On May 14 of 2022, we flew to Budapest Hungary and spent a week cruising up the Danube River on the Ama Waterways river ship Amamagna.  This is a short and quick story about the trip.  (Click the blue links below for a few related clips)

Amamagna is one of the very newest of the Danube River cruise ships.  It's unusually wide compared to the dozens of other craft of roughly the same length and guest capacity.  It also has some interior features that differentiate it from the rest of the five star boats plying the waters of this river.  Built in 2019, the ship has wide interior hallways, multiple restaurants, and other facilities not commonly available on the other craft.

While is has a capacity of handling 196 guests, we believe there were 162 aboard for our week long excursion.  Boarding in Budapest, we had moorings at Bratislava, Vienna, Krems, Spitz, Linz, Passau, and a disembarkation at Vilshofen Germany.  We passed through a number of locks traveling upstream as we motored through parts of four countries.

I suspect Sue enjoyed the trip a bit more than did I.  We both were somewhat disappointed by the guided tours and the level of exercise we thought we'd get when on the shore.  When we could, we took off on our own and had more fun with that kind of ad hoc exploration.

A few comments about the good and the so so of the trip. 

The boat itself was definitely 5 star quality - possibly the finest craft on this river.  Accommodations were decent and clean - and we had an outside balcony.  Food was outstandingly gourmet - frankly too much so for me.  I can take a day or two of that level of indulgence but not much more.  The ship's staff were all very competent as well as being nice and friendly.

The sights along the river were interesting when passing through cities or other developed areas, but for the most part, we primarily cruised slowly through lots of tree lined banks - pretty dull stuff, and I suppose I should have expected that to be the case.

So what did we enjoy the most/

The boat itself was beautiful and comfortable.  The food outstanding (up to a point)  The ice machine on our deck near our room was great. (Don't ask why).  Happy hour on our balcony every afternoon. (That's the reason). The 24 hour open coffee/latte machine was wonderful to have available.

Budapest is a fabulous city with great sites.  Its parliament building is on every brochure for river trips on the Danube. 

The maritime museum in Spitz.  Fascinating look at the history of travel on the Danube going back 4,000 years.

The Passau Castle hike and exploration of its museum which we did on our own.

Shopping expeditions to the various the towns where we moored.  The delicious and inexpensive Gruner Veltliner wines we found everywhere.  Prices for other products in general were surprisingly decent.

OK.  So about what were we indifferent?

The exercise facilities on the boat - my issue.  The fitness room was large enough but had very limited strength equipment.  I could not use the top deck of the ship for an early morning run as doing so apparently caused noise problems for the guests on the floor below it.  We could not get off the boat early in the day while moored due to the requirements of checking in and out of the ship.

The guided walking tours were generally OK but since they have to be tuned to the least active participants, it can  make them slow moving. The one bike tour we joined for a tour through old town Vienna was often terrifying due to vehicular cross traffic.

Other than the few notes above, this was a high level luxury cruise, but one that while we would recommend it, we would not repeat it.