AMA’s land program includes the hotel with breakfast, a city tour,
and transfer to ship. It also has the services of the cruise manager.
For AMA’s pre or post cruise stay, they note:
*Our land packages include
* overnight stays at 4- and 5-star hotels conveniently located near the major sites;
* daily breakfast at the hotel;
* guided city tours and excursions;
* convenient transfers to and from the ship; and
* the services of a professionally trained Cruise Manager throughout your river cruise and land stay
– unique in the industry.
This will give you a good idea. It’s a recording that my cruise manager did with my business development manager about what
the cruise manager does onboard the ship – but – also with the pre-cruise and post-cruise stay. AMA is the only cruise line where
the cruise manager travels with the guests.
I can tell you that I watched the AMA cruise manager onboard my AMA Colors of Provence cruise work tirelessly to get clients sorted – both from Paris (they hired a motor coach as backup when the TGV was threatening to be impacted by the strikes – which mine was. I ended up catching a flight from Paris to TGV.) And she also worked tirelessly to get people from Arles to wherever they had to be at the end when a massive train disruption/ road blockages were threatened for the day we were disembarking on Mar.23.23.
I personally had to take a cab from Arles to Avignon on disembarkation when my regional TER train was cancelled, and I was lucky that my TGV from Avignon to Paris ran as scheduled. I was lucky that the roads were not blocked in Arles.
My cruise manager, Kriss – at the recording above when she was still in Paris at the beginning helping people – was a superstar. She hired buses to get people from Arles to Marseille when their trains were cancelled, and got people from Marseille back to Arles before the next cruise started. And she had to ensure they were on the move early before the road blockages were planned to start at 10 am. She also hired motor coaches to get those doing the post-cruise add on in Barcelona from Arles when those trains were cancelled.
Booking a land package with AMA will not necessarily be the cheapest option if you’re counting pennies – it won’t be terribly out of line, especially when you add the transfers (and in terms of going from Paris to Lyon, they generally do the TGV, but they also take guests’ luggage to Lyon by motor coach so guests don’t have to drag their own luggage on the TGV. And in Prague, for example, you are getting that 3 hour transfer from the boat in Germany, or even going to Marseille, you have that transfer) – but I can tell you from my personal experience last month that it will be worth it’s weight in gold to have that concierge service available to help you in the time zone you’re in, and someone who has the local contacts and speaks the language (cruise managers often speak French, German, Spanish, etc. – and will speak at least English and the language of the country you’re in) if and when issues occur.
So, if we’re working on an AMA river cruise for you, and I suggest you add the AMA land package, know that I have tested and vetted it personally, and I would highly recommend it for you.
