Two years ago, 7 million sandbags were piled high to protect Hungary’s precious UNESCO-listed parliament building from Danube floodwaters in Budapest.
This year, high temperatures and low water levels meant there were contrasting challenges to meet. The Danube in Budapest is at its lowest ever recorded level, revealing WWII wreckage, the remains of bombed bridges and bare, muddy banks.
As the withering heat continues, the Hungarian Government has decided to halt larger passenger vessels, including cruises, from heading towards the famous Chain Bridge and that meant the luxurious new AmaSofia and its passenger manifest of top-selling River of Rewards travel advisors, their plus ones, Travel Weekly, and senior AmaWaterways staff were not able to board as expected.
With this first-ever Australia-New Zealand mega famil two years in the planning, and days before embarking, those challenges were met head on by the Amawaterways team. Led by ANZ Sales Office managing director Steve Richards and Travel Weekly’s 2025 Women in Travel Cruise Marketer of the Year, Angela Smith, and the rest of the Aussie Ama crew, the team took the challenge on as a positive.
Richards said it was an ideal predicament in which to put to the test internal systems, look at alternative itineraries and create new shore excursion options all under the watchful stewardship of cruise manager Tamas Landauer aka “Tom Cruise”.
“We never cancel,” Richards said at a welcome dinner and information session held at the chic Autograph Collection’s five-star Dorothea Hotel in the ritzy 5th District ahead of the announcement of new plans after passengers were informed days earlier that AmaSofia, on her 22nd voyage since launch earlier this year, could not berth in Budapest.
Fully informed, and after breakfast at the hotel’s new Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill, the 133 advisors and plus ones and a sprinkling of select media embarked on the first ever ANZ Ama mega famil, albeit via coach, to meet the ship further downstream in Austria.
With a stop in historic Bratislava, Slovakia, to break up the journey, we boarded AmaSofia in Melk, where the rest of our journey begins.
The first meeting onboard introduced winning advisors to the senior crew – including first captain Niels Springer and cruise manager Florin Mihalea – introduced by Tom “Cruise” Landauer, who then handed over to Richards.
Fam participants qualified based on revenue and engagement, with attendees from various Australian states and territories, plus New Zealand, with many being first-time river cruisers.
“There was about it was over $2.3 million in revenue that you all generated to come on board, which is fantastic,” he added.
He then focused on the upcoming AmaWaterways Facebook and Instagram content campaign using the hashtag #ISELLAMA, offering prizes for the best Kiwi and Aussie participants. The opening cocktail event was followed by dinner in the plush Journeys Restaurant.
It just goes to show that despite the severe impact of climate change, and the continuing high heat, nothing was going to rain on this AmaWaterways parade. But hopefully rain of another kind will come sometime very soon.
There will be a full report of the inaugural AmaWaterways mega-famil landing via your inbox in the coming weeks.
