AMAlotus review anyone??

[shoshona2]

Hi Alexandra,

 

After we took our very disappointing AMA Katarina river boat tour last September, we never heard back from AMA. We had been assured that everything had been fixed and things were going well. My TA found out that the Russian and Asian AMA river boat tours are run by two different companies -- not AMA. I refuse to ever go on another AMA river boat tour because they did not address any of the problems that occured during their initial start of the Katarina in May and June of 2011. If we could have cancelled after we heard the reviews, we would have done so. But we had given them over $12,000 for that tour and would have lost everything. So, we went and grinned and beared it -- sewerage smells, diesel smells in the public rooms, bad food and bad management. The sights were wonderful as were the kids who were working aboard the ship.

 

Sheila

[Memsahib27]

Hi anyone going on Amalotus!

 

We did that cruise October/Nov 2011 and had a wonderful time. The ship was beautiful - cabins a good size (balcony tiny), food was fantastic, staff so friendly, Both the Vietnamese and Cambodian guides so knowledgeable. A small pool on board so take swimsuit for a dip. Very different tours to Europe but very interesting and somewhat humbling. Fascinating villages with amazing markets and hand-made silk. How those people stay so cheerful after so much trauma was beyond belief. I have Picasa slideshows - if anyone would like me to email the links include your email address and I will be happy to do so - Saigon (HCMC) was interesting - great for getting prescription glasses if you have time, Phnom Penh was good for silver jewellery and Siem Reap's temples are mind-boggling. We so enjoyed it we booked with AMA again (Aug 2012) and hopefully will find Russian Waterways as interesting. Be sure to include some long pants and shoes that can get a bit muddy (the ship cleans them for you) and a camera with a big memory card!

Enjoy

Viv :)

[amyr]

Viv, I would love to see them! You can email me at aceeare at yahoo dot com. Thanks for the positive thoughts! Since the other ship gets such great reviews, I was hoping it was just growing pains with such quick expansion.

 

Sheila, it's experiences like yours that have kept me away from Russian river cruising even though I'm dying to go to Russia. Up until recently, I think all the ships were Soviet era, but I thought there were some newer, more decent ones now? At any rate, the bad ship reviews (all lines it seems) and the fact that you sit on the ship in St. Petersburg and Moscow and bus in every day have put me off it. There was one line that for a while kept you in hotels for the city stays and then put you on the ship, which I would much prefer, but I'm not sure anyone does that now. As for the Asian cruises, the Mekong ships I believe have to be built in Vietnam, but AMA operates them. Not sure if the new Uniworld and Viking ships are operated by the companies - I know the ships are leased. It's that way in China too. No matter who you book with, all the cruise portions are done on Victoria cruise lines. We did a fantastic tour with Uniworld - they handled all the land tours, but we got right on the Victoria Prince with different "river cruise" tour groups from all over the world when it came to the river portion.

[alexandra cruiser]

Hi anyone going on Amalotus!

 

We did that cruise October/Nov 2011 and had a wonderful time. The ship was beautiful - cabins a good size (balcony tiny), food was fantastic, staff so friendly, Both the Vietnamese and Cambodian guides so knowledgeable. A small pool on board so take swimsuit for a dip. Very different tours to Europe but very interesting and somewhat humbling. Fascinating villages with amazing markets and hand-made silk. How those people stay so cheerful after so much trauma was beyond belief. I have Picasa slideshows - if anyone would like me to email the links include your email address and I will be happy to do so - Saigon (HCMC) was interesting - great for getting prescription glasses if you have time, Phnom Penh was good for silver jewellery and Siem Reap's temples are mind-boggling. We so enjoyed it we booked with AMA again (Aug 2012) and hopefully will find Russian Waterways as interesting. Be sure to include some long pants and shoes that can get a bit muddy (the ship cleans them for you) and a camera with a big memory card!

Enjoy

Viv :)

 

and would love to see your photos..wmclay at cfl. rr.com...sorry can t put it in regular order or will be deleted,,I think.

[shoshona2]

Hi amyr,

 

Vantage and Uniworld are the two companies who are getting good reviews for their Russian River Cruises. If you are interested, you can read the two Russian threads going on the "All River Cruise Rollcalls" section of Cruise Critic.

 

Sheila

[alexandra cruiser]

did send an email but wanted to let everyone know how great her slideshow was,,and I feel SO MUCH better about my AMA choice..The Ship looks fantastic,,shore excursions seem great(and see same age cruisers..mid 60s getting around fine..a concern). Food looks great,,and glad no sickness onboard..the cabins are spacious(even bathroom) and tiny balcony better than none.Can get outside and enjoy fresh air anytime.Even deck space with shade,,and pool...look nice.

The ports looks very interesting and now have to read my guidebooks,,but photos really give me an idea now. Glad to see how everyone dressed,,,very casual.,,with comfortable shoes.,,,and see a lot of hats ..

One question,,,re.Cambodian visa,,you said they got it for you on ship???So I dont have to do that ahead??Know I need Vietnam one.

Thanks again.:)

[amyr]

Alexandra (and Viv!) Yes, they were fabulous photos. I didn't get the first set that (I think) has all the ship photos in it - looking forward to hopefully seeing that.

 

Yep, they get the Cambodian visa for you, and the Vietnamese visa info is all buried in that other long thread somewhere. I've been meaning to dig it up and read back through it.

 

Shiela, do either of those provide hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg? Maybe the Vantage one does? I'll look for the thread.

[shoshona2]

To Alexandra,

 

Just received my August 2012 Conde Nast Traveler Magazine today. Carolyn Spencer Brown has a review of the AMA Lotus and other ships for 2013 cruises on page 46. There is also an excellent section on river boats by Wendy Perrin and Deborah Dunn on page 38. Good work Carolyn -- just like you promised.

 

Sheila

[alexandra cruiser]

To Alexandra,

 

Just received my August 2012 Conde Nast Traveler Magazine today. Carolyn Spencer Brown has a review of the AMA Lotus and other ships for 2013 cruises on page 46. There is also an excellent section on river boats by Wendy Perrin and Deborah Dunn on page 38. Good work Carolyn -- just like you promised.

 

Sheila

 

and a lot of good info,,but felt she really didnt "like" riverboats as much as ocean,car,etc travel.

Happy to see AMAlotus on Dream Cruise list,,,also took the Douro river,and Sojourn to Norway...we must have same criteria?

Know you love Tauck,,,,if and when they have itinerary I want(and balconies),,,I ll give them a try. Loved the AMAcerto cabin last month and will be hard to beat...back wall all window and 210 ft...love the new longboats.

Had same experience on Viking ship in Russia as you did on AMA,,,got to be the country rules or ships allowed,,something.??Luckily would give Viking another go,,,,sometime. Places to go and things to see,,right???:)

[fpebbles]

thanks for all the helpful info on the thread--

 

i'm going out to get Conde Nast Traveler right after work...

 

my email is

 

 

cottomezzo at gmail dot com

[alexandra cruiser]

Please write a review when you return,,,,love to hear from others going in next months...we re on Dec.24 one,,,and will write one when we return.

Still no one posted on the cruise with us YET....but know its such a small portion of cruisers who do on river ships...

[mlk58]

Viv, if you are still here I would love to see your photos. We are sailing on the MS La Marguerite in December and starting to get very excited!

 

mlk58 at earthlink dot net

[Memsahib27]

Sort of still here - currently saiing in Russia on Amakatarina. If you send email address happy to forward the Picasa slideshows of the Amalotus Cruise (connection allowing!)

Viv

[alexandra cruiser]

Sort of still here - currently saiing in Russia on Amakatarina. If you send email address happy to forward the Picasa slideshows of the Amalotus Cruise (connection allowing!)

Viv

\

to save you internet costs...have fun in Russia....was there 6 yrs.ago and loved it.

[Memsahib27]

\

to save you internet costs...have fun in Russia....was there 6 yrs.ago and loved it.

 

Internet free on Amakatarina and working ok now we are away from Moscow. Can send link to slideshows but via email.:D

Viv

[amyr]

While you're waiting for Viv's photos (they're terrific and now we'll want to see the Russian ones too:D) here's a link to Ralph Grizzle's slideshow. He did one of the early voyages and did a review on his website. Hope the link works:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avidcruiser/sets/72157623719829379/show/

[agreene]

While you're waiting for Viv's photos (they're terrific and now we'll want to see the Russian ones too:D) here's a link to Ralph Grizzle's slideshow. He did one of the early voyages and did a review on his website. Hope the link works:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avidcruiser/sets/72157623719829379/show/

 

Fabulous pics! Wonder what kind of camera he used?

[alexandra cruiser]

and looks like lots of improvements have been made...

 

Keep those reviews coming in,,,,thanks...:)

[alexandra cruiser]

said APT passengers set tone of cruise??what does that mean,exactly?

 

Think its an Australian tour company,right? Do they book most of ship,or what? Why would that matter,,,maybe OP reviewer can answer.

 

Rest of comments positive,great.:confused:

[freddie]

AC - APT is, as we were told on our La Marguerite cruise last year, not only an Australian tour company but also a significant part-owner of Amawaterways. I cannot speak to any cruise except ours; but in our case, the large APT group (all Aussies) very much set the tone of the cruise and not in any positive sense.

 

About a third of the pax on our cruise were with the APT group. We don't know how they behaved on the land portion of the trip, as we did our own private tour before and after the 7-day Mekong River cruise. However, they certainly seemed to have a rather disturbing sense of entitlement on the boat. It was our distinct impression, along with that of our four traveling companions (however flawed that impression may have been) that the APT group considered themselves rather a law unto themselves because of APT's financial interest in AMA. For example, once at the bar I heard one of the "ringleaders" of the APT group remark that, "Don't forget - this is our boat! We own it!" Of course, that isn't true, as La Marguerite is owned by a Vietnamese company and Amalotus is only partially owned by Amawaterways in partnership with that same Vietnamese company.

 

In any event, the APT group was particularly annoying in the dining room, which has a low ceiling and a serious noise problem. Members of the APT group thought nothing of shouting from table to table, starting cheers or songs during dinner, and generally behaving as if the rest of the passengers were of no consequence whatever. They behaved in a similar fashion in the lounge and even in the small library/computer room, the latter of which was designated as a "quiet space" for the comfort of all passengers.

 

Further, even though AMA is emphatic (in its literature and in the documents that we received upon boarding) that it is not possible to reserve tables in the dining room, in fact each evening there were at least three of the prime tables clearly reserved (with less-than-subtle placards) for the APT group. As for the rest of us, we were required to get to the dining room just as it opened to try to snag a table for our little group of six.

 

I will concede that the boisterous and inconsiderate behavior of the APT group was encouraged a bit by the CD, who was a sort of cheerleader type and appeared to relish such things as passengers yelling out the name of their tour groups (sort of like some lame Holiday Inn lounge lizard asking everyone from Iowa to stand up and shout out).

 

The appallingly noisy dining room experience was distinctly unpleasant and was the only genuinelly negative aspect of the cruise on the Mekong.

 

So, AC, if it is possible to determine whether there will be a large APT group on a cruise that you are considering, we would seriously counsel finding another date. In your case, as I know that you're already booked, I will simply wish you the good luck of not having an APT group on your cruise.

 

By the way, we have close friends who are Aussies and would travel with them without any reservation whatever. Therefore, please do not consider my comments here to be anti-Oz. However, it may well be that when APT enters the picture, things get less than ideally pleasant.

 

Cheers, Fred

[shoshona2]

Hi Freddie,

 

We had the same situation on the AMA Katarina when we did the Volga River last year. My husband went down at 7:00 a.m. every morning to reserve a table in the upper dining room which was smaller and less noisy than the main dining room. Apparently, my TA told me that AMA has NO control over the Russian cruises and the Vietnam cruises. They only care about the European cruises. I believe that APT owns the majority stock in AMA. After being lied to by AMA, we decided NEVER to give them another dime of our money no matter how wonderful the reviews are for their European cruises. There are other companies besides AMA and we have a choice!

 

Sheila

[alexandra cruiser]

and will just have to HOPE we don t have same experience. Have never heard of this before on this cruise,so MAYBE a fluke???

 

My travel agent is an Aussie and I asked him,,said that would be "rare occurence" that most Aussie s "just want to have fun and tend to be a triffle loud,,haha". So he better be right,or he ll hear about it.Even booked a Scenic Cruise for next yr.(that s an Aussie company too).

 

Sheila,,,I wrote about my Viking Russian Cruise in response to your AMA cruise complaints.We had similar bad cruise staff experiences(but passengers seemed fine and easy going). Guess its the luck of the draw when ships are owned by others??

 

Did take AMAcerto June cruise(Prague to Budapest) and one of my FAVORITES so far. So it really VARIES,it seems.;)

[Memsahib27]

As Aussies, who travelled on the Amalotus independent of the APT group, and who met and socialised with people from other parts of the world on that cruise, we were a bit disappointed to find our booking on Amakatarina was all APT with passengers who were mostly Aussies, a few people from NZ and the UK. We travel because we like to meet people from all over the world and learn about their culture and would never have booked the "all APT" cruise if we had known at the time. Only one Amakatarina cruise each year is dedicated to APT. As it happened, we enjoyed the cruise and didn't find the group particularly rowdy and met delightful people from different parts of Australia and NZ. (I will be putting our review up soon- still working on the photos.) We did chat to an APT representative who was sailing with us and asked why they have ships that are almost full of Aussies It seems the main reason is that we are not good tippers as it is not something we do much in Australia - people do get paid very well. This has meant that on many cruises the crew members are not very keen to work on a ship that has a high % of Aussies as they need their gratuities to make up the not-so-good-pay! We are fortunate that we have an economy that is doing better than many at present, and so it is Aussies who are filling many of the river cruises - especially in Vietnam and China as they are closer to home than Europe. Our fares are quite a bit higher than what we see advertised for North American passengers - because our gratuities are included. On the Amakatarina they also made other additions to the itinerary - two bottles of water in the room each morning and evening, Vegemite at breakfast !!:rolleyes: The Moscow Circus, Armoury and ballet were included rather than offered as options. Again because Aussies prefer to pay as much as possible in advance.

 

When we asked some of the Aussies, who always use APT, why they did prefer to travel with their countrymen/women their response was that they felt APT understood their needs better - but also that they had been on cruises that were more than half filled with people from the USA who tended to take over and stick together. This was particularly so on Uniworld and Viking. So it should be looked at from both sides.:)

[amyr]

When I told my husband that we would likely have a lot of Aussies on board with us he was excited because he lived in Melbourne for a year and loves Australians. They truly are delightful and interested in having a good time. That being said, I understand the groups are pretty segregated mainly because of the Aussie tipping structure. Since their gratuities are included they keep their own tour guides while the rest of us have to dole out dollar bills at every turn. Personally, I prefer the Australian way and wish it was set up like that for us.

 

I was dismayed a couple of months ago when I read freddie's review, and I'm holding out hope that the group he ran up against was a group of travel agents and/or APT employees that were on a FAM trip. Having been on a FAM trip or two and sailed with a group of travel agents on an X cruise, I can testify that it can be a pretty entitled crowd no matter the nationality. Hopefully that was the root of the "we own this boat" comment that freddie heard.

 

I had wondered when I tried to book LaMarguerite for the trip starting four days after our AMALotus cruise and was told it was chartered if they weren't starting to segregate the groups onto two different ships. Seems understandable with the fee and amenity structure being so different. Someone popped into the other thread though from California who managed to book onto that LaMarguerite cruise, so that's obviously not the case.

 

As for Uniworld, we were told on our Danube Cruise that they primarily market to Americans (and Canadians too, I presume) but we met a lovely couple from Tasmania who made the best of it with our tipping ways.

 

Our AMALotus tour begins one month from today!

[freddie]

Amyr - The group of boorish passengers on our cruise was not composed of TA's or APT employees. Rather, the group comprised people who had apparently been convinced by their group leader that they were endowed with a certain greater status than the other passengers on the boat and therefore could behave in a manner which did not require any consideration for the other pax on board. This had nothing to do with the accommodations, as we and our traveling companions had the premier suites on the boat.

 

Further, the behavior of the APT group had nothing to do with tipping included or prepaid. I have no reason to believe that tipping protocols have anything whatever to do with the group dynamic of the cruise or the conduct of the passengers in any group.

 

When you state that you were "dismayed" by my earlier posts, that concerns me very much. I remain, as I thought that I stated in my earlier posts, convinced that AMA is, at this time, the best way to cruise the Mekong.

 

Cheers, Fred