We are still onboard and will disembark tomorrow. This is a chartered cruise, and we are with a group of 74. The ship is new and beautiful. The common areas and the cabins are impeccably clean. The staff, for the most part, are very nice, friendly and helpful. Several of the passengers became ill onboard, I’d say around 30-40%. This was brought up to the cruise manager, Jonathan, early on in the cruise, and he eschewed the illness as alcohol related. This could not be farther from the truth as not everyone was drinking alcohol. Knowing that several passengers were sick, there was no follow up from him or the staff as to the well being of the passengers, nor offer to help them. Unfortunately, this cast a pall on our experience. We made the best of it. We missed three of the seven days of this sailing.

I have read so many cruise reviews and always keep a balanced view that some people are “glass half empty,” but this is my honest review. While we were looking forward to this sailing for two years, and it ended up a disappointment. Unfortunately, we won’t be sailing on Ama again, nor a river cruise. Both my partner and I have been on 18 cruises previous to this, so we are very seasoned cruise travelers. Beware if you are looking to book Ama!

In the end, the senior leadership/owners of Amawaterways need to review their leadership onboard this ship. It’s appears they are aloof and not passenger oriented. We travel a lot and this is the first time we have experienced a cruise director/manager not be customer focused.