MS Amadagio Tulip Time Cruise 5/6/2006

[ckaiserfl]

My sister and I are taking Amadeus Waterways 9 day Tulip Time cruise on the MS Amadagio in May 2006. We have done many ocean cruises but this will be our first river cruise.

Any review or information on this particular ship and cruise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Jswen]

We are on the Amadagio at the end of May, The Blue Danube Discovery Trip from Budapest to Prague.
This will be our first River Boat cruise so we will be looking forward to your Trip Report.
Have a wonderful time.
JS

[sharonslp]

New to this board. New to cruising (well, not entirely; I did go on the Big Red Boat a lot of years ago). I'm signed up with a friend for the Amadagio on May 6, for the Tulip Time cruise. Looking forward to meeting whoever else is going. We'll be the ones who are knitting all the time.

[waverly]

Hey there!
We just came back from the Tulip Time Cruise aboard the brand new MS Amadagio. This was our second European river cruise and the Amadagio exceeded our highest expectations. Amadeus Waterways claims that the Amadagio is the most luxurious ship on the European waterways today and this is true. The décor is modern yet comfy. The lobby is really impressive with its high ceiling set off by an incredible modern painting by one of Holland’s most famous artists. The cabins are well appointed and all are equipped with plasma TV and hair dryer in the bathroom. Some veteran cruisers told us that the Amadagio cabins are comparable in size to cabins found on ocean cruise ships.
The hips don’t lie - one outstanding feature was the variety of meals served for lunch and dinners with outstanding desserts. The crew was very helpful, friendly and professional – everything went so smoothly that it felt like they had worked together for years (actually this was only their 4th cruise together aboard this ship.) The crew was like a great “cocktail” of international hospitality, with most of them coming from Hungary, the captain is German, the first officer, I think is Dutch and the Maitre’d is British (an absolute gem of a person – love that accent!).
Local performers entertained us nightly for some real “down home” entertainment. And if you wanted to burn those calories off, the Amadagio carried its own fleet of bicycles for those who wanted to explore the ports on their own. We met some great people who told us that river cruises are so much more fun because you get to know the other people better, whereas nowadays ocean cruise ships are more like floating cities with meal times like feeding time at the zoo. In fact we enjoyed our cruise so much that we are planning to go on another one in fall and of course it is going to be aboard the Amadagio. Thank you Amadagio, and thank you UET.com for advising us to book this cruise!
Waverly

[ckaiserfl]

Hi Sharonenp,
Will look for the flying knitting needles onboard the Amadagio in a couple weeks. I will be travelling with my sister and I will be one of the walkers onboard.

Looking forward to meeting you.

[DON M.]

Waverly, thanks for your nice review of the Amadagio. I think it is the first one on this new ship. We will be doing the Prague-Budapest cruise July 12 and you have confirmed the good things I have read about Amadeaus Waterways.
Can you elaborate on the entrees offered for dinner(picky eater)? Would you say that having dinner some nights in the cities visited would be a viable option? How did you feel about the excursions and was there much free time?
Thanks, Don

[KarlS]

Just returned last evening from a 9-nights Amsterdam to Antwerp Tulips cruise aboard Uniworld's River Duchess. You'll most likely be seeing tulips at their peak when you're there next week. Amsterdam has had an unusually cold and long winter this season, and when we were in the gardens last week the early-bloomers like the daffodils and hibiscus (sp?) were the flowers in high bloom, but the tulips (except for some limited varieties) were still another week from blooming. Luckily, there were exposition buildings with all of the varieties in bloom, so we had a sampling of what you're going to enjoy on your cruise. Cheers!

...Karl

[waverly]

Hi Don,
Like I said, the hips don’t lie. I would describe Amadagio meals as upscale gourmet (Europeans take their food seriously). The menu changed every day much to our delight…we were offered two choices for starters (i.e. shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, stuffed mushroom, pâtés, etc.). Next you had a choice of 2 soups (usually a clear bouillon soup or a creamy or chunky soup). Next, we had a choice of entrées – either meat (chicken, veal, beef and yes we also had steaks twice) or fish (trout and other local varieties). Vegetarian dishes are also available and I also saw the maitre’d (“Sir” William) convey special requests to the chef.

Dessert (my favorite food group) is just out of this world and I had to struggle between two choices, from chocolate mousse to pastries to crêpes. The chef (Reine) is very accommodating and I saw him take care of special requests. (I got a recipe for one of Reine’s desserts, unfortunately the ingredients are measured in grams, etc., so somehow I have to “convert” the measurements into American tablespoons, cups, etc., before I can enjoy an incredible chocolate hazelnut torte.)

For the very picky and/or homesick eater, the menu also includes hamburgers, hot-dogs, Caesar’s salads, BLT’s, tuna sandwiches and fries.

Breakfast is buffet style and must be designed for marathon runners. There were eggs (fried, poached, etc.), omelets, cold-cuts, cereals, fruits, juices, yogurt, etc. to power us through to lunch. Lunches were also buffet style but a lot of us skipped it since we were either busy shopping or felt guilty for pigging out the night before.

All sightseeing was included in the cruise, so there only were two optional excursions that were offered - a half day tour to Brussels and a half day tour to Bruges, each for around $ 50.00 per person. We took the one to Bruges and spent a very nice afternoon there, enjoying the picturesque city. After a pretty extensive city tour, we had free time to wander around and explore more on our own.

We arrived a day earlier in Amsterdam (to get over the inevitable jet-lag) and spent a free day there. We had an exotic Indonesian dinner at the “Blue Pepper” restaurant, the only time we ate on our own.

Don, I don’t think you will go wrong with the Amadagio meals. Just sit back, relax and try everything once!

Bon Appetit!
Waverly

[Jswen]

Hi,
What a great review.......we are taking the Budapest to Prague cruise on the Amadagio on May 28th. Today we received our documents so now just to decide what to pack. We are located in Ca. and the temp is in the 80s now so it is really hard to think of packing for cooler weather. Suggestions anyone?
Were there any dinners that were dressier nights on the Amadagio?
Thanks for any help.
J