AMA Waterways

Disappointing experience! – We did the river cruise with APT on the Amaverde from Budapest to Amsterdam and it was quite a disappointing experience when compared to the advertising material provided by APT. The meals were basic and mostly tasted like they were pre-prepared meals; reheated when required. Everything was done to a tight budget and every day one could see the… Read more

staff poring over spreadsheets and costings. We were supposed to have butler service in our suite but we were never told how to contact the butler or what services he/she would provide. The cruise itself was interesting but there were so many other tourists around we didn't feel like we had an individual experience at the places we stopped. Everything was canned tourism. Personally I think APT is overpriced for what it delivers and I wouldn't travel with them again.

APT ArmaVerde – Vacations don't get much better than this, perfect in every aspect from food to tours, service and attention to detail. This is the complete package and once paid for, you don't need another cent, this the best two weeks holiday we have had. The flights, just perfect, the river cruise was spectacular, the food.... Divine, the wines of the region.....wow, the excursions.... Forever memorable, the new found friends.... Forever.

21 Day Romantic Seine & Rhone Paris to Barcelona APT tour on board AmaLegro and AmaDagio – My family and I recently came back from our 21 Day Romantic Seine & Rhone Paris to Barcelona APT tour in June 2013 on board AmaLegro and AmaDagio. We all had a wonderful time there and I would like to use this opportunity to share my experiences and thoughts with everyone. Hopefully, people would find my article useful in their decision making… Read more

and preparation for their trips with APT and/or AmaWaterways.

There are 2 parts of my review: part 1 covers 3 days in Paris and 7 day on board AmaLegro, and part 2 covers 7 day on board AmaDagio and 3 days in Barcelona. This is part 2 of my review.

The second part of our journey started from disembarking from AmaLegro in Paris and taking 1 day of bus ride from Paris to Lyon where our luxury river ship, AmaDiagio, awaited. It took us to a spectacular cruise from Lyon to Arles on the Rhone River, exploring the fascinating sights of Southern France.

Compared to our previous experiences with AmaBella and AmaVerde travelled from Amsterdam to Budapest in 2011, AmaDagio is very similar to those ships but a few years older, e.g. all of the facilities and set up are similar. There are public lounges in the front and back of the ship, free internet and Wi-Fi access, and gym. The cabins are well equipped and reasonably spacious.

The food and shore excursions were certainly the highlights of my cruises. The quality of the food (3 meals, morning tea, and afternoon tea) was excellent and services from the restaurant and bar staff were very good. Although there were a few problems relate to non-alcoholic drink not being refilled and no pepper served in a timely manner in the beginning of the trip, the restaurant manager, Mr. Andras Rafajlovics, was able to resolve all of our concerns effectively and swiftly. He was very attentive and thoughtful in dealing with passengers’ special diet requirements, such as food allergies.

Similar to on-board AmaLegro, there was no limit on the drink (included in the fee already).

My favourite shore excursions along Rhone River were (1) Lyon city tour where we visited the Basilica Notre-Dame de Fourviere and the Old Town of Lyon; (2) Beaujolais wine region; (3) attractive Roman town of Vienne where we saw the 1st century Roman Temple of Augustus and Livia; (4) Grignan and Truffle Farm (5) Avignon walking tour that took us to see the Palace of the Popes, Rocher des Doms, and the bridge of Avignon; and (6) Arles where our guide show us the amazing Roman Amphitheatre and stroll through the town’s squares and cafes bathed in the provincial light that inspired Van Gogh’s most famous works.

All passengers on walking tours were accompanied by Quietvox and people could join different groups to suit their fitness level. There was daily information session every afternoon by the tour director informing everyone the details of shore excursions for the next day. We have a different tour director on board AmaDagio from AmaLegro. Every day when we left the ship for shore excursion, Captain Louis Devaux and Hotel Manager Mr. Luis De Sousa Marques would always standing by the ship exit to say good bye to us then greeted us again when we came back from the shore excursion. I was impressed with this old school French hospitality.

If you are planning to participate in Vivers “Ghost Walk” in the evening, then please make sure that you take a torch with you from the ship reception before you leave. Although you would be accompanied by tour guides, there was limited lighting in some part of the journey. I almost tripped over on the stairs on the way down from a castle because I couldn’t see the missing tile from one of the steps as there was no light shining over the stairs.

Similar to my experiences at AmaLegro, AmaDagio also offered excellent food and outstanding services by the ship crew. However, I have the same safety concern with the design of the spiral staircases to level 1 cabins. Compare to all other stairs in the ship, the tight construction of these stairs with narrow staircase width, steep gradient, and handrail on only one side, they are not easy for the elderly passengers to use. With majority of the passengers on board over the age 50, every day I saw elderly passengers struggling with these stairs. I am a much younger person and even I found the stairs gradient very challenging. I always had to slow down and hold on to the handrail tightly when walking up and down the stairs. I felt climbing up these stairs was like a rock climbing exercise because these stairs are just too steep. However, my family and I have learnt our lesson from AmaLegro, we kept our concern about the stairs to ourselves and kept a polite distance away from the tour director.

After 7 day cursing along Rhone River, we disembarked AmaDagio and travelled by coach from Arles to Barcelona. We stayed 3 nights in Le Meridien Ramblas Hotel Barcelona. This hotel is very nice and I enjoyed their hospitality.

While staying in Barcelona, APT organised a morning city tour taking us to the World Heritage listed site Place of Catalan, the awe inspiring Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia. In the afternoon, we selected the Photography Tour from APT’s Freedom of Choice menu. Our photography tour guide was very good at teaching us ways to take better photos, and showing us the best view points of Barcelona to take memorable photos. I highly recommend this tour to people who want to enhance their photography skills and take unique photos of Barcelona.

I filed a formal complaint to APT after the tour to raise my concerns on the (1) stairs safety on both AmaLegro and AmaDagio, and (2) unsafe evening tour at Vivers. APT addressed my concern about the evening tour swiftly by immediately issuing a memo to all tour directors and ships that they must provide torch to passengers for all night tours. APT was initially sceptical to my concern about the level 1 stairs and told me that these staircases comply with European safety standards, and since nobody ever complaint about the stairs and have been no accidents recorded, then it must be an isolated problem. So I had no choice but to liaise with other level 1 passengers and encourage them to contact APT and tell APT what they thought about level 1 stairs. In the end, APT agreed to pass on my suggestions regarding a second handrail to AmaWaterways for future consideration, and APT would encourage anyone who has disclosed their mobility concerns to book cabins on level 2 or 3 in the future.

Overall, my family and I had a lovely time in Barcelona and on board AmaDagio. It could have been perfect holiday for us if it wasn’t for the dangerous stairs. We do not hold any grudge or vendetta against APT or AmaWaterways, but we want to share our experiences with people who are considering taking the European river cruise with APT / AmaWaterways, so people would be much better prepared than us. Personally, I am disappointed with APT / AmaWaterways for not accepting my suggestions of proactively showing photos of spiral staircases to level 1 cabins to customers who are considering booking level 1 cabins as that would help customers to do an accurate risk assessment and make an informed decision. I wonder if such conduct would be counted as “misleading or deceptive conduct” under “Australian Consumer Law” because the law requires a business to tell a customer all relevant details about a product or service, e.g. a complete story. A business is legally required to ensure that the overall impression conveyed is complete and accurate taking into account all illustrations. excellent food and outstanding services by the ship crew safety concern with the design of the spiral staircases to level 1 cabins

21 Day Romantic Seine & Rhone Paris to Barcelona APT tour - AmaLegro and AmaDagio – My family and I recently came back from our 21 Day Romantic Seine & Rhone Paris to Barcelona APT tour in June 2013 on board AmaLegro and AmaDagio. We all had a wonderful time there and I would like to use this opportunity to share my experiences and thoughts with everyone. Hopefully, people would find my article useful in their decision making… Read more

and preparation for their trips with APT and/or AmaWaterways.

There are 2 parts of my review: part 1 covers 3 days in Paris and 7 day on board AmaLegro, and part 2 covers 7 day on board AmaDagio and 3 days in Barcelona. This is part 1 of my review.

Our trip started with 3 days in Paris where APT organised a city tour visiting the second level of the Eiffel Tower on Day 2 morning and a welcome dinner cruise along the Seine River, followed by a Paris Illuminations Tour on Day 2 evening. There were 3 “Freedom of Choice” tours offered on Day 3 morning. All of the tours organised by APT were quite good, but the quality of food and services from the welcome dinner cruise along the Seine River was below average compared to the food and services offered on board AmaLegro and AmaDaigo.

We stayed in Hotel du Collectionneur Arc de Triomphe for 3 nights. The hotel rooms are spacious and well equipped. I enjoyed their breakfast buffet very much as there was wide range of delicious hot and cold food available. Services from this hotel were wonderful and it is within walking distance to Avenue des Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe.

There was a problem with our Paris trip due to the last minute change in itinerary by APT. When we first booked our trip in October 2012, APT brochure indicated that Paris itinerary only has freedom of choice tours available on Day 2 morning and we would have Day 3 completely free. So our family had planned to take Versailles excursion with APT, and organised our own tours via Internet for Day 3. But by the time we received our confirmed tour itinerary which was just 3 weeks before departure, we found out that Paris itinerary has changed significantly.

This was a shock to us and completely threw our initial planning into chaos. First, we were not happy to receive the confirmed itinerary late, e.g. 3 weeks before departure, instead of 4-6 weeks before departure as it stated in official APT documentation. Second, I was not able to get any clear and consistent answers from either travel agent or APT call center staff about the finished time of the morning tours in Day 2 and 3. Everyone was telling me different answers which made it impossible for me to make any arrangement for the afternoon tours. When I discussed this timing problem and sudden cancellation of Versailles tour with both travel agent and APT call center staff, the answers I got were along the lines of “please talk to your tour director once you arrived in Paris”. I did not feel comfortable with APT’s approach of leaving everything to the last minute. Based on my previous experiences travelling with APT, I did not believe it was feasible for 1 tour director to address 100 people’s enquiries completely and successfully on Day 1. We only had 3 days in Paris and there were so many things we wanted to do and places we wanted to visit.

In the end, we forfeited the “Freedom of Choice” tour on Day 3 and arranged our own tours to go to Versailles in the morning and Louvre in the afternoon. I filed a formal complaint to APT after the tour and I was able to resolve this issue successfully with APT.

After 3 days in Paris, we were transferred to Seine River on Day 4 late afternoon where our luxury river ship, AmaLegro, awaited.

Compared to our previous experiences with AmaBella and AmaVerde travelled from Amsterdam to Budapest in 2011, AmaLegro is very similar to those 2 ships but a few years older, e.g. all of the facilities and set up are similar. There are public lounges in the front and back of the ship, free internet and Wi-Fi access, and gym. The cabins are well equipped and reasonably spacious.

The food and shore excursions were certainly the highlights of my cruises. The quality of the food (3 meals, morning tea, and afternoon tea) was excellent and services from the restaurant and bar staff were very attentive and always do their best to anticipate customers’ needs. For example, unlike AmaBella and AmaVerde where I always had to ask (or should I use the word “beg”) to have my water and non-alcoholic drink refilled during my meals, AmaLegro is the only the ship where my drink always being refilled before it ran out, I never had to ask. However, if you only drink alcohol, then there won’t be any problem because the wait / bar staff constantly walking around with red & white wine to refill everyone’s glass. Also, there was no limit on the drink (included in the fee already), so I have seen some people started drinking from the afternoon all the way till late at night. For people don’t drink much alcohol, you do feel like you are substituting other people’s drink.

My favourite shore excursions along Seine River were (1) Giverny where we visited the home of Claude Monet and its famous gardens; (2) Rouen, heart of Normandy region; (3) picturesque Honfleur; (4) beautiful Les Andelys and Chateau Gaillard built by Richard the Lionheart; (5) Chateau de Malmaison, home of General Napoleon and Josephine. All passengers on walking tours were accompanied by Quietvox and people could join different groups to suit their fitness level. There was daily information session every afternoon by the tour director informing everyone the details of shore excursions for the next day. Our tour director, Mr Peter Whitehead, is an Australian who always gave animated information sessions filled with lots of humour.

If you are planning to participate in Rouen cathedral light show at 11pm, then please make sure that you take a torch with you from the ship reception before you leave. And always ask your tour director where to meet once the light show finished. There was a problem at the night walk to the Rouen cathedral during my trip, e.g. on the way walking from the ship to cathedral with our tour director, Mr Whitehead, there was no information from him about where to meet after the light show and he didn’t organise any torch for us. So after the light show, all of us were very confused with what to do next, and it took us a while to find Peter W because there were many people and not much light in the square, then we have to walk back to the ship in the dark by ourselves.

Despite the excellent food and outstanding services provided by the ship crew, and mostly well-coordinated shore excursions, there is a critical safety concern associate with the design of the spiral staircases to level 1 cabins. Compare to all other stairs in the ship, the tight construction of these stairs with narrow staircase width, steep gradient, and handrail on only one side, they are not easy for the elderly passengers to use. With majority of the passengers on board over the age 50, every day I saw elderly passengers struggling with these stairs. I am a much younger person and even I found the stairs gradient very challenging. I always had to slow down and hold on to the handrail tightly when walking up and down the stairs. I felt climbing up these stairs was like a rock climbing exercise because these stairs are just too steep.

When my family and I raise our concern about the unsafe design of stairs to level 1 cabins, and asked if we could have an upgrade to upper level cabins e.g. either we paid extra or for free, given the ship was not at its full capacity. Peter W said that he would investigate but he didn’t think upgrade would be possible. He never got back to us. During the same conversation, Mr Whitehead also indicated that “we got what we paid for” and we should already know there are stairs to level 1 when we booked our trip. I found Mr Whitehead’s comments rude, unfair, and I felt his tone was quite condescending. Later, I found out tour director’s room is on level 2, so he might not aware of how difficult these stairs are to elderly passengers, thus, dismissed our concern as just some silly nonsenses.

We were aware of the existences of the stairs at the time of booking, but we didn’t know the design and shape of the stairs to level 1 is so “elderly user unfriendly”. There was neither information nor photos on APT brochure providing any indication on the shape and design of the spiral staircases to level 1 cabins. When we were on-board AmaBella and AmaVerde last time, we stayed on level 3 and the stairs were easy. If we were given clear information (e.g. photos) about the design and shape of the level 1 stairs at the time of booking, then we would be able to assess the situation accurately and make an informed decision, e.g. we would not have chosen level 1 cabins. All other stairs in the ship are quite easy to use.

I filed a formal complaint to APT after the tour to raise my concerns on the (1) stairs safety, and (2) unsafe and poorly coordinated nigh tour at Rouen. APT addressed my concern about the night tour swiftly by immediately issuing a memo to all tour directors and ships that they must provide torch to passengers for all night tours. APT told me that because the night tour to Rouen cathedral was an informal tour, therefore our tour director, Mr Whitehead, thought there was no need to do any coordination. APT was initially sceptical to my concern about the level 1 stairs and told me that these staircases comply with European safety standards, and since nobody ever complaint about the stairs and have been no accidents recorded, then it must be an isolated problem. Our tour director, Mr Whitehead, declined any wrong doing in telling us “you got what you paid for”. So I had no choice but to liaise with other level 1 passengers and encourage them to contact APT and tell APT what they thought about level 1 stairs. In the end, APT agreed to pass on my suggestions regarding a second handrail to AmaWaterways for future consideration, and APT would encourage anyone who has disclosed their mobility concerns to book cabins on level 2 or 3 in the future.

APT refused to refund us the portion of gratuities that would go to tour director, Mr Whitehead, because that was already included in the overall fee. I was very disappointed with their decision because I thought gratuities were supposed to use to encourage good performance, not insulting customer.

Overall, my family and I had a lovely time in Paris and on board AmaLegro. It could have been perfect holiday for us if it wasn’t the dangerous stairs and humiliating experiences with the tour director, Mr Whitehead. We do not hold any grudge or vendetta against APT or AmaWaterways, but we want to share our experiences with people who are considering taking the European river cruise with APT / AmaWaterways, so people would be much better prepared than us. Personally, I am disappointed with APT / AmaWaterways for not accepting my suggestions of proactively showing photos of spiral staircases to level 1 cabins to customers who are considering booking level 1 cabins as that would help customers to do an accurate risk assessment and make an informed decision. I wonder if such conduct would be counted as “misleading or deceptive conduct” under “Australian Consumer Law” because the law requires a business to tell a customer all relevant details about a product or service, e.g. a complete story. A business is legally required to ensure that the overall impression conveyed is complete and accurate taking into account all illustrations. the excellent food and outstanding services provided by the ship crew, and mostly well-coordinated shore excursions critical safety concern associate with the design of the spiral staircases to level 1 cabins, and unhelpful tour director