AMA Cruise - Vilshofen DE to Budapest
 

Folks,

I'm taking AMA's River Cruise beginning Sept 26, after 3 days in Prague. It goes from Vilshofen Germany to Budapest.

I already have a hotel in Prague and a car to take me to Vilshofen.

Information about Prague is helpful or the cruise itself.

It's my first river cruise. I'm going mainly because my 86 year old mother wants to go.

Hints, opinions, or anything else you might want to say is OK with me.

I'm usually pretty anal about travel, but this is a new experience for me.

Hi Rastaguytoday,

First off, congrats on booking your first river cruise, you will positively love it! We did our first river cruise a couple of years ago after doing many ocean cruises. We were looking for a different experience than the ocean cruises. We love ocean cruising but wanted to experience being on a much smaller ship, different port itineries, etc. We did the Nuremburg to Vienna Christmas Markets and loved them. We had so much fun and met so many wonderful people. River cruises will be mostly people that are in the "senior" range (us included) but we did have a few younger people onboard.

Rather than become too lengthy here, I would suggest that you go to the Cruise Critic boards (www.cruisecritic.com) and go to the river cruises category. You will find tons of information there on what to expect, size of ships, people that have cruised on AMA and have done the itinerary you will be doing, and great suggestions for what to see in Prague. Your mother will have a fantastic time also. We met a woman on our cruise that was in her 90's and she put all of us to shame w/ her perkiness and energy!

If you are not familiar w/ Cruise Critic, after you open the website, look for the "Boards" category at the top left and then scroll down until you find the "River Cruises". You can browse but if you want to ask any questions, etc. you will need to register.

Have a wonderful cruise. Don't worry, relax and enjoy your new adventure. I bet you will be planning your next river cruise after you return. Hope you do a post here or on river cruise boards (or both).
May

Thanks for the help. I've read some of the Cruise Critic comments. Like every advisory discussion, there were lots of conflicting thoughts.

I did manage to find a couple that posted all their menus, and took pictures of their cruise food. It gave me a good idea as to what to expect in the food category.

I have learned to take comments with a grain of salt as everyone has different opinions about cruising. You will have those that are the proverbial complainers about everything from the ship to the food, etc. If you go w/ an open mind, then you will enjoy the cruise. If you have never done ocean cruising, then even better to evaluate your first river cruise. The things we liked were the smallness of the ship, easy to navigate and especially for your mother. There are not as many stairs to climb if there is no elevator. The personnel are usually very friendly and accommodating and eager to make your cruise enjoyable. The other thing we liked is the walking tours are at a leisurely pace and usually don't encompass a large area. Most of the walking tours we took were fairly close to our ship. A couple of them we were bussed to the attraction.

On our cruise we were divided into four groups and were assigned a tour director for the length of the cruise. That person coordinated the tours, etc. and if you had any questions or concerns you were easily able to find them on the ship. If they didn't know the answer to a question, they would find out and get back to us. I loved having an almost personal tour guide.

We found the food to be wonderful on our river cruise. They always offer a plain and simple entree if you don't like what is on the menu. We loved sitting w/ so many different people at lunch and dinner.

Good luck. Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

I refuse to go on an ocean cruise. The idea of being on a ship of 2000-3000 people does absolutely nothing for me.

My mother has picked up the ship disease on her last 3 cruised, but she seems to want to continue to go.

Good for your mother! I hope that I have her perseverance when I get to be her age. It is nice that she wants to travel. Getting norovirus or any virus on a ship can be an unpleasant experience but it certainly wouldn't keep me from cruising.

Your mother will notice such a difference on river cruises and I wouldn't be surprised if she says she wants to do river cruises instead of ocean cruises. It's no fun schlepping around a ship w/ thousands of people. We have done it many times but our next cruise is going to be another river cruise. I would really love to get feedback from you and your mother as to your experience. I checked out the AMA website and your itinerary. Ship's cabin is larger than the one we had on our river cruise.

Happy cruising!