all right. Lots of shopping. We took a private tours of Terezin/Lidice, and Schoenbrunn Palace. Those who took these optional tours through AMA expressed disappointment. Again, private touring is the way to go to get the fullest experiences.

Deal-breakers - While AMA offers a pleasant experience, those who are looking for a more upscale experience may be let down. Dining was mediocre. The ritual of queueing up at dinner time, which offers open seating, first come, first serve, best table locations grew old really fast. It felt like you were a participant in a cattle-call. It was unpleasant. Groups on-board expressed real displeasure at not being able to sit together and staff very iffy about moving tables together in such a contained space. Alan had the task of lining up early to ensure a nice table in a more quiet location, seated at a more congenial server's table. Sitting towards the center of the dining room was loud and noisy.

The ship's elevator door was inoperable going from the first floor down to the dining area and back up again. Anyone with physical limitations would find this a hardship to contend with. Upon asking when the elevator would be fixed, they were told they needed a part from Holland! The elevator door was not repaired during our cruise.

Our visit to Budapest, Prague and Vienna, touring privately, was a wonderfully satisfying experience. The cruise was secondary, as it always has been when cruising on Regent or Deilmann.

Would we choose to cruise AMA again? In all likelihood, not. Not that it was all bad, just not up to the levels we've come to expect. All said, we would gladly choose to cruise once again on Deilmann and, of course, Regent. While the Deilmann vessels are older, the service, cuisine and assigned seating far surpassed AMA. And, of course, you all know about Regent levels.

We were eager to give AMA a try and are not sorry that we did so. Paring down what cruise lines work for us to make our future travel plans a more fulfilling experience. AMA, unfortunately, was not a perfect fit.

Thank you for posting a thorough review. I must say it gives me pause. Between the mediocre food and the dining situation you describe, as well as the heavy reliance on bus tours, it does not sound all that appealing. I'll be interested to hear how others (including Ngaire) react.

--------------

Eugene

Hi Eugene,

I tried to be thorough and even-handed in my assessment. I did send a copy of my review to Ngaire.

You could always do your own thing at every port rather than rely on their bus tours. However, cost for fare includes the tours.

In our experiences with ship tours, we have found Regent to be quite good and satisfying. AMA guides were just OK. Private touring is always our preference, despite which cruise line we go with.

I do think that the food and dining scenario were major points of contention for us.

All in all, we had an incredible trip with many meaningful and fullfilling experiences. The cruise, fortunately, was secondary.

AMA - not a terrible experience - just not for us. Many other options out there from which to pick and choose.

Denise, thanks for taking the time and sharing
a exceptionally well written/balanced review (knowing LCTr's have a keen interest in AMA)...we were thinking of a Christmas River cruise...will take a hard look at other lines (e.g. Deilmann) and not just AMA...r/wes

Thanks so much for taking the time to write an honest, straightforward review, Denise - much appreciated!

P.S. Glad to have you back - we've missed you around here! :)

Denise, thanks for the review. Your experience on AMA sounds a lot like our trip on Viking a few years ago (Prague, then Budapest to the Black Sea on the Danube and back to Vienna). It was fine and the price was right. We enjoyed it quite a lot--the ports were fascinating, but it didn't begin to compare with our experiences on Regent.

Denise: What a great review - thanks for your effort. So glad your Budapest experience was all you hoped. Lee

Interesting to read your review Denise. We only had one meal on AMA of course but that one meal was really good. I have a picture of the beef tenderloin on my web with the potato in the foil swan. Perfectly cooked to order at medium rare and delicious.

That night we met people who had sailed on another AMA ship and had moved over to continue on the Amadante. They were all really happy with the cruise and said particularly the food was great.

I will be sailing for five nights on AMA in November and look forward to seeing how that works out. Maybe we just hit it really lucky with our one meal on board.

I really weighed posting vs. not posting of our experiences on this cruise. After receiving several emails asking for an honest review, I felt I needed to be candid for those who inquired.

Food was inconsistent, ranging from bland and tasteless to a few notches better as the cruise progressed. As we all know, food is subjective. Numerous others on our cruise felt that the food didn't earn high marks. We were never served a potato wrapped in a foil swan. A steak we had one night was prepared well. Other nights, fish had bones in it or meat was overcooked. It was a mixed bag.

Those people that you met who were moving over to the Amandante may have been quite pleased and that's great that they enjoyed cruising with AMA. There were several on our sailing who felt the same way. We, however, were not bowled over as a whole and, quite frankly, would not choose AMA again for a future river cruise.

Just my two cents for those who asked that I write an honest and conscise review.

Peggy, our trip was very much as yours was.
We loved the itinerary, the price was right and we accomplished visting destinations that were on our wish list. However, AMA does not compare to Regent (apples vs. oranges) nor does it compare to Deilmann.

Denise, I'm glad you shared your experience with us. I find comparisons very interesting.

My sister will be on Peter Deilmann in a couple of weeks - her first trip to Europe and it sounds like it'll be very good.

How does Peter Deilmann handle the tours?

Wishing your sister a great time cruising with Deilmann, Ted. She's going to love it, especially if she's a foodie. Dining was superb on our cruise. Which itinerary will she be on?

You can purchase tours, individually, on Deilmann. Touring is not included in the fare. Tour costs, as I recall, were reasonable.

As Deilmann caters to a predominently European clientele, touring with an English speaking guide yielded smaller tour groups and often times it was just my husband, Alan and me, as many opted for one tour a day, rather than 2. We took as many tours as were offered and were happy that we did.

I hope you will report back after she returns.

Welcome back Denise! Hopefully you just hit an "off" cruise! Even on Regent, not everyone always likes the food or has an experience that isn't up to par.
If Ngaire comes back and reports the same thing about her dining experiences than we will know it wasn't a one time thing!

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Denise. As you know, I always love to read about other people's travels.

Did you know that Deilmann also has an ocean-going vessel? From their website, it doesn't look up to Regent standards but some of the itineraries look appealing to me, one goes to Greenland and Iceland. I'm a Regent girl at heart but always open to new possibilities.

Good to be back, Karen, despite having a truly incredible visit to Budapest and Prague, pre and post.

"Off" perhaps with dining, but their first come, first serve, line up at the restaurant door policy, if not altered, really is a bad idea unless you want to que up early and wait to snag a table of your preference. The crowding around the door was distasteful to us. However, no way around it.

AMA was not totally without merits; however, having cruised on Deilmann, we felt, overall, that we were getting a more "potatoes without much meat" cruise.

Hi Donna,

Yes, Deilmann has an ocean-going vessel, Deutchland. I hear it's very formal. Not sure how it holds up compared to Regent. I do know that Deilmann river cruises more than hold up to AMA. No contest.

Denise I was wondering if you guys were back yet. Thanks for the very enlightening review...we are looking at a Christmas cruise with Wes & Ida and we certainly will look at Dielmann to see what they offer as I trust yours and Alan's opinion quite highly! ;)

The elevator not working really bothers me...I hope it was not a big inconvenience for those traveling with you!

Welcome home Denise you were missed - I thought about you today wondered where you were on your fantastic trip? - thanks for a detailed and fair review - I am going in having zero expectations vs Regent, the only line we have cruised, and KNOW river cruising is different - well look at my invoice for AMA $$$$ easy to draw that conclusion - your AMA vs Deilmann comparison appreciated - I do remember how happy you were with your first river trip - Joanna

Hi Denise; welcome home! Very interesting review and would also love to hear about your adventures in Prague, Budapest and Vienna; have only been to Vienna ('85) and loved it!!

Denise, Just read your post. Sorry the cruise was rather disappointing. We loved our river cruise with Vantage. Did your find your family roots in Hungray? What was your impression of Prague?. i have heard so many conflicting stories about Prague. We really like Vienna and also went to a concert while on our river cruise. What an interesting city. Is New Zealand next? When you have time, please post more about your trip. Judy

Hi Sue,

I do hope that you, Tom, Wes/Ida are able to take a Deilmann Christmas cruise. I would imagine being on their vessel, Mozart, would be very, very special at that time of the year. We got a small peek at Mozart when we were docked near it at one port. One beautiful ship. Add on excellent service and exceptional cuisine and you have all the ingredients for an outstanding time.

Detailing adventures in Budapest, Prague and Vienna would be rather extensive. We loved these cities. Each is unique in their own special way and we would gladly return to any of them. We had several days to really explore Budapest and Prague and were happy that we did. We had only one full day in Vienna. So much to see and do and not nearly enough time. We packed in as much as we could. Fortunately, we used private guides for all three cities as well as Terezin/Lidice. I would strongly suggest that anyone visiting those cities do so, either on their own or with private guides. If we relied upon the AMA guides, it would have been greatly disappointing, according to fellow cruisers who came back from each of these city and concentration camp tours, cup half full, in generalities.

Yes, Judy, New Zealand land, self-drive trip for 2009 has been in the making for several months now. We are ready to explore another part of the world that's been on our wish list.

Denise, saw u also posted your AMA review on
CC River Cruising section...did u see the
"Our 14 Day Amadante review 4 Sept" posted a few
entries below yours on cc...the reviewer hit many of your points and many more. And like you
the posters doubt they will ever book another AMA
rivercruise.
r/wes

Hi Wes,

Yes, I did read that review.

There were lots of conversations on our cruise pertaining to disappointment, equally citing what I shared here at LCT as well as CC, and more, which was specifically related to themselves rather than the cruise, as a whole.

We feel AMA is not a good fit for us and we will not book with them in the future. Others will need to draw their own conclusions by giving AMA a try, if they so choose. Several here on LCT emailed me, privately, or PM'd me, asking that I come back and post an unbiased and honest review. This was what our experience with AMA was. Somewhat hesitant, I shared our experiences on both LCT and CC in an effort to comply.

I was sorry to have read that others had an equally less than ideal cruise on AMA Amandante. However, the review did not surprise me.

Thanks for your great review Denise, as always your comments are helpful. It will be interesting to see how Ngaire feels after her sailing. I had some clients on AMA early this spring and they too had mixed comments, especially regarding the food.

Glad to have you back, missed you.

We've been on one European reiver cruise, a "Dutch tulip" cruise in April, 2007 on the Avalon Poetry. We didn't expect a Regent experience: the boats simply aren't big enough for that. What we exepcted, and got, was a small but comfortable room (170 square feet, which is big for a river ship), adequate food which was a bit too much based on pork and cream sauces for our taste (but the pastries were excellent), and a chance to get up close to European inland places.

More than half the PAX were from one tour group, which sometimes made the rest of us feel like fifth wheels. As a result of the group, service outside the dining room was great, while the dining people seemed to pay attention to the group while ignoring the rest of us.

All in all, I (Joe) would try a river cruise again, but Joan is not sure she would. If we do another river cruise, though, it will be during the mild weather and relatively long days of spring or fall (probably spring), not during the short daylight, cold weather period of the B&K 2009 Christmas market river cruise.

Hi Joan and Joe,

We, too, were not expecting a Regent experience. However, having river cruised previously, we well knew the differences between ocean and river cruising. We loved our first river cruise and were eager to take another one. The cruise line we selected, AMA, unfortunately, did not hold a candle to our first river cruise on Deilmann, a river cruise line that set the bar for us. Huge contrast in cuisine and dining room, both of which were not up to Deilmann standards cruising on AMA, in our opinions.

In all likelihood, we will river cruise again - on Deilmann.

Our trip had so many incredibly wonderful aspects. AMA was but a small fraction of our overall fantastic trip.

Denise,
I wondered where you had been.
I think your review was honest and to the point. I will do my first river cruise in March, and my expectations are not high (the people I am travelling with did not want to spend the money on a really good line), so I was quite interested in what you had to say about a line like AMA with a good reputation.
Lynn

Is AMA Amadeus or a different line? I'm not familiar with AMA.

AMA Waterways is new name of Amadeus.

Let's hope they clean up their act before the PARIS group cruise, since this is the ship that PARIS will be on.

Sorry for the confusion. I should have initially clarified that Amadeus is now called AMA Waterways.

Oh dear,
We're booked for next May going from Prague to Istanbul, and I know it won't be Regent, but I do want GOOD food. Sounds like that might be a problem............Helaine

Don't worry, all cruises are nice. Everybody's opinion is different and you can usually find something good. Anyway, you get off the boat everyday and there are so many good authenic restaurants you can choose that are not that expensive.

Helaine,

Hopefully, the issues cited will be resolved by the time you depart for your cruise.

As I initially stated in my review - overall, we had a pleasant AMA experience and an awesome land trip.

Welcome back, Denise & Alan!

I was thinking about you and your AMA experience. Denise and I spoke prior to her cruise. (We did the same itinerary a year ago on their newest ship in 2007). We experienced the same "hit and miss" on the dining. One member of our group opted to skip the dinners towards the end of the cruise. Denise's experience mirrors the experience we had in all major areas. We chocked it up to being a new ship/crew/chef, etc. I was surprised to see that our experiences were so similar.

We liked river cruising, we would just look at another cruiseline in the future. Enjoyed the AMA cruise, in general. The cuisine and dining experience missed the mark.

Hi Miriam!

Clearly, this is the way AMA runs their vessels and operations. Unfortunately, our experiences did mirror each other's. We found that those who liked AMA more than we did tended to be people who had either never ocean and/or river cruised, or cruised on the more massive lines, such as Princess. We spent time with so many fellow passengers who had never heard of Regent, Deilmann, Tauck.

We did have some incredible moments on our land trip in Budapest, Prague and Vienna. Most specifically, Budapest.

I have sent an email your way.

Sitting in London Heathrow on the way back from ROAR 2 and catching up on LCT.

I know Denise and this is an honest review on her part and I have no doubt this is what she experienced. However, I think to generalize and say this is always the AMA experience is not a fair assessment.

At the time I was researching all the river cruise lines I read hours and hours of reviews and AMA waterways had far more positive than negative reviews. All cruise lines have positive and negative reviews.

In fact I designed a little scoring system on a spreadsheet on the boats I thought were the leading contenders and AMA waterways came out number one. I had a very limited experience on board the Amadante and just one meal. This meal was definitely up Regent standards which really surprised and delighted me as I was not expecting food of that calibre. So it is all very confusing.

I also met two ladies on the AMA ship that send me a review after they sailed. They have travelled on Ocean cruises, not Regent but main stream lines before. They gave it a very good review. Here is the link.

http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=27;t=000008

Boatgirlhm, dont worry at this point. I am going on the ship myself in November with another LCT'er, Todd who is great at writing accurate reviews so you will have two opinions to consider and we will post on our return.

If I find AMA is not up to par we can always change lines but I think we wait to see what my experiences are it is only a few weeks away.

I appreciate your vote of confidence, Ngaire.

I have posted reviews and guide information/referrals here on LCT since LCT's inception. A great number of LCTers have expressed appreciation and thanks for this and my candor.

When asked, initially, if I would post an AMA review, I wrote back to those who requested that I do so, stating that I thought it best to defer to you, Ngaire, because you have a group cruise planned. The emails kept coming asking that I post my review, regardless, because those who have asked, appreciated reviews previously posted. I decided to post my findings because all who asked that I do so, I consider friends. Some time ago, you and I were emailing about our impending cruise and you were eager to hear our assessment, as "AMA guinea pigs."

I have nothing to gain or loose in posting an honest and even-handed assessment of our personal AMA experience. I will not back-pedal what I feel is a genuine and candid review.

I am far from an expert, but I feel I am observant and even-handed in my assessment of the entire experience. Travel and cruising over the last several years, working in the hotel industry and my work within restaurant marketing has given me the experience and insight into weeding out, for ourselves, what we feel is good food, good accommodations, good service, etc.

Ours was not an isolated experience. Miriam had the very same experience a year prior, on another AMA vessel. After returning, I had written to several others (through CC) who recently cruised AMA, on various AMA vessels, and many concurred that AMA did not meet their expectations in several key areas. While trying to not make a blanket statement on AMA, in general, the issues cited seemed to all bear common threads.

We did not have a totally negative experience, as I stated in my review. Rather, it was an experience of inconsistencies and a dislike for their dining room arrangement, as a whole. There were several aspects of AMA that we enjoyed and were worthy of higher marks; several aspects you indicated and included on your score sheet.

I sincerely hope that Helaine, as well as you, Ken and Todd, and your LCT group, experience otherwise.

I do have a question for you, Ngaire. When you go on a cruise such as the one you are going on in November, is the cruise line aware that you are a TA? The reason I ask is because there was a TA from Canada who worked with Carlson Wagonlit on our cruise. She made it very, very clear to our Cruise Director, as well as other crew members, that she was a TA. The Cruise Director and crew appeared to be extremely attentive to her needs. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to ask her for her assessment of AMA. Because of her status, as a TA, perhaps that somehow shaded many aspects of her overall experience.

Have not been keeping up with LCT lately. Found this thanks to Wes. I will definitely post while on the ship and do a review as well of the Prague to Paris AMA we are on in November with Ngaire and Ken.

Great details Denise. Thank you.

When I was on for dinner I sat with regular guests and everyone around had the same service and meals. I doubt the cruise staff knew that I was a TA. All the guests were new to the ship for that dinner and only the cruise director knew I was a TA to my knowledge.

There is no doubt when I am on with a group that there is extra attention paid to my clients, particularly on Regent. Obviously in this situation everyone knows I am the group leader.

So glad I decided to change my Africa plans to take these 5 nights on AMA. Looking forward to spending that time on board with Todd.

Hi Ngaire,
We are looking foward to our river cruise on AMA, and will go, even if the food is not super. We like river cruising, and are excited about this itinerary. I totally trust your judgement.

Kelly never had a meal he didn't like, and I'm sure I'll be fine! Helaine

Today, checked with Deilmann River cruise reservations manager and they will have Christmas Market Magic River cruises beginning in 2009. Based on seasoned LCT river cruise (AMA & Deilmann) reviews (e.g. Miriam and Denise) and what cruise industry magazines say (Condenaste,T&L, Porthole; "Deilmann is rated the best river cruise company") Sue, Tom and Ida and I will plan on a Deilmann River cruise in 2010--we confidently feel they will best approximate the luxury cruise experience we have had on SS and RSSC. No we don't expect a ocean luxury cruise experience, but we do want reasonably fine dining w/no lines.

r/wes