DVC Rhine River Cruise April 8-15, 2017

[tiger04]

I am finally getting around to posting my trip report two months later! I apologize for the delay – life and work just kept getting in the way – but I am trying to post as much information as I can for the groups who will be on the next trips as it will be interesting to compare the differences, if any, in the DVC ABD and the regular ABD. Like I said earlier, it was pretty clear they were using the DVC trip as a test run. While I absolutely loved the trip and appreciated the special DVC gifts and talks that were part of the "special" DVC cruise, I would certainly think a little harder before booking an "inaugural" trip in the future because you are definitely the guinea pigs and for all the expense of the trip, I would have liked things to go a bit smoother. But I think that is why they started both the Danube and the Rhine river cruises this way – basically they already have DVC members committed to the product so they are less likely to scare them away in the future

Just some general background, I joined this trip with my parents, who are the DVC members. My brothers were asked as well but I was the only one who could join on this particular week. We also traveled with two other couples that my parents had befriended on past ABD trips. Once my parents decided they wanted to go on this Rhine River Cruise ABD, they told their friends, who signed up as well. It was a fun group and we ate together and hung out at night but often did different excursions during the day so I will try to fill in as much as I can about the other excursions.

So here we go…

Pre-Day 1 (4/16/17)

We decided fairly early on that it made the most sense to fly in at least a day before and book a pre-night to give us some time to get over jet lag and to give us a buffer in case we had any issues getting to Basel for the April 8 departure. My parents have often booked the pre-night with ABD before, so they booked a pre-stay with ABD at the Radisson Blu in Basel. After they booked, I was bored at work so I decided to check out the website to see if the hotel had a pool. I saw how much a similar room would cost and I almost fell over! I think we paid more than double what an equivalent room would have cost if we booked on our own. We ultimately decided to keep the pre-night for the convenience of the airport transfers and transfers from the hotel to the port, but in hindsight I would have booked it all separately and just figured out the transfers on our own as Basel was an easy city to navigate.

We also booked the flights with ABD. They were able to get us much cheaper flights than we were locating on our own and as we bought trip insurance through ABD, it made sense to book the flights through them so that if anything happened with the trip it would be much easier to cancel and to get reimbursed.

So on a stormy afternoon on April 6th, we trekked out to JFK to catch the first leg of the flights from NYC to Amsterdam. Sadly there were no direct flights from the NYC area to Basel, so we had to connect no matter what. The trip to the airport and through security was rather painless, with the caveat that there was a bit of a backup checking in because many people ahead of us had problems that needed to be resolved. The back story to that is that bad storms had come through parts of the south the previous day and airlines were still dealing with all the missed flights and backups. This weather actually impacted one couple in our travel party, who were supposed to fly from Charlotte to JFK and then travel with us the rest of the way. Unfortunately, due to the backup in Charlotte, they never made it to NYC until way after all the Amsterdam flights had left. Then they had to travel to London instead and catch a flight the next night to Basel without their luggage. (End result: it all worked out, they lost a day in Basel but got to sight see in London, and had to get emergency supplies the first day of the cruise until their luggage was located and delivered by day 2 of the trip. And some couple ended up enjoying their seats on Delta One on our flight from JFK to AMS.) As such, I always recommend heading out at least a day earlier, if possible, so that if something crazy happens with your flights you can still make the start of the tour!

We basically just relaxed in the lounge and watched some of the Masters and with the thunderstorms we kept watching the schedule to see if our flight would be delayed (in the hopes that our Charlotte friends would make it to JFK in time to catch the flight). But the signs kept saying “on time” so we wandered down to the gate and boarded. Then we sat on the tarmac for an hour and a half as more storms rolled through. Basically it there was lightning in the area, ground crew could not be on the tarmac and could not finish their tasks. So we had to wait for the all clear before we could push off and taxi to takeoff. Fortunately we had a 2 ½ hour layover in Amsterdam, so I was not too worried about making our connecting flight, but I was happy we had that extra time built in.

Ready to start vacation!

Pre-Day 2 (4/7/17)

After an uneventful flight, we landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 am and then wound our way through passport control. My hopes of grabbing a quick shower in the lounge were dashed when there were too many people waiting ahead of me for the shower. So we decided to head down to the gate and wait to board our cityhopper plane from Amsterdam to Basel. It was this point you started to recognize some people who ended up being on our trip – either because they stuck out from the rest of the business travelers heading to Basel at 8:30 in the morning or because they had the ABD luggage tags on their carry-on bags! KLM boarding at AMS was pretty easy and I do like that you can scan your own tickets at the turnstile to open so you can head down the gangway (rather than having a flight attendant scanning it). We had a bit of a delay again after we boarded because some passenger’s bags had made it to the plane, but the passengers had not, so they had to sort it all out again before we took off. The flight was probably 45 minutes long, but comfortable, and I enjoyed looking out the window to see my first glimpses of Switzerland.

Hello Switzerland!

Once we landed in Basel at around 9:30 local time, it was another fairly quick trip down to grab baggage and then to get out through customs. You will get a reminder letter from ABD reminding you to follow the Switzerland exits, rather than the France/Germany exits, to meet the ABD representative who will bring you to your transportation. Our rep was waiting right outside the exit with a sign, and we ended up having about 30 people transferring all at the same time. I am guessing they all purchased flights through ABD and we were all placed on the same flights or arrived at similar times! Most people seemed to follow the restrictions and brought one regular suitcase and one carry-in suitcase as stated in the guidelines, but it was still a struggle to get all the luggage and people onto the bus. They ended up having to get another van just for luggage and an additional car for more passengers. One other thing to keep in mind – even though our friends who missed the flights had called ABD, the message did not make it to the ABD rep at the airport. She was still looking for them before my mom told her they had been delayed. So it is always a good idea to have all the ABD numbers when you are traveling in case you need to call once your land because the message did not get conveyed to the proper person!

After a 20 minute bus ride, we ended up at the Radisson Blu Hotel. The hotel was nice but basic, but in a great location in the center of the city.

Radisson Blu

We were desperately trying to stay awake at that point and the entire group ended up just sitting in the lobby waiting for the rooms to be ready so we could drop off our luggage and/or sleep. We could have stored our luggage and just gone sightseeing, but I really wanted to get in the room and change as it was going to be in the high-60s and I was dressed too warmly. While we all waited for our rooms to be ready, the staff at the hotel was very helpful and gave us some guidebooks and maps of Basel so we could plan our day. The hotel also gave us a mobility card for each member of our party to utilize public transportation in Basel throughout the stay. This mobility ticket was great because it lets you get around the city so easily! Unlike some other metro systems, you do not need to scan a ticket upon entry. Rather, you just keep your ticket on you and you will just need to show it if the conductor does a random inspection. There is a tram stop right outside the hotel, and you can take it to any hub to change lines if needed.

We relaxed in the lobby for about an hour until our room was ready and we lugged our luggage into the room. As it would only be one night, we did not bother putting anything away and just tried to move the luggage out of the way as three of us were sharing a room. The room was basic but comfortable.

Room for 3!

I took a quick shower and then grabbed the maps and mobility cards and headed back out. We had no set plans – I just wanted to stay moving long enough so that we would not fall asleep as the easiest way to adjust to the time change is to jump right into the new time zone. I wanted to see more of the Rhine and I wanted to climb to the top of the cathedral so I could see views of Basel and the Black Forrest. The hotel was right in the City Centre so it is easy to walk and take the tram around the city. On our way out we ran into our other friends, who had arrived one day earlier. They were going to explore some shops but we wanted to sight see first so we told them we would see them later.

We walked to Theatre Basel and checked out the Tinguely Fountain. We wandered down by the Kuntmuseum and then about checking out the Prado Exhibit, but then we decided to potentially visit it the next day. Then we trekked up to the Pfalz by the cathedral, which had lovely views of the river. I wanted to climb to the top of the cathedral so we paid our swiss francs (fortunately the cathedral accepted credit cards!) and climbed up all the stairs so we can see Basel down below us!

Sooo many stairs to get here!

We went to the markplatz to see City Hall and then we took the bridge over the Rhine to the other side of Basel. There was so much to see and it was lovely just to wander and not be on any particular time table.

Ferry that takes you across the Rhine on a string!

The one issue was that we decided not to get any swiss francs because we would only be in Switzerland for 2 days. But around the middle of the afternoon we were getting hungry and wanted to grab some food. But every place I had in my guidebook that we tried to eat at was closed in the afternoon! I had completely forgotten that is quite common for restaurants to shut down between lunch and dinner. And we had no swiss francs so I could not even get a snack from the food trucks at the marktplatz! We had decided we wanted to eat some more traditional Swiss food, and narrowed it down that way, but all the restaurants we wanted were closed. So we hopped on the 6 tram because the desk clerk at the hotel had recommended taking the 6 tram to see the city. We had to kill some time so we got on the 6 tram to see the city and rest our feet for a bit. It was actually quite cool to take the tram out to Basel West because we got to see more of the residential areas and to go up and down hills further the bustle of the city.

We then stopped by the hotel so I could try to find the mobility card that I thought I left there (it was actually in a different pocket of my purse, of course!) and when I ran up to the room there was a note from Adventures by Disney shoved into the door. I had thought it was strange when we checked in earlier that morning that there was no welcome note or bag from ABD as we booked the pre-night through them. And I thought it even stranger when the piece of paper was sort of wedged in the door. It was basically just a welcome note explaining that guides would be in the lobby tomorrow morning, there will be buses leaving from the hotel to the ship at 12 and 3 pm, or you could make your own way to the ship but you must be there by 5 pm. I grabbed the note and stuffed it in my purse to show my parents.

We hopped on the tram to head to the restaurant, Restaurant Schnabel, which was located up the hill from the marktplatz. We would recommend the restaurant – it was full of locals, which I think is a plus, and the prices were reasonable for Switzerland. You can easily make a reservation on their website and they have menus in English. My parents both got the Weiner schnitzel and I got the faux escargots, which was beef grilled in café de Paris sauce. It was all delicious and we were able to relax at the table for as long as we liked. Just remember that if you are ready and want your check, you must ask the waiter for it. Otherwise they will let you sit all night! We had a leisurely stroll back to the market and took the train to the hotel. It was only about 8:30 pm but we had been up for over 30 hours. I decided to make use of the pool and sauna at the hotel (the pool was lovely and there was a wet and dry sauna), while my parents went to sleep to get ready for our first official day of our ABD Rhine River Cruise!

 

[Chirple]

I am following along as I really want to try a river cruise. We are also DVC members but haven't had an opportunity to take even a standard DCL DVC Members Cruise yet.

(P.S. - your picture links are broken.)

 

[tiger04]

(P.S. - your picture links are broken.)

Thanks for letting me know! I am completely new to posting anything on these boards so it is a work in progress at this point. I think I fixed it because the pictures are showing up for me but if they are still broken let me know.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks for letting me know! I am completely new to posting anything on these boards so it is a work in progress at this point. I think I fixed it because the pictures are showing up for me but if they are still broken let me know.

They are broken for me. If they are visible to you and not to others, it's probably a permission issue (since you'd be logged into the account, and would be able to see them).

Sayhello

 

[tiger04]

They are broken for me. If they are visible to you and not to others, it's probably a permission issue (since you'd be logged into the account, and would be able to see them).

Ack! Thanks for letting me know. I will have to figure out my permissions this weekend - who knew this would be so hard! I am going to add another post and then add in the photos once I figure out I am doing wrong.

 

[tiger04]

Day 1 – Basel (4/8/17)

After a much needed rest, we woke up ready to start the first official day of our ABD trip. Breakfast in the hotel restaurant was included with the ABD pre-night stay, so we packed up our room and headed down to breakfast. I think we got down to breakfast around 9:30 am and I was surprised at how picked over the buffet parts of the breakfast were at that point – maybe there were many ABD guests who were on various US-time zones that were up super early for breakfast! The buffet had the typical US continental breakfast spread, the European continental breakfast spread with lots of cured meats, and some hot options in chaffing dishes. You could also order hot items from the kitchen but you had to flag a waiter down to order. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and finally reunited with our Charlotte friends, who had arrived in Basel the previous evening. They were exhausted from having been traveling for two full days, worried that their luggage still had not been located, but happy they were in Basel in time for the cruise.

After we finished breakfast, we went into the lobby and saw the crowds surrounding three of the ABD guides, who had finally arrived and set up a camp at a table in the lobby. As stated in the welcome letter, the guides were there to answer any questions we had about the trip. Check-out was at noon, so the options were to leave your luggage with the guides and then: (1) take a bus at 12 pm from the hotel to the port; (2) take a bus at 3 pm from the hotel to the port; or (3) make your own way to the boat by 5 pm. These options lead to our first disagreement of the trip. Some of us wanted to go and explore Basel some more (and potentially visit the Foundation Beyeler to check out a Monet exhibit), while others wanted to take the 12 pm bus to the boat to sign up for excursions and chef’s table. We went back and forth about the options – and thought if we split up we would not find each other until we were all back on the boat at 5pm – so we compromised and decided to go to the ship at 12 but then head right out and try to see the Hola Prado exhibit at the Kuntmuseum. The other couples in our group decided they wanted to explore some more and needed to get some last minute essentials to make up for the missing luggage, so they left and we decided to hang out in the hotel until it was time to leave.

We dragged our luggage back down to the lobby to leave with the Adventures Guides, who had AMA Waterways luggage tags for each bag. The guides also had some more copies of the “Daily Activities Planner” and would walk people through the excursion options if they had questions. However you could not choose your excursions until you got to the ship. I eavesdropped a bit as the guides talked about the various excursions with other guests, as I had decided on the excursions I wanted to do but was waffling back and forth about some, until it was time to head to the bus. One thing I forgot to mention earlier about the hotel is that it did have free wifi, so this was also a chance to check email or put up any “out of office” replies you had forgotten to do before flying to Switzerland J The lobby had gotten to be quite busy by noon and when the bus showed up (with our bus driver Andrea, who was one of our assigned bus drivers until we got to the Netherlands), we all piled on. The bus filled up so there were about 40 people on the bus – considering the entire tour group was about 110 people, I found it interesting that almost half the group stayed at the ABD hotel for the pre-night and almost half the group wanted to get to the boat at noon.

It took us about 30 minutes to get from the hotel to the port, so in hindshight we could have just dropped our luggage off and headed to the port on our own and would have easily beat the bus. For people who do want to make their own way, the public transportation was super easy – just take the 11 tram (in the direction of St-Louis Grenze) and take it to St. JohannsTor (which is the stop for the Kabinenschiffart Terminal). Once you hit that stop, walk down the hill to the river and you will see all the river cruise ships right there. Note – the ship will be arriving there the evening before your cruise starts, so while you can go to the ship earlier than 12 pm, the rooms will not be available until roughly 4 pm.

It was so exciting when the bus pulled along the terminal and we saw the Ama Kristina! I had never been on a river cruise before so I did not know what to expect, but it looked so beautiful.

Hello Ama Kristina!

Unlike an ocean cruise, there is not really a cruise terminal. Rather it is just an area with multiple moorings and your ship can be docked right against the dock or next to a ship that is right up against the dock. There is no security so you can walk right up to the ship. [Note that while the ship is at port the rest of the time, if you come back to the ship on your own the doors are locked and can only be unlocked with your room key – so it always felt safe and secure]. At the gangplank, there was a flag for Ama Waterways and a flag for Adventures by Disney, so look for those when you come back to the ship because sometimes ships have to move and switch locations.

Because the Ama Kristina knew when we were arriving, Captain Jan was waiting at the entrance to welcome us all to the ship. As I mentioned, the rooms were not ready yet so they ushered us into the main lounge were a light lunch buffet was set up, complete with Mickey-head shaped sandwiches. My parents recognized one of the adventure guides, Kira, from their Norway ABD so they went to chat with her while I got a seat in the lounge. Random tip for people who want to choose excursions first or want to hurry through choosing excursions so you can keep exploring: the adventure guides set up tables in the starboard side corridor (where the coffee area and gift shop are) and when they were ready to start taking guests through the options, they went to guest sitting on the starboard side closest to them first. I plopped myself down there so we were the second group to choose our options. Now they might do the excursion sign-ups differently on future trips but that worked for us because I was eager to get back to the museums!

Kira called us up to choose excursions, and as I had already filled out the form and I decided we should stick with all our original choices, we were able to choose our options fairly quickly. We chose the following excursions: Day 2 – (all day) Riquewihr Excursion and Guided Horseback Ride at Cheval Alsace, (evening) Evening Walking Tour St. Thomas Organ Concert; Day 3 – (morning) Alsace Canoe, Strasbourg City Tour & Visit to Notre Dame Cathedral, (afternoon) Wine Tasting at Cave Historique Des Hospice, (evening) Au Bon Vivant beer and wine tavern; Day 4 – (all day) German Automaker Excursion); Day 5 – (morning) Guided Bike Ride (afternoon) Adolf Storzel wine tasting; Day 6 – (morning) Chocolate Workshop at Jan Von Werth, (afternoon) Cologne Pub Crawl; Day 7 – (morning) Museum Van Gogh, (afternoon) Royal Delft Earthware Factory. I will go into the reasoning for our choices when I talk about the excursions for each day. One random note – you need to have your correct weight for the horseback excursion so the stables could pair you with the proper horse, but you needed to know your weight in kg. So we had to go downstairs to the gym and get our weight. And I completely forgot to weight myself on the last day of the trip to see how much I weight I gained! The other interesting thing, which I mentioned in the Rhine River Cruise Meets thread, is that Kira told us once we chose our excursions we would not be allowed to change them after the first night because they had to confirm numbers with the outside vendors. I was surprised because I had heard that on the Danube ABD River Cruise, you could change your activities at any time. I will be curious how this is handled on future Rhine cruises – I think it is just because of the nature of the excursions, as many of them have craft activities or more physical activities that limit the amount of participants. It just was quite surprising to me.

We quickly signed up for all our excursions and by that point other guests (who had been told when we arrived to relax and stay seated and an Adventure Guide would come to them to escort them to the sign-up desks) had decided they had no intention of waiting and had formed a line by the gift shop to go to the next available Guide. I do not think it is that big of a deal if people wanted to line up, but it did seem unfair to anyone who might have listened and waited that they would be at a detriment because some pushier people jumped up and tried to bum rush the adventure guides.

We stopped by reception to sign up for the chef’s table because we had specific night in mind and wanted to make sure our entire party could be accommodated. At that point we decided to get off the ship and head back to the City Centre to go to the Kuntmuseum as I wanted to spend more time in the city. We went back up the hill to the tram stop and took the 11 train to Bankverein, right by the Kuntmuseum. I was excited because the Hola Prado exhibit had just opened that day so we got to see the paintings in that exhibit and then visit the rest of the museum, which was quite lovely. It was also mercifully uncrowded so you could really take your time. The Prado exhibit will be at the museum through August and a Cezanne exhibit is starting in mid-June so I would really recommend a visit while you are in Basel.

Kuntmuseum

After a few hours at the Kuntmuseum we were feeling peckish and decided it was time to say farewell to Basel and head back to the ship. We took the tram back, but you could also walk from the museum (and in fact from the hotel) to the ship – just head to the Rhine and follow the river path north until you reach the Kabinen-schiffart Terminal.

We arrived back at the ship around 4:30 and stopped by the reception desk to pick up our keys. We were all on the Violin deck. My parents were in a suite on the port side of the ship, while I was in an AA cabin on the starboard side. Our friends were in an AA cabin on the starboard side and a CA cabin on the port side. I will have a separate post about the ship with pictures, but I loved my room! When I arrived in my room, I saw a note on the bed from Ken Potrock, the SVP of DVC and ABD, welcoming us to the voyage and announcing that our trip would blend the majesty of Europe with the magic of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. We would be receiving tasty and tangible memories in our staterooms each night and receive a limited edition work of Beauty of the Beast art shipped to our homes afterwards. Along with the note there was our first gift – a DVC embossed cheese knives and cutting boards – something that was lovely but needed to go in our checked luggage on the way back home!

I then went to my parents’ room and met their butler (suites on the AMA ships come with butler service) who explained to them the amenities of their room and opened up some champagne for us to enjoy. Some of the suite perks, beyond the butler staff – which rotated depending on the time of day – included a refrigerator restocked daily with juices and soda, room service, and laundry service.

At 6 pm we went to the lounge for the cocktail reception. There were glasses of champagne cocktails and virgin cocktails at the entrance, and each woman received a rose. You seated yourself in the lounge and servers came around with passed hors d’oeuvres and would refill your champagne glass if you wished. The Cruise Manager, Pete, had a presentation where you met the cruise staff and went through the safety briefing (one funny thing is that Pete said: “I have never had to say this on one of our river cruises before but please no running on the decks for your own safety.” I will go into it more later but the staff had to adjust to children on the ship because they are so different from the typical river cruise crowd). We toasted the captain and then the Adventure Guides came out dressed in dirndl and lederhosen for their introductions. On this cruise we had Veronika (US), Betti (Germany), Kira (US), Andreas (Germany), Danny (US), and Byron (US). I am not sure if they are going to add any additional guides for the sold out cruises – I thought the adventure guides were fabulous but it would have been nice to have one or two other guides who spoke German or French. Veronika, Betti, and Danny had all been on the Danube river cruises last year. And I think Kira was just filling in because she had moved to corporate ABD so I am curious who you will get on the rest of the trips this summer!

Getting ready for the cocktail reception

Super-blurry pictures of the guides

The guides filled us in on their backgrounds and then introduced some of the special guests: Becky Cline (Director of the Disney Archives) would give a talk later on in the trip about Disney’s Grand Tour in Europe and Shannon Sakaske (VP DVC Member Experiences and one of the group who originally created the Adventures by Disney tours). There were also quite a few ABD executives, including the head of the European ABD trips and the VP who created the Rhine River Cruise itinerary. Finally there was a film crew who would be filming the trip for Disney Parks Blog and other DVC and ABD marketing. We then watched a special video where Don Hahn, one of the producers of the animated Beauty and the Beast, told us that we would be getting a special preview of some of the Beauty and the Beast events that will be on the 2018 Rhine River cruises. And we would also receive a signed copy of the animated feature, which was quite exciting.

During the reception we had pulled away from the dock and were sailing north up the Rhine. Captain Jan and Pete encouraged us to watch the ship as it went through the locks on our journey, but noted that we would not be able to go on the sun deck when we in certain locks because it was dangerous. After a lovely and champagne filled reception, we hurried back to the room to change for dinner. Now you could have stayed in your day clothes for dinner, but we tended to change each night just because we brought the dinner clothes and felt that if you were having a multi-course meal it was appropriate to dress accordingly. That said, I think the only restriction at dinner was “smart casual”, so you did not have to get fancy at all unless you wanted to.

Because we had a party of 7, we tried to get to the main dining room 5 minutes before the start of dinner each night so we could get a table large enough for all of us. The wait staff was wonderful and I thought the food was delicious. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of any of the menus so hopefully people on future cruises will take some pics! Generally, each night you had three options for appetizers, two salad options, two soup options, three entree options, and three dessert options. The entrees tended to have one meat, one fish, and one vegetarian option. Each night they pick a red and white wine local to the region for you to choose from, and they also have some American wines if you prefer those. Some nights they added additional course – like a sorbet palette cleanser - and dinner could take up to two hours.

Every dinner the Adventure Guides would wander through the dining room and talk to each party about the following day’s events – and you could ask them any questions you might have about timing, excursions, etc. It was a nice way to connect with some of the guides as you might never see the guide unless you happened to be on the same excursion with him/her. There were two “wine rooms” with large tables that seated 12, I think, on either side of the main dining room that were used for the junior adventurers during dinner. If the junior adventurers were eating up in the lounge, you could request those rooms if you had a large party. We ate there twice and it was a little more private than the main dining room.

While you are at dinner, the cabins stewards turned your bed down for the evening. My cabin steward, Semi, was lovely and went above and beyond to make me comfortable. Not only do the cabin stewards clean your room twice a day, refill your refrigerator with water, and refill any toiletries you might need, but they also check to see if you are comfortable with your duvet, if you would prefer a sheet, if you would like pillows with different firmness, etc.

After dinner we wandered around the ship some more and went out on the al fresco dining terrace, off the main lounge, to watch the ship go through the first lock.

Heading into the lock

We had intended to stay up and listen to Zsolt, the onboard musician, play music in the lounge but we could not last any longer so went to sleep to get ready for our first full day of excursions tomorrow.

 

[tiger04]

I just wanted to take a post to describe the ship and show some of the pictures if I can finally get them to work!

We were only the second cruise ever on the AmaKristina – the first cruise was the April 1 cruise from Amsterdam to Basel - so everything was so shiny and new! You generally entered the ship via the Violin deck at reception. For the ABD cruises, they have a welcome mat saying Adventures by Disney as well as a banner.

You enter in the middle of the ship and there is an elevator and set of staircases so you can get up and down the three main decks. To get up the sundeck you need to take the stairs on either side of the main lobby, so you would not be able to take the elevator up to the sundeck. There are staterooms on each of the three passenger decks (Piano, Cello, Violin). The ship is quite small compared to an ocean cruise ship, but as a result you got to know all the areas of the ship quite well.

Violin Deck

On this deck you will find the Chef's Table restaurant in the aft, then staterooms, then you can down a set of stairs to get to the reception, gift shop, library, and main lounge and bar. The reception is staffed 24 hours a day and this is where you will pick up your colored cards for the excursions. You can also sign up for the Chef's Table restaurant at reception. The area to the port side of reception has postcards, a map of all the Ama ships, and leads to the library. The area to the starboard side of reception leads to the gift shop and a little coffee area where you can get coffee or tea 24 hours a day.

In the lounge, the bar is open from 9 am on and you can pretty much get drinks at any time in the lounge that you just charge to your room. There are some very light snacks in the lounge all day and in the afternoon they put out tea sandwiches and cakes. At 10:30 pm each evening they have some hot food (they sadly went uneaten because most people were asleep or not hungry!) You will have all the welcome and farewell receptions in the lounge, and at night there is entertainment (some nights we listened to the piano player there, other nights we had outside groups come to sing and perform, and other nights we had karaoke or watched movies).

Chef's Table: You can book the chef's table every night of the cruise - it accommodates around 24 people (4 tables for 4 and 1 table for 8). It is a tasting menu so you have no choices but if you have allergies you will just let the staff know. I loved the Chef's Table but some members of my party did not like the "tasting" portions. Some of the flavors were very interesting - like the cheddar chili sorbet - but I enjoyed tasting it all! The Chef's Table has its own recommended wines, but you will not have a separate wine for each course like at Victoria and Albert's. It was also wonderful to look out the windows in the back of the ship and watch the shore as you float down the Rhine while tasting such delicious food - the Chef's Table has floor to ceiling windows.

Chef's Table

Cello Deck

This deck has mostly staterooms and the main dining room. At breakfast, they serve buffet style with pastries, breads, fruits, cereals, and some hot items served in chafing dishes and an omelet station. You can also order certain hot items directly from your waiter (which is why I ate eggs benedict practically every day!). Lunch is similar to breakfast in that you had buffet style with salads, some hot items, and desserts available. You can also order entrees from the waiter if you wanted an additional hot entree. You can order wine, beer, or soft drinks from your waiter as well. I thought the food was delicious and the only frustrating part was having to rush through dinner if you wanted to go on one of the evening tours. European dining can be very different than American dining so if you have some time constraints please share them with your wait staff! There is open seating with more tables set up for 4 or 6. I was part of a party of 7, so we had one person go down a bit early each night to get a spot that would fit 7. There are two wine rooms to the port and starboard sides of the main restaurants - those rooms are usually used for the junior adventurers to eat with the adventure guides but we only had about 10 junior adventurers on this ship so the bigger groups were able to use the other wine room.

Piano Deck

This deck had staterooms and then some amenities like the hair salon, massage room, and gym. I did not use the hair salon (although some other women did and their hair looked great) and I did not use the massage room (they offer a jet lag massage that in hindsight I wish I had tried!) so I cannot attest to the prices. I did use the Fitness Room in the morning - it was very small but the equipment was great. I ran on the treadmill and used the resistance machine and used a yoga mat to do some quick vinyasa and stretches. There is water and towels in the fitness room and spray to clean off the equipment when you are finished. It is available 24 hours a day but they request you be quiet in the morning and evenings. I had wanted to run on the jogging track on the sundeck but they ask you not to use it before 8 am or after 10 pm, so it was difficult when you are busy all day to find the time.

Sun Deck

The sundeck is only accessible from stairs on the outdoor decks. There is a ton of outdoor space to sit and enjoy the scenery (weather permitting). The pool is heated but is more of a dunk pool (I think I did two stroked to get from one end to the other. But it was a lovely perk.) The sun deck is particularly delightful when watching all the castles as you sail through the Rhine gorge but it is super windy!

Rooms
As I stated earlier, my parents were in a suite, I was in an AA cabin, another couple in our traveling party was in an AA cabin, and the last couple was in a CA. We were all on the Violin Deck. I think the AA cabins had more than enough room and while mine did not include the 3rd person sleeper chair, I think if there was a 3rd person there still would have been enough room. The couple in the CA cabin said that if they did the trip again they would choose an AA cabin for the extra room - but for the amount of time you are in your room, I still think that the CA cabin would be adequate. The bathroom in the CA cabin was angled so you had a smaller space and there was no regular balcony, just a French balcony. I actually used the french balcony more than I used my regular balcony - I liked to have the windows open on the juliet balcony in the morning as I got ready. In each room, there were two USB ports in the night stand next to the bed and one "American" plug by the bed. The other plugs were all European voltage (and note - the plugs were for northern Europe). Each room (other than the suites) had a large sized closet for hanging clothes and another closet with shelves. Each cabin had a safe in the shelf closet to lock up your valuables. There were three umbrellas hanging in the closet so I imagine that they put enough umbrellas for the occupancy of the room. You should be able to smoosh your luggage under your bed and put your clothes away if you want to settle in as there is a large amount of storage space.

When the room is set up for the third person, there will be a sleeper chair in that alcove.

In the bathroom there were some shelves above the sink for storage and cupboards underneath the sink to hide your toiletries. The bathroom also had a hairdryer, and if you need a hair curler you can request one from reception. There was also a refrigerator in cupboard next to the desk, which is replenished with water daily. There was an apple computer on the desk that acted as your internet and tv - I watched the Masters in German on the tv but otherwise just enjoyed the bow cam. You also get wifi all over the ship, but it can be a little wonky and does not work when you are going through the locks.

The suites are the largest rooms on board and come with butler service. They are quite nice for entertaining because you have a separate living room area. The suites get fruit juices and sodas stocked in their refrigerators. Some other suite perks are room service (generally there is no room service in the other cabins unless you are ill) and free laundry service (the laundry service is actually quite reasonable if you wanted to pay, but it was so nice to get clothes pressed and washed each day) All the lights in the room were controlled by an ipad, and it was nice to have several real tvs in the room. The suites also have tons of storage space and an entire wall of closets. The rooms were serviced twice a day, usually while you are at breakfast and dinner, and I cannot speak highly enough of the cabin stewards, who work so hard!

 

[OhanaCuz]

This is fantastic info. Thank you for taking the time to share this!

 

[sayhello]

Great start to your report! Thanks! And the photos are working now.

Oh, and the full cruises do have 8 Adventure Guides.

Sayhello

 

[Chirple]

Gorgeous photos!

 

[met19]

I'm excited to see the rest of the trip as I go on the food and wine version of this in October!

 

[tiger04]

Day 2 – Black Forest of Germany and Alsace Region of France (4/9/17)

When I got back to my room the night of Day 1, Semi, my room steward, had placed the rose I received in the cocktail reception in a vase and left it on my desk. She also left the Daily Adventurer on my bed after she turned it down – we would get Daily Adventurer each night with the next day’s activities so we could prepare.

When we went to bed, we had planned to get up and get to breakfast by 6:45 am because the first excursions were to leave at 8:00 am. But when I woke up I saw that the boat was still sailing and there was an announcement that we would not be reaching Kehl (the city in Germany where we would be docking for Strasbourg, which was right across the Rhine from Kehl) until 9 am. Apparently the Ama Kristina sat in a lock for 3 hours in the middle of the night (the lock was under construction, which caused a backup) so we were 3 hours behind. We learned it could be common for unforeseen events to mess with the timing of docking, which then affects your excursions. So everyone was up ready to go way before we even reached the port. In fact, we were able to see the ship go through a lock and I went down to my balcony to watch the ship dock.

When choosing the excursion for Day 2, we went back and forth. I really wanted to see the Black Forest and would have really enjoyed ziplining and tobogganing. But I ultimately landed on the horseback ride and visit to Riquewihr because I wanted to spend another day in France. And I wanted to see a village that inspired Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast.

Once we docked, the other groups left to head to the Black Forest and we boarded a bus to head into France. Before you left for each excursion, you had to pick up a colored card at the reception desk. That color would match the Adventure Guides’ shirts and the paddles. Usually the adventure guide would gather up the cards on the bus before you left to make sure they had all the guests who signed up for the excursion, but other times you just ended up holding on to the card until you got back to the ship.

We had about 20 guests on our excursion with 2 adventure guides: Veronika and Andreas. I am not sure if there was a space limit on the horseback ride but it was very nice to have a smaller group and to be able to spread out on the bus. We had the same three coach buses for all the excursions in France and Germany – the busses all had bathrooms but did not have wifi. And one bus had faulty airconditioning, which was rough because it was in the low 70s and sunny. It took about an hour to drive from Kehl to Riquewihr. We basically had quiet time on the bus during the hour and Andreas walked around taking our lunch orders because we would be eating as a group in the village. Most people took a nap on our way to Riquewihr while I looked out the window and took pictures of the random castles we passed.

When we were almost at Riquewihr, Andreas told us about the Alsace region of France and explained how it has gone back and forth between belonging to France and Germany 4 times in the past 75 years. We would see more of that interplay between France and Germany when we visited Strasbourg the next day. For now, Andreas pointed out that the story of the Easter bunny and hiding eggs originated in the Alsace region, and we saw many Easter displays and Easter bunnies throughout the town.

We parked at Riquewihr and walked through the town as a group. Veronika and Andreas walked us up the main street in town and showed us where the restaurant for lunch was before sending us on our way for some alone time. I think we were originally supposed to have almost 2 hours of free time but after the late start we only had about 45 minutes to wander around before we had to meet up as a group for lunch. The village was beautiful and, as one of the few towns in the area that was not damaged during WWII, has not changed much since the 16th century. You could actually still see the medieval wall surrounding the town. It is also one of the “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France” so quite popular as a tourist destination – we were only one group of the many tourists there!

We wandered around the town, taking pictures and soaking it all in. There was a small bank and atm in the town so I was able to grab some euros. Which I promptly used to buy some cheese at a cheese cellar. [If you need euros, I would suggest grabbing them here or on your “on your own” time during excursions – people waited and then struggled to get cash until later on in the trip]. We checked out some of the shops and I did not buy Alsatian wine glass – which I now regret – because I thought I would see them again later. As always, buy something you like when you see it as you might not see it again! There is a large Christmas shop at the top of the hill in the town with elaborate displays that the tourists really enjoyed visiting.

After about 45 minutes we met back at the lunch restaurant – Manala – which specialized in Alsatian foods. It was a quaint restaurant attached to the Hotel Saint Nicolas. We sat at long tables together and ate Alsatian salad, which was strips of ham and gruyere tossed in a vinaigrette (there was a vegetarian version as well), as a started and an onion pie as the main course. You also could have two glass of wine, beer, or soda to accompany the mineral water. It was all quite tasty – even though I am not a big fan of onions I still tried the pie – and it was nice to chat with other travelers and to get to know the rest of our group. We finished up and then heading back to the bus to drive to the stables for our horseback ride.

It took us about an hour to drive from Riquewihr to Cheval Alsace. We had to drive up into the mountains so it was fun to see the scenery change and to see the ski areas (which were closed for the spring/summer but you could still see the trails). When we go to Cheval Alsace, Andreas and Veronika encouraged us to leave our phones/cameras on the bus so we would not be distracted on the horses. So I have only one photo from this excursion! When we reached the stables, we were met by one of the owners who assigned us horses based on our weights that we provided when we signed up for the excursion. We were then asked to groom our horses so that the horses would get used to us before we saddled up and started the ride. My horse was named Anju, and I used a currycomb and dandy brush to get Anju groomed and ready for the saddles.

Now one of my slight issues with the horseback riding portion of the excursion was that it was all a bit confusing and disorganized. The workers at the stable were helpful but most did not speak English so if you needed help or had questions, you had to track down one of the workers who spoke English. And you were placed at the horses by size/weight, so you were separated from your family. That was fine for us because we were all adults but for some families with children, you might not like being placed far away from your child. The same thing happened when we split up for the ride – my mom and I were placed in one group but my Dad was in another. They split you up based on the horse, so hopefully they can remedy that for future excursions or the Adventure Guides can be more assertive and fix it.

After saddling up we had a quick lesson about how to handle the horses, we were split into two groups and started the ride. For safety reasons, for the first part of the ride a stable trainer led your horse. We walked the horses down into the woods and the path took us down the mountain so we had to dodge a few branches. It was very pretty but I was a novice horsewoman so I was concentrating on the ride and trying to be confident! At the bottom of the hill we waited for the second group to meet us and then we could ride on our own if we chose. Or if you wanted you could have a trainer lead the horse with you. By that time, I could finally relax a bit and try to enjoy the ride (although I did ask a trainer to walk near me in case I got into trouble!) This part of the ride was mostly on a gravel path in the woods but then we had to climb back up the mountain so the path was more uneven. The horses were very well trained so once we were in a line they tended to follow fairly well, although there was some that acted out a bit at different points. We came out of the woods near the stables and then brought out horses back to the stables where we dismounted. We washed up and used the lint brushes provided and headed back to the bus. There was only one bathroom at the stables so there were long lines but everyone could clean up and get ready to head back to the ship. There was one group (actually the ABD execs) who went to the horseback riding excursion but did not actually feel comfortable riding the horses so they took them on a carriage ride – which is nice to know if you have a member of your party who decides after arriving at the stables that they do not feel comfortable on the horse. And we did have one member of our group that was thrown off her horse – I did not witness it because she was in the second group but when we were first heading down the mountain, her horse slipped and went down to its front legs, so she flipped off but because her foot was stuck in the stirrup her knee got wrenched as she flipped off. Now fortunately she was fine and got back on the horse. The Adventure Guides did not even know about it until the end of the excursion so I am not sure where they were. But it just shows that anything can happen when you are horseback riding. Overall I really enjoyed the excursion, but if you really wanted to gallop your horse, it might not be the excursion for you as it was basically “tour group” riding where you walked in a line.

We had about an hour and a half ride back to the ship and it was mostly quiet time. We were supposed to arrive back at the Ama Kristina at 6 pm but we did not arrive until 7 pm due to our late start. Dinner was scheduled to start at 7:15 so we had to rush and change and get down to the main dining room (we really needed to change because our clothes had stables and horses all over them!). Our dining companions did the Black Forest and tobogganing excursion – and they really enjoyed the excursion, especially the tour and the lunch. I think they also made a whistle for the cuckoo clock and enjoyed the tobogganing.

We had another delicious dinner but had to eat quickly because we had signed up for the private organ concert in Strasbourg at 8:45 pm. Now if you have an evening excursion, please tell your servers because otherwise they will let you have a leisurely dinner and not rush you. But if you are in a hurry let them know so you can make the bus. Also, the timing of the excursions may make it very difficult to do everything. The Black Forest and ziplining tour did not arrive back until 8 pm. So if they wanted to do the organ concert they would need to basically rush through dinner to make it.

It was about a 15 minute bus ride into Strasbourg and then a short walk to the church. Danny, Kira, Byron, and Andreas were the Adventure Guides for this excursion (so we had two buses) and they basically led us in a circle until finally getting us to the church. The original excursion description said it would be a walking tour of Strasbourg and then a private organ concert, but we skipped the walking tour and went straight to the church. The concert was fabulous! Daniel Maurer is the organist of the J.A. Silvermann organ (an organ Mozart played on) at the St. Thomas Church and he performed 4 short pieces for us. His wife introduced each piece and we had the opportunity to go up to the seat of the organ to watch him play. It was such a lovely and beautiful way to cap off the day and it was definitely worth rushing through dinner to attend. And we got another treat because the Adventure Guides bought Mr. Maurer’s cds and gave each family a cd when we got back to the ship.

Once we reached the Ama Kristina, we went down to the lounge to listen to some of the karaoke before heading up to bed. The gifts for the day on our bed were the Daily Adventurer for Day 3, a note about Disney pin trading, our pin for the day, a recipe for black forest cake, and a black forest cake that we could enjoy on the ship or take home.

 

[tiger04]

Day 3 – Strasbourg (4/10/17)

Today was another early day as both morning excursions were scheduled to leave at 8 am. I woke up without an alarm right before 6 am so I decided to go down to the gym and get a workout in before breakfast. I had wanted to try to run on the sundeck but they asked us to only use the track between 8 am and 10 pm so as not to disturb the guests below. But that timing never worked out for me! I was able to run on the treadmill and use the resistance machine before finishing up with some yoga stretches. It was quite nice and I liked how the room had fresh towels and water.

After my workout, I got ready for the day. I met up with my family for breakfast and then at 8 we boarded the bus to head into Strasbourg. Once again we were in a smaller group, I think there were between 20-30 guests on the canoe excursion. Our Adventure Guides for this excursion were Betti and Byron. We decided to do the Alsace canoe excursion because I figured there was no other time I could say I went canoeing in France! It was only about a 15 minute boat ride until we reached the spot where we would go into the canoes with Alsace Kayak and Canoe. They had us divide into groups of 2 so if you were an odd numbered party, the Adventure Guides asked you to pair up with another guest or they offered to go with you. I found another guest who was on her own and we decided which one of us was going to steer and which one of us was going to paddle. The instructors gave each group a jug to put bags and valuables – remember this for later! – and told us to seal it because if anything happened with the kayak, the jug would keep our cameras and phone safe and dry. We practiced canoeing around the cove area for a bit before we started paddling in a group. The instructors lead and followed in kayaks to make sure everyone was safe.

I thought this excursion was amazing. We paddled along the canal into the city center of Strasbourg, Grande Ile, and got to see all the beautiful architecture. It just felt so unique to be taking it all in from the water! The coolest part is we got to paddle into a lock and then experience the lock going down before we came out on the other side. When we saw the river boats coming towards us, we had to paddle to one side of the canal and we waved to each boat just in case it was the rest of our cruise travelers!

We followed the canals over to the European Parliament building, where we were going to climb out of our canoes. We had left the city center behind and were in a more residential area so people were spreading out more in the canoes, and I saw Betti and an ABD executive in their canoe in the other side of the canal. I wasn’t sure why they were on the other side and then we heard a splash – their canoe had flipped over! Fortunately the water was quite shallow so they popped up and right the canoe. The problem was that Betti had not put her backpack or phone in the container, so her stuff got all soaked. Apparently, the guest had tried to push off bank when they went to close and her shirt got cut in a branch, which tipped the canoe over. Fortunately everyone was fine! They got back in the canoe and finished the trip. Unfortunately, Betti’s phone and camera were ruined. So warning to everyone – put everything in the jugs just in case!

We got out of the canoes and the kayaking company brought some cake and lemonade from their farm. Betti and the ABD exec returned to the boat to change and get in dry clothes. We had a snack and then headed back to the bus. We drove to a rest stop to have a comfort break and met our local tour guides, who would be joining us on a bus tour of Strasbourg. We drove around Strasbourg and listened to the guides explain the history of the city and the various sites. Then after about 30 minutes we got out of the bus and went on a walking tour. We split into two groups and each guide took a group. It was beautiful walking around – the weather was in the 70s and sunny again! – and very cool to see the city. We ended up in the center of the city by the Cathedral and heard about the cathedral’s history. One disappointing part was we were unable to go into the cathedral because it was closed. They were closing it around lunchtime and with the new hours we were there at the wrong time. We could have stayed in the city and had lunch on our own at that point or we could have gone back to the ship. Everyone in my tour decided to go back to the ship and take a break before the afternoon excursion.

We had lunched and learned from our friends who were on the batorama boat cruise morning tour that they did see us on our canoes! At 2:15 pm we left on our afternoon excursion, wine tasting at Cave Historique des Hospices de Strasbourg (the macaroon cooking class left at 2:15 as well, while the bike ride left at 2:30). Kira and Andreas were our Adventure Guides for this excursion. I think the groups were split evenly among the wine tasting and the macaroon cooking class, with the bike ride having a smaller group of 10. Now on our way into Strasbourg we were on the “hot bus”. There was one bus in our group of 3 buses that did not have working air conditioning. One of the groups coming back from the Black Forest the previous day (I think it was the tobogganing excursion) had to drive back in a very hot bus and people were not happy. They still had not fixed the air conditioning by the next day, so we got to have the hot bus. The frustrating thing was that we knew there was a problem with the air conditioning, but Kira claimed it was just taking time for the cool air to stop working. We all knew it was broken, so I would rather have had the Adventure Guides take ownership of it rather than pretending it was not a problem. We only had 15 minutes on the bus but with the heat most people starting falling asleep! And we were happy we did not have to be on the bus longer.

We went back into Strasbourg to the hospital. It was quite fascinating to visit the wine cave below the hospital. The history of the hospital winery was that patients who could not afford to pay for their medical care gave wine or areas of their vineyards to the hospital, which then amassed this huge collection of wine and started creating their own wine. We got to go down into the wine cave, learn about the history, and tasted 4 different wines. There were also some snacks to enjoy while we tasted the wine. After the tasting, we had the chance to see the oldest barrel of wine in existence. There was a small shop where you could buy some of the wine we tasted – and if you are interested I would buy some because they do not ship wine. After visiting the wine shop, make sure to go back the way you came into the wine cave rather than going out the exit in the back of the shop. We went out there with a group and we waited a while, not realizing the Adventure Guides and the bus were back by the front entrance.

I thought it was a very relaxing afternoon and we were the first group back on the ship. I took advantage of the early afternoon and went for a swim in the pool. The pool was heated so felt lovely, but sadly no bartender was working at the pool bar. I relaxed on the sun deck and saw the macaroon excursion arrive back on the ship. I then went down to my room to get ready for dinner, and when I headed to the main dining room a little before 7, I said goodbye to Andreas, who had to leave for a family emergency. It was quite sad and sudden but I was glad he could leave immediately to be with his family. When I got to our table, I realized that two of our party, who were on the bike riding excursion, had not returned yet. We saw them arrive on the bus at around 7:15 so they rushed in, changed, and joined us for dinner.

We rushed through dinner again because we had to leave for the evening excursion at 8:30. The wine and beer tavern excursion was one that was originally capped at a certain amount of people. But ABD was able to add another bus when they realized there was more interest than space. I hope they continue to do that on future trips! The only rub was that Andreas was supposed to be on this tour, but he left so Byron and Danny were the only two guides.

We rode the bus back into Strasbourg and went to a tavern called “Au Bon Vivant” near the cathedral. There was an upstairs room prepared for us, but I do not think the tavern was truly prepared for us. I think we had more people than space and there was not enough seating for everyone. We could order been and wine and we each got a tarte flambee (a flatbread with crème fraiche and sliced onions). There was a backup so Danny and Byron, and even some of the ABD execs, helped serve and deliver the wine and the tarte flambee. I think the biggest issue was just not preparing the venue for our size and our timeline – the ship was leaving port at 10:30 pm and if we were not on the ship by then, it would have left us behind. As a result, we needed to leave the tavern by 10 pm so we only had about an hour at the tavern. We were a bit rushed and everything felt frazzled. That said, I do think the evening tour is a great idea because you got to go to a tavern and drink and eat like the locals. I just think ABD needs to do a better job and letting the venue know our time constraints so they can be more prepared. It was a lovely night overall.

We got back to the ship – we made it before 10:30! - and headed to the lounge, where we had an impromptu dance party with other travelers and the Adventure Guides. It capped off our last day in France.

In my room, I found my pin, the Day 4 Adventure Guide, a recipe for Alsace Gugelhupf (bundt cakes), and La Cure Gourmande caramels. It had been another wonderful day!

 

[sayhello]

That canoe ride looks wonderful! How fun!

Sayhello

 

[tiger04]

Day 4 – Mannheim/Heidelberg/Stuttgart (4/11/17)

In case you weren't sure how tight it was in the locks - my balcony was probably rwo inches from the walk of the lock we went through on our way to Mannheim!

Today was our first full day in Germany because even though the Ama Kristina was docked in Kehl, Germany the previous two days, all our excursions were in France. This day was the first that I had struggled with choosing excursions. I had visited Heidelberg with friends on a past trip, but my parents had never been there before. I found Heidelberg to be absolutely beautiful, but I was not too sure if I wanted to go back just for a costumed guide tour. So I ended up leaning towards the German Automaker Excursion because it was a different option than any other river cruise I had investigated (all tended just to go to Heidelberg). My parents ultimately decided to join me so at 9 am we boarded a bus to take a long drive to Stuttgart. The morning Heidelberg tour left at 9 am, while the afternoon Heidelberg tour left at 1:30 pm.

There was a larger group of adventurers on this excursion than our previous two morning excursions – I think over 30 people – and it was interesting to see a lot of groups had split up with some going to the car museums while others went to Heidelberg. We only had one guide on this excursion, Danny, and I am not sure if Andreas was scheduled to go on the excursion or if he was scheduled to go to Heidelberg and one of the Adventure Guides shifted to Heidelberg to fill in. Whatever the reason, I think this excursion definitely needed another Adventure Guide, which I will explain later. The next thing to note about this excursion is that it is a two hour ride from Mannheim (where the Ama Kristina docks) to Stuttgart. The ride there was actually quite pleasant. I looked out the window and listened to podcasts and most people took naps. Danny told some stories about his experiences working on Broadway and as the Genie in Disneyland’s Aladdin stage show, and then he walked around taking lunch orders for our biergarten lunch (we could choose from sausage, wiener schnitzel, or spatzle). About an hour into the drive we stopped at a rest stop so anyone who needed could take a comfort break (Danny provided euros for the bathroom fee and you got a ticket for 50 cents that you could use as a credit in the shop).

We arrived at the Porsche museum after 11 and then we assembled in the lobby as Danny ran around and tried to get our tickets and bring us to where we needed to be for the tour. This is just the first example of why it would have been helpful to have another Adventure Guide, because one guide could have handled the administrative stuff while the other guide prepared us for the tour. Both museums were very crowded as it was the week before Easter and most Germans were on holiday that week. We had our own private tour guide, who took us up a long escalator into the museum. Now I am not a car person at all, but I found it fascinating to see the early prototypes and to learn how those prototypes led to the first Porsche car. I also had no idea that Porsche originally designed a car for the people – the volkswagon beetle – and that many of the design elements used in the Beetle went into the Porsche 64. It was very exciting to walk through the museum and see all the different Porsches, learn how the design elements changed, and see how integral the cars were to racing. For the children – and we did have some kids on this tour! – the museum had “Sally” from the “Cars” movies and we were able to go on the pedestal and take a picture with Sally. Sadly we only had an hour for the tour but I found it fascinating and wished I could have spent more time exploring the museum. When the tour wrapped up, Danny said we should go outside and head towards to bus because we were on a schedule and had to head off to our lunch spot. Some guests did not listen and wandered away to go to the gift shop – which I completely understand because we wanted to buy souvenirs too! But we listened and went to the bus – so Danny had to spend 15 minutes running around trying to corral everyone into the bus so we could leave.

We drove through traffic to the center of Stuttgart to eat at Carl Brauhaus, a brauhaus right in the Park Schlossplatz (a beautiful park surrounded by historic buildings). Carl Brahaus is in an old bank and I think it has an outdoor garden for seating but it was chilly for us (high 50s) so we were seated indoors. You could get two beers or sodas with your meal, and I enjoyed trying to different German beers they had on tap. We each got salads to start, followed with the main course we chose on the bus, and then ended up an ice cream sundae. The food was hot and tasty, and the service was a bit chaotic because the restaurant was crowded at lunchtime.

It was immediately after the lunch, however, that everything began to unravel somehow. I think we had been at the restaurant over an hour when Danny told us it was time to head back to the bus to head over to the Mercedes-Benz museum. We all filed out of the restaurant and then waited for a while as Danny presumably settled the bill. Again, if we had another Adventure Guide, that Guide could have led us back to the bus while the other guide finished the administrative tasks at the restaurant. So we waited for a bit and then Danny reappeared and led us back across the park to the bus location. While we walked back to the bus, my parents started chatting with the ABD executive on this excursion (basically each excursion had at least one ABD executive accompanying the DVC guests). She did not want to give too much information about potential future trips (but did hint that we would not be waiting too long for the Japan trip to materialize) and then said that they had planned-out trips to Russia and an ABD tour that would take guests to all the Disney theme parks around the world (it did not make it beyond the early planning stages because they determined it was cost prohibitive and too niche). It was interesting to hear some “behind the scenes” information and I would have loved to hear more but ABD is careful about what information to present to the public. We arrived back at the bus and then made our way across Stuttgart to the Mercedes-Benz museum.

When we got to the museum, we waited in the lobby while Danny went to secure the tickets and the tour guide. As we met the two guides and were quickly divided into two groups, we learned that we were actually 40 minutes late for our tour. Now I have no idea how we got so far behind schedule, but we were never told at any time at lunch that we were behind schedule. As far as I know, the other guests had no idea what times we were supposed to be at any of the locations. Unfortunately, our tour guide spent the rest of the tour reminding us how late we were and how it was impacting the tour he was able to give. Now I completely agree that it is unacceptable to be that late. However, we did not knowingly intend to be so late! And unlike the Porsche museum, where Danny accompanied us on the tour, he did not accompany our group and could not step in when the tour guide kept borderline insulting us for being so late.

Now the portion of the tour that we did attend was great – our tour guide had a sardonic sense of humor, so he could have been just joking when he brought up our lateness, but he was very knowledgeable about the history of Mercedes-Benz. The museum was gorgeous and we got to see not only the early prototypes of automobiles and combustion engines, but also saw the first Mercedes model and then got to see how the models evolved. You could have spent all day in the museum looking at all the cars and reading all the history. I wish we could have had a more comprehensive tour – after about 30 minutes our tour guide said he had another VIP tour that he had to lead, so he left us in the museum. We were not sure what to do next so we just followed the museum path down and ran into the other tour group. We got down to the lobby and did not see anyone, so we went outside and found Danny and another ABD executive. Unfortunately, we did not have any executives in our tour group as I think having a guide or an executive may have helped the situation. Some of the guests immediately told Danny what had happened. He was apologetic but I am not sure what he could have done after the fact. I think he may have said he was not allowed to go on the tour, but that did not make much sense to me. He told us to head back to the bus, and then he went around to try to gather up everyone else from the other tour who had scattered throughout the museum. It took a while to find the rest of the adventurers (once again people had been in the gift shop and I listened and went back to the bus instead of shopping!) but we were finally all together on the bus and on our way.

When we were on the bus, Danny apologized again for all the snafus and said that he got us all Mercedes to make up for the trouble. He passed out little toy Mercedes from the shop to thank us all for our patience. (full disclosure – when we went down to the museum entrance after the tour I saw one of the ABD executives holding the bag full of the toy cars, so I think we were probably getting the little gift anyway) It was a nice surprise. Danny also tried to play the movie “Cars” but, after several aborted attempts (the movie kept freezing and skipping), he switched the dvd to the live action “Jungle Book”. Unfortunately, we then hit a ton of traffic on our way back to the ship. I do not know if it was normal rush hour traffic or if there was an accident, but after two hours in traffic we were still over an hour away from the ship. We eventually stopped for a comfort break and my mom helped Danny break some euros for change to use at the bathrooms. Because we were still an hour away from the ship, and it was already after 6 pm, which was the time we were originally supposed to return, Danny went around talking to everyone who had reservations for the Chef’s Table. He contacted the ship and guests who had reservations would still be able to join the meal or could move their reservations to another night if they preferred (the trickiness about the Chef’s Table was that the food is prepared right in front of you so they wanted all the tables to be served at the same time). He also let the ship know our eta for the main dining room as well.

After a very long drive, we arrived at the ship around 7:30. We rushed in and quickly changed for dinner. Our friends had done the Heidelberg excursions but they waited on us and we enjoyed dinner a bit late. For the Heidelberg excursion, our friends who had gone on a previous ABD Germany trip said the tour was basically the same. But our other friends really enjoyed exploring the ruins of the castle. They also had some time for shopping and just taking in the city. So based on all our experiences, I think you would be happy no matter what excursion you choose for Day 4, but the German Automakers excursion was a bit busier.

The evening activity tonight was the spaghetti ice cream demonstration. We gathered in the lounge for the demonstration by Fontenella of spaghetti ice cream, which is a German dessert created in Manheim where the ice cream is made to look like spaghetti. We watched the chef put ice cream through a press that makes the ice cream come out in skinny strands like spaghetti. Those strands were placed in a dish over whipped cream and then topped with strawberry sauce and white chocolate flakes to look like the sauce and the parmesan. Everyone who wanted to could get a cup and it was so delicious! Even though I had literally just finished dinner and thought I had no room in my stomach, I still ate the entire dish of spaghetti ice cream.

After the presentation, we sat in the lounge and listened to the guest entertainers, Monia and Hutch, who performed some Motown and soul songs. People got up and danced to the music, while others just relaxed and listened. I noticed as the trip went on, fewer people assembled for the evening entertainment. I would encourage people on future tours to go to as much of the entertainment as possible as it was really enjoyable just to relax and enjoy live music in such an intimate setting. But I think people got more exhausted throughout the trip and could not stay up past 10!

After the music finished up, we went back to our rooms. We were scheduled to depart from Mannheim by 1 am. In my room, I found my Day 4 pin, the Day 5 Adventure Guide, a recipe for French onion soup, and a little magnet cuckoo clock to “serve as a wonderful memory of your adventures through this region of Europe”. Looking back, I am glad I chose the German Automakers excursion as I found the museums to be fascinating and worth the long ride. I just hope that in future trips, ABD figures out the timing issues and makes sure to have two guides on the trip, as I think that would have alleviated some of the issues that popped up throughout the day.

 

[tiger04]

Day 5 – Rudesheim (4/12/17)

When I woke up this morning, I saw that a flyer had been slipped under my door overnight. It was handout from ABD saying that based on recent events in Europe and Egypt, they wanted to remind us that our safety was their top priority. They encouraged us to remain vigilant on our excursions and while exploring on our own, and that we should carry the telephone number of the ship and the telephone number of the Cruise Manager, Pete, with us. (On Day 1 of the cruise Pete told us to keep his number with us because, if we ever did not make it back to the ship before it sailed away, he would be able to help us meet the cruise at the next port). I was a little surprised and I think it was based on the attack on the Borussia Dortmund football team on their way to a Champions League match. Interestingly, after that ABD stopped putting out an ABD flag at the gangplank for the Ama Kristina and we just had an Ama Waterways flag for the rest of the cruise.

Today was the first day we docked at a port that you could easily walk into town from the ship. Now at the other ports, you could have wandered around from the port (and there were maps at the reception desk for guests who did not want to do the excursions and wanted to explore on their own) but all the ABD excursions required a bus ride. In Rudesheim, you could walk directly from the ship into the center of the town. I had forgotten to mention in my earlier reports, but each time you left the ship you needed to scan your safety card (room key) and then every time you returned to the ship you scanned your card again. For the group excursions, the Ama Kristina staff knew when you were arriving back so when your group arrived, stews and wait staff were waiting in the lobby with cold towels and drinks. The drinks changed based on the weather – for example we had lemonade when it was in the 70s in Strasbourg and then hot spiced tea when it was in the 50s in Cologne – but it was a lovely welcome back to the ship each time.

I was up early enough to watch the ship dock in Rudesheim.

You can see the monument we visit later on in the day at the top of the hill!

One thing about the Day 5 excursions that was not exactly clear based on the initial schedule was that all the adventurers would be heading to Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet together in the morning. Then you divided the rest of your day based on your chosen excursions.

After breakfast, we stopped by the front desk to pick up our vouchers for Rudesheim coffees. Then at 8:30 am, we all left to walk to Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet museum together. We walked into town and then up the hill to the museum. The Adventure Guides split us up into groups and we all went into different rooms in the museum. There were costumed guides that took us through the various musical cabinets, explaining how these music cabinets were basically liked the radio or tvs of today and how they evolved throughout the century. We saw large cabinets that were used in music halls, smaller cabinets that were used in family homes, and even a small wind up mechanical, musical bird that may have inspired Walt Disney during his travels. I thought the museum was very cool and something you really have to see in person as it is something you really need to see and hear in person!

After all the groups finished up their tours, we all met up with the Adventure Guides who handed out maps of Rudesheim (which had been marked to show you where to exchange your voucher for a coffee and where to get on the gondola) and tickets for the gondola. We had signed up for the morning bike ride and the afternoon wine tasting, so we mingled in the courtyard for a bit until all the adventurers who had signed up for the bike ride had assembled. Our Adventure Guides for the morning bike ride were Betti and Kira. I think it was around 10:30 when we finally left the mechanical museum courtyard and walked up through town to reach the bus. We boarded the bus and it took us up to the Eberbach Abbey, which was where we would start our bike ride. Betti told us she had a surprise for us, which turned out to be that we would be riding motorized bicycles. These were bicycles with an electrically powered motor that assisted with pedal propulsion. So when you shifted to a higher gear, the motor kicked on and made it easier for you to pedal. It was a nice surprise as there were some hills that I would have had to walk my bike if I did not have the motor! But it felt different riding than with a manual bike, which took a little bit to get used to. The bikes were waiting for us when we arrived at the Abbey and we took some time to find the bike that would work best for our heights and to put on helmets. We also got backpacks to store our bags in if you wanted to keep your stuff with you on the bike ride. If not, you could leave your possession on the bus, which would meet us back in the center of town. One thing to note about the bikes is that the seat only went down so far so if you are shorter you will not be able to touch the ground with your feet. This led to some problems with the teenagers on our excursion because they basically almost crashed over each time we stopped.

After everyone felt comfortable on the bikes, we took off and started riding through the vineyards. It was so beautiful! You felt like you were in the middle of wine country as you cruised through vineyards. We rode for maybe 45 minutes (with a few stops along the way to hear the history of a vineyard or a castle in the distance) and then stopped at a castle to take a break. We could use the bathroom and enjoyed some sparkling apple juice and the beautiful scenery. Then we hopped back on the bikes to finish the rest of the ride. We mostly rode through the vineyards but there were some areas, especially as we got closer to town, when we had to cross busy roads. The Adventure Guides and our local guides did a nice job blocking some of the traffic and making sure everyone crossed safely. We had one mishap where an adventurer fell off her bike, but she fortunately did not have any major injuries and was able to hop back on the bike and continue the ride. We ended up at the parking lot in the center of Rudesheim where we first hopped on the bus, so we returned our bikes and backpacks and were set free to explore.

It was after 12pm when we made our way back to town. We had nothing scheduled until the wine tasting at 4 pm. I wanted to stay in town and explore some more, but my parents wanted to go back to the ship and have some lunch. I walked back with them but decided I would rather grab something quick to eat in the lounge rather than having a full lunch in the dining room. As we walked back to the ship, we ran into Veronika so chatted a bit about her experiences so far with the Rhine River Cruise as opposed to the Danube River Cruise. She thought the Rhine cruise had much more active excursions than the Danube, and she thought it would be an interesting summer because on the Danube they went back and forth up the Danube, while for the Rhine ABD is only going from Basel to Amsterdam so the guides will just be hanging in Europe and have some down time in between trips. At the ship, my parents went to meet our friends in the dining room and I ate some salad in the lounge and then headed back into town. We agreed to meet in front of the gondolas at 2pm. I basically just wandered around the town and checked out some of the shops. I had wanted to get a Rudesheim coffee set but I ultimately decided against it because it would be too hard to carry home. Right before 2 pm I wandered over the gondola to wait for my parents. If you decided not to go back to the ship for lunch, there are a number of restaurants in town you can enjoy.

We used our tickets to grab gondolas (only two people can fit in each gondola) and it was very cool to ride over the vines. When you got off the gondolas at the top, you had an amazing view of the hills dotted with vines going down to the Rhine. We walked up to the Niederwald Monument, took some pictures, and watched some filming for the Disney Parks blog. If you wanted you could walk down the hills back to town via marked paths. We had wanted to walk but were running out of time so decided to take the gondola back down. We headed to the Rudesheimer Schloss to exchange our vouchers for a Rudesheimer coffee – a coffee made with Asbach Uralt brandy. The waiter puts sugar and brandy into a cup, and then flambees the brandy until the sugar has dissolved. Then the waiter pours coffee over the brandy, adds a topping of whipped crème, and sprinkles chocolate flakes. I do not normally drink coffee, but if I am in a place known for its coffee I always try it. So we all enjoyed the Rudesheimer coffee and relaxed in the outdoor courtyard of the restaurant.

At that point it was time to head over to the Bassenheimermhofs cellar, right next door to the mechanical museum, for our Adolf Stoertzl wine tasting. Our Adventure Guides were Danny and Byron, and they took some pictures as we tried three different wines. There were some snacks on the table to much on and the sommelier was quite funny as he walked us through the wines. Afterwards you could buy some of the wines if you wanted and ship them back to the ship, so we purchased our favorite. We had to be back on board by 5:15 so we all walked back to the ship.

Around 5:30 the Ama Kristina pulled away from the dock, and everyone gathered on the sun deck to watch the scenery as we went up through the famous Castellated Rhine Gorge. There was a map of all the castles at the reception desk, and Pete was up on the sun deck doing a live narration of all the sites we were passing. You supposedly could hear the narration by turning on the bow cam in your room, but I could not hear it in my room. Now it was still early April so it was quite cold and windy on the sun deck. People were bundled up in ski hats and gloves. There were blankets out on the deck and each stateroom had blankets that you could use to stay bundled up when you were on the balcony. So many people also had their room blankets to bundle up. I would really recommend going up on the deck and I hope it is warmer for all the summer cruises! I stood on deck the entire time but I would move around depending on which side Pete was describing. I used the binoculars as well to get some closer looks at the castles. It was such a beautiful part of the journey. Unfortunately, I had to leave the sun deck behind because I had to get ready for our Chef’s Table dinner. I really hoped we would make it to the Loreley rock before I had to go to dinner, but we were moving a bit smaller than anticipated. So I went to my room to get ready, but I left my French balcony open so I could still watch the castles go by.

One thing we did not realize when we made our Chef’s Table reservation for this specific night was that we would be getting a sneak peak of the Beauty and the Beast dinner that will be on the 2018 Rhine River cruises. I took a quick picture of the dining room earlier in the afternoon, but then I had to hurry off to get ready for the Chef’s Table.

One surprise for the Beauty and the Beast dinner is that Adventure Guides were dressed in costumes to look like the villagers in Belle’s village and they gave all the adventurers roses. Fortunately, they remembered the Chef’s Table and were waiting there for us (although they almost had to come to my room to give it to me because I was running late after waiting for the Loreley rock). The chef’s table is located in the stern of the ship on the violin deck. There are glass enclosed kitchens right when you walk in and then you see the tables with floor to ceiling windows. I thought our dinner at the Chef’s Table was fabulous. We met the chef and got to see him making our dinners throughout the meal. It was a tasting menu so you had no choices as to the courses, but if you did have allergies, just tell the waiters and they will accommodate you. I thought there was some interesting flavor combinations (like the cheddar chili sorbet) but the food was so delicious. There were no specific wine pairings for each course but they did have some wines in the Chef’s Table that you could switch back and forth between if you wanted for the different courses. At the end of the meal, the chef came out with the sous chef and we clapped and thanked them for the all their hard work to create such a lovely meal.

To cap off the evening, they showed the animated feature “Beauty and the Beast” in the lounge. The staff had popcorn and snacks set up to enjoy during the movie and, once again, even though I had just spent two hours eating dinner, I still made myself a bowl of popcorn and we watched the movie together. Then I went back to the room and saw I had a Day 5 pin, Day 6 Daily Adventurer, a recipe card for French Onion Soup, and the DVC-gift of a little music box from Rudesheim and a signed copy of Beauty and the Beast on my bed.

 

[OhanaCuz]

Wow I didn't think the boats would be THAT close in a lock.

That mechanical museum looks right up my alley. So cool!

 

[sayhello]

2 Adventure Guides has always been one of the advantages of ABD, which I guess becomes more obvious when circumstances cause you to only have one Guide. I'm sure poor Danny was not expecting to have to go it solo -- the reasons you state are precisely why they have 2!

Sayhello

 

[tiger04]

Day 6 – Cologne (4/13/17)

When I woke up to get ready for the day, we were still sailing into Cologne even though we were supposed to arrive by 4:00 am. As I got ready to join my group for breakfast, I opened the French balcony windows to get some fresh air and see the river. I always turned my climate control unit off when I opened the balcony doors to get some fresh air. If you do that just remember to turn it back on before you leave and make sure you shut and lock your balcony doors and pull your curtains – because you could have a ship parked right next to you later and you do not want people to see into your room!

Hello Cologne!

I was excited for our visit to Cologne. When choosing excursions for today, I had originally chosen the fragrance museum excursion because I thought the chocolate-making class was at the Chocolate Museum, which I had visited on a previous trip to Cologne. But my mother said she really wanted to try the chocolate-making class, so we signed up for that excursion. I then learned that my reading comprehension skills have gotten worse since school because the chocolate-making class was actually held at a chocolaterie – Jan Von Werth. Because the kitchen for the chocolate-making was so small, they split up the excursions into three groups of 10. At dinner the previous evening, the Adventure Guides had walked around and told everyone what time they would be meeting to go on the excursions. We also had to bring our listening devices (each room had listening devices but this was the first tour that told us to bring them off the ship). We were on the first group for the chocolate-making so we left the ship at 8 am. The other chocolate-making excursions left at 9 am and 10 am. The perfume excursion group and the Indoor Winter Park excursion group left at 8 am. Our friends did the perfume excursion and told us it was very interesting to see and make their own perfume. I did not talk to anyone who did the indoor winter park (which was an all-day excursion) but I know it was a smaller group plus the camera crew and the pictures looked like it was a lot of fun!

We walked with our Adventure Guide, Byron, to the chocolate shop. On the way he pointed out the cathedral, some shopping areas, and told us how to get back to the ship. One thing to note is that it is a bit of a walk to the choccolaterie – not a difficult walk but if you struggle a bit with walking distances, please let the Adventure Guides know because they can arrange a taxi to take you there (we had one couple in our group that struggled to keep up a bit and I think they would have taken advantage of the taxi option if they knew how far the walk was). One nice thing about Cologne was that, like in Rudesheim, the Ama Kristina is parked right in the heart of the city. So you can always find your way back to the ship by following the river!

We got to the chocolaterie and, after we washed our hands and put on aprons, we were brought into the back kitchen. We looked through many different stencils to decide how to make our chocolate masterpieces and our teacher talked to us about the different types of chocolate and how it is made. Then we were handed different chocolates (dark, milk, white) in pastry bags and we started filling out our stencils. Then we filled in the outlines with a different type of chocolate, and we could add sprinkles or any embellishments we wanted. Most people chose the stencils of the cathedral or of Easter bunnies, as we were three days away from Easter, but I chose a Darth Vader and decided to have it be a deconstructed Darth Vader filled with white chocolate. It got messy but fun, and once we were done we passed our creations off to the hardened and boxed. They would be delivered to our rooms later. Byron told us we had some free time to explore on our own but we should return to the shop at 11 am for our walking tour of Cologne. I wanted to go buy some cologne in Cologne, so we walked to the Farina-house to buy some cologne (the same location as the fragrance museum excursion). We bought some cologne and then walked to the Cathedral. I had wanted to climb to the top of the towers but I completely forgot how I found it last time (you have to go through the crypts outside the cathedral to pay to climb up the tower) so we just used it as an opportunity to warm up (it was our coldest day so far and cloudy/window so you felt the chill!) We walked down to the river and wandered along the Rhine, stopping to get some photos at the Chocolate Museum, before returning to the chocolaterie
for our walking tour.

We met up with the chocolate-making class that had just ended and our group of 20 met our local guide who would take us around Cologne. Kira had arrived at the chocolaterie as well and accompanied us on the tour. Our local guide was great and so knowledgeable about the city – you can tell how much she truly loved her home. She walked us around, telling us about the history of Cologne and pointing out different historic sites. We ended at the Cathedral, which miraculously survived WWII when the rest of Cologne was destroyed from the bombings. It was raining off and on at that point, so my mom had decided she had had enough of the cold and rain and headed back to the ship with our friends for lunch. My father and I finished up the tour and looked around the cathedral a bit more before heading back to the ship.

For people who did not do a morning excursion, or who finished their excursions early, could go to the reception desk and get tickets to the Chocolate Museum. You just needed to get back to the ship before we sailed away or you would need to meet the ship in Amsterdam!

We stopped outside my parents' balcony and tried to get my mom to come out but she missed all our texts. Our plan was to meet up and go to lunch on the ship, but when I got there I saw the Cologne Pub Tour excursion was about to leave. I had wanted to sign up for that on the first day, but we were told that they considered it as part of the “morning excursions” so you could not sign up for more than one. That was clearly not true though because we were back before the 12:45 starting time for that excursion. My Dad and I asked Betti if it was okay if we joined in, and Betti encouraged us to jump on the pub crawl at the last moment. The Pub Crawl was so much fun! We met our local guide, who took us to two pubs, and along the way explained more about the pub culture and history in Cologne. The beer of choice in Cologne is Kolsch, which is brewed in Cologne, and we drank many glasses at the two pubs. It was just a nice, relaxing time to chat with other adventurers and to literally drink in some of the local culture. We even got kolsch glasses from the first pub to take home with us. Sadly, we had an all-aboard time at 2:15, so right at 2 pm we started walking back to the ship along the river and made it back right at 2:15.

We met my mother and our friends in the lounge for the “spat schoppen”, which was sausage, pretzels, and beer in the lounge. It was a good thing I liked all those items because even though the ABD itinerary said that a late lunch would be served at 2:30, lunch was actually served at 1 pm so I missed it by going on the pub crawl. It was worth it though!

We relaxed in the lounge listening to music and watching the Ama Kristina sail away up the Rhine. At 3 pm the staff took away the sausages and pretzels and started setting up for tea time (they had tea every day in the lounge but we were rarely on the ship for it!) I am not sure what they will schedule on the rest of the ABD cruises for this afternoon but we had two special events for ours. First, from 3-5:30 you could have signed up to meet with Shannon Sakaske, the DVC VP, and talk to him about DVC and share any comments or questions. Second, at 4:30-5:30, Becky Cline, Director of the Disney Archives, gave a special presentation on “Walt and Roy Disney’s Travels through Europe”. I felt so lucky to be able to able to listen to the presentation, learn of Walt and Roy’s journeys, and see how it overlapped with our own journeys on the Rhine River Cruise. At the end of the presentation we all got signed copies of “Disney’s Grand Tour” and I asked Becky to sign it as well and told her we would hopefully see her on the DVC Member’s Cruise in August.

After the presentation we had about an hour to get ready for the Captain’s Cocktail reception in the main lounge at 6:30 pm. It was another lovely event put on by the Ama crew. When we walked into the lounge, we received a glass of champagne and got to clink glasses with the Guido, the hotel manager, Pete, the cruise manager, and Captain Jan. Like our very first night, the dining room staff came around with passed hors d’oeuvres and topped off our champagne glasses. Pete made some speeches and then brought the entire crew out so we could applaud and show our appreciation for their hard work to make our cruise so special.

After Pete wrapped up the cocktail reception, we went down to dinner. Tonight was the gala dinner in the main dining room as well so the menu was a bit fancier than the previous nights. It was perfect because we were able to eat in one of the wine rooms off the main restaurant because the junior adventurers were off having dinner upstairs in the lounge. The change in venue fit the evening perfectly. Dinner was another hit – and I am sorry I do not have any pictures of the menus for the future adventurers to plan ahead what they might want – and I ate entirely too much delicious food.

In a change from the itinerary on the ABD site, we had our “Happily Ever After” farewell presentation in the lounge at 9 pm that evening, rather than on the last night. I think timing-wise it must have fit better, but it was a little odd to say goodbye to the adventure guides and watch a slideshow when we still had one night left! We enjoyed the slideshow (although it was very difficult to see the pictures if you were sitting far back from the screen) and then we stayed in the lounge and listened to Zsolt, the onboard musician, play some songs on the piano. I took a quick walk around the ship and it made me laugh on the subdeck to see the kids swimming at night in the heated pool as their parents stood there shivering I also saw that the film crew had set up a studio in the Chef’s Table restaurant and were interviewing Becky. It was finally too much to stay awake so I went to bed. To cap off Day 6, Semi had placed my Day 6 pin, Day 7 Daily Adventurer, a recipe card for German sauerbraten, and the DVC gift of chocolate bullets from the Jan Van Worth Chocolaterie on my bed.

 

[tiger04]

Day 7 – Amsterdam (4/14/17)

Once again I woke up early and saw we were still sailing! There really was nothing better than going out in the balcony and literally watching us sail into Amsterdam. We were scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam at 7:30 am but we actually arrived a bit earlier. We hustled through breakfast because we had to meet at 7:45 am to be directed to our tour buses – all the morning tours were leaving at 8:00am today. They placed us on buses depending on our tours, but the buses all went to the same location first – the canal where we would be hopping on a boat to take a canal cruise. We met our local guide, an American who grew up traveling to the Netherlands and married a Dutch woman, who narrated the canal tour for us. Amsterdam was simply beautiful. I really want to go back and explore some more because we only had one day, basically just half a day, in the city. We learned about the history of Amsterdam, saw various historical buildings, and saw the toll bridges, the symbol of Amsterdam, reminding us of Amsterdam’s importance as a trade city (the tolls are also in Amsterdam’s coat of arms). It was also very cool to see the tilting houses – I did not realize that the homes in Amsterdam was basically built on sticks that were stuck in the mud below the water. But over the centuries they started to settle and if you owned a rowhouse in Amsterdam, you might pay double what your paid for the home to fix the foundations.

After the canal tour we got back into our buses (there was a bit of a snafu because the buses could not find us!), and our bus headed to the Van Gogh museum while the other bus took the groups to the Anne Frank house and the Rijksmusem. Once again, I had struggled with choosing an excursion today – but we ultimately chose the Van Gogh museum because I liked that we had a painting workshop component. Our local guide explained more about modern day Amsterdam in the bus, and we learned that each person in Amsterdam has 2 or 3 bikes per person! We even saw a bike parking garage. When we got to the Van Gogh museum, we were able to go in through the back entrance because we were a special tour, which was nice because the line to get into the museum was so long! The museum was super crowded because today was Good Friday so it was a public holiday. We were split into two groups of 15 people each, and our museum guide took us on a quick tour of the museum. I loved touring museums with docents because they are so knowledgeable about the art and they help me appreciate the art in a different way than if I just wandered the museum on my own. Danny and Kira were our Adventure Guides, and Danny was good about letting people who tried to join our tour know that it was a private tour. I felt a little bad because of course you would want to listen as the docent explained the various paintings! I just felt so fortunate to be able to see so many Van Gogh paintings in person and it was actually quite sad to learn again how tortured Van Gogh was throughout his life. The docent also encouraged us to pay attention to Van Gogh’s strokes as we would be emulating him during our painting workshop.

After a way too short tour of the museum, we went down to the workshop to test our skills. We got smocks and then chose different Van Gogh paintings to hang above our easels. We then took a square and put it somewhere on the painting to use as inspiration on our canvases. We chose our paints and brushes and then went to town. Now I do not have an artistic bone in my body (even my stick figure are slightly crooked) but I had an absolute blast creating my paintings. I slapped on the paint like Van Gogh, mixed the colors to try to capture some of his style, and just tried my best to be an artist for an hour. The docent walked around to give us some help or praise our strokes. In the end we lined up all the pictures to have a mini-art show! And we were given boxes to put our paintings in that would protect them as they dried. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures from the painting workshop as I left my camera on the bus because we could not take pictures in the museum. As we left the museum, we met the Rijksmuseum adventurers and hopped on the bus that would take us back to the boat. Our friends who went to the Rijksmuseum enjoyed their tour but felt it was way too short of time to properly take in the museum. I did not know anyone who did the Anne Frank House, so I cannot wait to hear some reports from those who do that excursion on future cruises.

We had an hour and a half break for lunch so I got to gorge myself on the daily specials and the different buffet options. And of course I had to also have a homemade sundae with chocolate chip ice cream! We also used this time to do some final shopping in the Ama Kristina gift shop as the shop closed at 5 pm that day. I found some cute earrings and I got a Ama Kristina tea towel to hang in my kitchen. The purser wrote up your bill and delivered the items to your room.

Both afternoon tours were scheduled to leave at 2pm. Our group was going to the Delft factory, while the other groups was going to Volendam and Zaanse Schans (they split into two with one group going to Volendam first and the other group going to Zaanse Schans, and then they would switch). There was an accident on one of the bridges so none of the tour buses could get back to the ship. So we waited and waited. Two buses arrived, and the guides decided to give our Delft bus to the other groups because they had further to drive. Remember that because all the troubles to come stemmed from the fact Veronika sent our bus to the Dutch countryside. When the third bus finally arrived, we had to wait for the bus driver to clear with his supervisors that he was going to Delft and not Volendam. We got into the bus and had a nice ride to Delft, which was about an hour away from Amsterdam. I was excited to see both windmills and tulips out the window! I had struggled choosing the afternoon tours too because I thought it would be a shame to miss the windmills. But then I figured the Dutch countryside outing might be a bit too touristy and I thought my mother would enjoy the Delft factory. So I will just have to see windmills up close some other time.

I saw signs for Delft outside the window and I was happy our bus ride was over. We climbed off the bus, only to find the driver had dropped us off in Delft, but not at the Delft factory. I do think this is a stop for other river cruises, as there were Viking River cruises buses in the parking lot, but it was not where we wanted to be. So we piled back on the bus and Veronika tried to use google maps on her phone to direct the bus driver. We preceded to spend an hour and a half driving in circles around Delft. It was completely ridiculous but so absurd that you almost had to laugh. I have no idea if it would have made a difference if we had another Adventure Guide on our tour or not, as we just had Veronika, but I think the biggest problem was that we sent the bus driver who did know where to go on the other excursion. And then the next problem was that when the bus driver tried to follow either his gps or Veronika’s, it kept sending the bus to bridges that we could not cross because the bus was too big and heavy.

After the disastrous trip around Delft, we finally arrived at the Factory and everyone cheered! We rushed in because we were an hour late for our tour. As a result, we had a very truncated tour of the Delft Factory, which was such a shame. Our Delft guide kept apologized to us for not being able to take us on the full tour, unlike the Mercedes Benz guide who kept blaming us! Honestly it is shame we were late no matter what the reason and I really hope that ABD does not have similar problems in the future trips. We were rushed through the rooms with Vermeer’s table and the orange ceramics made for the royal family. We got to see one of the Delft artisans at work (you need to have 10 years of experience to even be considered!), we saw the inside of the factory where we could see the raw pottery, and we learned the difference between handmade and handpainted and handmade.

We were then rushed upstairs to a room where we could paint a tile. We had a quick class, chose stencils, and then used our brushes to paint the tile with the grey shading, which after it was fired several times would turn blue. Veronika brought us drinks and treats courtesy of “Uncle Walt” to make up for the disastrous bus trip. It was so hard to paint with the brushes and have my lines be straight, and I think my shading was pretty awful, but I had a lot of fun trying! We were told it would take a few weeks to fire our tiles and then they would send it to ABD, who would send it to us, but we still have not gotten our tiles yet! Our friend just recently reached out to ABD, who claimed they were still coming, so hopefully we will eventually get our work because they needed to send it to ABD in CA, which will then send it to us. By the time we finished, the Delft Factory was closed but Veronika had them keep the shop open so we could buy any Delft items we were interested in. My mom and I chose two handpainted pieces, and my mom decided to ship them home rather than having us taking them and worry about getting our VAT back.

Fortunately, our bus ride back to the Ama Kristina was much better than our bus ride to the Delft Factory, so we were back at the ship by 6:30 pm. We met up with our friends who did the Dutch countryside excursion, and learned that they had such awful traffic that they cut off half the tour and never made it to the fishing village! They did see windmills and painted clogs, but it seemed both afternoon tours were cursed by transportation woes. Dinner was at 7:30 pm so we dressed for dinner for the last time and then went down to enjoy another delicious meal. We thanked our servers and bussers for all their hard work during the cruise, and then headed up to the lounge to listen to La Strada, a string trio. The performance was awesome and unfortunately there were only a handful of people in the lounge listening. I would definitely encourage you to go to La Strada if they are performing on your cruises! I think the other adventurers were so tired and went to pack, but they really missed a great performance. We enjoyed it so much we bought a cd to listen to at home.

Sadly, after one final drink we said good night and went back to pack. It did not take me that long to throw all my clothes into my suitcase. I had to be creative wrapping up the wine I bought in Rudesheim, but it made it back safely so I was happy! It was funny that the stews took the roses from the room when the cleaned the room earlier that day so that we would not take them home (because you cannot take flowers back to the States). I got my last evening gifts: my Day 7 pin, the Day 8 Daily Adventurer, a receipt for strudel, and the DVC gift of a tin of stroopwafels (a cookie from the Netherlands). Earlier that evening, we went by Pete’s desk on the violin deck – he had big easel with all the rooms with their departure times and colored tags. Fortunately, you just needed to have your bags outside about your room about an hour before your scheduled departure time, so unlike an ocean liner I had time the next morning to get my bags together. I finished packing and then went to bed.