beesKate

SuiteTraveler, it has definitely changed on Uniworld. All drinks, all day if you want.

Robin, what was the latest you arrived at dinner? I know we normally show up when they open the doors (after cocktails), but it's nice to know we have options if we want to linger.

I'm late chiming in, but these are our favorite rooms. We've been in 304 on several cruises now. We love the proximity to the dining room, main lounge and easy access on & off. The ships aren't big, the cost savings is worth it and we actually prefer these rooms. Our first cruise we also thought the "middle of the ship" must be better... but not at all.

Depending on your itinerary, you may spend very little sailing time in your cabin. Also, since it's a river, the view is on both sides (normally) which is why people spend more time in common areas on scenic cruising days. I'm happy with the bigger windows (not the aquarium class, but the more "full size" windows). I do like being able to look out or in the limited time we're on the ship, sit by the window.

It would be possible. I wouldn't bother to BRING euros, but I'd get some out of an ATM at the airport. Although it's all inclusive, and you really could do the entire trip without spending any extra money, if you think you may want to pick up something small at the airport for a snack (could use credit) or buy things from market vendors, I'd recommend getting at least some euros from an ATM when you arrive. We always find an ATM at the airport, then buy a cup of coffee or something to get some change.

Debbie,

... I'm thinking about taking the half day to Ferrara instead of the whole day in Bologna then taking the bikes out after lunch.

 

Brian

We've pretty much decided on Bologna at this point. But who knows... and I'm sure we'll talk to people who chose Ferrara. I'll try to remember!

PapaB, we started out doing the same thing you did. I thought we'd just "do" Italy on our own. But I've really come to enjoy the small group tours... so I started looking for small groups and guides... etc. Then my husband reminded me we had an extra credit from Uniworld on our last cruise. The idea of letting them do all the planning and taking care of details made me realize how spoiled I'm getting with them. I still tell people my favorite thing on the last cruise was being able to get on the ship after a day of touring and ask for a glass of champagne, then sit and enjoy. Repeat as often as needed. A couple we met on our Rhone cruise last year took this trip and really enjoyed it. I doubt I'll give a day-by-day in May for our trip, but I'll try to check back in with a quick review.

I recommend Frankfurt to Passau. We've done both stretches and the Frankfurt to Passau takes you through the Rhine river where the scenery is constant... cute German town, vineyard, church, castle.. repeat.

Passau to Budapest is nice, but your stops are probably larger cities, and while there's still castles, etc. I liked the other more.

There is really no difference in size. We actually preferred the category 3, near the central stair. We were very close to everything, and no, there was never noise.

We had a wonderful cruise on the Catherine in fall of 2015. I just never got around to writing a review. There's nothing to be worried about.

We opted to go to Schonbrunn on our own. We did not tour the palace, but walked through the gardens up to the Gloriette. A picture we took from there is still my husband's screensaver.

We left the ship at the same time the people on the tour were boarding the bus. We arrived at Schonbrunn at the same time. The people who took the tour were not able to visit the gardens (which are spectacular). The gardens are a lot of walking, up hill to get to the Gloriette.

We had about a 1/2 day... apparently we didn't keep the daily schedule for that day. I remember thinking we should have made one last stop in the city for a market before returning to the ship, but we didn't.

We were docked just on the other side of the bridge from the picture JP posted. If I recall correctly, the Vorgartenstrasse metro station was inbound on one side of the street and outbound on the other (you had to cross the street). If you're docked here, the ship staff will be able to let you know the correct station to go to.

As mentioned, there is very little on-board entertainment. During daytime sailing, most people liked to be up top to enjoy the scenery. People find going through locks fascinating and my husband always tried to be up top when we went through the locks during the day or evening.

As mentioned in earlier posts, there is always a port talk before dinner. The entertainment itself varies on ships, but is normally at least a musician with a keyboard. The one on the Catherine was very good, on the Danube we had a husband & wife duo... and actually 2 of the guests were entertainers and they allowed them to do a short act one evening. Our first cruise probably had the weakest regular entertainment -- but they brought in several acts, local entertainment on 2-3 nights (except the Catherine, I think we only had one jazz singer).

Most of the activities during the day are walking tours, so you do get a lot of steps in and we were usually tired in the evenings. When we could, we tried to go wandering the towns at night, but many times we were cruising and unable to do this -- a lot depends on the cruise and the actual itinerary.

I'd suggest looking at the cruise companions on their website for the cruises you are considering, these give you a better idea of activities than the day-to-day itineraries.

You days will be much busier than on an ocean cruise as you will stop at least at one port, sometimes more, per day... again depending on the route. Which itinerary are you looking at?

There were very few other couples who were traveling alone and looking for people to share dinner with, hang out in the lounge after dinner, and really get to know one another. .

We also found this on our most recent cruise. There were several large groups and multiple small groups on our cruise. Also, the dining room set-up was mainly smaller tables (we really liked the 8-top rounds). We actually sat alone on our first evening on a 6-top round. We did end up meeting several couples who were also travelling alone, but it the number of groups travelling together was a noticeable difference on our most recent cruise. It does change the dynamic of the trip.

We did this 2 years ago. I do have a review in the reviews section too.

• Best Time to Travel - We left around Columbus Day. It was cool (actually snow on the ground in Munich when we landed) but we had great weather for most of the trip. We heard the Uniworld ship a day or two behind us had rain following them the entire way. A little earlier you may have warmer temps. I saw some picture from shortly after we went and the autumn color in the Wachau Valley looked more intense.
  
• Recommended Cabin Categories - We like category 3. But you need to book almost as soon as they release the date. On the Beatrice I think we were in 304. We never had noise issues due to proximity to dining room, but it was easy to pop up & down the stairs. Category 3 is a bit less expensive, but the exact same size as Category 2.
  
• Favorite Ports - There is not a bad port. We really enjoyed the trip to Salzburg... it was my day of many pastries. It really depends what you like. Vienna is very much a big city, but we loved taking the metro out to Schonbrun Palace and walking the grounds. Budapest was also amazing -- and I would like to go back to see some of the things we didn't have time for.
  
• Value of Pre/Post Excursions (Prague) - We've never done the official pre-post excursion. The 36 hours we spent in Prague were amazing though. It depends how comfortable you'd be traveling on your own. The pricing places a premium on having Uniworld facilitate certain things, but Prague is very easy to get around on your own.
  
• Refugee Concerns - If you haven't booked yet, there's no way to know what will happen by next year. I wouldn't let this be a deciding factor.
  
• Best Time to Book Travels - We normally book as early as possible to get the rare category 3 cabin. However, they tend to have better deals in shoulder seasons.
  

We haven't gone yet (10 days!!)... but here's comments on some of them http://landlopers.com/2015/09/15/uniworld-france-excursions

Although Landlopers posted pictures and a few short comments, his review is finally up. This gives me something to look forward to in a few weeks:)

http://landlopers.com/2015/09/06/uniworld

You really won't go wrong regardless of what you do. If you are limited in days -- and when you add travel days 9 is about the minimum. Our arrival day is always considered a "jet lag" day... we keep on moving to stay awake until a normal bedtime... but I don't like to tax the brain with anything too complex that day. So if you don't arrive early, your first day is not the best.

I liked the Passau to Budapest route. Nuremburg is a wonderful city, but you don't dock in town, there will be a bus trip to tour any of it. You will go through locks during the rest of the cruise, even if you start in Passau. We did stop in Linz and did the day tour to Salzburg. Even with the bus trip, it was an enjoyable ride through beautiful country side. Salzburg is a beautiful small city and we really enjoyed our day there. Vienna ... which will be a stop on any Danube cruise ... has more of a big-city feel with stores, churches (with advertising!) -- however there are pastry shops, markets and Schonbrunn Palace and grounds to visit. I don't think there was a stop I didn't enjoy, they were all special.

You don't mention the mobility level of your parents. If there are any mobility limitations at all, you will want to consider a ship with an elevator. Not all will have these. Realize they will need to walk on a gang-plank to get on & off the ship -- which could be at different slants depending on water levels.

I realize there's a wide range of activity levels for people in their 80's. On our last cruise an 80-year-old did the 20 mile bike ride and was on the dance floor every night.

1. Definitely don't want to go during the summer, too hot and too crowded. So mid may to early june or mid sept to mid oct is our time frames. Anyone have pros and cons on this?

I have no experience with late spring cruising, we've only gone in fall. Prague, the second week of September 2011 was warm. In 2013, we were on the Danube in early/mid October. We arrived in Munich with snow, 2 days later the sun was out and in the 60's. 2013 was a year of severe flooding in Passau, by October it was ok, although there was still evidence of clean-up going on. We did see gorgeous color in October whereas September was still green.

But if there are no tours after dinner and you are always back on the boat, this might not make any difference. Any thoughts on this?

When we were on the Rhine, we did go out after dinner a few times, but usually we were too tired. If you're on the Danube, there will probably be an evening excursion into Vienna... but you could easily take a cab or metro into the city and do your own thing.

2. W to E or E to W? I read somewhere one person saying if going in late oct/early nov, start in prague as they get colder weather earlier, so start there, don't end up there. But if I am not going early Nov, does this make a diff in the direction?

We've tended to go in the direction based on where we want to end up for an extra day... the first day you'll be jet-lagged (unless you arrive early). I've also been told flowing "with" the river could allow more docked time as you're not sailing against the current, but I think this could be a minimal effect. Look at the itineraries and compare them both directions to see if you have a preference.

I've also read the weather travels from west to east (much like the US). So rain could follow you the entire trip if you're really unlucky. Traveling east to west you would be more likely to pass through rain.

3. Any of the cruise lines do this trip and excursions better or worse than the others? All seem to have the same trips.

I'm partial to Uniworld, but have nothing to compare it to. I do know their guides tend to disburse in town, so you're not constantly running into tour groups. We've been very pleased with *most* of the guides Uniworld has. We've had about 1 lemon per trip. Most tours give you highlights and historical or cultural insight. The guides are also good sources of information if you want to stop for a beer or pastry.

4. Anything else worth considering that I have not brought up? Realize that although Prague is on a river, it is not navigable. You will be bussed from Prague to your starting point -- I just read a review from someone where this appeared to have ruined the trip for them. Not all the docking will be in the middle of town or walkable, but on the Danube, most were. Read your day-to-day guides closely and be aware of words indicating if you're in a coach and driving by stuff (and potentially getting caught in traffic). Uniworld has several options where it's "like locals"... and we've really enjoyed these.

Caviargal said it well. I might add it is a very stress-free vacation. I think it's a perfect get-away for busy professionals. You could do absolutely no planning on your own and have a fantastic trip. Pack your bag, show up at the airport and if you're on Uniworld the transfers are included -- so you find them at the airport and they whisk you away to the ship. You don't need to worry about speaking a foreign language, you get to see and experience so much. You enjoy the concept of an almost 3-hour dinner with your new best friends as your server refills your wine glass. With the more all-inclusive lines you don't need to worry about tipping. What's not to love?

Too bad I'm not a travel blogger... LandLopers is on-board the Catherine starting Sunday.

http://landlopers.com/2015/08/13/exploreuniworld

We tend to go with the least expensive, with a big enough window to see the world go by for those rare times we're in the cabin. That said, I have fallen in love with Uniworld's bedding. I'll put up with a smaller cabin as long as the bedding is great and there's enough places to put away our things.

Although I didn't indicate it in my response above, we favor Uniworld. They have active options as well as the regular city tours. If you go to their website, under the "Before You Go" menu, look at several "Cruise Companion" booklets for routes you may be interested in. These are PDF booklets of day-by-day with more information than the daily summaries on the information pages.

I wonder if the people who told you river cruises were for older people had ever been on a river cruise? We're going on our 3rd and just now are hitting our mid-fifties. Yes, we may skew towards the younger end of the demographic. However, we've met wonderful people on each of our cruises. We've discovered the people who take river cruises are interesting and active. The ship is small enough that you do get know your fellow travelers. You have an option of doing more active excursions -- but even the gentle walkers need to be able to get around on cobblestones, steps, etc.

If you enjoy eating fine food, drinking wonderful wines, laughing, making new friends, seeing Europe without worrying about where your next hotel is... then river cruising could be a good fit.

Uniworld just updated their webpage and facebook post about this.

http://uniworld.com/danube-river-water-levels

I can't imagine how difficult it must be for them to make a judgment call on what to do far enough out. One of the things I like about Uniworld is I feel like I can trust them to take care of us whatever happens. I've read several reviews or blogs of people whose trips were altered in some way thanks to mother nature or other issues... and those people still have praise for Uniworld's handling of the situation.