Ama Waterways Bordeaux

Very anxious to hear from anyone going on the new Ama Bordeaux itinerary, as we are taking our first river cruise on this route in September

My husband and I are doing this itinerary on April 29th. Anxiously awaiting our documents, and dreaming about sailing through this beautiful region. I'm hoping someone from the first sailing will be on here to tell us about it!

Thread moved to the main River Cruising forum

This will be our 1st river cruise and will be doing this itinerary on August 5th with AMA. Would also like to hear what others who have taken this cruise have to say about it.

We have friends leaving for this cruise in 2 weeks. They are not big cc folks though I may be able to convince them to drop by and share some thoughts.

We love the south of France and visited Bordeaux on a day trip from our Rhone cruise last year. Enjoyed it so much we are headed there for ten days, three weeks from Friday.

Our trips to Europe are almost always focused on food and wine and this region delivers on both, and really delivers on the wine!:D

I will post some thoughts about the ports from our cruise, as time permits.

Darn, our friends are on the cruise before you. Have fun, caviargal! Looking forward to your thoughts about the cruise. We had an overnight in Bordeaux while aboard Silver Wind 5 years ago. Enjoyable, but brief.

Darn, our friends are on the cruise before you. Have fun, caviargal! Looking forward to your thoughts about the cruise. We had an overnight in Bordeaux while aboard Silver Wind 5 years ago. Enjoyable, but brief.

Are they on Scenic? Or AMA?

AMA. They are big fans as well.

We love the south of France and visited Bordeaux on a day trip from our Rhone cruise last year. Enjoyed it so much we are headed there for ten days, three weeks from Friday.

 

Our trips to Europe are almost always focused on food and wine and this region delivers on both, and really delivers on the wine!:D

 

I will post some thoughts about the ports from our cruise, as time permits.

Are you cruising in the Bordeaux area? We are headed there in 3 weeks also.

Are you cruising in the Bordeaux area? We are headed there in 3 weeks also.

We are! We leave 4 weeks from today for a ten night cruise with Scenic in Bordeaux. Cannot wait!

We are boarding on April 1st - no fooling, let me know what questions you have. Otherwise, I will post after our trip.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

My husband and I who will be celebrating our 52nd anniversary will also be on this April 29 sailing. My sister and her daughter will also be on the sailing. We are from Florence, SC. And my sister and her daughter live in the Atlanta area. This is my 2nd river cruise with AMA Waterways and we hope everything calms down so we can have a safe trip.

THEOPUP, my husband and I are also scheduled in September on the AMA Bordeaux river cruise. We are departing on September 16. We are very excited about this itinerary and can't wait to see a review from someone who has taken it. Maybe we will be on the same cruise.

We have actually decided to cancel, with all the world turmoil in France

We are dissapionted but think it is for the. Best

I was just checking to see if anyone had come back from a cruise yet. We read the review on rivercruiseadvisor.com but would like to hear a first hand account as well. We're starting to get excited, and are looking forward to vacation!

Actually, I am at CDG awaiting my flight home. The Amadolce was fabulous! The ship looked brand new and the crew was the wonderful. Due to the tides, two of the ports were cancelled so we had extra nights in Liborne and Bordeaux, which was fine with us. The food was extraordinary and plentiful, all the wines were Bordeaux, they were also plentiful. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time! I was wondering what you did for excursions, and how you enjoyed them. I'm getting so excited for this trip!

I am actually in Bordeaux now and will be boarding the AmaDolce tomorrow. I will try to post here as time permits. You know how busy these river cruises can be!

Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time! I was wondering what you did for excursions, and how you enjoyed them. I'm getting so excited for this trip!

We did not do all of the offered excursions but here's what I would say about the ones we took:

The guides were all very good and the busses were often only 1/3 to 1/2 full. Our sailing was not full, I heard less than 100 passengers.

Chateau Roquetaillade and Sauterne Wine Tasting - We enjoyed the Chateau very much, in the same family for over 700 years and has many original furnishing. Our tour guide was the owner. We also enjoyed our visit to the sauterne winery.

Blaye Bike Tour - All of the bike tours were deemed a level 5 out of 5 for difficulty. I asked which tour they thought I could do and they said this one, it was more difficult then I hoped, 26 km up and down hills. I had to walk my bike up a few grades since my gears were a bit fussy. It was beautiful, but challenging.

We had been to Saint Emilion before and just took the bus to town and walked around and did some wine tasting. It is a wonderful small town!

We loved the Fronsac Wine Tasting, it was a short bus ride and the chateau and its grounds were beautiful and had a massive wine cave.

We did the pre and post tours. The hotel - Marriott Ambassador Hotel was well located and met expectations. Some complained that their rooms were hot (no air conditioning, but the windows opened). Some complained of noise from the street - our room was had a view of the interior courtyard and was quiet.

Loire Valley - post-cruise: The hotel experience in Amboise was a real let down after the luxury of the Amadolce, a Novatel. My son-in-law said it was like Hilton Garden Inn. Clean but very basic. It is located a distance from town, a 30 minute walk and on a hill. They said there are few taxis in town so do not stay in town late. They included dinner the first night and it was ... way below expectations. Hopefully they will come up with a Plan B since the cruise director was aghast. It was a very long day going to and from the Loire Valley - a bus, the high speed train, another bus. I guess we are glad we did it, since the chateaus we visited were wonderful and interesting (Chenonceau and Chambord), but too much travel time for just two nights. The walking tour in Tours was a bit long, but we enjoyed exploring Amboise.

I hope that helps. :)

Loire Valley - post-cruise: The hotel experience in Amboise was a real let down after the luxury of the Amadolce, a Novatel. My son-in-law said it was like Hilton Garden Inn. Clean but very basic. It is located a distance from town, a 30 minute walk and on a hill. They said there are few taxis in town so do not stay in town late. They included dinner the first night and it was ... way below expectations. Hopefully they will come up with a Plan B since the cruise director was aghast. It was a very long day going to and from the Loire Valley - a bus, the high speed train, another bus. I guess we are glad we did it, since the chateaus we visited were wonderful and interesting (Chenonceau and Chambord), but too much travel time for just two nights. The walking tour in Tours was a bit long, but we enjoyed exploring Amboise.

 

I hope that helps. :)

Two nights in the Loire Valley and you only got to two chateaux? That just reaffirms my experience that you can do so much more on your own. We drove from Mont-St-Michel to Amboise (via Brittany for sightseeing and lunch, less than six hours total), stayed two nights in Amboise at a lovely B&B (Le Vieux Manor) whose owner steered us to two wonderful restaurants in walking distance (L'Alliance and Le Patio), and saw four chateaux (Amboise, Chenonceau, Chambord, and on our way south on the third day, Villandry). Driving in France was no problem, and being in charge of our time and itinerary was ... priceless!

We skipped the tours of the Chateaux in Amboise and one on Blois, to have more time on our own, but I agree, we can only be hearded so much.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thank you for the information. I'm not sure if I'm able to do the bike tour, and that was one of the questions I had, so I really appreciate your input.

We just returned from our week in the Bordeaux region on AMAwaterways, and I have to admit I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed some portions of the trip quite a bit, but there were a lot of misses. Some of the excursions were disasters, and the food in the main dining room ranged from good to mediocre. Service was excellent for the whole week, but over all not an itinerary I would recommend for a river cruise feel. I understand that they are at the mercy of the tides, but tides are known in advance. We spent way too much time on buses.

The problem with saying "the tides are known in advance" is that the passengers want to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time every day regardless of where the tides are -- and they expect to do their shore excursions in the daylight and when the shore businesses are open regardless of where the tides are. So no matter which cruise line you take this cruise will always be an odd ball compared to other river cruises.