AmaWaterways - AmaBella Reviews

I traveled from Giurgiu, Bulgaria to Budapest recently on AmaBella. The trip was pleasant, the tour guides were generally quite good, and I was amazed at the quality of the food, especially at the Chef's Table tasting dinner. There were only a few highlights in Bulgaria, but they were interesting. They offered a "gentle" tour option, which worked great for me, since I have to walk pretty slowly.

I loved the fact that this cruise was all inclusive. My only expenses were a between meals glass of wine and laundry. Very knowledgeable cruise director.

Wonderful. Cruise director was great and met so many nice people who became friends. Hotels esp in Budapest were the best

The flooding had a big impact on our cruise. The itinerary had to be changed and we missed several of the planned stops. Alternatives were provided, buses and hotels were used, and Ama did its best to provide a pleasant trip. Hospitality and food were great.

The excursions offered by AmaWaterways are very inclusive: bike tours for the more active and gentle group that requires less walking. It is perfect for a family reunion where some members have mobility issue while some members are super active. The cruise manager is super efficient and helps you with every aspects of your post cruise travels and makes sure every excursion go smoothly. The wellness director is very sweet and she makes great effort to provide accommodation for people with mobility issues so that they can participate fully in her classes. The travelers on this cruise are more mixed in age, and thus the after dinner dance is more lively. I like the fact that they incorporate local cuisine and wine into the daily menu, and the Chef's Table is very special. For us the only criticism is that there are 7 of us, a family reunion, and they added a stranger to join us for that special dinner. She was dominating the conversation and everything was about her. She ruined our one nice special evening.

Trip went well. Eric did a great job ensuring this

Everything was perfect. The stateroom was lovely, the staff friendly and attentive and the food delicious. The excursions were very informative and we had some excellent guides.

Working with Richelle was easy and made getting half way around the world go smoothly. The trip to eastern Europe was amazing. I highly recommend it. You are treated like royalty on the ship. The food and drink were excellent. Seeing a different part of the world, the history, people, etc. All just wonderful. I cannot recommend enough. We do not normally do trips like this and now I cannot wait to do another.

I really enjoyed this trip. It was well organized from start to finish. We did a three night land portion in Prague. Beautiful city with great tours. Our boat portion was lovely. Our rooms were clean, bright and spacious for this type of lodging. The food was fabulous! The staff was attentive to all our needs. There were a variety of tours to choose from each day. Everything was well organized and seamless.

Our Booking Agent Brenda was very helpful. The cruise surpassed my expectations. The food was amazing and I found they took good care of my dietary needs (celiac disease). The Tour Manager and all staff were so accommodating. There were numerous daily tour options to choose from and we loved all of our excursions. The ship was beautiful and clean. I can’t wait to book another trip with Amawaterways!

The entire tour was outstanding! The food and service was superb. The side tours were very informative as well.

While we missed the Vienna portion due to a flight delay, the remaining 11 days could not have been better.The crew and the cruise director were fabulous. The excursions were well planned. Food and drinks were very good, and the nightly guitar player was excellent and fun to talk with. Looking forward to another trip. Ted and Kim Heininger

It was glorious, gorgeous, sensational! The cruise was so well organized and the guides hired at each location were knowledgeable and helpful. We really loved it. Sitting on deck watching the beauty of the area was just astounding! The cruise made me feel very connected to a part of the world I hadn’t been. History has taken in a whole new meaning.

Disappointing…. Was told cabin that I requested was taken #114, we were booked in #116. I was walking down the corridor to go to breakfast and glanced through the open cabin door of #114 and saw that that cabin was being used for laundry storage, bags full of laundry linens.. The worst part was that the cabin across from ours#115 had a septic problem and the passengers had to be moved out of their cabin. The noxious odors ,We had to endure the noise of the cleaning of their cabin, the excessive noise of the fan used to dry out the cabin and the excessive heat setting used to dry every time we went out of our cabin..we were not notified of the issue or offered any other information… The food was disappointing, at breakfast the waffle I received was so flat it looked like someone had stepped on it..many mornings the coffee was not hot, it was only warm. The steak I ordered was tough and grisly.. This was our 3rd trip with AMA and I was so looking forward to the great food and quality that I had before… The Pre trip portion in Istanbul was Wonderful! The accommodations and quality of service was Amazing…Our trip director was Great! I was so impressed with the additional help of Dilek, she was wonderful helping me with shopping one afternoon..it was an experience I will never forget! At our welcome reception our Cruise director spent most of her time with one couple that had requested her …very little time with other guests and us… ( our last Cruise director Dejan was Wonderful spent time with everyone, was very helpful and informative!) So dissatisfied that we will probably not travel with AMA in the future…. Cynthia Bilzing & Roy Raush

This cruise was scheduled for 2020 so we were very excited to embark. Pre cruise to Prague was wonderful. A couple of days before leaving for our trip we noticed the boat changed from the Ama Bella to the Ama Stella. We did not receive any information regarding the change from Ama which was concerning since my husband and I were traveling at different times than our daughters who were still seeing Ama Bella. After a call to Ama it was confirmed there was a change for all. This communication could have been handled better. The boat was lovely and clean as expected from a previous Ama cruise. We found the cruise manager Camille to be wonderful and knowledgable. She was a delight to travel with and her knowledge of the area was excellent. The food was sadly lackluster and disappointing compared to our previous cruise in August on the Ama Kristina. It was bland and not very appealing, this was a big disappointment. At times the service was slow as well, we had to track down wait staff in the dining room and during the sip and sail on several occasions. This is not what we expected. There was also a lack of Christmas music which was surprising considering it was a Christmas Market Cruise. The tours were excellent and timely and the guides for the most part were of good quality. Upon returning home we have received some postcards from the "crew" however none of the people listed were who accompanied us on the cruise. Its disappointing that after waiting years for this cruise it seemed to be hastily put together with a staff that was not cohesive. I hope Ama can turn it around and return to what we enjoyed greatly in August.