Awful food on Amalyra

We just got back from the Amalyra cruise from Prague to Budapest. The ship is new and nice. Cruise director, John Riley, was fantastic and very knowledgable. The stops, esp. Vienna and Regensburg are superb. The city tours overall were excellent with most guides being quite good. The Hotel President was very nice, comfortable and very well located. The breakfast buffet was excellent. Wish we could have brought it with us to the ship.

Unfortunately the cruise was ruined by horrible food. They are cutting corners everywhere.Breakfast--cold sausages,nuked bacon, no croissants, unedible eggs Benedict(unless you like a runny egg with yellow lemon sauce), cold greasy potato wedges (frozen, then deep fried--McDonalds does them better), very poor quality cold cuts,etc. Only saving grace is omelettes made to order--rec you eat them daily.

Lunch and dinner selections are pitiful--cheeseburgers were terrible--not sure why--they looked good but tasted awful---the fries of course were cold (unanimous decision by 3 of our group who tried the burgers). In our group of 6 we experienced cold frozen fishX3 and a"steak" that was uncuttable.

Captain's cocktail party? Cheap champagne--if it gives you heartburn you will have to buy your own cocktail. Hors d'ourves? You better try tripping the guy going by to get those tiny bites since there are 2 serving 140+ people. Also 2 wine pourers at dinner--did the best they could but not a pleasant experience.

Captain's dinner?? We were thinking beef wellington, lobster, surf and turf---we should have known---cold lamb with "larded beans"---these were al dente green beans with fairly raw bacon wrapped around them.

In our group of 6 veteran cruisers we could not come up with one meal that was actually enjoyable. Happily the wines selections were 80% excellent---if not for that there may have been a serious mutiny on board.

The ship is completely understaffed----certainly noone bothers you in the lounge because there is no cocktail service---in fact if you would like a drink in the afternoon there is no bartender----is saw one passenger serving himself!!!! I was tempted as well.

Anyone posting positive comments about food on this ship I would think is either working for AMA or getting paid by them in some way. There was noone I talked to who thought the food was good. For the cost of this cruise, or really at any price, the food was OUTRAGEOSLY BAD!!!! We are in no danger of booking AMA in the future.

Well, I was on the exact same sailing and overall, I liked the food. Granted, I have very simple taste in food. I do not like steak or seafood so usually order pasta, chicken, pork or veal. For breakfast, I usually made an egg, bacon and cheese sandwich which I really enjoyed. I loved that their toaster actually toasted the bread well in one pass through the toaster. For lunch, I would usually eat the "sandwich" and some of the salads they had on the buffet. A couple times I ordered the pasta from the lunch menu and really enjoyed it. I do have to agree with you on the cheeseburgers - not good at all, but I have heard that is pretty standard in Europe. My dad and a friend ordered them in Prague and they were just as bad. For dinner, I ordered a caesar salad every night which I thought was one of the best I've had on a cruise line. A couple nights I had the pasta, one night the turkey, one night the veal schnitzel and the other nights I had the "every day" chicken. I truly enjoyed every meal and was actually quite impressed by the chicken. And I admit that I loved the fries that I had with the chicken on those nights. I also enjoyed having the cheese and crackers before each meal. Like I said, I have simple tastes, but I can not say the food was horrible, and I most definitely do not work for AMA.

I do agree that there could have been more lounge service but we never had any trouble getting refills of beer or wine at dinner. I couldn't believe how many times they came by to refill the wine.

We really enjoyed our experiece with AMA and would love to cruise with them again.

DRPETE24,

We definitely had different experience than you did. I am writing a full review which will have the menus and food photos. We had 127 people on board and the dining staff had to hustle, so I am sure that with 140 it was even more so. I will agree that someone didn't know how to make eggs benedict. It wasn't edible. Most of the food we had was quite good. We were surprised because we weren't expecting it to be. The selection was certainly less than than on an ocean cruise; but the meat course at night was enjoyable every night. We never tried the fish, so I can't comment on it.

I can assure you that I don't work for AMA and all the payments went from me to them; rather than the other way around.

Well, I am very particular about my meals. I love food and I love to cook. I agree that taste is a subjective area, but to say that the Amalyra food was horrible is, in my opinion, absurd. To say that, "Anyone posting positive comments about food on this ship I would think is either working for AMA or getting paid by them in some way." is downright insulting. However, since you are new to the board, I will ignore the insult this time.

We sailed the trip right before you did. I thought that the food was very good. Naturally you don't have the selection you would find on a big cruise ship; but quality wise, I thought it was just as good and the presentation was excellent. I also enjoyed the style of serving breakfast and lunch. You could eat off the buffet, order from the menu, or have an omlette made. That's the best of all worlds, folks!

I have found on trips to most parts of Europe, that their eggs and egg dishes are never as "cooked" as ours. I have also found waiters everywhere, including ships, more than happy to correct the dish to my liking when I asked nicely.

On the Amalyra, I did not experience the cold or greasy food that you say you had. :confused: Did you tell the waiter? Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the food. I especially enjoyed their soups at lunch.

I did get a big laugh out of the cheeseburger. I wish I had taken my camera to lunch that day. :D It tasted okay, but the meat was twice as big as the bun! They used a patty the size of a U.S. Burger King Whopper, but a regular size bun. I just cut the meat to fit the bun and ate the rest of the patty with a fork. :) Europe just doesn't seem to grasp the concept of a good old American hamburger. But I can understand that since there are McDonalds everywhere you look! :rolleyes:

Drpete24 - Just curious, how many cruises have you been on? And how many of those have been river cruises?

bonvoyagequeen,

also check this thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1011196

steamboats

Just a question, not a critique.

It isn't my place to defend the Amalyra or AMA, but I would hate to have people miss a wonderful experience becuase of one bad review. There were 128 of us on our cruise from Budapest to Prague which included multi-national representation and many who have sailed on Cunard, Silversea and other high end ocean cruises. We talked at one time or another to almost every passenger and never heard anything but good comments on the food. I don't doubt DRPETE24 sincerely disliked the food, but it is by no means a universal opinion.

My husband and I cruised on the AMA Amacello last September, Budapest to Prague. We found the cuisine to be very mediocre, at best, and inconsistent in quality and preparation.

I posted a fairly extensive review upon our return, citing that sub-standard dining is a deal breaker for us. We will not cruise on AMA in the future, because dining was unsatisfactory. Of course, dining is subjective. However, IMHO, AMA really missed the mark in a very big way.

We have just posted the review of our recent Danube River cruise on the AMA Waterways Amalyra on our website www.thepreismans.com. It is very long, so much so that we had to do it in two parts. There are over 800 photos in the review. We do apologize to those people with slow Internet connectivity for putting in so many photos; but with so many beautiful churches and other lovely places on this trip, we couldn’t resist.

There are also links at the end of each part of the review to our SnapFish albums that have photos in a larger format. They have been put into four separate albums to provide for faster download.

This was our first European river cruise and we just loved it. If you have been on a Danube River cruise before, we hope that this review will bring back some fond memories. If you have never been on a river cruise, hopefully the review will show you what they are like. Enjoy!

We just returned from this river cruise and it was the first and last river cruise we will ever do - well at least with AMA Waterways.

Not only was the food terrible but so was the service.

The thing I hated the most about this company is that they didn't believe you when you reported a problem. We had a problem with the TV in our room, three times we reported to the staff that it wasn't working and they all said it was us we didn't know how to work the remote. Finally on the third time the engineer who came to our room admitted that their new remotes didn't work, he replace the remote with the old one and surprise no more problems with the TV. We had a horrible smell in our bathroom and again they said it was us, they claimed that no one else could smell it. The bathroom smelled like cat pee. We had to beg them to give us some air spray so we could mask the smell. No customer service at all!!!!!

The food was cold and the selection limited. The only thing that was hot was the hamburgers at lunch and they were not very good. You could not order

your meat to the way you wanted it so there were many meals I couldn't eat because the meat was raw. No point in asking becuse I was told that it was

how the chef cooked it. On their big "Captains Dinner" we were being served

surf & turf how exciting except it was a tiny steak and a tiny shrimp - which

was smaller that a shrimp cocktail. My steak was hot that night only because

I had to send my raw piece of meat back so it could be cooked.

We took this cries to celebrate our an anniversary and birthday. They brought

out a cake for people celebrating something our cake for our anniversary was

the day after it and nothing for the birthday - the cake was stale, dry and a

waste since we couldn't eat it.

We were in a suite and you would have thought that they would do something

special for the ones who paid for those over priced rooms - nothing

We are experienced cruisers who are used to excellent service, food and

accommodations. My conclusion from this experience is to stick to ocean

cruising better value for your money.

posted by Rachel G,,,odd this one so bad,,,have this booked for next June on different ship AMAcerto...know river cruise food in past has been "good"not "great" by any means,,but this sounds awful..And poor service too...guess I ll just hope the new ships coming out next yr..offer better food,great rooms,and better service...but thanks for taking time to share your opinion...hope you shared with AMA in letter your complaints,maybe they ll improve???:confused::confused:

To alexandra cruiser,

If you will notice, the date the OP posted his remarks was June 2009 and that cajon has never posted before. Rachel has posted over 2,200 times so I wouldn't panic about your choice of riverboat companies. After the first bad reviews of AMA's Katarina hit Cruise Critic, AMA realized they had a problem and started to fix it. Kellie Poodle, who was aboard the Katarina in late June and reporting that everything was going well on her cruise, got attacked by posters (some of whom had never posted before). I am sure that AMA is keeping an eye on these boards so the same thing doesn't happen on the AMACerto (my friends are also taking it) next year.

Sheila

To alexandra cruiser,

 

If you will notice, the date the OP posted his remarks was June 2009 and that cajon has never posted before. Rachel has posted over 2,200 times so I wouldn't panic about your choice of riverboat companies. After the first bad reviews of AMA's Katarina hit Cruise Critic, AMA realized they had a problem and started to fix it. Kellie Poodle, who was aboard the Katarina in late June and reporting that everything was going well on her cruise, got attacked by posters (some of whom had never posted before). I am sure that AMA is keeping an eye on these boards so the same thing doesn't happen on the AMACerto (my friends are also taking it) next year.

 

Sheila

I totally agree with Shelia. We thoroughly enjoyed our Amalyra cruise, and we'll be going on the Amalegro next month. After our return we will post another extensive review, and we will give our honest, unvarnished opinion.

As to newbie posters, I will also give my unvarnished opinion. We all were newbies at one time, and I don't want to say anything that would discourage new posters. However, if you plan to launch a vicious attack upon a whole cruise line, you probably should say how many river cruises you have been on in the past. Ocean cruising and river cruising are totally different experiences. I happen to like both, but I approach them knowing that everything about them is different.:)

So my advice to alexandra cruiser is to take what has been said with a grain of salt. Remain open minded, realizing that this is very different from ocean cruising, and enjoy your relaxing vacation. Honey always attracts more than vinegar. ;)

Thanks, CAPinBoyton,

You said it so well! I guess I hadn't had my morning cup of coffee when I posted this morning.

Looking forward to your review and beautiful photos of your river cruise on the Amalegro when you return next month.

Happy cruising!

Sheila

I do have to agree that the hamburgers were terrible--my husband couldn't eat his. Terrible hamburgers though have been my experience all throughout Europe as I think they use the poorest cuts of beef to make hamburger over there. So I personally would not order one in Europe anyway (except amazingly, at McDonald's in Ireland--those were actually good).

I thought breakfast and lunch were pretty chaotic, but other than the hamburgers, food was quite acceptable. We had some pasta at lunch one day that was cooked to order and outstanding.

Yes, the surf and turf at the last night's dinner was a steak (mine was cooked perfectly) and a small shrimp. But it tasted fine, and there was plenty of other food to eat. Our only complaint with dinners are that you have to get into the dining room as soon as it opens to get the type of table you want as there are no extra seats at all.

We never had any problem getting wine glasses filled--but we make it a point to be very nice and friendly to all the waiters.

To RachelG,

As my mother-in-law and CAPinBoynton said, "Honey always attracts more than vinegar"!

Have to be nice to the wait staff!!

Sheila

and RachelG,,the new boat s have 4 different rests...reg.,italian,chefs table,and lunch in lounge,,,so maybe this will help in dining room seating,I hope..

Sheila,and Shoshana,,have been on all the bigger river lines,,so know theres a difference from ocean cruising,and still love them regardless..so many good points...

Feel better about trying AMA for first time now..appreciate it...:)

While I can understand disdain for inedible food, who takes a river cruise solely for the food?

When it comes to water travel, I take an ocean liner for fancy dining. I take a river cruise for the scenery and culture.

From what I read here, there are too many people basing strong opinions on first-time experiences that obviously came with incorrect expectations. I have to believe that cruise line marketing has a lot to do with this as do travel agents who don't properly inform their clients of the difference between river cruising and ocean line cruising.

I am probably among the pickiest eaters around as I only have half a tongue having lost half of it to cancer 5 years ago. I have "mechanical difficulties" with many foods, yet I managed to survive several river cruises since then.

We take river cruises to get up close and personal with the scenery and culture. We like to unpack once and repack once. We don't care for traipsing around foreign countries on buses and staying in hotels where we have to go hunt up our own meals. For us river cruising works best. We don't board the ships looking for Michelin stars. We board for the experience of the journey.

I am still going through the photos I took in Russia and they are amazing. The scenery was spectacular. The art was so wonderful that it brought me to tears. The things I learned about the local superstitions and the cultural information I got were invaluable to helping me get the fullest enjoyment from my visit. The food was good not great. Everything else was fantastic.

Since I didn't take the trip to sit on my behind and eat all day, I won't complain.

I got very nervous. We board the Amalyra on July 31st. I didn't notice that the post was from 2009 so there has been plenty of time to work out the kinks. I am quite use to naysayers on this board and take everything I read with a grain of salt. There was a lot of bashing of Azamara but we thoroughly enjoyed our experience last year. I am sure I won't starve but could afford to lose a few pounds. I hope to post when I return.