On any cruise, I always look forward to reading the ship’s newsletter that magically appears on my stateroom bed every night.  The newsletters are filled with interesting information about where we are going, what we will be doing, the weather forecast and much more.

But on my recent AmaCerto voyage, cruise manager cruise Réka Piros shared even more reasons why The Daily Cruiser printed by AmaWaterways is such a valuable resource.

“Take it with you when the leave the ship,” Réka advised. At the bottom of the first page of The Daily Cruiser is the daily docking location of the ship, the ship’s phone number and Réka’s phone number.

“If you become lost, all you have to do is show a taxi driver or someone the docking location,” Réka said. “Or you can call us and we will come and find you.”

The Daily Cruiser also gives the time of the day’s sunrise and sunset, along with the weather forecast. I particularly like the saying printed under the name of the newsletter: “Every day is a new life to the wise one.”

The second page of the newsletter gives the cruise schedule for the day, along with the name of the specialty cocktail of the day. For example, the cocktail on the day we visited the Netherlands was the “Amsterdam Gimlet” consisting of vodka and Roses Lime Juice.

The third and fourth pages of the newsletter have some background information on the destinations we will be visiting that day.

Réka also shared a photo tip using the newsletter. “When you get home and you look at all those beautiful pictures you took, you might not remember the name of each place. You might think, ‘Where was that one? What day was that one?”

To help organize photos, Réka suggested taking a photo of the newsletter’s first page each day when you get up or the night before when going to bed. “That way you will know that all the pictures you took after that picture of the newsletter were taken in the places we visited that day.”

Another handy tip was part of Réka’s debarkation talk the last night of the cruise. To be sure nothing is left in a passenger’s stateroom safe, Réka shared what she does.

“The night before the cruise ends, before I go to bed, I take a shoe and put it in the safe,” she said with a smile. “I might forget that I have something in the safe when I’m in a hurry in the morning. But I won’t forget my shoe because I certainly won’t be leaving the ship barefoot.”

Story and photo by Jackie Sheckler Finch