AmaCerto Review

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Review for Europe River Cruise on AmaCerto
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ACA Jester
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jul 2017
Cabin: Outside stateroom with fixed window

There was a change in itinerary which we only found out after we paid, checked in online, and received our cruise paperwork: instead of arriving in Mohacs in the morning, we arrived in the afternoon, so there was no opportunity to walk around Mohacs before boarding our tour bus. On the last day, we arrived at Rousse for our excursions into Bulgaria, instead of Guirgui, which according to the letter, made immigration easier. The excursion to Bucharest actually arrived back at Guirgui, instead of Rousse., after the ship had moved across the river.

Pre-Cruise- Arrived two days prior. Stayed at the Hilton City Center which is conveniently located on the Pest side of the river. We purchased a 24 hour travel card at the BKK desk at the Airport. With the 24 hour travel pass you do not need to validate the pass, since it is valid from time of purchase. The BKK desk is in the arrivals area to the left immediately after exiting customs in either Terminal 2A or 2B. You can also buy other travel passes here for museum discounts, etc. From there we took the 200E bus which stopped right outside the doors to the left. This takes you to the Kőbánya-Kispest M3 train station and then took the M3 directly to the Nyugati Palyaudvar station. Hilton is up the escalator next to the mall entrance or you can walk outside, turn right and it is about a half block to their entrance on Vaci Ut (street). It was easy to get around from here on the M3 subway which went into downtown.

Embarkation- -We still had an hour left on our 24 hour travel pass at 3pm so we used the aforementioned M3 from the Hilton and transferred to the 2 Tram at Jaazai Mari ter, and got off at the Zsil Utca stop. AmaCerto was docked at Mahart #2 and the ship was only about 30 yards away down the sidewalk close to the Erzsebet hid (Elizabeth bridge). We walked on and our bags were immediately taken to the room. We were in our room less than 5 minutes after walking on board.

Cabin Review

Outside stateroom with fixed window

Cabin E

In the room there is a Fridge, European power plugs (you will need an adapter if coming from UK or US), and there was a three-way splitter in the drawer under the TV. Also in the same drawer was a corkscrew. (You can bring wine on board as long as it is opened in the room). Bathrooms were typical size, although the shower was slightly larger than a typical Ocean Cruise cabin and had both overhead rain and hand held shower heads. Toiletries were a bar of soap, bottles of conditioner, shower gel, and shampoo, Vanity kit, and a shower cap. The toilet paper could be categorized as both less soft and less pliable than standard paper towels.

Note- Keep your curtains closed when in port. Other ships pull in alongside to dock and you might be playing peekaboo with another cabin whose windows are lined up with yours the next morning. One towel animal on one night.

On the TV, there was a good selection of movies, plus a bow cam, recorded versions of TLC, Discovery, plus live TV- CNN, Euro news, and several European sports channels.

Two water bottles were provided each night for the next day, plus water was also available at the gangplank before leaving on excursions.

Free Wi-Fi, but extremely undependable. One minute at 5mps, then cuts out entirely. This is regardless of where you are on the ship, room, public, deck, in port, or traveling down river. More typically slow (1mps). It’s good for checking emails or pulling up info on the next City, but not much else.

Port Reviews

Budapest

Stayed at the Hilton City Center which is conveniently located on the Pest side of the river. We purchased a 24 hour travel card at the BKK desk at the Airport. With the 24 hour travel pass you do not need to validate the pass, since it is valid from time of purchase. The BKK desk is in the arrivals area to the left immediately after exiting customs in either Terminal 2A or 2B. You can also buy other travel passes here for museum discounts, etc. From there we took the 200E bus which stopped right outside the doors to the left. This takes you to the Kőbánya-Kispest M3 train station and then took the M3 directly to the Nyugati Palyaudvar station. Hilton is up the escalator next to the mall entrance or you can walk outside, turn right and it is about a half block to their entrance on Vaci Ut (street). It was easy to get around from here on the M3 subway which went into downtown.

Veliko Tarnovo

Rousse- Docked in a commercial port area. Here we did the Veliko Tarnova Fortress tour- This was my lone complaint on the Cruise. This is full day tour of Veliko Tarnova and the Fortress which is described as “..a visit to the ancient capital of Bulgaria, Veliko Turnova. Here you will tour Tsarevets Hill, the old citadel of the city. You will see the old fortress walls, the Royal Palaces and the Patriarchal church, and the Baldwin’s Tower”, what we really did was tour two Greek Orthodox churches, with singers at the first church followed by hawking their CD’s. Then spent 30 minutes at a Rose oil retail store. We did get lunch of traditional Romanian dishes at a nice local restaurant. After this, we went to the Fortress but then were given only 10 minutes to look around or climb up to the Fortress before returning to the bus and going to the shopping district with 30 minutes for further shopping. In my view, the Fortress and town were the highlights, and more time should have been scheduled here. While the churches and tour of town were nice, the 30 minutes should have been scheduled for the Fortress, and only 10 minutes at the retail shop.

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