We departed Ama Cello in July, 2024. We can confirm that your video is both informative and accurate. Simon Armstrong is the best Cruise Manager, ever! Looking forward to our next cruise on Ama Siena in May, 2025.
My husband & I have taken 4 AMA cruises: 2 Christmas markets - 1 on the Rhine & 1 on the Danube, 1 on the Seine & 1 on the Chobe in Africa. All of the cruises were top-notch! And we were so grateful to have been able to do the Africa trip - a bucket list trip! Your video was right on regarding river cruising on AMA! We LOVE AMA & truly feel like we're family! Thank you!
We had the same experience on the Romantic Danube and a Taste of the Christmas Markets on AmaVerde last. Year. It was amazing. You truly feel like royalty. They have spoiled us for other cruises.
We enjoyed the AmaWaterways Danube River cruise. It was wonderful. The cruise manager (David) was a terrific leader and always helpful. The cruiseship's cooks, food servers, housekeeping and musicians were also terrific. Highly recommended.
I appreciate this video so much! I've booked one of the Christmas markets cruise for December with my daughter on AmaWaterways and now I'm so excited after watching this video that I can't wait! Thank you!!
Thank you so much for your detailed review. My spouse and l are going on the Amawaterways Wine & Castle tour in a few months. We enjoyed your video and insight. Thank you.
I’ve never been interested in going on a cruise in the ocean…I don’t like the idea of being trapped on a boat for that long…but I feel like a river cruise like this would be a LOT of fun! Did you get a drone pilot license?? Some of these shots were definitely filmed with a drone! Also, I never would have guessed seeing that shot of the reception desk that it was on a boat, it looks just like a regular hotel! And it looks like the water was really still? The boat doesn’t seem to be shaking at all. So presumably no seasickness? And that’s so great that all the staff spoke English & they set you up with English-speaking guides for your excursions.
Most of the days were really sunny and warm, just happened to film on the one chillier overcast day. Of course the weather didn’t want to cooperate on film day.
I’ve personally never done an ocean cruise, but I was told a river cruise is more personal as it has less passengers, that the water is way calmer so it’s very rare any motion sickness happens, boarding the boat is so much more stress free, and I think we have way more stops and cities versus spending several days at sea.
An ocean cruise, depending on the line anyway, is basically a floating shopping mall... Which can be fun, and there are larger spaces and more amenities, but it also tends to make you feel like livestock in a lot of ways. Anywhere you go, there will already be thousands of people, since they arrived on the same boat, so everything is inevitably crowded. The constant upsell and captive customer effect can also become tiring. But you can see a whole lot of places in a short amount of time, with a huge variety of excursions. And sea day activities are also great. River cruises are meanwhile a lot more intimate and focused. It's like an upscale hotel, where the ship is much more about transportation and accommodation, than a destination unto itself. You usually stay longer at each location, often into the evening or sometimes overnight, which you rarely get to do on a cruise ship as they usually leave port in the late afternoon, having much farther to travel between stops. And you can see a lot more of a destination or region in that time, since the stops themselves are smaller and closer together. Ama in particular is also nice as most things are just included and you never have to worry about getting a huge bill on top of the fare.
