Review: Uniworld River Empress Castles On the Rhine 10/4/17

I'm going to write a brief review, but please, feel free to ask questions.

This was our first river cruise. We are experienced cruisers having been on about 15 cruises on 4 or 5 cruise lines. I was pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed various aspects of it.

We spent almost a week pre-cruise in Zurich and took a train (and then a tram) to the ship. No problem doing that on our own. We are good. We were checked in easily, had lunch and were able to be fully unpacked for dinner.

So. The food was, in general, excellent. Fewer options than a large cruise ship but with lots of attention to detail and everything felt fresh. I am big on salads, veggies and fruits and with a few exceptions they met and exceeded my expectations on those. Service was excellent. We found a waiter we liked (Tadeusz) and stayed with him all the way through.

Other staff was also excellent and attentive including cruise director, bar staff and housekeeping. The piano guy developed a personality on night 5 or 6 when he switched to the guitar. He lost it again when he went back to the piano. :(

Our cabin, toward the stern on deck 3 was very comfortable. We'd gotten spoiled with verandahs but truthfully we wouldn't have gotten much use of it with the colder wetter weather we had. I loved the marble bathroom and the bed was more comfortable than on bigger ships.

We enjoyed most of the shore excursions we went on. The guides tended to be quite knowledgeable notably the boat ride in Strausburg, and the walking tour in Koblenz. We also did a bit of exploring on our own and the schedule was flexible enough to allow that. My husband did a bike ride one day while I was on the boat from Boppard to Koblenz and he especially enjoyed that.

We are thinking about doing Eastern Europe (including Romania and the former parts of of Yugoslavia) also on Uniworld and would appreciate any tips or suggestions on that.

Again, feel free to ask any questions.

No questions but glad you had a wonderful time. We’ve done the same river cruise with Viking (have done 9 with them) and enjoyed each one. We’ve also done the Eastern European rc and I think you’d enjoy it as well, lots of history but be forewarned, the towns aren’t as scenic as those you’ve visited recently.

Welcome home.

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Glad to hear you had a very nice time and thank you for writing the review.

Keith

Great review, thanks.

We are doing the Eastern Europe cruise on Uniworld starting the later part of August next summer. It will be our 4th trip on Uniworld.

Thank you for the feedback

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