AmaWaterways was our second choice when we discovered Viking had booked up this particular Danube Cruise. Our experience up to this point has been 2 ocean cruises on Viking and both experiences were 5 star. We were not sure we would even like a river cruise much less go with a cruise line we had never heard of before. Our adventure on AmaStella was above and beyond our expectations!

River cruising is definitely a different experience than ocean. Our ocean cruise carried approx. 800 and I believe our river cruise had somewhere around 135. That in itself changes every aspect. I cannot say that i even prefer one to the other...now I know they are each simply unique.

Also unique to this particular cruise is the atmosphere on ship. The entire ship is decorated for Christmas - so lovely, sparkling and festive. One night we even helped decorate some of the trees that only had the lights trimmed. The crew provided us with entertainment one evening by "caroling". Absolutely hysterical !!!! And of course the emphasis of the excursions was on the Christmas markets in each port. Read more