Took a 7 day cruise… Took a 7 day cruise with extended family in a larger group. The furnishings on the ship are gorgeous and comfortable, the excursions lovely and Maung who did our housekeeping was second to none. That’s where any positives ended. The rest of the staff varied between ultra friendly to downright hostile so much so that I often avoided ordering a drink - and I am someone who often gets told that I’m the smiliest person people have ever met. Food, although very well presented, was mediocre and the 2 vegetarians in our group were served meat on more than one occasion (wrong order). For their Chef’s table evening, they were served bland salad and chewy spring rolls as alternatives. Most of our group, as with most passengers were American. Being British myself, in a conversation with Dinu, hotel manager, I told him that my father was originally Lebanese and he responded ‘I’ve been there, Lebanese are great - they are nothing like Arabs which makes them great and which is what I like about them and some even have blue eyes’. Telling someone so openly something this racist was shocking and I needed to calm my partner down who wanted to complain about this comment - this is the hotel manager who should know better. He then went on to say ‘My favourite place is Israel in the Middle East, and they are better than the Palestinians who just cause trouble’. I couldn’t believe this man was getting political with absolutely no exchange of a political nature from us. Finally, by the end of the cruise, at least half the passengers were showing signs of sickness and on the last morning we found out that staff knew of Covid cases and didn’t provide tests, masks or warnings. Given most of the passengers were elderly and a few who had recent cancer treatment, this kind of outbreak should be taken more seriously. Our whole group tested positive a day or two following the end of the cruise.

My Wife Wasn’t the Only One Sharing the Bed With Me! Even though we were impressed with the ambiance and itinerary, I never thought I would be dealing with bed bugs on our cruise boat. Mentioned my concerns to staff and even though apologetic, my cruise experience was a disaster. I will never cruise with this company again. Also food was served cold.

Obtaining a Refund from AMA We have toured with AMA twice. We were happy with the service. In June 2021, my wife and I booked a land/river tour from Madrid to Porto with AMA. They wanted $400 per person deposit. A final payment of $5308 per person due February 2022. As the deadline approached, we were very concerned about the pandemic outbreak in Europe. I have a compromised respiratory system and I fear being infected while on our tour. AMA rules for cancellation are ridged. If we decide to cancel within 120 days of departure we lose our $800 deposit. I spoke to a AMA agent concerning recovering our $800 deposit. She said if we pay an additional $175 ($350 total) per person, we would get a $800 credit toward another AMA tour. This made no sense. I read through the fine print of the contract online and found a section about terms of cancellation. It said "...unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances are...significant risks to human health such as serious disease...which make it impossible to travel safely" One problem: this clause is for UK guests only. Why are they treated differently? They are not separated on the tour boat. After numerous emails and calls, AMA decided to refund us half ($200 pp) of our original deposit of $400 pp. They refused to issue a credit toward another river cruise for the remaining $400.

Rolf was rude and disrespectful. I was disappointed in my river cruise experience. I was expecting a more personal interaction than the large cruise ships but found quite the opposite to be true. Simple requests were met with responses such as, 'I don't think I can do that' , 'you want that' (followed by a turned up nose), or by simply not doing anything. I found Rolf to be very dismissive with guests (not just with me, but also with fellow passengers) and his sales pitch on the last night did not need to include bashing your competitors. Left a sour taste with me. Hopefully that is not company policy.

Cancellation policy We booked a cruise and pre-trip to Egypt departing next year but had to cancel because my wife fell while in Japan in September and broke her femur. Even though we cancelled 9 months before the trip, AMA charged use the full insurance premium even though we had only made a 9.8% deposit on the trip. We were aware of the contractual penalty but not the forfeiture of the 91.2% of the insurance for which there was no risk. The difference was over $3000 so no small change. No one from the company ever discussed this issue during booking process other than to say insurance would be 13% of the trip cost. Seems fraudulent and have reported issue to State Insurance Commissioner.