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Legendary Danube on the AMALyra, what a disappointment!


Lobes1
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It has been two months since our Legendary Danube cruise on the AMALyra, and we have had time to ponder our experience. Our feelings about the cruise have not changed, and I believe it is time for me to describe this experience.

 

After reading all of the glowing reviews of the AMA Waterways European river cruises, we made reservations for the Legendary Danube cruise from Prague to Budapest on the AMALyra. We did a considerable amount of research about river cruises, both on Cruise Critic and elsewhere, and we understood that this was not the same as an ocean cruise. We reserved a modestly priced cabin with a French balcony on the upper (Violin) deck. With a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, the cost, not including airfare, was close to $9000. We had great expectations and were so disappointed.

 

In Prague, we stayed at the Intercontinental, an older hotel that has been nicely updated. Our room was large and attractive. The included breakfast there was excellent. Wi-fi was only available in the lobby, which is usual for the Intercontinental Hotel Group.We had a city tour on the first day, and it was fair, at best. The tour guide was difficult to understand due to her heavy accent. We were rushed from site to site, a pattern that persisted through the trip. The following day we took the optional tour of the concentration camp at Terezen. The bus ride was tiring, but the tour was excellent, probably the best one we had.

 

On out third day, we left by bus for our embarkation from Nuremberg. The bus ride was long and tiring, but I cannot blame AMA for the geography. On the way we stopped for lunch and a brief tour of Karlovy Vary. The guide on our bus had such a pronounced accent that we understood very little of what he said. He was clearly the worst one we encountered. Our embarkation was smooth. We were seated in the main lounge while we waited to be escorted to our cabins. The lounge was worn looking. The furniture looked faded and had seen lots of use. Our cabin, although small, as others have noted, was acceptable and adequate for our purposes. The housekeepers were friendly and did an excellent job of keeping it clean. We were promised bath robes; after numerous phone calls, they finally arrived 36 hours later. There were not enough electrical receptacles in the cabin, and the ones there were under the bedside tables, making access to them challenging. The shower, which many people have praised, seemed cramped to me, and I am not a large person.

 

At the reception dinner, our disappointments escalated. Everyone was instructed to arrive simultaneously, so there was a delay finding seating. We met the waiter, who, like most of the dining room staff was somewhere between surly and unhelpful. Requests were either denied or ignored. Smiles were nowhere to be seen. We finally found a pleasant, helpful waiter serving a corner table, so we managed to sit at his table throughout the remainder of the cruise. The staff in the lounge were similarly inadequate. Sitting in the lounge, we were never offered the opportunity to purchase a beverage. To get a drink, one had to walk to the bar and put in an order. We were never offered any beverage service on the sun deck. The bartender could be nasty. One day we returned from a bus tour in the late afternoon. The afternoon tea was scheduled to open at 4 PM. Since we had missed lunch, we were anxious to have something to eat. The buffet was partially set up, and sandwiches were accessible. As I tried to take one, the bar tender brusquely informed me that food could not be touched until 4 o'clock.

 

We were disappointed by much of the food. Breakfasts were adequate, although slow moving lines were common at the buffet and the omelet station. They did have lox and bagels, which I enjoyed. Lunches were poor. There was a salad bar with the usual slow moving lines. When I arrived at the food, several items had been consumed and were never refilled. At lunch, the wait staff took orders for soups and entrees. Soups were excellent, the best of the food we had on the boat. Entrees were mediocre, at both lunch and dinner. Each meal included an offered fish dish. For seven days, it appeared that we were served the same fish with a different description, trout, bass, etc., all identical, possibly with a different sauce. Beef was similar. We were daily offered a different beef entrée. Each had a different name, but it seemed to always be the same dry tough cut of meat. Chicken dishes were similarly disappointing. The salad bar and the ice cream station were often closed before we had finished our meals. The wine serves in the dining room was good, but it was difficult to find the wine steward for a second, or even a first glass. Although we traveled through several countries famous for their beers, only one brand of beer was available during the cruise.

 

We had daily bus tours on this "all inclusive" cruise. They seemed to consist of interminable bus rides with tour guides who varied in quality fair to good. We rapidly tired of rushing to get on a bus, riding to a site, having a brief tour, and then rushing back to the bus. The promised slow walker and fast walker tours never materialized, so with everyone walking at differing rates, the group was stretched out and the faster walkers had to wait for the slower ones to arrive.

 

Even the fellow passengers on our tour were a issue. Many were from a large group, and as another reviewer has noted, were brusque and unfriendly.

 

The worst problem was our cruise director. She always had an excuse as to why any request could not be accommodated. She was constantly making announcements over the PA system, often in the early morning and late evening, announcing things that had already been clearly outlined in our daily hand-outs. Our impression was that she was trying to impress us with how hard she was working and how important she was for our cruise. Gratuities seemed to be an issue. We cringed every time we heard her voice. Unfortunately, any questions to the ladies at the reception desk were simply referred to the cruise director.

 

Disembarkation presented another issue. We were offered a cab to our hotel in Budapest, where we spent another five days. What we received was a car service, which was very pleasant. We only later found that the fare was triple that of a taxi!

 

We are experienced travelers, but our disappointment (I keep using that word) with this cruise really turned us off toward river cruising. There were so many issues that I have not mentioned, but between brusque crew, poor food, poorly planned tours, and a terrible cruise director, AMA Waterways has lost our respect. If we do another river cruise, it will be with another cruise line.

Edited by Lobes1
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We are experienced travelers, but our disappointment (I keep using that word) with this cruise really turned us off toward river cruising. There were so many issues that I have not mentioned, but between brusque crew, poor food, poorly planned tours, and a terrible cruise director, AMA Waterways has lost our respect. If we do another river cruise, it will be with another cruise line.

 

This sounded so much like our (bus) cruise 1 week into the major floods that I had to look twice to see it was a different company.

 

I feel for you and have empathy as the food/entertainment/service is not up to expectations and especially at the price charged in Australia to do such a cruise.

 

May I strongly suggest that you do not consider Scenic Tours or any of their other names as they were monumental in destroying what should have been a trip of a lifetime in June/July this year.

 

There is review on CC that I did earlier if you want more information.

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I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but here goes. There are two types of cruise reviews I discount, those that say every thing was perfect and those that say everything was wrong. The OPs comments sure fall into the latter category. I have been on cruises with people who had the OP's attitude. Always try and stay as far away from them as we can.

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We saw warnings on Cruise Critic before our river cruise that some people just don't like river cruising, so we were prepared to have an experience like OP describes. And in fact some of the details are familiar (buffet lines at breakfast and lunch, buses to get to the walking tours) because these are inherent in the design of the ship.

 

But none of them bothered us. The line for the omelet station wasn't a problem once I discovered that you could just sit down at a table, enjoy a nice cup of coffee, and have them bring you freshly made Eggs Benedict. Same thing at lunch: sit, have a beer, waiter brings soup and entree. I never went through the buffet after the first day.

 

The complaints about the food do seem somewhat unbelievable: OP couldn't tell which animal the meat and fish came from? Hyperbole, I think. And that does diminish the believability of the entire review.

 

It's a shame that OP didn't enjoy the experience, but it is hard to imagine that the AMA that delivered such a great cruise to us could turn around and do as badly as this review describes.

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I have to agree with jazz beau anddwkucera. Especially since I was on this same itinerary or the same ship 2 years ago.

Yes, there were things we didn't like. I thought breakfast was too chaotic, so never even tried eating in the dining room at breakfast after the first morning. Instead, I have my very peaceful cup of tea and roll in the lounge each morning.

Ordered off the menu at lunch though I did do the buffet a few times, but no reason to complain. I have seen just as crowded buffets on regent and silversea when everyone arrives at once.

Wine glasses were immediately filled and refilled for us. And yes, we did have to go to the bar in the lounge to order drinks. Big deal! We could all use the exercise.

 

We did not have many bus tours at all, which is weird since we were on the exact same itinerary.

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I'm sure I'll get flamed for this but here goes. There are two types of cruise reviews I discount, those that say every thing was perfect and those that say everything was wrong. The OPs comments sure fall into the latter category. I have been on cruises with people who had the OP's attitude. Always try and stay as far away from them as we can.

 

I couldn't agree more.

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OP, thank you for taking the time to write about your experiences.

 

You have no doubt realized you have entered the territory of posters who seek to discredit you and your motives. Human nature is what it is I guess.

 

Shooting the messenger when you disagree with the post only serves to turn this board into a cheerleader forum where no dissent is allowed.

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Oysterdam, I am not a cheerleader for AMA. I definitely had things I didn't like on cruise, which I have pointed out. But when a post is pretty much totally negative and filled with hyperbole, I discredit it, especially when I have been on the same ship and same cruise itinerary. I really think river cruising is just perhaps not for the OP.

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Lobes1,

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. It is very unfortunate that you were disappointed in your experience.

 

We were on the AmaLyra in August, on the reverse itinerary. We had a male Cruise Director, and he was very good.

 

I also noticed the AmaLyra is showing her age, and may need some updating. I wasn't very impressed with the food, either. Some of our tour guides had heavy accents making it difficult to understand, too.

 

Obviously, I wasn't too put-off with AMA because when we got home, we booked another river cruise on AMAWaterways. We got a great deal on the Paris & Normandy itinerary on the AmaLegro. I can't wait for July 2014 for our second river cruise!

 

I hope you contact AMA and let them know about your experience. I would be interested in hearing how they respond.

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In reading some very nice reviews of what I think was the sailing the OP is unhappy about, I did pick up one thing that well could be part of what caused some of their "disappointment".

 

Apparently this sailing had a very large private group on board. If I read correctly it was 40 or so people. One or two others reported that these folks seemed unpleasant and caused some issues on board. Private groups in such a small environment can effect the whole tone of the cruise.

It is interesting however that the OP never mentioned these folks as being a possible source of his unhappiness. The posters reporting this however all loved their experience, but did not appreciate the issues caused by this group.

 

Anyway this could be some part of what happened?

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OP, thank you for taking the time to write about your experiences.

 

You have no doubt realized you have entered the territory of posters who seek to discredit you and your motives. Human nature is what it is I guess.

 

Shooting the messenger when you disagree with the post only serves to turn this board into a cheerleader forum where no dissent is allowed.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Here we go again.

 

I wonder if the "private group" onboard were booked by APT who is AMA's partner down under? Perhaps someone knows.

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A large private group can well make a cruise unpleasant for those outside the group, especially bad on a small ship. We were on a Paul Gauguin cruise that had a incentive group aboard. They were clearly of a different way of behaving than the rest of those on board. Fortunately we were able to avoid them most of the time, but on a small ship, it is difficult.

And I do agree that if amalyra has not been updated in the 2 years we sailed on her, she would be looking pretty worn by now.

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I was thinking the same thing. Here we go again. I wonder if the "private group" onboard were booked by APT who is AMA's partner down under? Perhaps someone knows.

 

What could you mean? ;) All the descriptions that I've read about cruises with large groups from OZ actually sounded quite enjoyable! [there's no emoticon for: seriously!] Well, unless they start in about tipping - but I think another round of that good Bitburger would get us past that. ;)

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Lobes1 -

 

Thank you for taking the time to post such a detailed review. It is really too bad that your experience was, to use your term, disappointing.

 

I sailed on the Amalyra a number of years ago - going the other way (started in Budapest, ended in Prague....) and it wasn't our best river cruise.

 

The CD has a huge role to play here - and if she had been "top notch", you may have found it easier to overlook some of the other annoyances. We found the wait staff to be barely adequate on our cruise.... they were very nice, but most were very new to their position, and it showed in the service. However - a smile can go a long way in the service industry --> funny how many people haven't figured out you might get away with a certain level of incompetence if you just put a big smile on your face and speak pleasantly to people!!!

 

AMA has always advertised their gentle walkers group - and it is available on most sailings. Again, if the CD was good at her job, she would have taken the time to ensure that the shore excursions were completed as advertised.

 

River cruising isn't for everyone. If you do decide to take a river cruise again, you might be happier with another company. There are more similarities than differences, but your trip with AMA has obviously left a taste in your mouth that will be hard to erase....

 

Fran

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I just came back from a Danube tour with AMACerto and we had a wonderful cruise. Wonderful staff, great food, beautiful ship, amazing scenery with fall colors. That said, river cruising was a new experience for us and while we enjoyed it very much, not sure if we will do it again. I'm of the 'been there, done that' mindset at this moment for river cruises.

 

In defense of the OPs criticisms of their cruise, I have to say that the crew and fellow passengers can make a huge difference in a ship experience. We went on a Princess cruise one time that had a full ship, some very obnoxious other passengers - letting kids run wild, rude in buffet lines, etc - (we had kids with us, too, so don't take that as a kid hater comment). The ship's staff was surly beyond belief, I was actually afraid to ask for a change in our cabin steward as I worried about some kind retribution from him - he was that nasty!). We had fun with our group of friends, but it turned me off to Princess, even though we had sailed with them before.

 

In addition, as other posters have mentioned, when there is a very large group on board a small ship, they can sometimes take over and cause an 'insiders vs outsiders' feeling for everyone not in the group. That alone can also lead to a bad experience.

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I am sorry you had this experience, and saddened that AMA failed to deliver (again) on friendly staff, decent to good food and reasonable day trips.

 

It truly sounds like the wait staff and reception staff were transferred from our Christmas cruise on the Amaverde. She was very new and our cabin was great, as was the Amacerto which we looked at, when we were tied up for 5 days as we were stuck. But we sailed on the Amacello in 2008/09 and had an excellent cruise, and she is still in service and if your ship is the same vintage, she'll be old and tired by now. I am on the Amadolce in France next year, only to use our refunds from our appalling cruise, and expect to be disappointed by the cabin by comparison to the new ships. I sincerely hope the crew will be more professional and caring than on our recent cruise with them.

 

I don't sail on large cruise liners, so all my travel is with small sea ships and river cruises, and it is easy to compare these when there are only ever up to 150 px per cruise.

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We just returned from Budapest to Prague on Luminary and had large group (40?) from Michigan on our cruise. They couldn't have been nicer and friendlier to us, a group of 4. We liked them so much I gave their travel agent my email to let me know about their next trip! I guess everyone 's experiences are different .

Kathy

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But we sailed on the Amacello in 2008/09 and had an excellent cruise, and she is still in service and if your ship is the same vintage, she'll be old and tired by now.

 

I guess you must buy a new car every year, since things seem "old and tired" to you so quickly. We were on AmaCello in September and she was in perfect condition.

 

I am on the Amadolce in France next year, only to use our refunds from our appalling cruise, and expect to be disappointed by the cabin by comparison to the new ships. I sincerely hope the crew will be more professional and caring than on our recent cruise with them.

 

If you expect to be disappointed, it's almost certain that you will be (no matter what AMA does).

 

I hope you have a good cruise anyway. ;)

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If you expect to be disappointed, it's almost certain that you will be (no matter what AMA does).

 

I hope you have a good cruise anyway. ;)

 

I do agree and would personally never make such an investment in time and money (airfare is not insignificant) if I anticipated a negative experience.

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Thank you for posting about your experience.

 

I booked AMA for next year and it's good to hear both sides (altho I do cringe when I see a negative review of AMA).

 

However I don't think OP has a bad attitude at all. They were disappointing at the service as well as the experience of river cruising. Now, like OP I've spent 9K on my trip. I also have great expectations. It's taken us a long time to save that money for our dream holiday.

 

And if Mother Nature interferes, then so be it. But service/food/tours SHOULD be impeccable for that amount of money.

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Dear Lobes1,

 

Thank you for providing this thorough and candid feedback from your experience with AmaWaterways in August. I’m very sorry to read about your disappointments from your cruise on the AmaLyra, as this is important to us. The experience you have described is not what we strive to provide our valued guests and you can be assured that we will research this matter in full.

 

Should you wish to provide more in-depth details which may include specific booking information, please don’t hesitate to write to us at CustomerRelations@AmaWaterways.com.

 

Warm Regards,

Customer Relations

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Things must have really changed since our trip 2 years ago. We loved the Amalyra and the Budapest to Prague itinerary.. We were the kids on board at 60 and 55 but our fellow passengers were lots of fun and interesting in a good way. Was the food exceptional? No. but it was enjoyable. Was the service excellent? Most definitely. The itinerary was terrific and it was nice being in the center of town with most stops. The tours were always very good although low keyed in many respects. We were not at all disappointed.

 

We were starting to prefer the smaller cruise experience and this was small. Too small? No, we felt it was intimate. Our CD Lilo truly went out of her way to make sure everything worked like a Swiss watch. She always popped up on our excursions.

 

Ama did a very good job. It was an expensive trip but the dynamics of making a profit with only 150 pax will result in a higher fare. The price is somewhat of an obstacle for many but the experience was well worth it.

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Dear Lobes1,

 

Thank you for providing this thorough and candid feedback from your experience with AmaWaterways in August. I’m very sorry to read about your disappointments from your cruise on the AmaLyra, as this is important to us. The experience you have described is not what we strive to provide our valued guests and you can be assured that we will research this matter in full.

 

Should you wish to provide more in-depth details which may include specific booking information, please don’t hesitate to write to us at CustomerRelations@AmaWaterways.com.

 

Warm Regards,

Customer Relations

 

I am glad to see that AmaWaterways is reading this board. THANK YOU for posting this response.

 

I hope Lobes1 accepts the offer to provide more in-depth details to the customer relations department.

 

A company can't "fix" something if they are not aware of the problem.

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We are booked on the Lyra October of 2014. Having read this review, I'm quite concerned. If the boat was showing wear 2 years ago, I'm worried what it will be like next year??? This would be our first river cruise. We are captain club members on both Princess and Celebrity. Until reading this review I was really excited about AMA, BUT, now I'm wondering if we made an expensive mistake? Hopefully after AMA checks into this problem they will post a response on their findings. Is this boat scheduled for anything refurbishing and will anyone be following up on the competence of the tour guides?

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