Rhine River Cruise on Amadeus Royal

I was lucky enough to be a part of the Travel-pa conference last week on a Rhine River Cruise on Amadeus Royal.

This was my first time on a River Cruise other than the Nile. It was such a fabulous experience waking up to a different place every morning. As we were there in December we got to experience all the German Christmas markets in the little towns and cities, I was stunned by how beautiful these were. Full of traditional stalls selling Christmas decorations and gifts, no forgetting the Gluewhein too!! I have never seen such quaint Christmas Markets like this before. Just to see these alone was well worth the trip.

When we arrived on the ship we were taken to our cabins, I was sharing a B1 cabin on the Strauss Deck. What I loved most about the cabin was the Panoramic French Balcony Window so you could slide the window right across and lean out. Great for seeing the views and allowing daylight into the cabin.
The cabins are cleaned every day and a complimentary bottle of water is placed in the room daily.

Straight after unpacking we then caught the little train that stopped near the ship into Cologne, it was 8 Euros and you could hop off at all the stops along the way. We went to the various Christmas markets, the cathedral and the old town. It was a great way to see the city in one afternoon.
I would certainly recommend going into the lovely cathedral and lighting a candle.

We were back on the ship ready for cocktails at 6.30pm and then dinner at 7pm. There is only one sitting for dinner so that it easier to serve people from the small kitchen onboard. The food is very good and lots of it, at least 5 courses to choose from every night. If you have any dietary requirements then you need to advise the staff either prior to boarding or at the start of the cruise.

Our first night on board was full of wine and laughter and the Travel-pa network getting to know each other better. There were a few headaches the next day!

The next day Travel-pa had our annual conference in the morning where we learnt about all the exciting new things happening in 2016.

The good thing about a river cruise compared to an ocean liner is that they are small enough to dock very close to the city so you don’t have far to walk if you are not doing any of the excursions. You can choose from a number of excursions if you so wish, they range from around 16 Euros to 53 Euros depending on the itinerary. We found that it was just as easy to do our own thing and was very easy to walk into the places that we docked at.

For the rest of the cruise, we normally sailed during the night and then on awakening we were already in port.

We visited Speyer which is a lovely place and very quaint and lots of fabulous medieval buildings and the grand cathedral. Speyer was founded by the Romans and is one of Germany’s oldest cities.

The next day was the biggest surprise for me as we docked just outside the centre of Strasbourg in France. We caught the tram which was about 4 stops into the centre and WOW!! I loved Strasbourg with its central Christmas markets right in front of the cathedral and very medieval buildings. Such a surprise as I never expected it to be like that. I would definitely visit Strasbourg again, great to do for a weekend break.

In the afternoon we did a trip into Obernai in France, again it is a stunning little place with lots of character. We went for some food and wine into a very traditional pub in the centre. Have to say though that it was much colder here than anywhere we had been but it didn’t stop us from enjoying it.

The final stop was Ruedesheim but I didn’t get off the ship as had some work to do but everyone said it was stunning and very pretty. Some said it was the prettiest of them all, so I now wish I had gone to explore – oh well! Next time I will

The final night onboard and we had a Captains Cocktail party where all the staff were came to the lounge so we could thank them for all the efforts they had put in over the week. Then we had the Gala dinner which was fabulous!! 7 courses of amazing food. Plus the crowning glory was the Baked Alaska on parade where the lights are dimmed and the Alaska has sparklers on top and the staff carry it around the restaurant.

That night we sailed back to Cologne ready for drop off the next morning.

I had an amazing time and saw some wonderful German and French towns along the way. I would highly recommend anyone to go on an Amadeus River Cruise as it is just fabulous