AmaSonata Review

A wonderful and different experience on the Danube

Review for Europe River Cruise on AmaSonata
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Violinbow
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2014
Cabin: Stateroom with French balcony and outside balcony

We cruised on the AMASonata, Melodies of the Danube itinerary, from Budapest to Prague from October 22 to October 29 with a 3 day Prague extension through November 1. There were 5 of us - my husband and I and 3 single friends. My husband and I have taken several large ship cruises so some of this review will compare that with our experience on a river cruise. We spent a couple days in Budapest on our own before the cruise started. The day of embarkation we found the whole process organized but far more friendly and welcoming than a big ship. Our rooms were immediately ready and our luggage followed us - no waiting until after dinner to hope the suitcases arrived! All 150 passengers fit in the ship's lounge for the orientation meeting. Our fellow passengers were a varied and friendly group - mostly Americans and Canadians but also some from Europe, South America and Australia.

Overall, our ship experience was great - the ship is new, launched in 2014, so everything is in impeccable order. The crew were mostly from Romania and Bulgaria but all of them spoke English and were unfailingly cordial and helpful. They were a mix of veteran AmaWaterways employees and new hires. The cruise manager, Balasz, impressed us with his competence, maintained communication with us throughout and had a sense of humor that was very much appreciated. Captain Chirazica went out of his way to speak to passengers - one afternoon we heard about how he worked his way up to being a captain. While on a large ship cruise you may never see the captain, here you see almost all the crew every day and really get a sense of how they work together in running the ship.

In the middle of the week heavy rains to the north caused Austria and Germany to close the Danube to ship traffic for about 2 days. As the situation developed the captain and cruise manager held several meetings with passengers, kept us informed of the situation and explained the possible, likely and then actual options they would use to keep us on track. (This is where the sense of humor helped a lot!) This involved staying in a port overnight, providing last minute evening entertainment on board ship, hiring buses the next day to transport us to the next port (Vienna) to timely meet our next day's tours and providing lunch money since the ship would not be available in Vienna for lunch that day. Yes, there was one evening program that had to be cancelled but it was apparent that everyone at AMA was working hard to reduce the disruption. I was very impressed with a crew and a company that communicated so well and truly made an effort. Ultimately, while I know there a lot of work was done behind the scenes, we, as passengers hardly noticed any disruption.

Cabin Review

Stateroom with French balcony and outside balcony

Cabin BA

We chose our cabin (category BA) to have a bit more room for the 2 of us and were glad that we did. The cabin does have less space than a large ship but it was well designed. There was a long desk with a chair and a small seating area with a second chair and table. The bed takes up most of the rest of the space with just enough room to walk around it. There is a large 2 tier closet and a large built-in cabinet with top to bottom shelves, a safe and a small refrigerator. I did miss the usual bank of drawers you have in a large ship, but the shelves held just as much. If weather had permitted us to sit on the balcony, we would have appreciated the space. The bathroom was small but had shelves were needed and plenty of toiletries. The shower was easy to use with plenty of water pressure. Our single friends were in somewhat smaller cabins without balconies at the back of the ship. Their rooms were slightly different and slightly smaller than ours but they reported that they had plenty of room for one person. They also greatly appreciated that AMA offers a single supplement, unlike some other river cruise lines. We noticed that perhaps for that reason there were other groups of singles traveling together on this cruise.Overall, the location of the cabin in the ship was much less important than on a big ship. It really didn't matter if you were on one deck or the other, front or back - the movement is the same and it only takes a few minutes to get anywhere on the ship. Each room had a Mac desktop computer that had the ship information system and could be used for internet access. We did not use any of the available entertainment features. We did use the wifi with our iPad and iPhones - my only complaint. Wifi was unpredictable and slow even to check email or download newspapers, especially in the afternoons when everyone returned to the ship. If you wanted to download or stream a movie, you would have been waiting a long, long time. On the other hand, it was great to have free wifi rather than having to pay extra for access!

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