This was our first cruise of any kind and what an amazing introduction to the cruise world AMAwaterways provided us. We planned this trip somewhat last minute as a "girls" Christmas shopping cruise with Mom, 3 sisters and sister-n-law. Our expectations were exceedingly met from our touchdown in Zurich until our departure in Amsterdam 12 days later. We were met with such smiling faces of the AMAwaterways staff throughout our entire trip. We chose to include the 2 days in Zurich and 2 days in Lucerne before our transport to our ship in Basel and I would highly recommend doing this as well. The hotel accommodations were perfect and the planned excursions were very informative and allowed us the opportunity to get to meet our staff and other guests traveling on our cruise before setting sail.

Our ship was so beautifully decorated for the Holidays and we were incredibly impressed with how comfortable and clean the entire ship was. We had one of the smaller state rooms, yet surprisingly it was sufficient enough for my Mom and me to share comfortably. Although it was too cold to actually utilize the balcony, it was nice to be able to step out side once in awhile to enjoy the fresh air and beautiful river vistas. The bathrooms were perfectly sized and equipped with all necessities and always freshly restocked. The beds were incredibly comfortable to the point that we just wished we had had more "down time" to rest in them!

The food was more than exceptional and we particularly loved the paring of the regional foods with regional wine selections every night. There were enough excellent food choices to accommodate every taste and the staff was amazingly conscientious regarding any food allergies. The nightly entertainment was wonderful and festive as well. Read more