We had previously taken an AMA river cruise on the Rhine from Switzerland to Amsterdam and found it wonderful, so decided to take another the Danube. We were actually on the same ship, AMACerto which is very nice.

We had a great crew. Our Cruise Director, Hotel Manager, the Captain and crew provided us with wonderful service, great cuisine, safety, and comfort on our stay. This wonderful group of people worked beyond expectation to ensure that all guests were treated with exceptional courtesy, professionalism, and service. Please understand that the crew had nothing to do with the problems we encountered, and in fact, did everything possible to help ensure that our onboard experience went as smoothly as possible.

Our concern, is only with upper levels of AMA Waterways management and their lack of transparency about communicating river level problems. After being told, we did our own research to better understand the problem. It was extremely disappointing to read an article published in Travel Weekly dated August 1st (two months prior to our cruise) quoting the President of AMA that the river levels were known to be low and causing diversions from scheduled itineraries. Cruise guests weren’t made aware of these problems until just prior to our departure from Prague. The resulting low water levels allowed us only two days of actual cruising on the Danube. Our first cruising day on the river was from Vilshofen to Passau and Linz on October 9th. The second cruising day was from Linz to Melk and Vienna on October 10th. Once again, we weren’t notified about the low waters down-stream until we arrived in Vienna. This again would interrupt our expected final leg to Budapest. Read more