MS AmaVenita Reviews

Would definitely book again through Global Journeys. The river cruise was good but not quite what we thought it would be. Most day trips were only 2 - 3 hours in length. Fellow passengers were enjoyable company and the entertainment, Tori & Dave, were excellent. Maybe we are too young to be going on river cruises!!

The APT river cruise was fantastic. Went in Autumn and the scenery was incredible with lots of beautiful colours. The staff on the ship were great. Would recommend it.

The cruise itself was excellent, but wish that we had been informed that it was the rainy season. At least 3 day tours were spoiled by constant rain. The fellow travellers were great company, mostly from Australia, like us. The cabins were a little small. Had we known that you could upsize, we would have done so, but we were not told beforehand. The ...read more food was excellent, staff excellent and cruise director excellent.

The main drawback was the lengthy flight home. We left Wednesday 8th November 11 am, endured 3 lengthy unpleasant flights with Singapore Airlines to arrive in Sydney 10th November 10 am. We had upgraded to Premium economy, but there was very little difference between this and Economy. The Singapore staff were unpleasant and at times very rude. The plane was old and in need of repair/upgrade. The seats were uncomfortable and worn. There was water leakage from above on occasion. The food was not good quality. On the middle trip home of 13 hours, Joy fell asleep and missed 2 meals. When she awoke and asked for a cup of tea, having not drunk anything in 10 hours, she was told NO!!!!!!!!! When Joy later got up to go to toilet, she was told to sit down, even though 2 other people were lined up at toilet. On 2 of the flights we were in the same seats, which were opposite a large double cupboard, which was constantly being opened and slammed shut by the staff as they shuffled paraphernalia backwards and forwards with constant noise and disturbance. We would never travel with Singapore Airlines again.

APT tour was excellent. Overall rating on Tour was excellent. Overall rating on flights was TERRIBLE.

Thoroughly recommend this trip to anyone. APT provided excellent service, meals were great, daily excursions interesting. Good mix of people on board (though mostly Australian). Was a bit apprehensive at first as I was a solo traveller but felt welcomed by all. Toni did an excellent job with our cruise booking , airline booking and great accommodation ...read more in Prague. Looking forward to another trip in the future.

We highly recommend this trip. This was our first river cruise and APT did not disappoint, exceeding our expectations. The ship, The AmaVenita was like a 5 star hotel and nothing was a problem for the crew. Shore excursions and special events were excellent and run smoothly. All the tour guides were friendly and very professional. We really enjoyed ...read more Prague and the accommodation was excellent. As always Georgie did a wonderful job organising our holiday and look forward to our next adventure with her.

Paris was very disappointing, the river cruise & Prague were excellent and met all expectations. Very knowledgeable & well organized tour guides. Perhaps this trip isn't geared to solo travelers. Accommodation on the cruise & Prague of high quality but were disappointing in Paris.

Recommendations:- (Paris) Perhaps the APT tour guide could have attended ...read more earlier to ease the tension/frustration/anger felt by the early arrival of clients. It was noticeable, that both Avalon & Viking guides where in attendance. Hotel personnel were quite rude/short/ with clients as they where very busy! Perhaps this could be looked into by Global Journeys. (GJ Team: We'll certainly pass on your comments to APT. Thanks for your feedback.)

On the whole a great trip. The one let-down was the food, which would not pass muster in a Melbourne bistro. Restaurant staff were largely under-trained, which may be a hang-over from COVID.

A very enjoyable trip dispite the low river levels and the need to change ships. The scenery and Signature experiences were wonderful and well organised. Great mix of fellow passengers and everyone looked out for each other. Found the food choices a little disappointing. Presented lovely, but found it largely very bland and not a lot of variety. ...read more Fellow passengers who had done the trip before expressed the view that it was not up to the standard of their original trip and I think there was a general view that standards had slipped. Perhaps that was a result of COVID affecting the staffing levels or general cost cutting. Would like to see a wider range of wines and food selections, but overall we had a great time. Hannah at Global Journeys was as always, helpful, timely and obliging.

Georgie from Global Journeys has supported us to book our past three adventures and I hope will continue to support us into the future. Georgie has efficiently and effectively managed a large range of silly questions from me, without batting an eyelid (at least not that I can see) and has always been very helpful. She responds quickly to my enquiries ...read more and has negotiated many situations with tour providers or has clearly and quickly advised that what I was requesting was not doable.

We are and have always been happy to have Georgie there and look forward to working with Georgie and the Global Journeys team on future bookings.

Fabulous river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest with APT. We had a wonderful time and the ship was very comfortable, sightseeing was varied and plentiful, food was to die for, met some wonderful people, enjoyed the entertainment very much and overall we have had one of the best experiences ever. We travelled in November and the weather was cool, although ...read more don't let that put you off, as the crowds were not there and we even went for a swim in the heated pool on the ship, which was one of the many highlights of the cruise. We highly recommend a river cruise with APT and also recommend Yvonne from Global Journeys for her great advice and prompt service.

Everyone on the ship was so helpful, they became like family and we were sad to leave. The trip was outstanding from beginning to end. We travelled from Amsterdam to Budapest. Every part of our journey ran so smoothly.

A wonderful trip. Everything was first rate. We would highly recommend this trip to anyone. It was nice to have everything taken care of for you. We made some wonderful new friends who we will remain in contact with, moving forward.

Our recent APT River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest was fantastic. The accommodation in our double balcony suite on the top level was very comfortable and gave us the choice of sitting outside while cruising, when not on top enjoying the sundeck. The staff were very friendly, obliging and professional in their various fields. The Tour Director, Janos, ...read more and Hotel Manager, Marcel, were exceptional.

The all inclusive on shore excursions were varied and interesting, well organised with knowledgable local guides. Notably the visit to Namedy Castle and the Orchestral Concert in Vienna were outstanding. The food on board was varied and of very high quality, with many special treats for all. We highly recommend this APT cruise. Our thanks must go to our Global Journeys consultant Yvonne for her highly professional efforts in organising our last two overseas trips.

Have used APT several times before and are always impressed with the package they provide. Would certainly use them again.

Our first river cruise and we enjoyed every moment. Jemma Rosen from Global Journeys did a great job organising everything for us as a last minute decision to go. APT was great, Amabella our ship was OK but maybe a bit in need of redecorating in the main lounge area. The food was plentiful but not as many choices as we are used to on ocean cruises. ...read more The highlights were the wonderful excursions and special events, they were amazing!

We loved our double balcony cabin and the top deck pool was very much appreciated as we were experiencing a record breaking heatwave in Europe. We were not expecting it to be so hot, 38 degrees some days, hotter than Sydney summer. Would love to do more river cruises in France or Portugal but the big drawback is the horrendously long flights to Europe. My ideal would be to cruise over and back. Thanks Jemma for all your help and we would certainly book with you again if the right holiday in our budget became available.

Generally an excellent cruise with good service and very good guides on shore excursions. The only event which we thought overrated was the dinner at Princess Heide's castle - the cooking of the food (chicken) was very ordinary compared with that served on the ship .

A great cruise, very well organised, everything went on time and when one of the locks was damaged APT organised changing boats without interfering with the trip. Extremely well done. A great holiday. Flights and cruise well organised by Hannah Campbell, nothing needed to be done. Thank you all.

We have travelled extensively each year by air, on land and with many ocean cruises but this was the first river cruise for us. Last year on a tour to Scandinavia almost the entire bus had done an APT European river cruise and were full of praise and this in part motivated us to experience it ourselves.

The transfers at each end of the trip were ...read more efficient and seamless. The ship and the crew were first rate and the service unparalleled. We give a special commendation for the cruise director Emma Leslie for both friendliness and she demonstrated the greatest attention to detail with backup plans when because of the river height, when they needed a Plan B. She also gave an excellent on-board commentary while travelling through the castle reaches of the Rhine Valley.

We are active tourists but we appreciated that the company provided more gentle excursions for those who are not up for rigorous activity. The food was of a high standard served by friendly and courteous waiting staff, but with the greatest respect lacked the WOW factor of say a Seabourn cruise which is approximately in the same price range.

It’s hard to compete with Budapest, the wonderful 800-year-old Franconian Bavarian villages, and the elegance of Vienna. The itinerary with the peak experiences at the Lichtenstein private Palace concert in Vienna and the dinner recital at Schloss Burg Namedy were memorable. The latter with a live Princess soldering-on, reminded us of the Alan Bennett play "People" about another lady dedicated to the upkeep of a stately old home in the country.

Fellow travellers were mainly Australian and we still not cannot get our head around why gentlemen in their 70s with legs way past their prime and looking like the legs of a queen chair, insist on wearing shorts even when the temperature was hovering around 15 Celsius. It quite put us off our Martinis which were perfect once we had taught Stan the barman how to make a 007 Bond Vesper Martini.

Look forward to travelling with the company again.

From day one we enjoyed the welcoming and pleasurable hospitality on board the MS AmaVenita. Every aspect of this trip was executed with perfection and we honestly cannot fault it. The itinerary was well planned with options for guests at each port during the journey. As it turned out every guest's preferences for the on-shore excursions were met.

The ...read more Cruise Director Emma, kept us all informed and aware of events at every point during the trip. We were also blessed with great weather for the full fifteen April spring days. There was plenty of variety in the choice of excursions and through visiting small towns such as Melk and Miltenberg and big cities like Budapest Vienna and Cologne, guests were given a taste of many different worlds. We did everything from learning how to make Apple Strudel to Beer Drinking to listening to fabulous concerts In the Liechtenstein Palace in Vienna and Schloss Burg Namedy in Germany.

The journey by river in itself is so interesting as the ship travelled through 68 locks. The engineering involved is amazing and to explain it, a university lecturer and Historian specialising in Engineering History gave the most interesting account of the waterway system we were travelling on.

The food was excellent and varied with the menu reflecting the different regions we passed through. The journey was made pleasant through the sheer friendliness of all staff. I fully recommend this trip to anyone looking for a relaxing and yet stimulating journey. Thank you to the team from APT and Global Journeys for making it a seamless experience which now has become a set of the most beautiful memories.

We booked with Yvonne of Global Journeys. Everything was worry free and Yvonne promptly dealt with any questions and was so easy to deal with. When, 10 days out, we were notified that APT needed to change the itinerary because of low water levels in the Danube and Rhine rivers Yvonne was immediately in contact.
We decided to go on the revised itinerary ...read more and we were not disappointed!

APT went to great lengths to ensure we enjoyed a holiday like no other. The Majestic Imperator was an absolute highlight, four hours of regal luxury from Budapest to Vienna was just bliss. The private charter flight to Rotterdam was another highlight and the unique voyage through The Netherlands and Belgium was full of delightful stops at places like Kinderdyke and Willemstad.

Apparently this itinerary was a first for APT, maybe one they should repeat. We both returned home relaxed, maybe a kilo or two heavier. We thoroughly recommend Global Journeys and APT.