ASTA River Cruise EXPO

Our time on Viking Rinda has come to an end and now it’s time to move ships. Viking was better than expected and they move like a well-oiled machine. There are little touches everywhere that tell you they’ve been at this for a while. The staff greets you every time you return from an excursion with a little local treat, the stateroom attendants work well in cleaning while you are away, and the meals were consistently good. The only thing I didn’t love was the cabin. I was in a French Balcony and found it on the small side. It worked perfectly with me by myself, but it would have been tight if I was sharing the space with someone else. Overall, I really enjoyed my time on Viking Rinda and would sail them again.

AmaBella Accommodations

My next ship is AmaWaterways’s AmaBella. We wheeled our suitcases down a few ships and then found the row of AmaWaterways ships. I’m here for the ASTA River Cruise EXPO and there are 16 ships here that have some part of the EXPO. Once we arrive near the AmaWaterways ship, their staff helped us each with our bags. We traversed through two other ships to get to our ship. We are surprised to find the AmaMagna docked next to our ship! The AmaMagna is a relatively new ship that is a double wide. It’s much larger than most of the river cruise ships. An AmaWaterways staff invites us to take a peek. We climb the stairs of our ship to walk the bridge over to the AmaMagna. We take pictures of the top deck and then go to move inside. It’s locked. The ship isn’t officially opened yet for tours, so we head back and have some lunch. I have the pasta and soup, and we all share a tower of desserts.

AmaWaterways Presentation

AmaWaterways hosts a presentation onboard our ship and we learn about the culinary experience. AmaWaterways sources from local farms and companies to create an immersive experience. We hear from a couple of their distributors who are in the area, and they share their chocolates and drinks with us.

Today is the kick-off of the conference and it starts with a welcome reception at a hotel down the road. Last year, the hotel was within walking distance from the ships, but this year it is a drive. Luckily, AmaWaterways has provided bus transportation to take us between the ships and the hotel. We were supposed to meet for a group picture at 5:30pm but underestimated the distance to the hotel. We arrived at 5:35pm and missed the picture. They did do another one later since many of us weren’t there on time. The Welcome Reception was overwhelming for me. It seemed liked too many people for the space, and it was LOUD. Somewhere there was a stage, but I’m too short and couldn’t find it. I didn’t stay long. I’m not a huge fan of crowded and loud places so I left.

The Chef's Table

Dinner tonight was a real treat. We were asked at check-in if we would like to experience the Chef’s Table. This is a special dinner experience that is included on sailings, but only once. I’ve never done a dinner like this and didn’t really know what to expect. We all dressed our best. The meal started with a little champagne to get settled at our table and then the courses came out. The first course looked like a single tomato on a plate. How strange. It wasn’t a tomato. It was a ball of goat cheese with a tomato sauce around it. It was quite tasty. This was a slow-paced meal which gave us plenty of time to chat with each other and really enjoy the food being served. This experience was really special and enjoyable. I’m limited by food allergies, and they did a fantastic job tweaking my dishes. 10 out of 10 would love to do this again.