We had been on many ocean cruises, but never a river cruise. Booked a Baltic Sea cruise that ended in Amsterdam and decided, since we had made the trip across the Atlantic anyway, let's try a river cruise. We knew nothing about river cruise lines, and, in fact, looked for a Viking river cruise simply because we had traveled on Viking ocean cruises. Viking had nothing available, so the travel agent convinced us to try AmaWaterways. The AmaMora happened to be available on the dates we needed. In other words, we lucked into a great experience. I can only rate our experience on this ship and have no other river cruise to compare it to, but don't know how any other ship on any other line could have been as nice. The food was great; there was a choice of included excursions, and our choices worked extremely well for us and were great. We knew the ship was new, but when we booked the cruise and got the itinerary, nothing was included about a christening cruise. AmaWaterways ownership apparently decided the cruise we took was at the right time to christen the ship, so that found its way into our itinerary. A bonus for us. The food was much better than on the ocean cruise we had just left. The ship was immaculate, the service was perfect, and the staff all wore a perpetual smile on both their faces and in the voices. (You can read my review of our ocean cruise on the Holland America Rotterdam and find that I don't always offer rave reviews.) This was a truly exceptional experience. Read Less

We read many reviews and for our first river cruise experience, we decided AMA was the way to go. It was a bit more costly than Viking but I can tell you it was worth it. The food and the service was impeccable and there were only 150 guests on board opposed to Viking which I believe has over 190 on each boat of the same size. Nicola, the Cruise Director was a delight and very helpful and oh, so funny. We met some lovely people on our trip. We were only the fifth group of people on this new boat and it was gorgeous. So clean and roomy. The rooms were cleaned every morning and there was turn down service at night. You received the itinerary and schedule for the next day in your room while you were at dinner. The restaurant and hotel staff were incredible and all were very helpful and friendly. The wine pours are very generous. Happy hours feature a special drink of the day as well. We did book the Chef's table for dinner and it was lovely with excellent service. Small portions but it was 7 courses. I would highly recommend AMA Waterways and the AmaMora for your Rhine river cruise. Read Less