I had done luxury and expedition cruises in the past, but never a river cruise. My one barge trip in France had disappointingly turned out to be the nautical equivalent of a Greyhound bus. Given the age of the average Ama traveler and the small size of the room, I wasn't expecting much in terms of atmosphere....a floating Red Lion perhaps. I was happily surprised.
The rooms are small, but very comfortable if you travel lightly. Ideal for summer.... less so if you have to pack winter coats and sweaters. The bathroom is minuscule, but workable. The full sized sliding window/doors make the whole feel much larger than it actually is. Most importantly, the room staff is impeccable. The room is serviced twice daily so it is always clean and pristine when you walk in. Our cabin steward was lovely and was always available for anything we needed, whether extra towels and hangers or anything else.
The one drawback of the rooms is that there are few convenient outlets so you will need to rotate the electronics to charge them.
We were in cabins towards the front end of the third floor hallway. They were all exactly the same and they were all good. You hear very little noise because they have doors to block it out at the end of each hallway. Given that the majority of the passengers are 50+ years old, there's little noise anyway.