Rhine River Cruise Meets Thread

How many of those booked are doing the Amsterdam add-on? We have it booked for our June 17th sailing but I think at $799.00 per person for 1 day and 1 night is very pricey.
 
I thought the same...the math just didn't work for my family. We'll be flying in a day early but will do something on our own. I couldn't justify $2400, especially if I have Marriott points for free/gratis lodging :)
 
I did the Rhine Cruise with Uniworld this summer and they offer a 3-day/2-night add-on and I thought it was too expensive. So I just booked the hotel and tours myself. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza which was very centrally located and convenient to the tour office and the port. The Disney add-on stays at the Doubletree which is a little closer to the port, but not quite as conveniently located otherwise. There are lots of hotel choices. We took the small-group Charm of Holland tour that I booked through Lindbergh tours. There are a lot of different names for tour companies, but most of them seem to depart from the same location (Damrak 26), so it's really the same provider. The tour was great. We also did the Eating Amsterdam tour which was also wonderful.
 
I thought the same...the math just didn't work for my family. We'll be flying in a day early but will do something on our own. I couldn't justify $2400, especially if I have Marriott points for free/gratis lodging :)

That's what I was thinking. I booked 2 rooms at the new W hotel in Amsterdam that gets rave reviews on TA on points / cash. We can have a private guide take us to the Hague and Brussels for under $500.00 with a driver.

We took the small-group Charm of Holland tour that I booked through Lindbergh tours. There are a lot of different names for tour companies, but most of them seem to depart from the same location (Damrak 26), so it's really the same provider. The tour was great. We also did the Eating Amsterdam tour which was also wonderful.

These sound like great options for us. Thank you!
 


I must agree that the add on is way overpriced. ABD is very pricey in general, but I was truly surprised how pricey this was. It is always cheaper to do it yourself than an ABD. However, I will give ABD credit for all the true excursions/adventures available on the actual river cruise. No other company does zip lining, horseback riding, toboggan runs, etc. We are looking forward to these activities, and not unpacking every few days.

I am looking for a private guide in Amsterdam but have not found as good a price as WDWgroupie. If anyone has suggestions of a company that would do a private tour I would love to hear. We want to add one more day on, and are possibly looking at Delft and The Hague, or Zaans Schan depending on what we do with Disney.
 
Hi!

My party of 9 is booked on the July 15 sailing on the Rhine! This will be my 3rd ABD....
Ireland-2015
Central Europe-2016
Rhine-2017

Plus multiple DCL sailings including the EPiC 9 night Norweigan Fjords Cruise in 2015. Please post!

Our Party includes
Myself
DH
DS-13
DS-9

Best Friend
DH
DD-12
DS-14
DS-8

We just booked for the July 15th sailing. We have DS 8. I hope he can meet your boys.
 
We are on the July 15th sailing and booked the add-on. We have been DVC since 2007 and toying with idea of an AbD for several years. I love DCL, but my DH is not a fan of the Caribbean. We were going to do a Mediterranean DCL this summer and then he suggested an AbD river cruise. It sounded like a good idea to me so we booked. We will be traveling with our 8 year old son. So excited we are finally taking the plunge!
 


We are on the July 15th sailing and booked the add-on. We have been DVC since 2007 and toying with idea of an AbD for several years. I love DCL, but my DH is not a fan of the Caribbean. We were going to do a Mediterranean DCL this summer and then he suggested an AbD river cruise. It sounded like a good idea to me so we booked. We will be traveling with our 8 year old son. So excited we are finally taking the plunge!

We have been in only one ABD in the past with a group of around 35 people. How does it work in a river cruise when there are around 150 guets. How are the groups divided?
 
We have been in only one ABD in the past with a group of around 35 people. How does it work in a river cruise when there are around 150 guests. How are the groups divided?
They have multiple sets of colored cards. Each set is enough for one for each person on a particular bus (approximately 40). ie, there are 40 Purple cards, 40 Green cards, etc. You get a colored card before each excursion (and turn it in when you return). That color card identifies which bus you are on, and which Adventure Guides you have, for that excursion. You can have any combination of two of the eight Adventure Guides. And the makeup of the 40 people will vary for each excursion based on who signs up for which excursion and what color they're giving out when you grab your cards in the morning. In general, the system works very well. The only problem we had was one day when Jennae told us we were supposed to keep the same color card from the morning for the afternoon. No-one told the folks on the ship, so they gave out more pink cards... We also only had 135 people. I don't know if it gets harder at 160.

Sayhello
 
July 15 is a sold out cruise. We booked cat CB with french balcony but we wanted to upgrade to a stateroom with an extended balcony. We called today and nothing is available . I guess we will be a big group. It is nice to know that they are very organized in handling the excursions. Thank you say @sayhello . We booked a family room at the Renaissance in Amsterdam after the cruise . We found the ADD ON too expensive. We will just explore the rest of amsterdam on our own. Its our first ABD , first river cruise and we are very excited.We booked the add-on in basel for a night at raddisson blue and airport transfer with ABD.
 
July 15 is a sold out cruise. We booked cat CB with french balcony but we wanted to upgrade to a stateroom with an extended balcony. We called today and nothing is available . I guess we will be a big group. It is nice to know that they are very organized in handling the excursions. Thank you say @sayhello . We booked a family room at the Renaissance in Amsterdam after the cruise . We found the ADD ON too expensive. We will just explore the rest of amsterdam on our own. Its our first ABD , first river cruise and we are very excited.We booked the add-on in basel for a night at raddisson blue and airport transfer with ABD.
I'm so glad the Rhine River cruises are selling well! I had a CA cabin with the French balcony, and found it quite nice. It's small (most of the cabins are) but it's so well organized, you really don't notice it much. And I loved the French balcony.

Sayhello
 
Question for those that have sailed....we are looking to book the 6/18/18 Rhine River triple occupancy room. Does anyone have a picture of the single sleeper chair? Our18 year old son will be with us and wondering if that would work for him. ABD charges the full 100% in a 2nd cabin with just him. I have heard if you booked directly thru AMA you only have to pay 50%, but didn't know how their excursions compared to ABD.
 
Question for those that have sailed....we are looking to book the 6/18/18 Rhine River triple occupancy room. Does anyone have a picture of the single sleeper chair? Our18 year old son will be with us and wondering if that would work for him. ABD charges the full 100% in a 2nd cabin with just him. I have heard if you booked directly thru AMA you only have to pay 50%, but didn't know how their excursions compared to ABD.
I don't believe any of the Rhine River cruises have sailed yet. You might get more answers on the Danube River Cruise meets thread, or in a separate thread just for this question. The AMAKristina is the same configuration as the AMAViola that does the Danube cruises.

Sayhello
 
Question for those that have sailed....we are looking to book the 6/18/18 Rhine River triple occupancy room. Does anyone have a picture of the single sleeper chair? Our18 year old son will be with us and wondering if that would work for him. ABD charges the full 100% in a 2nd cabin with just him. I have heard if you booked directly thru AMA you only have to pay 50%, but didn't know how their excursions compared to ABD.

I have not sailed but I think this is a pic of it. Look at the category AB stateroom. There's a chair by the sliding doors that looks like it folds out.

https://www.amawaterways.com/ships/amaviola-river-cruise-ship#Staterooms
 
I don't believe any of the Rhine River cruises have sailed yet. You might get more answers on the Danube River Cruise meets thread, or in a separate thread just for this question. The AMAKristina is the same configuration as the AMAViola that does the Danube cruises.

Sayhello
My daughter and I just booked the 6/18/18 sailing! She will be 19 next summer. When we were looking at the rooms on the Amawaterways site, it looks like the categories that sleep 3 all have a sofa. We figured the sofa pulled out. I'd suggest contacting Ama to make sure.
 
We sailed on Tauck ship ( very similar) and our daughter slept on one of those pull out couch / love seat. She said it was pretty comfortable and she had no complaints. It was far from the old bar in the back pull out couch.
 
They have multiple sets of colored cards. Each set is enough for one for each person on a particular bus (approximately 40). ie, there are 40 Purple cards, 40 Green cards, etc. You get a colored card before each excursion (and turn it in when you return). That color card identifies which bus you are on, and which Adventure Guides you have, for that excursion. You can have any combination of two of the eight Adventure Guides. And the makeup of the 40 people will vary for each excursion based on who signs up for which excursion and what color they're giving out when you grab your cards in the morning. In general, the system works very well. The only problem we had was one day when Jennae told us we were supposed to keep the same color card from the morning for the afternoon. No-one told the folks on the ship, so they gave out more pink cards... We also only had 135 people. I don't know if it gets harder at 160.

Sayhello

So is the ship chartered by ABD, or will we just have a block of rooms? We traveled with Jennae in Austria - would be nice to see her again!
 
So is the ship chartered by ABD, or will we just have a block of rooms? We traveled with Jennae in Austria - would be nice to see her again!
The entire ship is chartered by ABD. Everyone on the ship will be on the ABD with you.

Jennae is a gem! :) I'm selfishly hoping she does China in June!!

Sayhello
 

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