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Staff great but other problems

Fanning Island

This started out just wonderfully with being met at the airport in Budapest, taken to the Hotel Sofitel, where we were greeted by the lovely and charming Pili, our cruise director. She has a way of getting along with everyone, and I know she had some challenges on this trip. We had a lovely suite because there was not another room available when we arrived. The hotel is in a great location on the river at the beautiful Chain Bridge. Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet with everything one could want, except--the coffee left a lot to be desired. 

When the afternoon to board the Amalyra came, we were taken across the river to the boat and welcomed aboard and shown our rooms. We were quite happy with the size, especially the bathroom, for such a small ship. After we boarded we had the usual lifeboat drill, and Pili gave a talk on procedures on the boat and introduced the captain, hotel manager, and restaurant manager. As we left Budapest that night, the captain took the boat down the river a bit and turned around to head north. What breathtaking sights and photo-ops we all had. 

We had all breakfasts and lunches on the boat in the lounge area, because we learned the first night that the dining room was a helter-skelter rushed and loud affair--more later on this. 

All of the stops were most interesting, and we had terrific guides. They set up walking groups for active, medium and slow. The active suited us, and was not rushed--we just didn't take as long at each place so we could have time to revisit those we were really interested in. The active groups started out small, but as more people learned that they were hearing more than they needed, they joined the active group. By the end of the trip, the active group was really too large. We ould have used another day in Vienna. We took the optional side trip to Salzburg, and were so glad we did. On the way we visited the little town of Monsdee--quite charming with an ultra baroque cathedral.

We had one day of just cruising the river. This was fun and relaxing, with everyone upstairs and listening to Pili give the history of the places we went by. Whenever we met another river cruise boat everyone waved in a happy shared experience mood.

When we got to Nuremburg, we had our interesting tour, and it was the only town we visited that we didn't think was impressively clean. The next morning we boarded buses for the long (about 5 hours) trip to Prague--but it was a beautiful trip, with a stop in the resort spa of Karlovy Vary. We had lunch and beer there--our first experience with how much the Czechs love beer--good stuff.

The Olde Town Hilton was our hotel. It was in a very good location with lots of nearby restaurants, and was within walking distance to the castle, the Charles Bridge, and all the good things to see in Prague.

Now as to the Dreaded Dinners: First, the boat was at full capacity. Secondly everyone eats at the same time. This means a busy dining room. It is small with a low ceiling and tables are close together. There was a group of about thirty traveling together who were extremely and I mean extremely noisy. Wine is complimentary at dinner so as the meal progressed, their noise level progressed--upward. We learned quickly to sit at the back away from where they congregated for dinner. this put us by the kitchen doors which were constantly banging open and shut with the manager RUNNING--not walking--in and out of there. It just plain was not relaxing at all. The food was ok at best, and sometimes it took a long time even for the menu to arrive. I think a more spread out dining situation--timewise--would help this situation. Why can't they set dining seating from 6:30 until 8? I asked someone this question, and was told that the crew would have to work too much. 

We did meet some travelers from another AMA boat in PRAGUE. They told us that their dining was wonderful...so I just don't know what to think. Was it the manager not being able to handle things, or was it the noise and demands of the passengers?

Very nice with one exception

Jost Van Dyke

We consider ourselves to be seasoned cruise customers, although we had not taken a river cruise until we booked with you for April 25th. We chose AMA because we were told that they ran a Mercedes-Benz type of experience. Sadly, this turned out to not be true.We do want to acknowledge the staff of the AMADolce, from the cruise director to the hotel director to the Pursers to the support staffs, as being very good overall. However, somewhere in AMA's literature it states that by the second day the crew will know our names. Never happened. There was never any attempt by the crew to learn our names. It's a small issue, but becomes a bigger one because the literature suggests a higher level of personal interaction that never takes place.Our biggest complaint was with the food. The portions were extremely small, and there was not one night that the dinner appeared to have been custom cooked.  One evening, the entrEe was rack of lamb, which had the appearance of being precooked and reheated prior to serving. All four of us at our table ordered this main course, and all four servings of lamb had the same preprepared look and taste.I am extremely sensitive to autolyzed yeast extract, also known as MSG. The kitchen either uses this ingredient or a similar one on a daily basis, or there was something else in the meals that caused me to be unable to sleep for the first four nights of the cruise. I'm sure the soups contained this ingredient also. For the last three nights of the cruise, I order the most bland choices available, skipping soups, and, lo and behold, I slept very well.One thing we especially enjoy on our cruises are tasty, creative desserts. Not one of the AMA desserts was appealing to us... they were flavorless and unimaginative.Overall, we liked our cabin, except for the fact that the mattresses were narrower than any we have ever encountered on a cruise line. Neither of us are large people, yet the narrowness of the mattresses was a contributing factor to our sleep deprivation. We also encountered a noise issue that apparently is a way of life in River cruising. Our cabin was on the top deck, and twice while we were trying to sleep we heard the sound of many, many, MANY sets of feet climbing over our cabin on the way to their docked ship. We don't have any clue as to how AMA might solve this problem, but it added to the list of negative issues we encountered during our cruise.Regarding the land tours we took, the tour guides were perfunctory but not special in any way. On the cruise was an older woman whose right leg was fused straight. The tour guides didn't seem to make any special effort to make this passenger comfortable.Lastly, the Captain lacked a professional, authoritarian aura. His demeanor did nothing to improve our overall cruise experience.We have cruised with six Star lines, five Star lines, all away down to our one and only cruise (our last cruise) with Carnival. We hoped that AMAWaterways would in some ways remind us of our Regent Seven Seas experience, and perhaps even excel.  We are disappointed this was not the case.   

AMA Waterways not the Mercedes level we expected

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