First Time Uniworld Cruise on SS Beatrice

[WanderlustJourney]

Hello Cruisers!

 

I’ll be sailing on Uniworld for the first time in June from Nuremberg to Budapest on the SS Beatrice.

 

I’ve sailed with Avalon and Ama before and just curious on a few things?

 

I believe documents are just delivered as edocs, do they mail anything out in advance? Some river cruise lines do and some have stopped.

 

I understand that Uniworld is a bit unique that you actually select your included shore excursions once you get onboard the ship and not before? Is there a presentation on the first night as part of the port talk on the options for the entire cruise, or is it best to have a chat when I first arrive then submit my choices?

 

If anyone has also sailed on the SS Beatrice and has any tips they’d like to share about the ship, please let me know!

 

Thanks!

Ariane

 

[mozfoz]

I have not sailed on the SS Beatrice, but have sailed on Uniworld twice. In both cases,  you are correct about  selecting your excursions once onboard. Some have a guest maximum, but  usually seen to have the maximum limit lifted, if enough guest sign up. Only the onboard Progressive Dinner option, which is limited to 10-12 guest, and only offered for only one night, needs to signed for immediately after the first night presentation talk is completed. Snooze and you'll lose.

[jpalbny]

We sailed on River Beatrice (before she was upgraded to SS Beatrice) on a similar itinerary - Budapest to Passau. That was in 2016 so obviously things could be different now...

 

Yes, the CD gave a talk about all the excursions as part of an overview on the first night. That was SOP on all of our Uniworld cruises. Hope you enjoy Uniworld as much as we have!

Edited April 25, 2023 by jpalbny

[Ritabob]

We received our documents from Uniworld via email about three weeks ago for the cruise we will be on this Saturday. Our TA also got the same information. 

We have never experienced maximum limits lifted to allow for additional participants, but have seen tours or events canceled when minimum numbers are not met.

Have a great cruise Wanderlust Journey. We look forward to your review 😉.

RB 

 

 

 

[WanderlustJourney]

7 hours ago, mozfoz said:

I have not sailed on the SS Beatrice, but have sailed on Uniworld twice. In both cases,  you are correct about  selecting your excursions once onboard. Some have a guest maximum, but  usually seen to have the maximum limit lifted, if enough guest sign up. Only the onboard Progressive Dinner option, which is limited to 10-12 guest, and only offered for only one night, needs to signed for immediately after the first night presentation talk is completed. Snooze and you'll lose.

Thank you! I’ll be sure to try to book the dinner as soon as I arrive to the ship.

[WanderlustJourney]

7 hours ago, jpalbny said:

We sailed on River Beatrice (before she was upgraded to SS Beatrice) on a similar itinerary - Budapest to Passau. That was in 2016 so obviously things could be different now...

 

Yes, the CD gave a talk about all the excursions as part of an overview on the first night. That was SOP on all of our Uniworld cruises. Hope you enjoy Uniworld as much as we have!

Thank you! I was just worried that the excursions wouldn’t have enough spaces for everyone.

[WanderlustJourney]

3 hours ago, Ritabob said:

We received our documents from Uniworld via email about three weeks ago for the cruise we will be on this Saturday. Our TA also got the same information. 

We have never experienced maximum limits lifted to allow for additional participants, but have seen tours or events canceled when minimum numbers are not met.

Have a great cruise Wanderlust Journey. We look forward to your review 😉.

RB 

 

 

 

Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful cruise yourselves! 😊

[tulok]

Enjoy Uniworld. It so far is our favorite line. Personally. I have never had an excursion we wanted fill before we reserved our place. We do tend to take the active excursions. I have been on the Beatrice and it is a lovely boat. SS Catherine is my favorite but that’s an opinion. It was on Beatrice that I had my first champagne with Bombay drink, French 75. My favorite to have on board now. 

Our cabin was a french balcony, which gave us plenty of storage.
We tend to book later than earlier so we usually have our docs emailed. 

I get up very early and I love having a guest laundry, and fitness center. 

[bubbulz]

I’m coming up on my fifth Uniworld cruise, and until now I’ve always had the same experience as others regarding booking onboard. However, when I went on my.uniworld recently and looked specifically at the day-by-day itinerary I noticed that there was one ‘Masterpiece Collection’ item listed for a bike tour. It had this note on it: “Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences can be added to a booking up to 6 days prior to the cruise/tour start date if space allows. Some venues are limited in the number of guests they can accommodate. Guests can book onboard (space permitting) and pay in Euros. Pre-booked Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences are refundable up to 48 hours prior to the cruise/tour start date; if inside of 48 hours they are non-refundable. Select Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences require a minimum number of participants and are subject to cancellation (with full refund) if minimum is not met. Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences are non-commissionable. Prices are subject to change.”

 

Since there was another tour I knew I’d be interested in but didn’t see it listed, I called Uniworld to inquire. I was told that only certain tours were available for pre-booking and all of the others would be offered once onboard. You may want to go into your specific itinerary and expand each day to check, or just call Uniworld and ask if any are available for pre-booking for your trip.

[WanderlustJourney]

5 hours ago, bubbulz said:

I’m coming up on my fifth Uniworld cruise, and until now I’ve always had the same experience as others regarding booking onboard. However, when I went on my.uniworld recently and looked specifically at the day-by-day itinerary I noticed that there was one ‘Masterpiece Collection’ item listed for a bike tour. It had this note on it: “Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences can be added to a booking up to 6 days prior to the cruise/tour start date if space allows. Some venues are limited in the number of guests they can accommodate. Guests can book onboard (space permitting) and pay in Euros. Pre-booked Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences are refundable up to 48 hours prior to the cruise/tour start date; if inside of 48 hours they are non-refundable. Select Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences require a minimum number of participants and are subject to cancellation (with full refund) if minimum is not met. Masterpiece Collection Optional Experiences are non-commissionable. Prices are subject to change.”

 

Since there was another tour I knew I’d be interested in but didn’t see it listed, I called Uniworld to inquire. I was told that only certain tours were available for pre-booking and all of the others would be offered once onboard. You may want to go into your specific itinerary and expand each day to check, or just call Uniworld and ask if any are available for pre-booking for your trip.

I think that’s why I was a bit confused, I was told that the excursions are booked onboard and then saw this and was worried I missed something for the included excursions.

[WanderlustJourney]

5 hours ago, tulok said:

Enjoy Uniworld. It so far is our favorite line. Personally. I have never had an excursion we wanted fill before we reserved our place. We do tend to take the active excursions. I have been on the Beatrice and it is a lovely boat. SS Catherine is my favorite but that’s an opinion. It was on Beatrice that I had my first champagne with Bombay drink, French 75. My favorite to have on board now. 

Our cabin was a french balcony, which gave us plenty of storage.
We tend to book later than earlier so we usually have our docs emailed. 

I get up very early and I love having a guest laundry, and fitness center. 

I’ll definitely have to try a “French 75”, sounds delicious! I am also an early riser, I’ve heard they have a good fitness program onboard with yoga/stretching classes offered, etc. 

[tulok]

25 minutes ago, WanderlustJourney said:

I’ll definitely have to try a “French 75”, sounds delicious! I am also an early riser, I’ve heard they have a good fitness program onboard with yoga/stretching classes offered, etc. 

The yoga/stretching classes are very basic but after a fun night of dancing, it needed to be basic.  The classes are a good way to meet fellow travelers and the fitness coach is also who leads the activity excursions. Please report back on your trip. I can’t wait to hear.

[bubbulz]

27 minutes ago, WanderlustJourney said:

I’ll definitely have to try a “French 75”, sounds delicious! I am also an early riser, I’ve heard they have a good fitness program onboard with yoga/stretching classes offered, etc. 

On my recent cruise they had yoga and stretching each morning. And of course there is always plenty of walking on these trips!

 

I believe they have switched over completely now to electronic boarding docs, etc. Also, I didn't receive luggage tags prior to the trip as I had in the past, but they had them on the bed with the departure docs at the end of the trip.

[Canal archive]

Scenic nearly got caught out on one of our cruises so many wanted to do a particular bike tour they ran out of bikes solved it by hiring every bike in quite a wide area, now I don’t bike (had enough in my youth on the race track) so watching the off was some of the best fun I’ve had for years. It really is a popular activity. 
 

I must admit to liking watching early morning Tia Chi, note to self must have a go.

[bubbulz]

13 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Scenic nearly got caught out on one of our cruises so many wanted to do a particular bike tour they ran out of bikes solved it by hiring every bike in quite a wide area, now I don’t bike (had enough in my youth on the race track) so watching the off was some of the best fun I’ve had for years. It really is a popular activity. 
 

I must admit to liking watching early morning Tia Chi, note to self must have a go.

That’s probably why they are allowing pre-booking on the bike tour on my cruise. 

[WanderlustJourney]

The active excursions seem to be really popular on most river cruises nowadays (especially the bikes onboard), it’s one of the reasons I personally love river cruising. You can make it as active as you want it to be. 

[Ritabob]

Early on on a number of our cruises my husband was the only one who showed up for the 7am sessions with the wellness coach.  He loved the personal one on one classes and was able to request yoga, stretching, pilates, or anything else.

RB 

[UDChE89]

Got back from Uniworld’s Enchanted Danube Passau to Budapest last Monday.  First night of the cruise was sign ups for, I believe, the first two days of excursions.  The next night was sign ups for the rest due by the following morning.  We only had one excursion cancellation and one that had added buses due to the fact another excursion was a lot of walking and the weather was poor.

[San999]

We are traveling on the SS Beatrice in May. Does anyone know if there is a pool and/or hot tub on the sun deck?  We’ve never traveled with uniworld but have heard good things. 

[vino100]

On 4/29/2023 at 2:34 PM, UDChE89 said:

Got back from Uniworld’s Enchanted Danube Passau to Budapest last Monday.  First night of the cruise was sign ups for, I believe, the first two days of excursions.  The next night was sign ups for the rest due by the following morning.  We only had one excursion cancellation and one that had added buses due to the fact another excursion was a lot of walking and the weather was poor.

We are sailing on this ship in September. How was your experience. 

[UDChE89]

10 hours ago, vino100 said:

We are sailing on this ship in September. How was your experience. 

I did enjoy the trip.  The ship is a little overdone for my personal taste decor wise.  It’s very ornate and I’m more of a streamlined design kind of person.  Weather wasn’t all that good so we weren’t able to take advantage of the sun deck much.  The food was good with a great sommelier on board.  She really knew how to cater to our preferences.

[vino100]

Thanks for the info. We do love our wine so a good sommelier is a plus. 

[tulok]

On 5/2/2023 at 11:15 PM, San999 said:

We are traveling on the SS Beatrice in May. Does anyone know if there is a pool and/or hot tub on the sun deck?  We’ve never traveled with uniworld but have heard good things. 

On Antoinette there is a pool but it was very cold. It has a jet to swim against but it was too cold to stay in the water and this was in July. Beatrice did not have one that I can remember but probably wouldn’t have used it anyway.

You will enjoy Uniworld.