need2travel1

Looks great, looking forward to the next installment!

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. I think I'll go with a combo of several of the ideas/books/maps above.  CruiseCritic members really comes thru again!

Thanks Everyone!  I'll check out the books recommended above & also try printing out some things online.  I love the "old fashioned" guidebooks though.  I usually rip out the pages for the places we'll be visiting so I don't have to carry the whole book & then use them in the photo album I put together when we get home.   Yup, "old fashioned" on that too-and I'm only 48:)

Now, on with the search...

Can anyone recommend a good guidebook for a cruise on the Rhine?  We are on Uniworld's Castles on the Rhine itinerary (very excited).  We always use the Rick Steves guidebooks but since this itinerary encompasses  several different countries I'd have to buy about 3 different books just for a small blurb about each area.  Any/all suggestions welcome!  Thanks!

Hi Boblerm,

We did the Normandy cruise on the Joie De Vivre last summer & the only dinner buffet was the day we did the Normandy beaches.  It was a long day & we got back to the ship about the same time as the dining room opened for dinner.  Some people changed for dinner & some just went straight in from the busses.  We spruced ourselves up a bit but not as much as usual & had our "pre dinner" cocktails " after dinner.  Hope this helps, enjoy your cruise!

Hey Jeter55,

We did this trip in July '17 (flew Delta direct from NY-we live on LI) & it was awesome!  Since there  isn't much sailing & you stay in Venice the majority of the time you really get to experience the feel of the "city".   We docked in 2 different areas of Venice over the week which made it really easy to see a lot on our own in addition to the excursions thru Uniworld.  We found we would just hop off the ship, go for a walk, maybe grab a gelato then get back on the ship.  We even skipped dinner one night & ate at our favorite restaurant in Venice.  Sitting up on the sundeck watching the water taxis & even cruise ships go by was so relaxing.  We are actually thinking of repeating it for 2020.  Enjoy your trip & have fun!!

On 3/22/2019 at 10:22 PM, Ritabob said:

Please let us know who you end up with.  After many trips with Uniworld, I agree, they are pricing themselves out of our comfort level.  We have looked at AMA, Scenic and Emerald, but my gut isn't  ready to commit.

Thanks,

RB

Hi Ritabob,

We wound up booking w/ Uniworld again-Castles Along the Rhine.  We were able to take advantage of their Best Offer Ever deal for 30% off combined w/ our River Heritage discount which made it just back into our travel budget.  The caveat being that we are now traveling "Aquarium Class" instead of French Balcony but we're going in July so hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of the sundeck-my favorite part of every river cruise ship!  

I know how you feel about not being able to commit to another line.  We kicked around a lot of options but couldn't commit either.  

Hi All,

We just booked Castles on the Rhine w/ Uniworld from Basel to Amsterdam-can anyone recommend a hotel in Basel?  Also, we're thinking of flying into Zurich as we live in NY & Zurich is a direct flight for us while Basel is not.  We figure we can book a car service thru Viator or thru the hotel to get us from the Zurich airport to our hotel in Basel.  Has anyone does this?  How easy/hard is it?  

Thanks in advance!!

21 hours ago, acwmom said:

Unfortunately, you missed out on Mont St. Michel:-(  Of the 4 tours above, all were included except Heidelberg. I don't expect that one to have too little participation to happen. I should mention, we traveled in late March. Your dates could make #3 and #4 a little more taxing, depending on the heat.

 

Robin

Missing out on that was a real bummer!  But we figure w/ Castles along the Rhine we've never been to any of the places on the itinerary so any site/town/city is new to us &  that's great.  We've also done almost all of our vacations in July so we're used to the heat.  We hit 109 degrees in Rome once, after that anything feels cool to us!   

2 hours ago, acwmom said:

1. Do the vinegar farm tour 

2. Go to Heidelberg

3. Climb to the top of the Cologne Cathedral (this is a DIY)

4. In Rudesheim, we chose the active hike instead of winery tour, and really enjoyed it 

 

Have fun!

 

Robin 

Thanks Robin!  I've been following some of your recommendations for a few trips now & they're all spot on:)

We just booked this morning!  Uniworld's Castles on the Rhine Basel to Amsterdam on July 26, very excited!  I know we'll probably encounter water level issues but that's the date/ pricing that worked best for us (Hub is a teacher so can only travel July-very early August)  Any & all tips/info more than welcome!!.  

I'm sorry I can't really help w/ your question comparing Tauck to Crystal river cruising but I will say we have done 9 land tours w/ Tauck & every one was awesome!  I'd say 1 was 8/10, 2 were 9/10 & the rest were 10/10.  I can't imagine that their river cruises would be that much different in terms of quality.  We've done 3 river cruises (just booked #4) w/ Uniworld & the only reason they weren't w/ Tauck was because Tauck is just over our vacation budget.  Good luck w/ your travel plans!

Thanks Everybody!  Let the search begin....

Hi All,

My husband & I are looking into doing another river cruise-we've done 3 ( all w/ Uniworld & loved all of them)  They are at the top of our vacation budget though so I was wondering if anyone has traveled w/ Avalon?  Or if there is another middle-priced line out there we could look into?                                                                                                                                                            Any & all opinions/ideas are welcome!    Thanks!

5 hours ago, jskcak said:

Hi jskcak,

You picked a great itinerary for you first river cruise (bet it won't be your last!)  Good thinking doing Mont St Michel on your own-we signed up for that excursion & it was canceled due to lack of interest.  We were so disappointed to miss it (it still hurts:).  We didn't do any excursions with the ship on our last day but we did tag along with the "Do as the Locals Do" group & guide on the Metro (the cruise director gave us the tickets) as they headed up to Notre Dame then we struck out on our own (we talked to a few people who were on it & they really enjoyed it-good sights/well paced tour).  It took about 20 minutes on the Metro to get there so not too bad.  Some of the sights in ParisI recommend are The Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned) & San Chappelle (even prettier than Notre Dame).  Our favorite though was the Archeological Crypt (underneath the courtyard in front of Notre Dame)-it's a preserved section of Paris from the Middle Ages, you can see alleyways & the stone outlines of buildings.  It was really cool. 

On the ship you're welcome to bring your own games/cards (the evening entertainment leaves a bit to be desired).  Our favorite entertainment was just sitting on the sun deck in the evening watching the world go by.    You spend most evenings sailing so there aren't many ports where you overnight but you should be docked in Rouen overnight.  The town does a light show on the Cathedral that is really worth seeing-the cruise director will be able to tell you what time it goes off.  It's in the historical center of town & about a 10 minute walk from the ship.  

The staff was fantastic-they are so nice & work so hard, whatever they get paid it isn't enough!  All the meals were delish as well.  Sorry this is so long, now I want to take another river cruise!  Last tip-don't forget to use the sun deck!  Enjoy your trip!

5 hours ago, jskcak said:

NeedtoTravel1 - we are going on the Paris Normandy Josie de Vivre with Uniworld in April..any tips? Did you do any of the Paris excursions on last day docked? In particular the "Do as a Local"  if so how was it? i see they take you on metro which I have no problem doing..except a friend said it can take almost an hour each way just getting to and from that area on metro..we are thinking of getting our own guide we are a group of 8 for the day on our own...we have been to Paris twice years ago buthtis is our first river cruise..hope we choose a good one! thoughts on Paris? We are also going 3 days prior to cruise doing Normandy on our own ..(Mont St Michel) .  we are in our mid 60's but still  enjoy activities in evening..I hear only 2 nights entertainment on boat we may take our own cards and games? on days we arent exhausted from touring! How was the food? 

thanks!!! 

1 hour ago, DC0743 said:

It is not your imagination. The problem is their new pricing and incentives. When I booked my 2018 Christmas market cruise I received 10% off for paying in advance, 5% for being a past cruiser and another $500 off due to the number of cruises I have taken with them (8).  Unfortunately the cruise was cancelled at the last minute due to the low water levels.  Uniworld refunded our money but when we tried to book for 2019 we were advised the same cruise, same ship, same room would cost $2,735 MORE.  They eliminated all booking incentives except a whopping $100 for being a past passenger. Viking and Tauck offered me more incentives and actually acted like they want repeat customers.

Ouch, that's a big increase for the same trip!  It's too bad our River Heritage discounts aren't as good as they used to be.  My husband & I are about 99% sure we'll be doing a land tour with Tauck for summer 2019 (more in our price range) instead of a river cruise.  Of course there is always 2020 to plan for.

We loved our first 2 Uniworld's (Paris & Normandy on the Baroness & Venice on the Countess). We redid Paris & Normandy this summer on the Joie de Vivre with the intention of doing some of the things we hadn't done before-all of which were canceled. Not to turn this into a complaint fest but Monday's excursion to Chateau la Roche Guyon-canceled, the ship docked at Chateau Galliard. It's nice but once was enough. Our big disappointment however was that we signed up for Mont Ste Michel & it was cancelled for lack of participation. To say we were disappointed is an understatement!! We had another of our excursions canceled due to lack of participation as well. Our cruise director just gave a very vague "oh, Mont St Michel only runs about 50% of the time"-no "sorry" or anything. And no "sorry" for our other excursion either-just a "that one never runs".

The ship was great, the staff (except for the cruise director) was awesome, we enjoyed the food but just felt disappointed overall. This isn't to discourage anyone from taking this trip-if you've never been to Normandy you'll enjoy the trip but we just made the wrong choice.

But, there's always next summer to plan for....

Thanks Robin,

They just seemed high to me especially since we were less than thrilled with our cruise back in July. We did the Paris & Normandy that you did & had a lot of disappointments with the itinerary. That's why I didn't review it here on the boards because I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about our trip & about the company in general-didn't want to sound like a downer or give a bad impression to those who haven't traveled with Uniworld before. Now that a few months have gone by I was willing to look at them again but my husband is still a pretty firm no. He wants to do a Tauck land based tour for next summer (we've done 9 with them) but I love the "unpack once" kinda thing. I'd love to do a Tauck river cruise but they are out of my budget (we do Disney every Spring but to afford a Tauck River Cruise I'd have to skip Disney & can't do that!! LOL)

Have you done Viking Ocean before or is this one going to be your first?

Hi All,

Just a quick question to any & all Uniworld cruisers out there. We've cruised with them 3 times-2014, 2017 & 2018 & I'm just looking online at their cruises for 2019-is it me or are the prices significantly higher than they were last year? I'm looking at Castles Along the Rhine, Brilliant Bordeaux & Burgundy & Provence specifically. I could be wrong but they seem to be a lot more expensive than they were last year. To put it plainly, if I'm right (hope I'm not) Uniworld is out of my price range now.

Thanks in Advance!!

Hi Deval,

We did this trip last July & it was awesome. Enjoying your review, thanks for bringing back some great memories for us!!

Sounds great! Can't wait for more, welcome home.

I love watching the Tour de France but yikes! Our Uniworld Paris & Normandy cruise ends on Sunday 7/29 in Paris. Our Delta flight home takes off at 10:20AM so fingers crossed by having to get to CDG by about 7:20AM we'll be ahead of everything & not be impacted too much....

Thanks for the heads up!!!

Totally agree with the extra large Ziploc bags. They hold outfits together & the ones in the carryon are a cinch to repack if the TSA does a more in-depth bag search. I also use the Ziploc bags to line the drawers/closet shelves when I'm unpacking (yes, I'm a bit of a germaphobe:).

Hi, while I can't help you with specifics I just wanted to say my husband & I have done 9 of Tauck's land trips & we loved all of them. Tauck does an amazing job from start to finish (I assume their river cruises are run to the same high standards) and if this is your chance to see the Oberammergau then go for it! Hopefully someone else will jump in here & help you with more of the specifics. Enjoy you Christmas Market cruise too:)

I'm a pretty low maintenance person but I still have trouble with packing all our toiletries. Allergies mean certain facial soaps, lotions sunscreens, etc for both my husband & I & I need both mousse & hairspray to get my hair even remotely decent so I have a lot that goes in my checked bag.

BUT I was on Target's website the other day & their travel toiletry section went on forever. I found 3 oz hairspray & mousse as well as the 3oz soap & lotion that we both need. I bought 2 of each of those plus a few other things & I MAY be able to fit it all in our carry on bags. I know I'll be set for any long weekends that's for sure.

Also, thanks for the tip about trying out 3oz bottles ahead of a trip to see how much you really need for a week, etc!