Ama Waterways Luxury on the River

(31 Reviews)
100% Recommended

Daniel Oppliger

El Paso, TX
Group Travel Expert

 

I have been immersed in the travel industry since relocating to El Paso in 1986. Initially, I worked with a local tour operator before venturing out on my own.Over the years, I've developed specialties in Destination Resorts and River Cru...

Sailing by Hungarian Parliament at Dusk

We flew into Munich the day before our cruise and checked into our hotel.   We were early, they took our luggage. We walked to the Marienplatz ate lunch and decided we would come back for dinner.  We dined on schnitzel and sausages. Of course I drank a huge beer.


The next morning, we went to the train station and boarded for Vilshofen.   When we arrived, we exited to the neighborhood side, instead of the side with business.  We crossed under and took a taxi to the ship. This was the first trip for the Ama Verde after Covid so we had a amall crowd. 


We boarded the ship and checked out our stateroom. The fist evening we walked about a block to a tent where they had an Octoberfest event for us. They say this is exclusive to Ama. We ate some German snacks as we had just dined on the ship. We had a beer and listened to the band play familiar favorites. 


The next day we had breakfast. No buffets. We ordered and or server brought us our breakfast. We went to Passau and did a walking tour.  The most interesting part to me was the gates to city along the river. They are designed to be closed when flooding in imminent.  We had gorgeous views while dining aboard and relaxing in the lounge after dinner. We had a couple play the piano and sing


. We sailed downstream to Linz. Most of Linz was shutdown due to a holiday. None the less we enjoyed it and made contact with a few locals. The tram ride was fun too.


 We cruised downstream through the through Strudengau and Wachau Valley it was very beautiful.  Every time I took some video, our cruise director just had to go on the speaker with some narration. For comments about cruise directors, I refer you to Mark Twain’s book, “Innocents Abroad.” We did a walking tour in Vienna and saw the Lipizzaner horses. After lunch we went to the market and bought Hungarian Paprika


. Next was Bratislava and the white castle on the hill with no furniture.  I thought that was strange. They said the royals would brink their own furniture and they moved between summer and winter castles.  Since this was the first cruise after Covid, many of the store fronts were shuttered. Hopefully they have reopened by now.


 Budapest was gorgeous as always. We went to the Fisherman’s Bastion overlooking the river. The white fortress had some incredible views. Also, the cathedral was rather beautiful. 


The cruise was excellent. We had all sit-down meals. No buffets were offered. Cocktails were affordable and well they have a free happy hour too. The food was presented in a top-notch way and local wines were included at lunch and dinner.

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