We have cruised the the Danube many times and this was our second time with AMA on this particular section, but with some different stops than our previous cruise which was a 'Wine Cruise'.

We had chosen cabin 203 on the Cello deck [middle] which has the unique AMA double balcony design with an open balcony for good weather and a 'French balcony' when the weather is not so pleasant. This is our prefered level and position when River Cruising, towards the front to avoid engine noise when overnight sailing and middle to avoid noise from overhead from either crew or passengers walking about. New for this year AMA have a full time fitness instructor onboard giving a variety of exercises to suite all levels and even those with disabilities and the Instructor Romen set the instruction to suite the guest. These group instruction was part of the package, but Romen was also available for individual instruction at a fee charged per hour. Another new for this year was free Cocktail hour every evening generally around 5-6pm but could vary depending on excursion times. Every day there were multiple included excursions to suite all levels of physical ability including cycling & hikes. Our two most enjoyable tours were to 'Cesky Krumlov' which is a fascinating pedestrianised small town which has Bohemia's largest castle. Our other favorite stop was Bratislava with its amazing 'Old Town'. Durnstein is always a favorite stop and on this occasion we opted for the Apricot tasting tour where apart from the general tour of the village we got a private tasting with a producer of Apricot Brandy's and liqueurs, some of his chocolate products and his world famous 'Rabbit S--t' ( it only looks like that and is infact a roasted nut coated in chocolate) and it tastes great. Food and drink every day was great with good service from all the staff with local delicacies being served every night with complimentary 'Paired' wines and we found that the wine staff thought that a half empty glass was offensive to the eye and would keep topping it up till you collapse or placed a napkin over the glass. Ship and cabins were kept 'Squeaky Clean' by a great crew. We used the 'Pool' one afternoon while cruising and it was very pleasant in the heated water and screaning from the wind. Overall a very enjoyable cruise and we met many people who have now become friends, mostly from North America, but a few from Israel, Cuba, Australia and Hawaii, we were the only people from the UK. The reason I have not given the cruise an 'excellent' was that we and others found some of the local 'Guides' were not particularly great [We fed this back to the cruise manager who assured us it would be dealt with and the Tour Bus in Bratislava was not suitable for the less able guests.