copperski

We have been on 2 AMA cruises. They both had battery powered alarm clocks. They even changed the clocks when we had a time change

We have been to Lucerne area before, and stayed on the Italian side of the lake - better food and prices. :)

 

I'm sorry but I believe Lucerne is in the middle of Switzerland. Is it possible you were thinking about Lake Lugano, which borders both Italy and Switzerland.:)

Ira, I'm not sure how long you will be in Bucharest, but if you need to take a taxi again, you may want to consider Uber. We used Uber and it was very reliable and the prices were ridiculously cheap. A 3 mile,20 minute trip cost us $3.50

Hi, just got back from a cruise on the AmaSerena. The new chefs table menu was terrific. It truly is a real tasting menu. It was a lot of fun to taste several appetizers, main courses and of course it was great having three desserts. On a prior AmaWaterway cruise we did not go to the chefs table for dinner. We looked at the menu and it did not appeal to us. With the new concept, even if you don't like one of the items, there's a pretty good chance you will enjoy the other items. Also, there was one item on the main course that I did not care for, so they offered to give me two portions of one of the other items or to substitute it with something else. Can't really comment on the old menu, but I can tell you everybody that we spoke to on the cruise loved their dining experience at the chefs table.

Yes, we absolutely loved the AmaSerena. This was our second cruise with Amawaterways. The first was on the AmaCerto on the upper Danube. We had an amazing time on the first one. If it's even possible we had an even better time on the recent cruise. The Amma Serena is a beautiful ship, excellent service from the deck hands all the way up to the captain and the food was better then the first cruise. Didn't have any problems with the food on the first cruise,it was just better on this one. The chef table which we did not do on the first cruise was also terrific.

Hi Copp,

 

>We went to some higher end restaurants and found the prices to be very reasonable.

 

Any recommendations? We expect to be there in Sept.

Hi Ira, the following article should be helpful.http://theculturetrip.com/europe/romania/articles/bucharest-s-10-best-cultural-restaurants-culinary-delights-in-romania/

We had dinner at 3 of the restaurants listed in the article. Caru cu bere, Hanul Lui Manuc and Torna Fratre. They were all very good. Torna Fratre was probably the best one and there were mainly locals having dinner the night we were there.

We did not go to the folk life museum. However we heard from other people that it was very interesting. We did go to the open air Village Museum which shows the traditional architecture of rural Romania in various regions. We used Uber to get around. It was ridiculously cheap, a 10 to 15 minute ride cost around three U.S. Dollars. We also did a lot of walking around. One of the days we took a four hour bicycle ride with a tour guide. We were able to keep the bikes for the entire day so we rode around one of the parks. The local people were very nice and friendly. They were proud of their city. The food in the restaurants is unbelievably cheap. We went to some higher end restaurants and found the prices to be very reasonable.

I personally would split my time between Bucharest and Brasov. We rented a car for the day and drove up into the mountains and drove on the Transfagaras road. That was definitely a highlight of our time in Romania. We also joined the Amma waterway excursion to Transylvania and Pales castle in Sinaia.

Just returned from AMASERENA Bucharest to Budapest cruise. We stayed in Bucharest 5 nights pre cruise and 2 nights post cruise in Vienna. Would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Hopefully will write a review in the near future.

 

In your words....

"The service from the cabin attendant was excellent."

I cant understand then why you wouldnt at least tip this person..maybe not the CD if you didnt think they met your expectations, but the staff on board do an amazing job in my opinion.

 

I'm sorry, but I cant imagine not tipping any staff that like you said,...was excellent.

 

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I believe The OP in post 17 said he tipped the room attendant

Hi Sippican. We did the Romantic Danube last year (July 1-8). The Captain's dinner was on the 6th night,next to last night. We also took the transfer from Prague to Vilshofen. There was plenty of extra room both on the bus and in the luggage compartment. We did meet some people that like to travel with a lot of luggage and they were not charged for excess luggage. What a difference a year makes. Last year we were concerned about high water, floods and broken locks,this year low water levels. Will do a rain dance.

We were on the AMACERTO this past July. The soft drinks and beer were definitely complimentary during lunch. Not sure about the wine, saved the wine drinking for dinner.

Why has that got anything at all to do with what they write? I, like you, had a first post too. I started this thead for a reason and I found that caviargal lept in with her own agenda to take Tauck and me to task based on her own style of travel. It was painfully obvious that she never really read my OP because if she did she would have read that at the time of my exercise APT/AMA were more expensive than Tauck so her rantings were simply not true. I'm still amazed as to why you'd take a river cruise, at any price, just to ignore most of what you paid for just so you can show the world you like to be independant and do your own thing. Even though I wrote in my OP that this was a personal perspective and not to be used as a template it didn't stop caviargal from replying .. "I am glad that you found a cruise line that works for you. However, your way of choosing a river cruise is not the bible and there are actually people who choose a river cruise that have different priorities than you do." ..... that just shows me and others that all you really wanted was to hijack a thread with your priorities.

 

 

If you and others want to display your wealth in this manner then feel free to do so BUT please refrain from flaunting where your silver spoon is stuck in my threads and take you're anti-Tauck rants to another thread.

It is funny that you responded the way you did to my post when I clearly wasn't responding or referring to your post. Furthermore, I'm just wondering which of my posts in any way shape or form would lead you to believe I am anti-Tauck. I originally thought your first post was well thought out and could possibly help other first time cruisers in deciding which cruise line to pick. Now I'm just wondering why if someone disagrees with or questions your post you find it necessary to be discourteous to them . Could you be a shill for Tauck? The bottom line is these forums are a way for people to express there feelings and opinions on all issues of cruising, and a way for people to obtain all types of invaluable information. I do not believe we should be bashing or assaulting other cruisers in this forum just because they might have a different opinion or different cruising style. Lets just move on.

Seems like the snob factor award goes to those who judge others whose priorities do not mirror their own. Must get cold up on that lofty perch of yours.:cool:

 

I consider carefully how I spend my money and "throwing it around" would be choosing a company like Tauck which includes features we would not use. We prefer to actually spend our money on what we enjoy.

Caviargal, well said, could not agree with you more. By the way did you notice the post was another "one post wonder".