camping mom

On final day of Jordan pre trip. It was amazing- Petra, Wadi Rum , and Dead Sea- wow ! So organized and efficient- tour managers are great. I went solo to Petra at Night- $25 cash and right across from hotel- night walk with luminaries to the Treasury. Felt very safe. Thank you for all your posts - kept us excited and informed.

Thank you for taking all this time from your vacation to make ours better! Are there movies showing on in -cabin TVs?

On AMA Sonata. Have had dramatic drop in river levels once heavy rains stopped.Was to embark in Nuremberg on Dec 16 but ship stayed at Regensberg. We were bussed to there. Then next day river fell again and ship left early evening to Visholm to stay night. Itinerary for ship moorings will now same all the way to Vienna. We were all well taken care of and bussed to any excursions we had. No complaints at all- just reporting on river levels for all of you.

Merry Christmas!

Update on AMAWATERWAYS Website:

Update (December 4th, 2018): We are very happy to report that with the recent rainfall in Europe, the water levels on the Rhine and Danube have risen dramatically over the past few days. We anticipate returning to scheduled itineraries for all cruises embarking December 7th onward*. 

Heart-felt thanks to all our travel partners and guests for their patience and understanding and our remarkable onboard crews who continued throughout this period of low water to deliver an exceptional vacation experience for our guests.

On 11/28/2018 at 10:27 AM, FoxHallFamily said:

We are on the Ama Magical Christmas Markets cruise, originally departing Nuremberg on Dec. 1st.  Ama sent us a second revised itinerary yesterday, which we don't like as well as the first revised.  The first revision had us cruising to Esztergom and closer to Budapest, which we believe would have significantly reduced the bus travel time to Budapest.  Now we are in Vienna for multiple days, with we believe a 3-4 hour long (each way) proposed bus excursion to Budapest.  We are also assuming we will be stacked up with multiple boats in Vienna and potentially unable to look out our balcony.  There are a couple times on the itinerary that don't make sense, so we're hoping it might change again, and we have inquired with Ama.  We shall see . . . but we're feeling disappointed at the moment.

 

 

DAY #	PORT	ARRIVAL	DEPARTURE	ITINERARY
1	Passau			Embarkation
2	Passau	-	10:00pm	Morning excursion to Vilshofen for walking tour or Bike tour or Hiking excursion
3	Linz	5:30 am	12:00 am	Linz Walking Tour & Christmas Markets or Bike tour or Full Day Salzburg Afternoon visit to Cesky Krumlov
4	Melk	9:00 am	12:00 am	Morning excursion to the Melk Abbey or Melk Bike or Melk-Durnstein Bike
4	Durnstein	3:00 pm	2:00 am	Durnstein Walking Tour or Apricots & Sweets Tasting
5	Vienna	8:00 am	Overnight	Morning City Tour & Rathaus Christmas Markets Afternoon  Schonbrunn & Karlplatz markets or Bike tour
6	Vienna	-	12:00 am	Budapest Excursion & Vörösmarty Christmas Markets
7	Tulln	3:30 am	8:00 am	Morning cruise
7	Vienna	1:00 pm	Overnight	Afternoon Walking Tour or Hiking excursion or Tastes of Bratislava
8	Vienna	3:00		Disembarkation

I am sure you are enroute as I type this, but I wanted you to see these postings on another forum from a guest on the AMA Sonata- doing this itinerary right now but in reverse. I hope their info might be helpful and encouraging to you.  Go to Page 3 to find their 2 posts if not directed there... 

2 hours ago, FoxHallFamily said:

Greetings!  We are on the AmaCerto cruise from Nuremberg to Vienna departing on 12/1 and just received our alternate itinerary.  Now we start in Passau and cruise to Linz, Melk, Vienna and then Esztergom (with day trips to Budapest and Bratislava added to the end of the trip).  It's sounding pretty good to us but we are wondering how long the bus trips will be from Esztergom to Budapest and then I believe also from there (or maybe we cruise closer?) to Bratislava.  Thanks for any insights from the group! We have really appreciated all of the information available in this discussion!

Thank you so much for reporting on this. We are on AMASonata Dec 16 for same route. We obviously have not heard yet of our changes but it was so helpful to know when you got your update and what your itinerary looks like. Keep us posted as you can. Have an amazing trip!

Thanks for the great info and pictures!!! I saw you mentioned dining at Sabatini's for breakfast. I know this is a specialty restaurant and thought they just served dinner. Also, where did you find out about the tour of the ship?

Thanks