This review is for the ship AmaDara and the cruise "The Charms of the Mekong" which we did in…read moreSeptember 2026. This was my first river cruise and first times in Vietnam and Cambodia. We did the pre and post cruise land packages as well. The spouse reached out to Ama for booking but was instead contacted by a third party travel agent. Communication and booking accuracy could've been better. A lot of personal homework was needed on our end. PRE-CRUISE: 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City at the beautiful Reverie Hotel and shore excursions. AMADARA: The ship seems older but well kept. Creaking teak flooring throughout. Three floors of rooms including 2 restaurants, lounge, small gym, massage room, pool deck with bar, lounge chairs, sofas and tables. STATEROOM: We stayed in a suite on level 3 which had a bit more real estate that included a jetted tub, more room on either side of the bed and an additional desk area space compared to a standard room. Amenities included wireless ear pieces for your excursions, safe, stocked mini refrigerator, robes, slippers, bath products, hair dryer. Power outlets are few and are type A. EXCURSIONS: Bring an umbrella because it's hot with unpredictable rain. I didn't use sunblock at all. Excursions happen twice daily with varying intensity levels, all-inclusive and are easy to change at the last minute. It definitely feels like you're always on the go if you do them all. Bring either USD or local currency to tip bus, tuk tuk and rickshaw drivers. All tour guides were excellent and spoke English well. SERVICE: I've been on a few ocean cruises with Carnival and Celebrity. Needless to say, because of my Asian heritage, I've been mistaken as being staff BY the staff on each ocean cruise. Not here. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE was next-level. So gracious, professional and from the heart. From ship staff to tour guides. Hands down, THE best in the business. Special shoutout to cruise director Mr. Tung, tour guides Rose, Fin, Thomas, Punloeu & Tek. Bar staff Narong, Det, Lucky & Tuna who kept us well "hydrated". Restaurant staff Maria, Jacky, Sophea, Nop and everyone else were on top of everything and remembered our names. The spouse had a birthday while on cruise with mine a few days later during post cruise. He got a clever towel "cake" and a card in the stateroom and a cake/singing at one of the dinners. I received a cake at a shore hotel and another at a shore restaurant. Thank you! PROS: - High end hotel stays - Small ship meant short walks everywhere - All rooms are exterior-facing with balconies - WiFi throughout the vessel - Daily cleaning and nightly turndown - Included health classes (tai chi, etc.) - Beer, most mixed drinks, soft drinks and coffees were included - Food was good, especially the seafood, noodles, eggs & cheeseburgers - Multi option coffee machine, cookies & fruits available 24/7 - Specialty dining at The Chef's Table is limited to once per stateroom - For-fee laundry service available until your last full day; slightly pricey - Cell service was good everywhere except for Halong Bay CONS: - No elevator - Food hours were limited to one seating time and open for just an hour for lunch & dinner (breakfast is two hours) - No 24-hour food options - Wines were horrible and odd-tasting - Salad dressings were weak & watery - Main dining room had just two tables for couples - The specialty dining, The Chef's Table, is right above the ship's engine room so there was a constant humming throughout dinner - More power outlets are needed - No medical staff onboard - No airport transfer unless air is booked through Ama NEUTRAL: - Spotty WiFi when sailing - TV has a good selection of channels and streaming platforms - Disregard the 11pm curfew in Phnom Penh; as long as you take a tuk tuk, the driver will get you in past the guard - Entertainment at night isn't a strong point but the crew talent show and farewell night was worth checking out POST CRUISE: 2 nights at Sofitel Angkor in Siam Reap, 2 nights at Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, 1 night aboard the Paradise Elegance 2 ship in Halong Bay, all with shore excursions. OVERALL: Recommended.

This was my second cruise with AMA, the first at startup after Covid I gave them benefit of doubt…read more This one on the Rhine was during the drought. I get that. We should have been offered the opportunity to cancel for future travel. They did not. We were forced to sail. 7 days prior they gave an alternative to sail the canals then board a bus for a relatively short distance then re-embark. Fine plan but once onboard they changed it then they changed it again. Result - the first 4 days of the cruise we spend less than 9 hours in any port. To give you a glimpse at how bad it was on our "bus" day they did not provide lunch or restroom compensation except for money we had to use in their gift shop! To make it worse we were on a bus where the "guide" showed up an hour late so there would be no stops for pictures or anything. I was in a suite. I never met a butler - so forget that. They did not even make up my room6 for the first 36 hours even after I requested directly to the hotel manager. I had to go find a maid to get my room made up. Never once during this whole cruise was I addressed by name, not once. I am sugar free. What was served as a dessert were embarrassments. A glob of chia pudding with a strawberry on top and that was at the chef's table. Other things presented to me as sugar free were tasted and left for the garbage. They had no enrichment talks - not one. They had a solo musician as the entertainment onboard and he was the ONLY entertainment, no games, no talks, nothing. They had one night of "cultural " entertainment and that was good. They had one tours were walking tours and since we had no set itinerary often were quickly put together spiels. The one tour we enjoyed was a bus trip where we planned our own day. We have sailed for decades and with many lines and many, many cruises. This is the first time I can say this cruise line is not a good choice . I cannot recommend.

Raina and team planned our perfect honeymoon to French Polynesia!! We split two weeks between…read moreMoorea and Bora Bora and Raina took care of us every step of the way! When booking, Raina gave us great recommendations for hotels, restaurants and activities and was able to get us more amenities and better rates than we could have gotten on our own including dinners and welcome gifts at both hotels. Flights, hotels, boat and car transfers were all perfectly coordinated with a hand-delivered package of all our ticket vouchers in the order of our itinerary so the process couldn't have been easier. We can't recommend Calabasas Travel enough, thank you for planning the perfect honeymoon!!

We absolutely adored our family trip to Australia that was planned impeccably by Raina and her…read morecounterpart in NZ. We enjoyed smooth transitions to each of four destinations in Australia, where we enjoyed visiting Sydney, climbing the Harbor bridge, and heading to Kangaroo Island for an adventure with Koalas and Kangaroos, and then a trip to Uluru to enjoy Ayers Rock at sunrise and sunset, and to experience the Field of Light... and then last but not least a trip to the tropical parts to enjoy the Daintree Forest, crabstabbing, and SCUBA diving in the Great Barrier Reef. It was a non-stop adventure just as we love our vacations to be. The hotels that were chosen were TOP of the line and every transfer went smoothly. She prepared us for the entire trip with a color, bound and accurate summary of what our experiences would be and when we would need to pack, what weather to anticipate and what add-on experiences were possible. A+++++++ I would definitely use this travel agency again!!!!

America Israel Tours misled us on our trip: After stumbling around several sites of sacred rubble…read moreand rocks, we were driven through the Middle East and fleeced as we traveled. AIT stated that you only need $20 per day, which is not true. The "Tips" were more than stated in their package. You are charged for water, lunch and tips which sometimes exceeded $35 per person. Choice of hotels were switched twice: one, which was supposed to be on the waterfront in Tiberias, ended up in a location far away from everything-except the unheated pool.Only one hotel could be considered 4 Star, as the others were dingy, broken down and scary. In Jerusalem, we had a hotel employee come in our room, while we were getting ready for bed! Others had busted furniture, poor service, and one in the Sinai Desert, had cats on the dining table and blood on the shower curtain and bathroom wall and trash everywhere. On several occasions, we had a late arrivals to our hotel and were unable to use the pool or facilities as they were closed by the poor tour timing of our checking in. The hotel food ranged from good to terrible. One restaurant had instant coffee and boiled eggs as a main breakfast course! Climb Mt. Sinai? The brave passengers who did so, were later put right back on the bus, and driven through two border check points. The timing of this tour was long and poorly planned.We were corralled into shops and restaurants that AIT has an agreement with, and the owners would pitch their sales and follow you around the store until you purchased an item. The chosen lunch spots were terrible. The tour guides ranged from good to ridiculous. Our Israeli guide did not show up on our first entry into the country as we traveled along for 3 hours looking at unknown scenery. This same arrogant guide was rude (his answer to a question was, "Were you not listening?") and when confronted about the itinerary (Money, hotels) he said, "Call the company". The same guide, who liked to hear himself speak, gave a lecture on the bus, about Israeli politics for a full hour! Many passengers, including me, had additional and excessive charges on their credit cards from the optional trips, shops and restaurants that AIT pushed us into purchasing. One passenger had money stolen from his person (Israeli guide standing right there) while attempting to buy from a street vendor. Note: if you are interested in seeing Christian sites in the country of Israel, this is not the tour to take, as the guide brought us into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and we saw very little of it-including the inside of Jesus' tomb. Instead, we spent most of our day walking up hills and seeing select sites of rubble that only the guide thought was appropriate. We ended up going back to the church, on our own, to see Golgotha and the tomb; the two most holy and sacred sites, before heading to the airport. At the last meeting, the AIT manager said, "This is not a vacation-it is a journey." That statement sums it up. Did we enjoy the trip? Well, we made the best of it and you decide. In my opinion, I could not recommend this company.

My wife and I just returned from a 16-day "Into the Promised Land Tour". The tour was extremely…read morewell organized. We had 39 people in our group. All guides that we had in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel were top-notch, extremely knowledgeable, very professional, and pleasant. We stayed very nice hotels, especially in Jordan. Food was great. I do recommend following AIT's recommendations about bottled water in Egypt and Jordan, if you do not wish to be on Imodium. Overall, we had a wonderful experience. I highly recommend this company without any reservation

Nice wedding venue but it's a completely blank slate so expect a lot of overhead cost to bring…read moreeverything in as rentals Music cut off time is ten pm Ceremony and cocktail hour area is very cute

I attended the Rose Day event 2026. It was a beautiful day with free rose, cocktails and mocktails…read moreall day (with the price of admission). The parking lot is very dusty, but once inside the venue there was grass and compacted dirt. We weren't allowed to bring chairs, so we brought blankets to lay out on the grass, and it was life saver. I would go back next year.

Great spot to stop in and learn about the area and National Parks…read more The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. Get your National Park Passport stamped and get the sticker of the year. The man kept saying the trail was clearly marked - he just didn't say that it was labeled weird. Every map tells you what the trail is named - but the signs all say some word in another language. Grumash or something like that - but we were looking for "Inspiration Trail". So we ended ip at someone's house and were walking around their yard looking for the trail. Anyways - great spot. I am so good at hiking. I saw 2 deer and wasn't even looking for them. I also identified some footprints and clues that led me to find some other hikers that were probably up to no good. I followed them for hours but couldn't find any evidence of bad doings... but they were wearing punk shirts - so I knew. Thank you

This was such a nice fun day to spend at the visitor center. My kids & Family have been on a quest…read moreto becoming Jr Rangers to as many places as we can and today we made it here. Upon arrival we were greeted by the lovely Rangers. They had the ranger activity book on display and we each grabbed one along with a tiny pencil. Party of 11 and all excited to get this done. Most of the answers are within the center we have to read and search. Once completed we got sworn into and our Badge was given to each and every one of us. We went over to stamp our badge and our National Park passport (if you do not have one they sale them here too) Note no cash only cards are accepted. We went out to the patio and they have plenty of tables with umbrellas. We brought our coolers down and got our little picnic started.

We have booked many Viking and Royal Caribbean cruises through MrCruising.com. Scott is awesome to…read morework with and has saved us lots of money with his free price tracking service. Whenever we have questions or need help, we can always get through to him quickly on the phone. Highly recommend him for your next vacation!

Mr. Cruising is by far the best travel agent I have ever used! I thought I was happy with my…read moreprevious travel agency until I needed to make some urgent changes to my booking and it took several days to get in touch with them. After that experience, I tried Mr. Cruising and haven't looked back since. Not only is Scott extremely helpful when it comes to pricing out various stateroom and itinerary options, but once you book a cruise with him that's where he really separates himself. He's always available quick phone call, text or email away to answer any questions or make any changes. Best of all, he is constantly price checking your vacation to ensure you're getting the best price and before my last cruise he called me unprompted to me to let me know that he had re-priced my booking saving my family hundreds of dollars. Anytime I hear that a family member or friend is looking to book a vacation I always tell them that they have to book with Scott.

We were extremely pleased working with Sandy to plan a trip on very short notice after a previous…read moretrip we had planned ourselves was cancelled. Sandy helped us with the decision-making, put together a great package, and booked our hotel and transfers. She is knowledgeable, patient, and quick to respond to questions. Her experience in the travel field is evident, and we would highly recommend her! We had an incredible trip, thanks to Sandy, and knew we were in good hands every step of the way.

Sandy is a great travel agent! We have used her several times, and she has come through with great…read moredeals and discounts. We recommend Let's Go Travel (on Faust Ave.) for your travel needs.