I’ve now done two Amawaterways cruises: one with Disney (Danube) and one without (Rhine). More than one person expressed (I remember @sayhello and @tink1970 were some) they’d be interested in hearing the differences so here are my thoughts. I want to stress that we LOVED our ABD river cruise. The reason we chose Ama-only for the second cruise was because of the single supplement. We didn't have an even-number of people going. It was absolutely brutal for one person to get their own room and with the Ama cruise it was only a couple of hundred bucks more for a single person to get a two-person room with the deal we got (that we booked WAY in advance). I’m not going to compare “good and bad” because I think it’s more “same and different”. We enjoyed both experiences but both cruises were very different.
Same
- Staff and food - The Amawaterways staff is top notch and eating is a huge part of the fun.
- Boats - I love the layouts of Amawaterways ships with the French balconies.
- Welcome package before cruise - Was actually kind of shocked the Ama one was the same considering the Disney cruise was way more expensive. Got a booklet, luggage tags, and a little pouch. I feel Disney is really dropping the ball here based on reading what the welcome packages used to be like (backpacks, etc).
Different
- Welcome package during cruise - It was nice getting a duffel bag from Disney.
- Type of Excursions - The Ama cruise hit enough of the “fun” spots that Disney goes to (such as the gondola and Mechanical Museum) that I didn’t feel like we were missing out on too many of them but there were no crazy activities like horse wagon rides or Baumkronenweg.
- Number of Excursions - After coming from a Disney cruise where we did EVERY excursion we could possibly do it was a shock to see that some days only had a 3 hour tour and that was it! You figured out the rest yourself. I thought this was good and bad. The Disney days were jam packed and we were exhausted when we came back after a long day. We experienced so much and didn’t have to spend any extra money. On the flip side we didn’t get to do much shopping or lounging.
- Sailing days - I only remember one sailing afternoon on the Disney cruise. With the Ama one there were several sailing afternoons or mornings. I found it incredibly relaxing to sit in a lounge chair and watch Europe go by.
- Fellow cruisers - The Ama cruise skewed MUCH older than the Disney one.
- Pins - I was like a kid on Christmas morning running back to my room every night to see the new collectible pin on my pillow. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss that.
- Adventure guides - It was a great luxury having two adventure guides and a local guide. During the tours one of them would stay in the back and make sure people didn’t get left behind. When we came back to the bus they would hand out snacks and water. On excursions we would laugh with them and be silly. On the Ama excursions it was usually just a local guide. There were no snacks and no one to watch for stragglers. The cruise manager on the Ama cruise played a much bigger role in excursions and went with us. We really got to know the adventure guides during the cruise and there wasn’t anything like that with Ama counterparts.
- Kids - Zero children on the Ama cruise.
- Cost - Ama cruise was cheaper.
- Photos - It was a huge luxury having the adventure guides constantly taking photos and assisting with photos with our devices.
- Tips - Not included with Ama cruise.
Thank you so much for this! I’ve gone back and forth with this trying to decide which way to go when we do a river cruise.