CastleCritic

Well my experience is going to be somewhat unique owing to the 2021'ness of it. We only had 5 people go (and there were only 40 on the ship). We left the ship about 9:30 on the bus with another I want to say about a dozen AMA passengers who had decided to get BACK on the ship and go back up the river. They tagged along with us to the palace of justice where the famous WWII trials happened then we dropped them off at the train station so they could explore before heading back to the ship. Then we drove around several "Germany of the 1940's administration" sites stopping at the zeppelin grounds, you know all the videos you see of 100s of thousands of people in an area listening to speeches? there. It's now been (as pretty much all the buildings had been) greatly repurposed and partially demolished but there is a lot of history there. A few hours later we were dropped in the town square in Pilsen to get lunch and then a small amount of tour before heading on to Prague arriving about 5 and then had a short orientation walk of the hotel area and how to get to "old town". I ended up with personal tour as the only one who wanted to do the "active walker" tour. I really enjoyed that tour, Standing on the square with a guide who was my age who was a teenager during the fall of communism just talking about differences in life experiences. Walking through what at that time was still small crowds and then ending up at the castle (and then staying there on my own for a few more hours. There was a LOT less structure to this extension than the others I have done (St Malo in France, Romania). That was the extent of the planned activity, we had an entire day to find things that interested us on our own. I ended up just kind of messing around and then trying to do the national museum right before it closed (greatly underestimating how big it was, it's a really good museum. There is a good bit you can do, I suggest a YouTube channel called "honest guide" (if you search for it as honest guide Prague it will probably be better) that shows a lot of the things you can do (and some of the less great things of the town, and tourist traps and scams). I would definitely go back.

They definitely do Nuremberg to Prague with a stop in Pilsen on the way, normally this then is followed by 3 nights in Prague,I did that in 2021 with AMA. Pretty sure they do the reverse (since we ran into a group in Prague that was about to head to a ship the next day). only AMA will advise if they will let you tag along.

No problem, the only issue is that I think both of us think a lot alike and there was a good bit of overlap in excursion choice too, If you have any further questions feel free to ask.

Never been there on viking but looking at satellite photos there are pictures of rafted Viking ships on both sides of the chain bridge right next to the tram route.

Siegfrieds is really neat yeah I see some conflicting info above and Im just going to add to it. OTHER than AMAMagna (the Danube wide body ship) Ive never seen an open US style plug on an AMA ship, I always bring a converter (oddly they do have one where they have plugged in the MAC all in one in room computers for some reason usually). As for the elevator, usually it goes to the rooms or the restaurant (usually the restaurant) on the first floor, not both. these are on opposite sides of a wall and you have to go up and down stairs to get between them.

as mentioned don't worry about your bags, when you check in at the gangway (or at the airport if you are doing their transfers) they will label your bags with the room number and they will find their own way to the room. They used to send physical bag tags for you to fill out with your home info ahead of time, now you are likely to find them in your room at some point in the week. I would certainly say make sure the bags have your name on a tag somewhere. As for the room, make sure if you are American that you bring plug adapters, the ship will only have europlugs. (and that the device can take 220v, almost everything can). The welcome aboard meeting/safety meeting will be right before dinner, believe me you will know when it is and where (in the lounge) the schedule will be on the reception desk and in your room. I also suggest downloading the AMA app and linking your reservation, this will let you down the "daily cruiser" newsletter the night before, this will have both the schedule and the contact numbers (and dock location, but Im assuming this is Amsterdam so thats basically "behind the main train station"). One night will be the designated "fancy" night but that means very little, it's just the night when if you want to dress up, everyone else might. If Im on your ship I'll have on a polo shirt and kakhi pants like any other night :). The staff WILL dress up that night but most of the passengers do not really.

Actually I did it Budapest to Bucharest too which makes any guess about daily itinerary somewhat moot. But here goes how it was scheduled day1, ship is in Budapest all day, other than safety meeting do whatever you want, left about midnight day2 (Mohacs). sailing until 1pm when excursions start, they end by 5:30 at latest, ship sails at 9pm Day3 ship arrives in vukovar, we're off by 8:30 ship leaves without us, we meet it downriver at 11 to do customs out of the eu and then it leaves and we get to Nova Sad about 5 once Serbian customs completes we do excursions, several rounds last one finishes 10:45, ship stays until 1am. Day4 Belgrade 8am arrival, several excursion rounds, ship leaves 10:15 that night Day5 wake up at Golubac fortress, do that, ship leaves about 11, we're on the ship all day (iron gates there are a few things to see along the way) Day6 ship arrives in Vidin at 6am leaves at 1:45pm Day7 ship arrives in Rousse Bulgaria, 6am you can see Girgiu on the opposite bank, excursion leave for both Romania and Bulgaria by 10, after picking up the Bulgaria excursions, ship repositions to Girgiu at 5pm (picking up the Romania excursion when it gets there) Day8 sad times...everyone leaves In general as long as the ship isn't leaving or doing customs processes you are free to come and go as you please. (customs happens a lot on this route, other than Hungary and Croatia, every time you cross a border, the ship will meet. with the authorities to have your passport stamped in and out...there will be several days they are holding onto it for you just for this reason (though in Serbia you are supposed to have it on you so they will give it back for those days). If you are doing the land pre in Brasov as RobInMN said you will meet your cruise director for the entire trip on arrival and I would expect the same tour guides and bus drivers at least for that segment, I had the same one in Bucharest as well (another AMA cruise directory actually) but that was a special request from the cruise director and wasnt originally arranged that way. Once you join the ship in Girgiu the guides and bus drivers will be different each day. I never took out any local currency until I got to Romania and honestly I could have just paid for everything on the card. In fact most place I went to were not interested in breaking my 400lei (its about a 5:1 conversion to dollars) into smaller notes so I really had no choice. The only time I was tempted was in Bulgaria to pay a local street artist for a painting.

oh I know, I was on AMAMagna last year. We rafted twice, once Im pretty sure the other ship's passengers went through the main lobby the other they were out the third floor (and the steps to the sun deck are right there at that same exit). AMAMagna actually had an elevator that went to the sun deck when she was built (it popped up through the sun deck, wasn't a permanent entrance) but I guess having that hatch exposed to the elements probably didn't turn out to be a good idea, they paved over it I believe when the pickleball court went in. To the above post I would hope in cases like that the dock side ship would let passengers use their elevators. I know in AMAMagnas case it's right there on the bow side right in front of the restaurant/lounge where the passengers would be anyway.

I’ve seen ama do some pretty amazing things with the “gentle walkers” group. But at some point you do have to be able to walk on cobbles. I have seen people give up on trying to use the mobility scooters on excursions because of the streets. and getting rafted to amamagna? Cmon it’s not like you have to walk all the way to her stern 🙂. Hell if the other ships main deck is Same height then it’s just a an extra 10m walk through the lobby, otherwise. Yep up the steps to the third floor but every time I’ve rafted to a Viking ship it’s been the sun deck.

Maybe I haven't seen "true luxury" but one of the last things I would complain about on AMAwaterways is the food after 5 cruises. I hope this doesnt change much, for example squeezing solo passengers more like viking does.

Im only familiar with the loyalty program from AMA. But there really the only thing that you really get is related to rooms (slight discount, automatic upgrade within the same tier of rooms) and a single reception with a drink or two and some appetizers. It's not like what may exist on ocean liners where you get preferential access to X. Ive never heard anyone "lord" their cruise count over anyone else. And Im decent at reading people Ive never run into anyone who was feigning interest. in someone else's cruise history, usually it's the opposite, they ask about it first and are looking for what people think so they an choose to do/not do that. Personally I dont care what other people think of me or need my 'ego stroked' so I'm definitely not trying to show off if I discuss my cruise history or future plans.

I cant confirm that, and my mother is REALLY sensitive about perfumes and the like. We have had to ask them not to use febreeze or similar in the cabin though.

Who you are and where you are from are typical. Maybe work you do/did. How you are finding the cruise/ship. definitely have always ended up comparing cruise history. one of the things the cruise director asked first night first cruise. “What flag is on the back of the ship?” (Switzerland). “And the Swiss are known to be neutral, please keep discussion on religion, politics and sports to a minimum”

I don’t own a suit or sport coat. I’ve always just worn a polo shirt and khaki slacks.

One thing to be aware of with Budapest is that there are two different terminals, linked by a walkway. While Im sure Viking will have this handled, make sure that they indicate if they are meeting passengers in both terminals and aren't expecting you to go to one or the other. I only mention this because I had some miscommunication/bad info when I was last there last year and ended up running around before finding my rep (this wasn't with Viking). Not sure Ive seen passengers running around with viking stickers on the last few years though.