cigloo

Has anyone been on the SS Catherine and had dining in the specilaity area? I can't seem to find anything about this. We are going in September and friends want to eat there.

Thanks for responding. Will have to keep an eye on things.

We are looking at French America Line for a cruise sailing from New Orleans and couldn't decide what category in stateroom we should take. Also are there multiple dining options? Any feedback would be great.

Thanks!

We arrive on an overnight flight from LAX into Papeete really early in the morning, 4:30 am and and can't board the ship until late afternoon. What can we do, where can we store our luggage...........suggestions??

Thanks Lars for your help with Bergen and Alesund much appreciated it.

Good luck with the move!! :)

Kristiansand and Stavanger

I am so confused and maybe I have done too much reading but I am still stumped as what to do in Alesund and Bergen. We are on a Regent cruise that stop in both of these places. Alesund from 12:00pm to 8:00pm and Bergen from 9:00am to 9:00pm.

The dilemma is we want to get on a boat and go see the Fjords. In Bergen we don't have time to do the big loop (train/Flam/Fjords). Timing gets us back 15 minutes before ship sails which is way to close.

In Alesund we have heard we can drive to Geiranger take a boat ride for an hour and then drive back. Seems like a lot of driving for just an hour.

Which of the two ports would you try and do the fjords in, would you do them in both and if so with whom?

Thanks!

Hello there,

We will be in Bergen from 9:00am to 9:00pm and had wanted to do the fjord and flam railway but the two combined will not get us back in time to the ship so we want to just do a boat ride on the Sognefjord. Is there a particular cruise that you recommend for us to see the fjords? I can't seem to find anything specific about this but it may just be me :confused:

thanks!

Hello Lars,

We are on Regent sailing to Norway from Iceland and will have 2 stops. One is Alesund and one in Bergen. Problem is Regent is not cruising through any of the Fjords so we need to do them on our own.

Alesund 12 to 8pm

Bergen 9am to 9pm

We are thinking of doing a cruise of the fjord Geiranger in Alesund

In Bergen we wanted to do the train to Flam and the Sognefjord but when I calculate it all it doesn't look like we can do both, so is there a cruise for the Sognefjord from the port of Bergen and next trip we do the train or do you have a better recommendation? So confused :confused:

Great reading everyone's comments about our post. We have to say Got2Cruise nailed it for us;

I have to say if I purchase a "brand" and that product is advertised as that brand and priced as that brand then I expect the product to live up to the reputation of the brand. If Uniworld puts it's name on a product then the quality should be what the consumer expects.

We loved the cruise itinerary it was the ship and crew that did not live up to Uniworld's standards. Like it was mentioned, the cruise lines do not own these ships and have a harder time controlling them, running them to the standard one expects from Uniworld.

We were just bummed by the experience - it wasn't our usual Uniworld experience. The saving grace was the scenery and our fellow passengers :)

First off I have to say past guest on Uniworld (4 times) AMA Waterways 4 and Tauck 3. Our age is 48 & 53 and we love river cruising until this trip!

We just got back from our Uniworld Cruise sailing on the Douro River and have to say in all our river cruise travels this was the worst river cruise we have ever been on. :( It was extremely disappointing, not even close to the caliber of the other Uniworld cruises or AMA Waterways or Tauck. We were hesitant about booking this cruise because of the reviews here, but the thought of the beautiful scenery and that is what finally won us over, so we went ahead and did this. Big mistake!!

I will try and keep it brief; We met lots of lovely folk on the cruise which really saved the day and we were in a Junior Suite. The trip was not what we have come to expect from Uniworld and I would call it more 2.5* to 3* rather than the five star we are used to on our previous journeys. The food selection was very limited, often tired and overripe and not well presented. Examples are overripe melons, oranges and fruit with mold. Ice cream served in bowl was like soup. Main courses did not match their description and several times it was the same meat or fish with just a different sauce. Out of all the meals the breakfast was the best as you could get fresh eggs. The dining room service was so in disarray and nothing felt smooth or polished.

In regards to the crew, we were very impressed with Ercilia the tour director she was wonderful. Pilar was very efficient and gave lots of information and some great travel tips. As for the rest of the crew generally okay. I wouldn’t say nice or great. They were not well trained at all in service department and customer service wasn’t present at all. They really kept to themselves and did not seem happy to be there and it showed. There were several looks amongst them when a guest would ask for something, you would see a roll of the eyes and then a comment under their breath. English was spoken very little and not understood. We both speak Italian and Spanish which helped a bit, but they just didn’t care. There were several crew members who reported for work extremely hung over and not put together. Dress attire was sporadic, not clean and fresh. We even saw one bus boy drinking from half empty wine glasses on the night of the BBQ on deck when he cleared dishes and put them to the side. Our manager Pedro who spent very little time interacting with passengers and sat alone in the alfresco area at meals being waited on by other staff and had no concerns when we voiced our displeasure about something. He also spent a lot of time standing at the bar. This has not been our previous experience with Hotel Managers. The first pianist was a disaster he played mainly for himself and nothing to dance to or to sing with and his playing time was about 10 minutes then long breaks. During the day we hardly saw him. He left for personal reasons and his replacement was fabulous he played heaps and lots of folk were up dancing and singing it was so different and showed the influence of one person. On a good note, the rooms were spotless and the cleaning staff really efficient.

The scenery was fabulous and the river lovely to be on. In all of our journeys so far this is the only one we would never repeat nor recommend. The cruise did not meet Uniworld’s standards that we have previously experienced and wasn't a value for money. Our feeling from the whole cruise is that the crew knows there isn’t anything Uniworld can do because they have to hire locally and are not allowed to bring in outside employees so their job is cushioned.

The excursions were good, not great and there really is nothing in the ports, you have to be bused to the sights so you do spend a great amount of time on buses.

I would also say, we were not the only ones who experienced this on board. Many guest we talked to submitted their comment cards half way through the cruise to let them know their displeasure. Usually we receive a survey when we come back from Uniworld and so far we have not.

Our friends had gotten home 2 weeks prior to us and had very similar situation but had not spoken to them until our return. That was interesting to hear.

All in all, we cannot recommend this cruise and it is unfortunate for Uniworld. As for going with AMA or Viking on this river, I can’t say if the are the same experience. I would recommend if someone wants to sail this river, they do try AMA over Uniworld for the price difference.

All just our two cents worth.

Jen and Sam

Hello all,

We are finishing up a cruise in Venice late May 2015 and will continue our travels going inland. We are so overwhelmed looking at hotels that we thought we would reach out to you all.

We are looking for a hotel in Parma - location is important, $300.00 a night budget (less is better), breakfast and clean.

We would love to hear some recommendations.

Thank you,

Jen & Sam :confused:

Hello all,

We are finishing up a cruise in Venice late May 2015 and will continue our travels going inland. We are so overwhelmed looking at hotels that we thought we would reach out to you all.

We are looking for a hotel in Bologna - location is important, $300.00 a night budget (less is better), breakfast and clean.

We would love to hear some recommendations.

Thank you,

Jen & Sam :)

Thanks everyone. The car is not an issue as we are not parking it just having it for traveling between cities.

Hello all,

We are finishing up a cruise in Venice late May 2015 and will continue our travels by car for two weeks going inland. We will start in Florence, then Bologna, Parma, Brescia and Lake Como ending in Milan.

We are so overwhelmed looking at hotels that we thought we would reach out to you all.

Location is important, $300.00 a night budget (less is better), breakfast at hotel and clean.

We would love to hear some recommendations.

Thank you,

Jen and Sam :D

Hello everyone :)

We are sending our parents on a cruise that ends in Venice but they will be going onto Rome and Florence. This is for their 50th wedding anniversary so no expense spared.

We want them to be dazzled, the best for each city, most over the top for a reason hotel...........not just because it cost a lot.

Which hotel would you recommend for Rome, Florence and Venice??

Thanks so much ahead of time@!! :D

Hello there,

We are looking at Seabourn Legend to take a cruise but concerned this ship my not be up to par. We know they are getting rid of it early next spring so concerned it may be worn?

Also, we are concerned about the size being too small. We have sailed on the Odyssey several times and loved it and not sure if this will be as nice.

Would love any input about the Legend, especially anyone who has been on it recently.

Thanks!!

Thanks everyone for your insight. Sounds like we will be fine as we will know what we are getting into - smaller cabins/bathrooms..........and it's being with friends is the most important :)

Hello all,

We have friends sailing on the Quest in 2015 in Europe and they want us to go. We have never sailed on them (Solstice in 2009 and didn't like it). Our preferred lines are Regent and Crystal.

What can we expect and will we like it? :confused:

Thanks!

If you have time, we would really appreciate your list.

ccigloo@frontier.com

Hello all.

We are a group of friends that want to do a barge cruise and we have heard of French Country Waterways and Orient.

Does anyone know anything about these and any recommendations?

Thank you!!

Jennifer