My husband and I just returned from our first river cruise. When deciding what to do for our 25th anniversary celebration we knew it had to be a cruise. We’ve been wanting to do a river cruise for years and since I first heard about AmaWaterways, it captured my heart. My husband knew I would love to see the Christmas markets as this is my favorite time of year, so we booked the Iconic Christmas Markets cruise on the AmaSonata and tacked on the pre-cruise land tour in Prague. We then sailed from Nuremberg to Budapest. The itinerary was perfect. So much history and beautiful sights.

AMA is truly amazing. Everything was so well organized and seamless. Our cruise manager, Kata, was fantastic. She met us at the hotel in Prague and was with us through the end of the cruise. Our tour guides were so friendly and knowledgeable. The food was delectable. The ship was so beautifully decorated and I found it to be quite spacious for what I was actually anticipating (and I’ve cruised on many ocean cruise ships which are enormous!). It was very clean and well taken care of. I loved meeting new people and hanging out with them. Having the excursions included (and with various options) was perfect as we didn’t have to think much about what to see and do. There was additional free time on almost every one of them, though a few I could have used a little more time at (especially Thurns and Taxi market!). Unfortunately, as I read on this page before we left, the markets often have a lot of the same things- not as many handcrafted items as I would have liked either. I think I would have preferred going to just a few of the more special markets and seeing more of the historic sights in the areas we were in. However, AMA did a great job of bringing us to see some other amazing things. We also enjoyed the optional (added cost) excursions offered- especially the Mozart and Strauss concert in Vienna (which ended up being one of our favorite things!), and the tour of Terezin concentration camp.

With the holidays, we enjoyed a few activities onboard and had a lot of fun at the singalong and Santa visit towards the end of the cruise! Read more