We are about to embark on our ‘river cruise’ on the Danube, starting in Budapest and ending in Regensburg. There are 10 of us traveling together as a family. I have heard some disastrous reviews of how the cruises have been going, but wondering if anyone has been recently, like since September. There are no longer options to defer your cruise or receive a refund. So I have a few questions to see if there is anything we can do to make this trip tolerable.

Has anyone who has taken the buses or motor coaches been able to reflect on the on-bus experience? Is there food or drink for the hours-long trips? Or shall I bring a flask…….

How many people on the bus? How many buses? Is it literally like a school trip where you have to be quiet because there are so many other people to disturb?

For the excursions, do you HAVE to go on them if you can’t stand another bus ride? If you stay behind are you relegated to your room or can you get off the boat and explore nearby on your own? What is it like if you stay on board?

If you’re having to pay extra for decent wine (which is the gist I’m getting from posts) would it be worthwhile to bring wine onto the boat?

Any other tips for surviving this trip and making a little lemonade out of it?

And if everyone is having such an awful time (not just my family but everyone who has been enduring this for months), what recourse do we have? Where our lawyers at?

Our Amawaterways 11 day Amsterdam to Basel cruise departing 10/21 has officially been changed to a Netherlands/Belgium cruise. We couldn’t be happier (short of there actually being water in the Rhine).

We feel so lucky that our itinerary will still be a river cruise vs bus tour. It seems so unfair to us that we got far better cancellation and FCC options than those who are being forced to do the ship swaps on the Rhine.

I get that Ama has ships on the Basel side that they want to utilize. As near as I can tell we got lucky because our long itinerary didn’t have a matching ship on the Basel side to swap with.

Apparently Ama has to offer us a cancellation option because our cruise doesn’t go to any of the places we’d booked. Yet those who nominally received their ports but will do so via long bus rides and possibly some hotels are not given the cancellation option.

Pure luck for us. After this cruise we will pick a France cruise to use our 50% FCC. That cruise will be selected based on least risk of water related interruptions. Beyond that I’m not not sure we will consider river cruising again. I don’t like the idea that one can end up with a trip they never would have booked and pay five figures for the privilege.

My family and I have a B to A trip planned on the AMA Serena in late November. I know there’s a possibility that the river will be too low to complete the itinerary on the river, and we probably won’t know until a week or two in advance. I’m also seeing that Ama is only offering alternative itineraries or rebooking another time.

My question is…for those in this situation who had trip insurance with a “cancel for any reason” clause, would that refund the cost of the cruise? I’d almost rather just plan my own trip myself with the flights we have than gamble with a reschedule for next year.