European Christmas Markets

[jsmith]

oh nice! Also looking at a cruise on Ama. Their prices are higher than Viking but from what I understand they are nicer? What was your experience like?

Outstanding! Everything was awesome. The only think we decided we would change-and its on us-is the first trip we booked a room with fixed windows below the water line to save $$. We could hear the boats we passed and Locks as we passed through them at night so decided to book a higher level room, which we did. When we rebooked for 22 discounts and upgrades put us on the upper deck in a double balcony room for less money.

 

[evilmommie]

We did the AMAwaterways Christmas on the Rhine cruise in 2018-had a wonderful time. We extended by three days prior in Basel and a extra overnight in Amsterdam to make flights a bit easier, and we are huge foodies so the chance to get in some extra Swiss and Dutch cuisine was nice too. We got a good balance of day and evening visits to markets-we had the three evenings in Switzerland, and were in Rudeshiem, Gegenbach, and Cologne in the evenings. There were some day market visits as well of course and lots of historical sightseeing as well. The one place we missed out on -which should have been both an evening and day time visit was Strausborg as there was a shooting in the Market just about the time we docked. Cruiseline-which is LA based -made the decision to dock across the river and we toured Baden Baden instead-which was very interesting. We were very lucky since our trip was the first to actually run in 12 weeks due to drought conditions in the fall of 2018.
the markets run from the last week of November to the 23rd of December, with some extending to New Years day so you usually have some choices for travel dates. We left the US on the 6th of December and returned on the 18th.
We enjoyed it immensely and had booked a second Christmas Markets trip for December of 20. In August when it became clear that COVID was not a small or passing thing I rebooked that trip-which will include three days in Prague, embark in Nuremburg and end in Budapest-for December of 2022. Heres hoping things will have mellowed a bit by then.

OMGosh. I stopped when I saw AMA waterways. We're going to book a cruise with them in 2022. Thanks for your notes.

 

[jdb in AZ]

We've cruised with AMA and Viking. AMA's food is much better. So is their service. They had an elevator down to the dining room. Viking only had stairs. That's not a deal breaker for most people, but if someone in your travel group has mobility issues. stairs could be a deal breaker. AMA had scooters we could reserve for excursions. With Viking, our travel agent had to get permission from the higher ups, and threatened to pull her business if we couldn't take DH's very necessary scooter. When it wasn't in use on excursions, we kept the scooter collapsed and in our stateroom, so there were no issues.

The time we cruised with Viking, it was because of a particular itinerary, in a shallow river and Viking could handle the depth better than others. (Their ships have flatter keels.) They're more of a discount company -- cruising with K-Mart. YMMV. They do have a loyal following.

FWIW our travel agent recommended the Christmas market cruises, but I'm a desert rat and don't handle cold weather well.

 

[boop0524]

We've cruised with AMA and Viking. AMA's food is much better. So is their service. They had an elevator down to the dining room. Viking only had stairs. That's not a deal breaker for most people, but if someone in your travel group has mobility issues. stairs could be a deal breaker. AMA had scooters we could reserve for excursions. With Viking, our travel agent had to get permission from the higher ups, and threatened to pull her business if we couldn't take DH's very necessary scooter. When it wasn't in use on excursions, we kept the scooter collapsed and in our stateroom, so there were no issues.

The time we cruised with Viking, it was because of a particular itinerary, in a shallow river and Viking could handle the depth better than others. (Their ships have flatter keels.) They're more of a discount company -- cruising with K-Mart. YMMV. They do have a loyal following.

FWIW our travel agent recommended the Christmas market cruises, but I'm a desert rat and don't handle cold weather well.

oh gosh, that is awful. You’d think they’d be more accommodating to passengers, sheesh!

thanks for your feedback on Ama. I think we’re sold!!

 

[izzy]

I’ve been wanting to do a river cruise, and these Christmas market ones sound really intriguing. It looks like AMA has several different itineraries. Is there one route that is more preferable?

 

[jsmith]

I’ve been wanting to do a river cruise, and these Christmas market ones sound really intriguing. It looks like AMA has several different itineraries. Is there one route that is more preferable?

It depends a bit on what tourist things you want to see and if you are doing an extention what city you want extra time in. We did the Rhine the first time and saw alot of awesome stuff! Great history and great Markets. We are doing the Danube in 22 with some specific things we hope to see in mind but just open to new experiences. The best thing about the Markets is the regional holiday foods and variations on spiced wine. There are some cool regional things at each one and some things that are generic across them but they are a awesome experince. I would say choose your intenerary based on what you want to see. River ships are small and intement-there were 116 people on our cruise and excursions are included. We found that we were often able to sign up for more than one each day.