AMA WATERWAYS is a river cruise line. River cruising differs significantly from ocean cruising. Traveling the rivers of Europe and Russia seems to be more relaxed and casual; even at dinner.
Let's start with the design. River bound ships are low and long. The views from either your full length windows or "French" balconies varies from moment to moment. "French balconies" are floor to ceiling windows that slide open to allow for fresh air. The cabin sizes tend to be a little smaller from the mass market cruise lines. On our ship, the Amalegro, there are only 75 cabins and 148 guests. The staff really cares that their guests are having fun. The ages of the guests range from 16-75. I noticed 85% of the guests were active.
What makes AMA Waterways so special is that they divide the 3 touring groups into "gentle walkers" for those that require more assistance and want to move at a more leisurely pace, "active walkers" who want a more active pace and are able to move easily on cobblestones or climb steps that are uneven as well as the majority of the guests who moved at a more normal pace. Everyone found their own group based on their mobility and everyone was happy.
We had a fabulous guide in Budapest. She explained the city and it's history and progression prior ton WWII through Communism until today. This guide and tour was part of our AMA price and it was a perfect overview of the city. The following day, we hired a private guide, Annie, to explain Budapest and Hungary from a Jewish perspective. We visited the synagogue which is the largest in Europe, visited the Jewish quarter and heard about the events that led up to WWII and what life was like under Soviet control. Did you know that when the Soviet's took control, they painted the amazing 18th and 19th century buildings inside and out a uniform grey? To me, this was the most moving part of the tour. I couldn't imagine it. We even made time to go to the West End Mall because Kathy and I needed better walking shoes...lesson learned BRING GOOD WALKING SHOES FOR EUROPE!!!.
The food in Budapest was very good. We especially enjoyed our meal at Cafe Pierrot. Also, don't forget about Hungarian wine. It is very good! We went to a wine bar restaurant and created our own wine tasting. Here's how: we told the waiter to bring 4 glasses for 4 people and asked him to pour a small amount of 5 different wines into each glass to learn about the wines. That plus a little Hungarian cheese was a perfect way to learn a bit about Hungarian wines.
On the Mari scale, Budapest was a 8.5.
We visited Bratislava Slovakia the following day but after 2 hours, there wasn't much to see so we returned to the ship. On a scale of 1-10 Bratislava is a 1.5.
Next blog: Vienna - what a great city!
The food in Budapest was very good. We especially enjoyed our meal at Cafe Pierrot. Also, don't forget about Hungarian wine. It is very good! We went to a wine bar restaurant and created our own wine tasting. Here's how: we told the waiter to bring 4 glasses for 4 people and asked him to pour a small amount of 5 different wines into each glass to learn about the wines. That plus a little Hungarian cheese was a perfect way to learn a bit about Hungarian wines.
On the Mari scale, Budapest was a 8.5.
We visited Bratislava Slovakia the following day but after 2 hours, there wasn't much to see so we returned to the ship. On a scale of 1-10 Bratislava is a 1.5.
Next blog: Vienna - what a great city!
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