My name is Mike my wife's name is Kathy we are both certified travel agents, we help our , family, friends, and acquaintances get the best travel experiences. We do not work full time as travel agent as we are retired. One thing we had been wanting to do was take a river cruise, we felt we didn't want to go for longer than a 7 to 10 days since we were not sure how well we would like river cruising. After much searching we felt doing a southern France cruise would be perfect for our first time. Below you will see our review of the the Amadagio and it's crew.

First off keep in mind that due to the locks used in river cruising "All" river cruise ships are the same width. Some come with balconies, some with french balconies, some with no balconies. I highly recommend the french balconies which the Amadagio has. If you get a room with a real balcony it will eat up much needed room space, remember all river boats are the same width. Rooms on river ships are small, smaller than large cruise ships. But they are large enough. Being 6"3" and 230 lbs I had serious reservations about the size of the bathrooms and especially the showers (I like big showers). I assumed I would have to live with something akin to an airplane bathroom. Boy was I wrong! the bathrooms on the Amadagio are so well designed that I had plenty of room even in the shower!. Actually two can be in the bathroom at one time assuming one is taking a shower. The bedding on the Amadagio was extremely good. When my wife and I travel we always get king beds, but no such thing on river ships, queen is the best you can do :(. But in Europe a queen bed is much larger than a U.S. queen so we had plenty of room :)). The cabins are not ultra fancy like on Uniworld but very comfortable and nicely decorated and CLEAN. (We toured a Uniworld ship)

The food is very good! and plenty of it. Wine and beer is included and very good, not cheap, champagne with breakfast if you want. And the wait staff which is WONDERFUL, keeps coming around asking if you want more wine or beer or whatever. The rest of the ship staff is also great always helpful and cheery. They do such a good job I can't find anything to criticize and I am picky. The Captain Michelle and his wife his first officer are just top notch as is the rest of the crew. The ship is very clean and up to date with the exception of the furniture in the main lounge, which should be replaced. The furniture is not threadbare it just looks like it is time to be replaces, but is still comfortable. The excursions are included, some cruise lines charge extra for everything, not so with AMA. The tours and guides were top notch. They had good entertainment every night but keep in mind it is for an older crowd. Most river cruisers tend to be "mature" not someplace you would want to take the average teenager. Read more