Part 2: A Journey of Wellness and Wonder on the Danube with Amawaterways
May 30, 2024
Sheri Davidson
Imagine setting sail on a voyage where every corner turned unravels a new dimension of wellness and luxury—that's the promise of our Wellness River Cruise. Join us in this episode as we dive into the Wellness River Cruise I'm hosting, a journey inspired by my love for travel, adventure, and wellness. This river cruise is designed for like-minded individuals who seek to enrich their lives through new experiences and holistic well-being.
Adventure and challenge are fundamental to our happiness and well-being. Whether it's trying a new restaurant, exploring a different route to work, trail running in the Faroe Islands, or going on a wellness river cruise, novelty keeps us grounded and expansive.
This episode will explore how the Wellness River Cruise offers a unique blend of travel and holistic wellness. Discover the details of this transformative journey and learn how it can enhance your well-being. Join us and prepare to set sail on an unforgettable adventure that nurtures both body and soul.
Imagine setting sail on a voyage where every corner turned unravels a new dimension of wellness and luxury—that's the promise of our Wellness River Cruise. Join us in this episode as we dive into the Wellness River Cruise I'm hosting, a journey inspired by my love for travel, adventure, and wellness. This river cruise is designed for like-minded individuals who seek to enrich their lives through new experiences and holistic well-being.
Adventure and challenge are fundamental to our happiness and well-being. Whether it's trying a new restaurant, exploring a different route to work, trail running in the Faroe Islands, or going on a wellness river cruise, novelty keeps us grounded and expansive.
This episode will explore how the Wellness River Cruise offers a unique blend of travel and holistic wellness. Discover the details of this transformative journey and learn how it can enhance your well-being. Join us and prepare to set sail on an unforgettable adventure that nurtures both body and soul.
Hello, wellness warriors. Welcome back to another episode of the wellness inspired podcast, a place where you can find inspiration, motivation and empowerment in the pursuit of a wellness lifestyle. I'm your host, sherry Davidson. I'm a wellness coach and acupuncturist in Houston Texas and I am deeply passionate about health and wellbeing. And, as always, I'm here with my cohost, finn. And if you're new to the podcast, finn is my Terrier, mix, rescue Dog, trail runner and loyal companion. He is also a therapy dog and greeter at Element 5 Acupuncture and Wellness. What about what activities? Let's talk a little bit about the activities, the excursions. Okay, something for everybody, right?
Speaker 2:
something for everyone. So you know. Going over the itinerary, I know tammy's got a list of um the dailies on board, which we do have an app that you can use for the dailies. You'll see the daily excursions every day. It's loaded the night before so if you've got to be back on board at you know five o'clock for the sip and sale or six o'clock and you need to know what time dinner is, you've got all that on the app and it does show all the excursions and the meeting points. So you do have always you leave the vessel with a key card that has the phone number to the vessel and the location of the vessel because, yes, remember, we don't traverse that far.
Speaker 2:
Sometimes it could be 20 miles between port to port, 30 miles, or we do a scenic sailing. That would be a little bit longer, could be 46 miles, but you always have the information of where to meet the vessel back and, of course, the guides. When you're on a tour they get you back on board when you need to. So there's going to be quite a few interesting excursions along this itinerary and some beautiful cities. So you have anything from a bicycle tour to a hike wine tasting. You're going to get to Milk Abbey, which is beautiful, in Dernstein. Some of these cities are iconic, like Vienna, budapest, but some of these are very small like Dernstein.
Speaker 2:
You only have 250 people that live there. They're all related somehow because it's a large. It's two families brothers, married, sisters, and so basically they're all related, but they all have the vineyards in Dernstein and it's a fantastic little small community. So, like I said, you're going to have those larger iconic cities like Vienna, bratislavia. You get to do the coronation of the City of Kings, these are, you know, the Danube has the Vakav Valley, which you're going to be able to do a scenic sail through, to do a scenic sail through. So lots and lots of differences in the valley, the Vakav Valley, all the wineries that are along or the vineyards that are along the banks of the Danube, and then anything from small to large cities.
Speaker 2:
Passau is this confluence of all three rivers the eel, the inn and the danube. So you have very colorful, vibrant colors, pastel colors city. You can walk along the banks of the danube, but you can also bike along or even take a hike. So there's different levels, different activities and of course, you're broken down into those small groups of things to do. One of my favorites is really Milk Abbey and the Abbey tour. Hopefully you're you will be able to hear a concert they have. Well, they're probably practicing the concert, but you get to experience the pipe organ and in Passau, at St Stephen's Cathedral, you have the largest pipe organ in Europe and when they're playing these pipes it's loud, but it's also it gives you chills.
Speaker 3:
It really does.
Speaker 2:
So those are just some of the things that you'll be able to do.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so I have a question. Listen up runners. There's places we can run. You mentioned yes.
Speaker 2:
From city to city.
Speaker 1:
I know one of them. You said it was 25 miles or something like that. I told one of my friends and I was like maybe we don't need to do a marathon.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, absolutely. But from point A to B, instead of taking the vessel on the Vaca Valley, and that's pretty and good for the runners. It's not hilly as much, there's some slight hills but you could run that, and along the the river you have this bike run path that's really along, and then, of course, on the right hand side is going to be the car path um and it depends on if you know which which direction we're going.
Speaker 2:
but it's a great way to have you know you're sheltered from all the cars, but you get to see the view of the river and you probably will wave to the ship as it goes by.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you hear that runners. I don't know how many runners we're going to have on there, but so far it's just me, or if?
Speaker 2:
you want to take an extended walk and the wellness host would join you. So that's something that they need to plan ahead. So if you do want to do a run or you do want to do a longer walk or even bicycles, they will meet you. Our owner one of our owners, gary Murphy actually did the bike trip and biked it from, because that's a 27-mile bike ride, and he said it was just magnificent. At one point they passed up the vessel and waved to it and met it on the other side.
Speaker 1:
I could probably bike it. I'd be open to biking it. We'll see. We'll see if any runners come. If they don't, I'll probably just do my own little, maybe run in a city somewhere or around the track.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
That's a possibility as well, but I think that there's something on the boat for everyone, and I think that's what we're talking about. So, if you're a runner, if you're a walker, or if you don't want to do any of it, yeah. Absolutely. There's yoga, there's relaxing by the pool. How about reading a good book? Reading a good book? Whatever you want to do, yeah, there's something for everybody.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, and there's so many little nooks and crannies I call them on the um Magna. You have little libraries that you can go. We do have a cinema on board and it's a. It's a wonderful way um to just relax. Sometimes when there's no one in there, you have the whole cinema to yourself. We do have where we go into Salzburg we do a Salzburg Sound of Music tour and you can come back and watch the Sound of Music if you'd like.
Speaker 3:
Okay, the upper deck is also beautiful. You have really great weather.
Speaker 1:
Oh, right, and pickleball.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, next to the pickleball well, I.
Speaker 1:
Next weekend. It's a friend of mine's birthday and that's what she wants to do for her birthday, so it's gonna be my first time to ever play pickleball so I'm taking a private lesson you know, it's
Speaker 2:
just something that, like it, came out of nowhere it did, and it's been around for very long time, but it's just picked up in and and I people play it. We do have paddles on board. No worries about bringing anything, any equipment, Unless you know you're a diehard pickle player, then you're a pickleball player. You probably bring your own paddle, but we do have those on board and the wellness host will allow you to. If you need to learn how to play, can teach you.
Speaker 3:
All right.
Speaker 1:
Oh, the golfing.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes, absolutely. So we do have a concierge golf program which is white glove from start to finish. We have a private van that picks up our golf players. They're going to play 18 holes, have lunch and cocktails at the clubhouse after, and these courses were designed. They're not right on the river. They do have to be bussed out, but these courses were designed somewhere the Lexus Open or the BMW Open. These are world championship golf courses. So if you've ever wanted to play at some of these courses, we set up the tee times for you and, of course, that golf concierge is with you. So it is a white glove service and we can do that.
Speaker 2:
That is not included and it is an extra cost. But you can choose if you'd like to play five, four, three or even two courses, two courses at the minimum you can play. You can bring your own clubs, um, but I recommend just renting the clubs, because you can rent anything from the top of the line clubs okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:
do you know? My mom worked at a golf course pretty much my whole, my whole life, you know, like a young life, you know when was young? So from the time I was probably five, six, to the time I graduated from college, uh, and I never picked up a golf club me or my dad. I drove the beer cart once. That's a fun thing to do as well, but you know.
Speaker 2:
Hey, and talking about beer, um, you know wine enthusiasts because we serve regional wine on board with lunch and dinner. But we also serve beer and there's some fantastic beer along the Danube. Remember, in the medieval times the beer and wine were safer to drink than water. So a lot of these monasteries, a lot of these recipes are over two, three, 400 years old and they're still producing fantastic beer. So kind of a beer snob so I like my beer just as well as like my wine, so you can have both.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I like that. I like beer after a run, after a workout. Oh, that's fantastic, especially if it's hot.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I like that, I like beer after a run, after a workout oh, that's fantastic, especially if it's hot, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
It's just one of the most refreshing, refreshing things. Well, excellent. Should we talk about cost and deposits and refunds and not not? Well, I guess I say refund in the in, and I say that because it was mentioned to me. You know it's a year away, right, and you never know what's going to happen, absolutely. So, I kind of want to address some of those things.
Speaker 2:
So when you book and you hold your stateroom, there's a $400 deposit that's due within seven days of holding it and Tammy handles all of that function of it, and then final's not due till 90 days prior, so that $200 of that $400 will be refundable.
Speaker 1:
Okay, 200 of the 400 is refundable. And no matter when. If you have to cancel, no matter when. You cancel the two, only 200 will be correct.
Speaker 2:
And then penalties start at 35% at 121 days. Okay, so you pretty much need to know if you're going to be going or not, at least 121 days before final payments due. What is that? How many months? Is that? Four months? Four months, we'd say four months, which most?
Speaker 1:
people know, four months ahead of time, a little less than four months. Yes, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and you know we do a good job with trying to accommodate. We know you don't want to cancel, so maybe we can move it to another date. Those are just one-offs and Tammy works with me on that.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 3:
Good to know. Of course, we also recommend travel insurance.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Not only for the medical side, but to cover the cost just in case you're less than 120 days. Okay, then it will cover. You sent that to me and I haven't looked at it. Yes, but that's what we highly recommend. It's not mandatory to have travel insurance, but we do highly recommend to anybody traveling not only taking a river cruise, but a general travel insurance. But we do highly recommend to anybody traveling not only taking a river cruise, but a general travel insurance, anything yes.
Speaker 3:
It will cover the cost if you had to cancel for a cover reason and also if you happen to have an unfortunate situation on board Yamaha Waterways medical, then it will cover also the medical side of it. And uh, how much does that run? It depends on age and state. Uh, so I'll have to have to calculate based on on what state you live and also the age and what do you want to call like the cost that you're covering. Yes, that's pretty much all the information that I'll need to calculate, but it depends.
Speaker 3:
So it will be different from client to client and also what they want to cover. For example, if they're doing an extension or there just happened to be a couple of days prior somewhere else and they want to cover that part of their trip, that will also extend the number of days that they will be traveling. So that will be more expensive than if you're just covering one side of it. So, yes, it's like a one-to-one situation.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I need to look at that, I got it. I just haven't. Okay, I need to look at that, I got it.
Speaker 3:
I just haven't. I think Lori will agree with me that we do have travel insurance.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. You just never know. It could be something happening in your home state and you can't make it to the airport.
Speaker 1:
I mean that happens as well. Yeah, because that's another thing to think about. The boat leaves Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yes. Unfortunately, we can't wait for everyone.
Speaker 2:
But, you know, and if you are thinking about a pre-extension in Budapest, you can't go wrong. We do. That is that would not be included. But we do have a two night Budapest extension Cruise managers with you in that extension. So meet you in the hotel, greets you. You have a two night Budapest extension cruise managers with you in that extension. So meet you in the hotel, greets you. You have a welcome reception. You have touring every day. So it is a. It's not just a hotel and tax, it's really the cruise manager breakfast touring every day in the hotel.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And Budapest is one of those cities that you could really spend some time in you know Buddha and Pesh. The Danube flows right through the old part of Buda and Pesh and lots of things to do. The Jewish quarter there is incredible. For food. I eat my way through our itineraries. But the market hall has paprika.
Speaker 2:
You know Budapest is known for paprika and just a lot of inexpensive souvenirs as well. Just found a gelato shop that designed your ice cream in flowers, but incredible because the different petals could be different flavors. So I've never experienced anything like this. You need to look for this shop. I have a picture I'll send to Tammy. But incredible flavors of gelato especially it wasn't just your plain gelato, and they created this beautiful floral design with my gelato so fantastic.
Speaker 3:
This can be added even though they already paid their deposit.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, and how? Let's what's my question here? Let's say, you know, three months before we take off, I'm like, oh, I would like to do this. Can you add it? You?
Speaker 2:
can? Yes, you can.
Speaker 1:
If we have space, okay.
Speaker 2:
We're limited with space.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
That we have, but we do have two hotels and they're four plus five store. We always stay in city center, so it's walkable to restaurants and anything that you would like, but Budapest is a great walking city. It really really is. It's something that you need to put on your list to do and, of course, we spend some time there prior, but you'll definitely want to spend some extra time there as well.
Speaker 2:
And then we do have a post extension in Prague, and that post extension is um three nights, and of course those transfers to get from um um Voschoffen to uh Prague and you get to see uh Regensburg as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, um, yeah. So when I, when I went to Iceland, uh, I was. It was the same situation for me. I was going to the Faroe Islands and I had to take a flight from the, from Iceland, to the Faroe Islands. That flight was not a frequent flight and so if I missed that flight, I missed my race. And so I think I got to Iceland maybe three days before or four days maybe before my race and I was thankful because our flight got delayed because of the winds. It got delayed by almost 20 hours and people were super upset because they were hitting the ground running and they missed their excursions. And I was like I don't, I was just so grateful that I did that. So I, I can see, you know, taking that time in Budapest. You know, it's kind of a win-win situation because you get there a few days early, you get to explore the city and then you make, you make the boat.
Speaker 2:
And jet lag is a real thing right. It is, and it allows you that time to kind of get over jet lag and then you're prepared to, you know, get on board. So give yourself some time, think about it. And it is one way flights. So, wherever you're coming from, you would fly into Budapest and then out of Vilsoffen, and Vilsoffen is going to be Munich, is going to be your um, or Prague, whatever extension you're doing, but that's going to be your um, closest port to departing. Excellent.
Speaker 2:
And we can't do flights until about 325 days prior. 295 is really the limit and we do have options for that. We do have a fixed air cost or we do customized air. Maybe you are flying a certain carrier that you want and you would like a premium economy. Maybe you would like to upgrade your seat, maybe even to business. We can certainly Tammy can do all of that for you. So are these the?
Speaker 1:
flights to and from. To and from, because that's not included in the form. No, that's not included.
Speaker 3:
You can do it on your own or we can do it also through Ama Waterways, and if you purchase the flights with Ama Waterways, the transfer is included. Right, yeah, correct. The flights with Amma Waterways the transfer is included. Right, yeah, correct. Because from Vosthofen to Munich it's a long drive or a train ride yes, Train ride or drive.
Speaker 2:
I don't know how long was it from Munich to Vosthofen, Probably two and a half hours, you know transfer, However, from Vosthofen you can take that transfer. From Prague you can fly out of prague if you do the uh post transfer, uh extension okay, okay, that's good to know yeah, tammy can definitely help you with all that air tammy's amazing thank you.
Speaker 1:
I've referred her to people and they're just like thank you so much Very thorough.
Speaker 3:
Yes, she is.
Speaker 1:
Yes, she is. I want her on my side when I travel, absolutely, absolutely Okay. I have another question from someone, and they asked about pairing up with other guests if they go as a because the I'll tell a traveler yeah, up with other guests if they go as a because the yeah, the travel, yeah. So if someone wants to go as a single, um, what options do they have? Will, will we be able to, you know, match them with somebody, uh, in a room?
Speaker 2:
actually that is something that we don't do, okay, but that would be something that you could possibly do. But we do have solo options and those solos would pay not 200%, but 1.50%, um, percent, um, sometimes 1.25, depending on the stateroom that they're they're they're booking. So anything from 1.25 to 1.50, never unless they want a suite. If they want a suite, our suites are 200% for a solo, but it would. It would behoove them to maybe talk to you you know, sherry, about maybe finding someone or maybe someone else showed an interest in a solo and maybe you can pair them together and they don't mind sharing. But we don't do it as a company, um, we, we just offer the solo rates.
Speaker 1:
So explain the solo rate. I I was a little confused.
Speaker 2:
You said it's a hundred a hundred percent, of course, for that one passenger, then it's half of another person, so 150%.
Speaker 3:
So they're paying, so it would be six, so one person and a half they're paying.
Speaker 2:
Yes, one and a half person, correct so every room is a double. Yeah, we base everything.
Speaker 3:
Oh sorry If you, every room is double the price is per person, but it's considering two people. So if you have a single, of course that person has to pay 100% of one person, but since it's taking the space for another person, that is not there it will cost them 50% of that second person I see.
Speaker 1:
But they would be in the room by themselves. Yes, I see that's a benefit if they don be in the room by themselves.
Speaker 3:
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I see that's a benefit if they don't want to share with somebody, right?
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, and so is the bathroom right, because we only have one bathroom, and sometimes women sharing bathrooms is just. You know, we want our own bathroom and our own space to get dressed. But you know we have a lot of passengers that travel solo because they do want that stateroom to themselves. Yeah, sometimes we have two women traveling together that each take a stateroom, right, they just want that. I like my own space too, my own space Exactly, but I'll share.
Speaker 1:
Ok, so we talked about the refund deposit. Anything else like entertainment?
Speaker 3:
Oh entertainment.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I saw music. Yes, deposit Anything else like entertainment. I saw music.
Speaker 2:
Yes, so in each episode destination, in each city or each port, we call it there we bring on entertainment from that destination. So it could be a dance troupe. There's a fantastic, very vibrant, lively dance troupe that comes on from Budapest each evening. It could be classical music, it could be opera singers. I know in my last day in Yub Cruz we were in Vienna and we had three opera singers that came on and they were absolutely incredible. So we really bring the destination to you and they started on one of the songs from the Sound of Music. And of course, the day before we had just done the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, so we did the entire soundtrack, it felt, of the Sound of Music and I think we had to sing along till three o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2:
And uh, you know I I think we probably um overextended their voices for them, but it was an incredible evening and it could be a cooking demonstration. We could possibly make strudel and you know, but it's always something from that destination and the entertainment's quite lovely and we do have a piano player that plays all other times and different genres of music, but also maybe you can dance till 1 o'clock in the morning if that's what you like. All right?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, they do have like a piano slash DJ. We dance one of the nights, did you yeah?
Speaker 1:
Your mom was out there dancing away.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, my mom was dancing away and they also have like. Well, at least for the Christmas market, we had like contests. So we participated in some of the contests.
Speaker 1:
That sounds like fun. I love it. Well, I'm excited. This is just. It sounds so amazing.
Speaker 2:
I know I want to focus a little bit on the dining aspect especially for your clients that maybe have picked up a different lifestyle right. There may be vegan or vegetarian, um, you know, low salt or maybe, um, no sugar. We can accommodate all of those dietary restrictions with the dining. The only thing we cannot accommodate is kosher and, of course, celiac. If it's a really different forms of celiac we can accommodate.
Speaker 1:
But I just wanted to point that out. Yeah, thank you for that, because there are more and more vegans these days, more and more vegan vegetarians these days, or pescatarian um and uh, whenever they sign up through me.
Speaker 3:
I have a form uh for every client where they have to fill out their information and one of the questions that I ask if they have any allergies or dietary restrictions. Actually, my mom is allergic to shellfish and I communicate that to. I'm a waterways and of course they were always telling her like, are you okay? Do you want to change something? They were always explaining to her the menu and what, especially for um, the tasting menu that we had, um, what was replaced for her?
Speaker 3:
and how they prepared the meal for her so that she wouldn't have any issues. Also for the dining experience the menu it's awesome. It has very local food cuisine that you can taste, so something different, but they also have daily I think they have the steak, the grilled chicken and the grilled salmon. If you just want to go on the lighter side with vegetables or salad, so you always have that choice and I think hamburger as well, which is not as healthier as the chicken.
Speaker 2:
It's something for everybody.
Speaker 3:
But it's not only like local cuisine, but you also find other alternatives. If you're looking for something, you also find other alternatives if you're looking for something kind of the healthier side.
Speaker 2:
I promise.
Speaker 1:
And that's a promise.
Speaker 2:
I can keep. You will not go hungry on a river cruise. There's just so many things. And, of course, when you get into the destination as well, maybe you find, maybe you're in Vienna and you go to the Saka Hotel and get that fabulous chocolate tart, you can pick it up, bring it back on board, have it. You can have it there, or you can bring it back on board and that's with any wines or even liqueurs that you find. We don't have a corkage fee, so you can bring back those lovely items and experience them on board. We do have a mini fridge in each stateroom, so if you have to put any kind of medicines or anything in it, I always say fill it with chocolate, especially on this itinerary or gelato.
Speaker 1:
Or gelato, or gelato.
Speaker 3:
Well, yes, but I want also to mention that experience. I know that maybe a lot of your clients have not done a river cruise, but they have done like ocean cruise. So it's a little bit different, especially when you're coming in and out of the ship. The river cruise feels more like you're coming in and out of a boutique hotel, feels more like you're coming in and out of a boutique hotel. There's no big lines and big security lines that you have to normally go through if you're on an ocean cruise. So you just go in and out with your room key and that's it. You do have to check in and out because they want to know who's coming in and who's out, but other than that, there's not a security like in ocean cruises. So it's just like a hotel, boutique hotel, because it's small. So that's one of the big differences. As well as bringing like alcohol and food from outside into the ship, it's not that restricted, I think.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's one of the biggest. I didn't realize you couldn't do that on cruise ships.
Speaker 3:
Some of them they don't allow you to bring because alcohol might not be included in the cruise. So if you're bringing alcohol, that might be a restriction. So it depends on the ocean cruise but in the river cruise it's more relaxed and also about relax the dining experience. It's very the dress code is not like a gala that may be on other ocean cruises that you have to be with like a special suit and dress.
Speaker 1:
It's more relaxing type of like yeah, as far the dress code, like or not dress code. But what do people wear on river cruises?
Speaker 2:
Well, your excursions. You want to be comfortable, and I always say comfortable shoes, comfortable shoes and no, and change your shoes often because you want to be comfortable, cause remember, you're walking on cobblestone streets.
Speaker 2:
So, there is some, you know, an evenness and levelness to the ground. But also, when you're dining, we want you to be comfortable. In the chef's table and the captain's gala you'll see some women in dresses maybe a black dress, a little black dress but we ask no shorts and no jeans in the dining room at night. But during the day you're going to be experiencing, you know, you're going to be walking around putting some models on your feet, active. So you want to be an active lifestyle, clothing, right, um, and very casual and um, you know, uh, tammy was saying that there are no lines and that's the beauty of river cruising. But remember that if you've taken an ocean cruise, oceans take you to all these countries and rivers take you right through them. So we dock in the heart of the city where you can just sometimes hop on and off and about four of the ports that you'll be in, you just get to walk right off and that's the beauty of it.
Speaker 3:
No lines.
Speaker 2:
No lines no lines yeah.
Speaker 1:
Well. I get, really I get, I get. This might be a question, Um, if it's rough, I get motion sick Never experience river no no never on the river. How rough did those rivers get? Not rough at all.
Speaker 2:
You will not feel any movement whatsoever. Even if a big barge passes, it just doesn't because of the design of the vessel. And when we're going through the lock system that is such a unique thing to see Everyone goes to the top deck and there's no movement there as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, good to know, because maybe I need to get some Dramamine or something, no, no no, not at all.
Speaker 3:
Okay. Yeah, my mom normally gets seasick motion sickness. She didn't even know that we started moving the first day she opened the balcony. She's like where are we? We're like okay, we started moving. She's like I didn't feel anything. Oh, and I said like, yeah, that's the beauty of river cruising, because you're not in in super open space either like in the ocean, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:
So there's some rivers and lakes get pretty rough. Yeah, but the one at my parents not on the european rivers. They they live on the San Bernard river uh, not far from here about an hour, and uh, it can get pretty white cap sometimes. Absolutely Not here.
Speaker 2:
Um, amsterdam is the only really um the the Rhine at, because, uh, we have a little area that we go actually out to the sea but it's all protected and remember, on the rivers you can see both sides of the river. Yeah, Some are more narrow than other places, so both sides.
Speaker 1:
I'm safe, you'll be okay. Okay, what else? Is there anything else that we need to?
Speaker 2:
inform people about. I think if you have any doubts about river cruising or what it's like, we do have some YouTube channels that you can see. Um, I know that, uh, Sherry and Tammy can send you some links to just life on board and some of the inclusions. Hopefully, we we prepared that, but we'd invite you to the Total Wine.
Speaker 2:
I will show some beautiful pictures. I will talk about the itinerary again, all the inclusions and hopefully that'll come with questions and if it's your first time, I don't have anyone I've never heard of anyone say they do not like a river cruise or the experience. They didn't have to take a vacation after their river cruise because it's so relaxing and they love the experience, especially getting so many countries in one sailing. And that's really the beauty of river cruising. Part of the destination is what we focus on, and especially with Alma.
Speaker 1:
So can't have.
Speaker 2:
Can't wait to have you on board.
Speaker 1:
No, I am. I am super excited. And every time somebody comes in and they're just like I've heard good things about these river cruises or they'll talk about ama waterways, and every time somebody comes in and says that I'm like, okay, let's go. Why wasn't it october?
Speaker 3:
and it's very flexible, so you can kind of tailor your river cruise as you want, like level, fitness or relaxation. It's not like from 8 to 5 that you don't have any free time, so each person can design their own river cruise trip really when you're there.
Speaker 3:
And you can design it by day, day by day. Maybe the first day you want to do a more leisure pace walk, but then the following day you might want to do a hike or a bike, and the bikes are there. Even if you don't want to take a tour, you can take the bike if you just want to bike around. So if you need some alone time to go around and tour on your own, that's also welcoming there. So it depends on each person, I think.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I agree with you and I will be bringing my little signature on this cruise and I'll be doing some wellness talks. I'm thinking right now I don't have it all worked out, but I'm thinking about doing some talks around holistic wellness. So I'm generating some content for a class right now. So I'll probably be bringing that with me and giving some talks and then we'll have as a group, we'll do, hopefully, some mindful meditation and then we'll have the dinner at the end. We'll come together as a group. But, yeah, you don't have to stay with the group the whole time, but we will have moments where I want to come together and meet, greet and just talk and, yeah, community.
Speaker 2:
I'd like to go now.
Speaker 1:
So I generated a PDF file or document and it has all the information in there, all the links you sent me. It has the registration for the total wine, it has the videos, it has your information, everything I could gather that we've talked about so far, and I put it in a PDF file. So if anybody is interested, I will put that PDF file in the show notes.
Speaker 3:
Perfect.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it I can't wait to have all of you on board. I hope you choose an Alma Waterways cruise, a river cruise especially. You will never regret it especially.
Speaker 1:
You will never regret it. Well, I'm excited and excited to have Tammy and both of you, or excited to have Tammy and Laurie to be a part of this team. You can't go wrong with Tammy. She's amazing. Thank you both for being here. Thank you for having us, and we'll see you in a few weeks, june 17th, 5.30.
Speaker 2:
Sounds good.
Speaker 1:
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Speaker 1:
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