Jump to content

India's Golden Triangle & the Sacred Ganges with Uniworld


sandyk923
 Share

Recommended Posts

We just booked this same trip with Vantage, and reviews have been hard to come by. Vantage uses an identical sister ship, and if you search in this forum for Ganges Voyager (or maybe just Ganges), a review of that trip (and small discussion) should pop up.

 

We had a hard time deciding between the two trips because we really like Uniworld (they did an amazing job on our China trip) and had never traveled with Vantage. In the end, though, the Vantage trip was considerably cheaper and five days longer to boot. I really wanted to see the tigers in Ranthambore, and the Vantage trip covers that.

Edited by amyr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate to be the first critic of this thread.BUT, our tour was as crazy as India (which we now love). We were on the second voyage of this Golden Triangle Tour. Everything that was not associated with the ship was top shelf. The 3 hotels we stayed in before the voyage were the most spectacular hotels you can imagine. All excursions except the last 2 were first rate. The people onboard the ship were so accommodating and lovely. The hotel manager Alex tried to do the best job he was able with the boat he was given. The ship was the most disappointing cruise vessel I have ever been on in 8 different cruises.

1. The individual thermostats were only as individual as the floor. So if most people on the floor were cold and putting on the heat, then those people who were hot and wanted cool air were out of luck.

2. We purchased the suite with the tub and were never able to use it, since it either put out freezing cold water or scalding hot water.

3. The showers you had to do a dance with the spray since it would very often turn to scalding hot. I understand when you have so many people showering at once there might be water problems, but I would shower during the lunch break and the problem was still very real.

4. The food was exceedingly bland... Indian food is full of flavors and yet the food served showed non of those great flavors associated with India. Not all food has to be packed with flavor, but some food on each meal should be representative of the region.

5. The fire alarm went off so many times that people stopped paying attention to it. The problem they stated was humidity.

6. The BIGGEST fiasco were the toilets!!!!!! Obviously no one from Uniworld has been on this boat for quality control. For some reason someone sold Uniworld a bill of goods with this system.... They have only toilets that can NOT take toilet paper. There is a trash can next to each toilet where you place your USED toilet paper. YOUR USED TOILET PAPER!!!!! ABSOLUTELY NOT ACCEPTABLE.

:eek:

Edited by Baagrade
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh dear, so the toilet paper situation sounds like what's being reported for the sister ship, Ganges Voyager 1, that Vantage is using. That just doesn't make sense. Isn't there some sort of septic tank grade paper that works for everything? :eek:

 

I'm equally concerned about the air conditioning. So you don't have individual units in each cabin? It's central somehow? This is worrisome for me since I am of an age where I sweat a lot and can't sleep if it's over 70 degrees in my room. I have a feeling I'll be with travelers that have long left that phase behind and entered into the 'everything's cold and drafty' phase.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After reading Baagrade's review (thanks for posting it), Uniworld will probably lose our business for this itinerary. The toilet issue, while unpleasant, I think we could cope with. The AC situation, shower craziness and bland food make it a no-go for DH, who isn't totally as sold on visiting India as I am. We wouldn't travel there until 2018, so we'll be watching to see if Uniworld can correct any of these problems. I'm curious if the Ganges Voyager I has the same shower and AC issues. The Vantage web site does promise individually controlled AC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keep in mind that it its common practice to put used toilet paper in a garbage can and not down the toilet in Asia

 

This is true. I've left countless wads of paper in cans next to squatty pottys all over Asia, but once we boarded our river boats or checked into hotels, flushing paper was fine. I wonder if the other Haimark vessels built with the same plans, the ones on the Irrawaddy and Mekong also have this requirement? I'll bet not. I wonder if it's the Indian waste removal systems that aren't in place? :confused:

 

PS - I'm going to ask about the a/c on the Ganges Voyager 1 that Vantage uses because that's certainly worrying. There's a thread going about that ship too.

Edited by amyr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have done China and Egypt with Viking and last year did Vietnam with Uniworld and had flush toilets on all those cruises so I find this hard to comprehend that Uniworld would expect their passengers not to have flush toilets. I can see sanitation being a big issue!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

When you are paying over $15,000 for a cruise... You would think you were getting your moneys worth.

The Uniworld Cruise tour was a good experience for a taste of India, which mixed land tours with a week cruise along the Ganges river.

 

The land tour started in Delhi where we were put up in the Oberoi Hotel, a 5 star establishment. While extremely posh, we had to pay for several meals at a huge cost. The excursions where interesting where we visited temples and monuments and rode a cycle rickshaw to blend into the local market.

 

The boat experience was uneven. On the plus side, the standard rooms are very spacious. Lots of room to walk around. Oddly enough, with all this room, places to put your stuff was lacking. This was especially the case in the bathroom. Although the bathroom was huge there was little space to put your toiletries.. did we really need a humungous shower area ?.. Workmanship was lacking, as the grouting around drains and tiles looked like it was thrown on , and not applied. Door hooks were place near the top of the door making it difficult for short people to hang stuff up. The same goes for the peep hole in the front door which was about 5 feet off of the floor.This was the second sailing of the River Ganges II and it sailed still under construction, mostly in the crew level). You would think that the boat would only sail when done. The whole third floor had air circulation problems with bad smells wafting thru the rooms.

 

The food was generally good, with occasion misses in terms of taste and quality. Mostly Family Restaurant quality..

Many people complained that the Indian offerings were too Americanized… and lacking in complex taste.

Although coffee was free, you had to pay for speciality coffees such as cappuccinos.

 

The staff was very friendly and eager to please but language was an issue. Very few knew how to speak anything more than basic english and you sometimes had to repeat yourself to get understood. They messed up one of our wakeup calls, and sometimes, a call to the front desk went unanswered.

 

Considering sanitation standards in India , i don’t think Uniworld took things seriously enough after 1/2 the boat came down with a stomach virus. At that point, they should have had the staff dish out the buffet food, instead of letting everyone handle the tongs with their hands. It didn’t help that your soiled toilet paper was not allowed to be put into the toilet. You had to wipe and keep your paper in a bin on the floor next to the toilet. I wouldn’t be surprised if that contributed to the run-away virus.

 

The river part of the cruise was quite uneven as well. Some of the excursions were for me.. just thrown together (Another walk thru another village) because the scenery was mostly uninteresting

. A tour guide told me that there are more interesting things to see in those areas which we never got to see. probably because the transport from the shore would have been too difficult.

@@@ we had great air conditioning and heating in our room. No problem in that area.

People rave about Uniworld, but my Viking trip to Myramar was much better.

Edited by Intellibyte
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the update. I hope that you'll post this as a review in the member reviews section. The information in this thread will eventually be lost to newer ones, so it's good to have the review in the other section.

 

I know PB&J did one for the Vantage tour, but not sure if any have appeared for Uniworld yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Baagrade - your hotel manager Alex ... was he tall with funky glasses? If so, we met him in Cambodia right before this itinerary started; he was on his way to go get it going. He's actually Uniworld's director of hospitality. He was telling us that the ship was great and the only real concern was the food because of some preferences/mandate of the chef (curious - did the meals include pork and beef?)

 

All was well with our Mekong cruise, but things weren't as buttoned up as the European ships. I imagine getting 5-star vessels built with 5-star amenities is very tough in Asia, and they're doing the best they can. But, it sounds like I'd feel I didn't get my money's worth at this point.

 

Intellibyte - what do you mean by being forced to purchase meals at great expense? I can't imagine the cost of food in Delhi is very high.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Intellibyte for your review. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Uniworld will work out the bugs. Uniworld's excursions have always been top notch in my opinion and for the amount this cruise is costing I don't expect mediocre excursions. We have been on several Uniworld cruises, including Vietnam/Cambodia last year and have not experience any illness so having illness on both trips is a concern for me also. I have a fear that this is due to poor sanitation handling by the crew. Please keep the posts coming. Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I'm going on the Ganges Voyager II this fall & am hoping someone has more recent information on the ship. I found Intellibite and Baagrad's reviews helpful & scary. I could possibly deal with the TP issue (though it boggles the mind that you have to when you're spending this kind of money), but not being able to adjust your own AC or risking being scalded or freezing in the shower is unbelievable. With my luck we'll be on a floor with elderly people who don't like the AC too high.

 

I think the cruises ran through March & then stopped for the hot months. Did Uniworld correct any of the problems after these reviews?

 

My second issue deals with fine print in the information you receive from the cruise. It says that we are only entitled to one bag weighing only 33 lbs on the flight to Kolcata. That really restricts us for a 2 week trip. Its not just the cloths, it's the toiletries and the over-the-counter medicines you have to bring when there is no doctor on board and sickness seems to be rampant on the ship. How was your experience with this?

 

I also hope Uniworld is monitoring this thread and responds themselves to these issues. Considering they are a luxury cruise line (this is my third Uniworld cruise) they don't seem to care.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Baagrade can you give me a little info on what proper dress is for men while on excursions. My husband tends to wear cargo shorts but we are thinking long pants might be more appropriate. He always wears long pants at dinner but up in the air for during the day. Did men wear shorts on the excursions? Unfortunately no one has any updates on the status of the boat so I guess we will see in November. Any other suggestions or tips for our trip would be appreciated. Looking forward to seeing India Thank you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only 5 months until we go; looking forward to it as well! We'll probably pack a combination of pants and shorts and go with the weather conditions. Pants will be lightweight for the heat, of course. Nylon, linen, other thin fabrics, etc. We stopped packing jeans on most trips long ago, unless we know it will be cold. Too bulky and heavy; we like to travel light.

 

WRT the luggage allowance from Agra to Kolkota, my guess is that it's the airline's regulation for a domestic flight. It's likely that you could purchase an allowance at the airport if you want to bring more. We will try to pack light though, and bring one carry-on sized bag each.

 

We will have some practice packing light as we have a 3-week trip to Madagascar and South Africa coming up next month. We'll not have to bring fancy clothes for Madagascar, so our clothes should easily fit into a rollaboard suitcase each. We'll bring some nicer stuff, in a separate bag, for the ZA part of the trip and store it on arrival to Madagascar, then pick up when we travel to ZA.

 

If we can handle that packing job we should be OK for the India trip. I've also heard that clothing is cheap in India. Maybe we'll end up buying some if we don't bring enough!

 

Holly1225 and sandyk923, looking forward to your firsthand information on this cruise. I will try to do a detailed review when we get back, if someone else hasn't already done one in the meantime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I meant to post something sooner but we have been doing a lot of traveling. This is my first post and review so please bear with me. I am willing to try to answer any question you might have.

 

Uniworld India Land and Ganges Voyager II review

 

General comments.

This is India, not Europe so don't expect European ship standards. You should not book this cruise if the following will bother you: not being able to put your toilet paper in the toilet, both Indian and American food, poverty and extreme wealth side by side. Everywhere we stayed and the boat were very clean. 99% of the passengers were fine with everything.

 

You saw the iconic sites but the people were the best part of the cruise, especially the children on the river.

 

Illness concerns

A few people did get sick on the on the trip but it was not widespread or long term. I know one person was sick for several days but not sure what it was. My wife was very sick one night on the ship and it took a couple of days to get her full strength back. We used wipes, washed our hands constantly and were careful to not eat anything that was too spicy. I don’t think it was caused by unclean conditions in the hotels or the boat. I can only guess we caught something like a flu virus on the first part of the trip or on the flight from Jaipur. The ship personnel was extremely solicitous and caring, offering suggestions of what might help and bringing special food to the cabin.

 

Mobility questions

There can be a great deal of walking over uneven ground so if you have mobility issues, this might be a concern for you and you should ask before going.

 

Guides

Our guide for the land portions were very good and the pace ensured everyone was included. The guides were very knowledgeable This was not always the case for our guide for the river portion but I blame it on the guide that was contracted from the States. This was his last trip and didn’t expect to be back..

 

Hotel and on-board service

The land hotels just kept getting better as we moved through the Golden Triangle with the last being the best. We were well protected in New Dehli (armed guards on the grounds and at the gates) and never felt concerned for our safety at any hotel or any portion of the trip.

 

The ship cabin room was big. Many passengers compared the size of room to a regular hotel room; not a river boat. The shower was fantastic but the counter space by the sink is too small. There was storage for clothes but was not very convenient. The 2 largest drawers were under the bed and the small 3 drawers were in the closet.

The on-board staff would bend over backwards to do everything for you. If you wanted to take a drink back to the room, someone would carry it for you, even if it was just down the passageway.

 

Air transport.

Booked on Air France with Delta providing service to Paris, AF from Paris to Delhi. I was surprised that Delta service was better than AF. An example was Delta was always asking if you want anything, especially water, and when they provided water, it was a large bottle. AF, you had to ask for water and when it was provided, it was in a small juice glass and they never came around again. This was repeated on the return flights from India to Paris to US.

Internal flights were on domestic airlines and there is weight restrictions. This caused us to pack light and use ultralight luggage. It helped that each person in the cabin received a bag for a free laundry. This allowed us to pack less because we could clean our clothes at the midpoint of the trip.

 

Business class was definitely worth it and not just for the seat space. Business class had separate check-in lines as well as Customs. We arrived late in Mumbai from Kolkata and only had 30 minutes to catch our connection. We were rushing from one terminal to another and we would have missed our flight if we had to wait in the normal customs line. Of course the terminal gates were the last gates. Air France had agents halfway down the terminal looking for people on their flights. They were trying to ensure everyone got on the flight but some never made it and we left without them.

 

Clothing

I wore shorts and had khaki pants for night. I wore light sport shirts and polo shirts, all light colors to reflect the sun. Sunglasses are essential as well as a hat. A light colored, folding umbrella is also very handy for the bright sun. Expect hot weather but be prepared for cool nights.

 

Excursions

Next day activity information was provided before dinner. Information was general and questions were required to clarify specifics (i.e. proper dress for excursions, temple sox needed). Times could change, based on arrival.

 

Lots of additional optional, free excursions were added. This was a pleasant surprise. Don’t miss the rickshaw through old Delhi. It was bumpy but well worth it. Women should be cautioned to wear modest clothes since it does go through the Muslim area and some women received a number of disapproving looks. There were no problems but they wished they had known to wear other clothes.

 

Make sure go on the dawn visit to the Taj Mahal. The sunset visit the night before was good for taking pictures as you get closer but it is also very crowded and the light is not good inside. In the morning, there were less people and we went directly into the Taj while everyone else was taking their pictures outside. This means it was not crowded and the morning sun lit the inside so you could see the intricate inlays.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CruiseRob, thanks so much for the information!

 

This sounds like it will be a great time! I expect that the standards will not be European. It will be different. We expect to adapt and go with it. That's why we don't stay home.

 

We have booked AF business class as well, similar flights: JFK-CDG-DEL and CCU-DEL-CDG-JFK on the return. The CCU-DEL leg is an Air India flight, sold by AF on the same ticket as the remainder of the itinerary. We gave ourselves 2h40 to make the connection in DEL. From your experience, that should be more than adequate! You were probably on the same flight.

 

You know, I think you have a point about the difference between AF and DL regarding beverage service. When we fly DL to Europe, they do come around constantly keeping your wine or water glass full. AF used to do that, but it seems as if the past few times, this has been noticeably different. I do like the food and wine selections on AF a little more, on average. But they have become a little stingy! :(

 

We will most likely apply for the electronic, online visas in January, before we arrive. Did you get your visas that way? Since we're arriving in India at Delhi airport, the e-visa should work. I've read that the e-visas do not work for cruise ship passengers, but that applies to people arriving by cruise ship, where their first point of entry is a port. So we should be fine, but it would be great to hear that first-hand.

 

Thanks again for posting!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wrote the comment on the European standards because there were a couple people that expected Uniworld to make sure the boat was exactly the same as their other boats. I agree with you that the reason you travel is to experience other cultures.

We did have a great time, even my wife. She was worried she might not like it but had a wonderful time and glad she went.

 

Our flight was to Mumbai (Bombay) instead of back to Dehli and it was about the same length. They had trouble on a runway in Mumbai so the plane landed very late, causing us to rush to the connection.

 

As far as the visa, we used the recommended Visa Central and received a 10 year visa that we can use if we go back. I wanted to make sure we didn't have a problem getting in country. I felt the assurance was worth the cost. Just another form of insurance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...