We had been on many ocean cruises, but never a river cruise. Booked a Baltic Sea cruise that ended in Amsterdam and decided, since we had made the trip across the Atlantic anyway, let's try a river cruise. We knew nothing about river cruise lines, and, in fact, looked for a Viking river cruise simply because we had traveled on Viking ocean cruises. Viking had nothing available, so the travel agent convinced us to try AmaWaterways. The AmaMora happened to be available on the dates we needed. In other words, we lucked into a great experience. I can only rate our experience on this ship and have no other river cruise to compare it to, but don't know how any other ship on any other line could have been as nice. The food was great; there was a choice of included excursions, and our choices worked extremely well for us and were great. We knew the ship was new, but when we booked the cruise and got the itinerary, nothing was included about a christening cruise. AmaWaterways ownership apparently decided the cruise we took was at the right time to christen the ship, so that found its way into our itinerary. A bonus for us. The food was much better than on the ocean cruise we had just left. The ship was immaculate, the service was perfect, and the staff all wore a perpetual smile on both their faces and in the voices. (You can read my review of our ocean cruise on the Holland America Rotterdam and find that I don't always offer rave reviews.) This was a truly exceptional experience.