Trip Review – “The Enchanting Rhine” with AMA Waterways

1. The Itinerary:  I want on the “Enchanting Rhine” trip northbound from Basel to Amsterdam. The itinerary was varied, and in this direction you mostly go from a smaller quaint towns (like Strasbourg and Rudesheim) up to the larger cities (like Cologne and Amsterdam). Many of us enjoyed it in this order, but just know that if you went south bound, which some said they would prefer, you would be starting with big cities and ending with more small charming, quaint, slower-paced places. We did stop at many of the same places that other cruise line stop, but we did also stop in some places that I had never heard of such as Riquewihr (a postcard cute town that basically inspired Disney’s recent “Beauty & the Beast” movie). Only being on board for a week was a very nice rhythm, in that we had plenty of time both on the ship and off the ship but never too much time in either. One difference in this itinerary versus Tauck itinerary that I went on a few years prior (besides the length of the cruise) is that Tauck did plan a few meals off board. For example, they had pre-arranged a dinner in a castle, which was a nice touch. AMA did not have any of those pre-planned so you had to skip an included meal if you wanted to experience food off board.  Like any self-respecting Rhine cruise, there was of course an afternoon sailing through the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO heritage site and home of the Lorelie and tons of amazing castles. That’s one experience no river cruise is going to deny you – it is amazing!!

2. The off board experience: One thing I most appreciated about the AMA Waterways river cruise is that you could be almost as independent as you wanted. Each day there were many choices for excursions off the ship, or you could always even go completely on your own in some cases. Each day there were anywhere from three to five choices for you – from active excursions like biking or hiking, to late riser excursions that started at 10am, to slow walker excursions that allowed folks with less mobility to see things at a slower pace. Having all these choices meant that the group sizes were often quite small. Several of my alternate choices like late risers or active hiking excursions had less than 15 people on them. I will say that some of the standard tour options were fairly large, with up to 30 or so people, but once you understand the process after the first excursion, you will know how to navigate the choices. Now, AMA Waterways only has one cruise director on board with you, unlike Tauck who does have four dedicated directors. In our case, the cruise director’s name was David, from Spain, and he was fantastic – we all loved him & wanted to bring him home with us by the end of the trip. Even with only David manning the ship, there were always fantastic local guides in each city. The transitions from ship to excursion were pretty seamless in that the local guides usually were right there waiting for us as we stepped off the ship to either get on a bus for a short ride to the town we were visiting, or the walk into the center of town, or to start the bike ride (again, whatever you chose for the day!). The local guides were generally very good with one or two exceptions in both ways. We may have had a less than stellar guide in Riquewihr, but we had a spectacular guide for the hike outside of Heidelberg. They all really did try their very best to make sure that we understood the essence of the place we are visiting and enjoy ourselves with enough free time before we had to return to the ship. The experiences we had off the boat were overall very non-touristy, though even the one “touristy” place that we went to actually ended up being charming in the end! Because you can basically choose what you want to do, you can also avoid some of the more touristy options. For example, if you don’t want to stand with the masses to get a cold beer in Cologne, you can do like I did and take a bike ride up-and-down the river to see some of the lesser seen parts of that city and find a local cafe for your own refreshing beverage experience!

3. The on board experience – The ship itself, the AMAPrima, was a very charming and comfortable place to be. All of the common spaces were plenty spacious and accommodating, and the staff was FANTASTIC. Seriously – they knew our names by about day 2.  (Not just us, b/c we were “special” or anything – they knew EVERYONE’s names!) The rooms were perfectly nice – I chose to have the lowest category room to see what that experience would be like. I will be honest: my room was not a place I would want to spend too much time in since it was on the lower level and only had the small window at water level of course… but because I was traveling with a group of friends and seeing so many wonderful places and had so much free time to be off the ship I really didn’t need to spend much time in my room. I did see some of the rooms with the balconies, and they were quite spacious and lovely places to spend time if you wanted. So if you’re not particularly social and would rather spend more of your time watching the river glide by outside your balcony window, then I would definitely upgrade to an upper level room. As for dining there was never any problem finding seats in the main dining room, and again, the staff there was great. Lunch was generally a buffet in the main dining room with plenty of choices from hot to cold options, and there were also always off-menu options that you could special order. Dinner, meanwhile, was usually a four course meal with two or three choices per course, or you could always order from some basic, constant options if you didn’t like the themed menu of the day. On the back of the ship at the second level there is a specialty dining room for only 20 to 30 people at one time. Each guest is guaranteed to eat there once during their cruise. It features a more extensive tasting menu – more like 6 to 8 courses usually with specific wine pairings. It is an elegant and wonderful space perfect for a private dinner if you’re traveling with a group. I found the food to be really high-quality and flavorful (especially delicious at the specialty restaurant). I also know that if you have a dietary restriction, the staff is incredible in how they know you by day two and they take such care of you. Now, AMA Waterways is not 100% all inclusive, in that it’s not just open bar all-day & night, but I never, and I repeat NEVER, found myself with an empty glass while at dinner. In fact, I usually drank so much at dinner that I rarely bought any additional drinks after dinner. The other reason that they decide not to include all alcoholic beverages outside of meals is that they do choose spend quite a bit of time in port. Therefore in many places (like Koblenz and Rudesheim-am-Rhine), we left the ship after dinner to explore the town and the local bars there. On other nights, we turned the lounge into a dance party and were too busy having fun to worry too much about the bar. LOL! This is another point in favor of traveling with a group of friends – I never had to worry if anyone would be out and about, ready to have fun together. (Also- when I say we took over the dance floor, I mean that we had dance parties until 2 in the morning, and even later sometimes!)  Also, if it was a lovely night we might go spend time up on deck to get away from music and dancing but mostly we were tearing up a rug and having a ball. Good times!In conclusion, I really, really, REALLY enjoyed my cruise on AMA Waterways. Yes, there may have been older folks on the ship – there is not as young of a demographic as I expected on this line – but that never impeded my fun at all. I do think it helps to go with a group or some sort, like a few other couples your age, or a group of friends from work or a club that you’re a part of.  Even if you do go as a solo couple or even a solo traveler, you will be able to find other people to have fun with. Please enjoy some pictures of me and my friends and all the fun experiences we had cruising the Enchanting Rhine! (NOTE- not all of these are my photos- we traveled with a very talented photographer!)

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