Trip anticipation—it’s one of my favorite parts of travel. When UPS delivered the documents for our AMA Waterways Christmas market cruise, I ripped open the box immediately. What did I discover? A black pouch holding cruise vouchers, luggage tags, a brochure with tips about preparing for the cruise, a detailed itinerary and a guidebook. Before you know it Alan and I will be experiencing Christmas on the Rhine. It’s a trip that’s long been on my boomer bucket list.

Here’s our AMA Waterways Christmas market cruise itinerary:

We’ll arrive in Amsterdam via Lufthansa a day early to rest up from jet lag. For the first time, we used the bidding strategies at Bid On Travel to bid on 5-star Amsterdam hotels at Priceline and ended up with accommodations at the Amsterdam Marriott.  We’ll let you know if taking a gamble worked.

After boarding the Amacello on a Thursday afternoon and overnighting in Amsterdam, we start the next morning with a choice of an Amsterdam Canal Cruise and city tour or visiting the Jordaan area of Amsterdam.Then, the real fun begins with stops in Germany, France and Switzerland including:

• Cologne: Cologne walking tour and cathedral visit plus Christmas markets
• Koblenz: Overnight
• Rudesheim: Siegried’s Music Museum, wine tasting, Christmas markets
• Speyer: Speyer walking tour or Heidelberg excursion, Christmas markets
• Strasbourg: Strasbourg city tour, Strasbourg canal cruise, Christmas markets
• Breisach: Colmar excursion or Black Forest excursion
• Basel: Basel city tour

After disembarking in Basel, we’ll continue on an AMA Waterways Christmas cruise land extension to Lucerne and Zurich. In Lucerne we’ll be staying at the Hotel Schweizerhof Lucerne. Activities include Lucerene walking tour, Christmas marekts, optional Swiss Mountain tour and Lucerne Lake cruise.

Then, it’s on to Zurich. After checking into our accommodations at Hotel Contiental Zurich, we’ll take a Zurich city tour and visit the Christmas markets. There’s also an optional tour to Rhine Falls.

The return flight on Swiss Air will be with extra-full bags. You did see all the Christmas markets that we’re visiting, right?

Have you experienced an AMA Waterways Christmas market cruise or on another line? Post a comment to share your tips. Alan’s worried that I might become a shopper.