"Picture yourself on a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies." John Lennon

The trees may have been green and the skies almost always were blue, but ever since my wife and I returned from a week-long Danube cruise on AMA Waterways' newest river ship, Amacerto, along with a 3-night pre-cruise extension in Prague arranged by AMA Waterways, I can't get that Beatles tune out of my head. And as a youthful product of the 1960s and a huge Beatles fan, my sentiment should be taken as a harbinger of a very positive cruise review to come.

For the record, this was our very first river cruise after more than 30 ocean cruises dating back to the mid-1990s. This was also the sixth time we have cruised in Europe since 2002, but obviously the first time the port stops included areas not accessible by ocean cruises, such as southeastern Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary. Still another first for us among our Europe cruises: we did not book the travel with a group of friends (in the past ranging from 6-25 people), but just the two of us. We decided to take the cruise because we had been invited to spend a few days with a family in Germany and we thought this was an excellent opportunity to see how the other half cruises, and also to celebrate our 40th anniversary with this summer cruise. The reason I mention this here will become evident as the review progresses. Read more