beesKate

We were able to sail on the Po during our Uniworld cruise. I would not look to that being particularly scenic sailing. It was an out and back trip, with virtually no sights to see during the sailing. We were docked in places where there was no reason to get out and explore. It was still a great cruise and the benefit of staying mainly in Venice on the ship was great. The lagoon sailing was wonderful too. However, it's not really scenic river cruising. I'm slowly writing my review and will have more information in that. I posted a few day-by-days in mid-May.

Although we didn't do this, I see no reason why they wouldn't accommodate you if you arrive early. People start leaving very early. We were on the extension and left around 8:30 am or so. The crew onboard is very accommodating and most of the departing guests' bags will already be out. They know the guests arriving from Milan won't arrive until later.

They can only be booked onboard.

Brian, wonderful review! Was Tibor the butler on your cruise? Cesár the chef?

Your observations were similar to ours. We asked about the gelato on board and they told us they buy it, but make their own sorbets. I realize this classifies as a first-world-problem, but the different gelatos each day on our previous cruises was something I looked forward to. Not that there was anything wrong with the gelato they served, but it was the same three flavors all week. Like I said, first-world-problem.

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We did the Padua tour, mainly because we wanted to see St. Anthony of Padua Basilica. I'm glad we went, but after touring the basilica we felt rushed by the tour guide to move on to the university area so she could finish her tour. We wanted to buy some religious items from the main gift shop across the street instead of the vendor carts out front, and told we had 5 minutes. We did complete our small-scale shopping, but would have liked to have been given maybe 10 minutes? I understand the people that did not opt for St. Anthony did get to see the surgery theater which they found interesting. Here is also where we learned the Italians were brilliant with their use of arcades (covered sidewalks... there's an Italian name for them that slips my mind).

And I wouldn't worry too much about missing Ferrara. There's a block-ish castle and a cathedral, but not really anything else too noteworthy. There really wasn't anything too special about it, I don't think I would have used the term "fairy tale" to describe it.

Loving reading your comments! So... what was the best gelato, Panini, etc. in Milan? The internet issues were the same we had. My comment to Uniworld was that if they intend for this "U by Uniworld" to be a success they need to get to work on their connectivity issues.

And the risotto at the winery ... I presume it was the amazing red-wine risotto? We bought a couple of bottles of wine at the estate and were pleasantly surprised by how affordable they were!

We had the same experience at JP. You don't really "book" the cruise, you just fill out something that says you're going to take it. It's pretty open -- no money until they actually have a schedule out when you can really book, but it goes in your customer record so they take the $ off when you do actually book. I think you get a confirmation or something.

I don't remember anything being said about that benefit on our last cruise. It may have been somewhere in the papers they give you, but no one mentioned or encouraged it all during the port talks. It's like you need to know the benefit exists to ask about it.

We are on the bus for the Florence and Rome extension. Our guide for this part is Martin. He mentioned that the guests arriving for this week will not be able to cruise the Po. Although it's not a super scenic river, it's a nice change of scenery. It also shortens the times for the excursions. From Venice to Bologna it's right at 1.5 hours of highway driving.

There's 25 guests who are continuing on with this portion. Martin said he's had 10-20, but sometimes there's over 40 guests and they use 2 busses.

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Also, this ship has had more rocking than most river cruises, especially when docked, due to the wakes of other vessels in the lagoon. It's not as bad as ocean cruises, but unusual for river cruises

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JP, yes you are correct about the wine region. Actually, last night the wines were South African. Perhaps it's because our captain lives in South Africa now. We did take pictures of all the wine bottles, so once we get home we can look more closely.

Az- can your husband do steps at all? Around Venice we transfer to smaller boats for almost all the tours. You need to be able to step down from the dock or pier into a smaller, rocking boat. Also, you can't go far walking in Venice without coming upon a bridge. Although some have ramps, many, including the first one you cross where the Countess is docked, does not have a ramp.

We're getting ready to disembark but I ran up to take a picture of this bridge

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Both Italian food and wine. Today we visited the Rialto market with the chef and for lunch we had the octopus in a salad and as calamari. Both delicious. The wine have also been from the Tyrol area, so a few gewertraminers for whites. The reds have been varied. The bartender is acting as sommelier (as well as tech support for the routers in the bar). There's generally a pasta option at lunch, Italian charcuterie at lunch. So much seafood after Chioggia.

We had ossobuco for a dinner option last night. When my husband doesn't care for the seafood or salad starter the waiter had brought him prosciutto with melon. There's also pizza available on the sun deck osteria during meal times. Lemoncello is also available in the bar.

Also, unless you really want to buy expensive handcrafted glass, I'd recommend spending that time getting lost in Venice instead of the excursion. You do not go to Murano but across the lagoon to Giudecca island. It's a nice presentation and a beautiful shop, but we kind of felt captive. We left and walked along the lagoon until it was time for the water bus to leave.

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Visited with a few more people who went to Bologna and they said the bus ride was about one hour, fifteen minutes. I think complaints of a long bus ride may come when the ship is unable to cross the Adriatic Sea and excursions are bussed from Chioggia.

Yesterday was touring the different islands. It was an all-day trip, leaving at 8:15 am and returning around 4:30. You do have the option to stay on the ship and see Venice on your own.

The tour on Torchello was mainly for the cathedral which was abandoned, but what may be a precursor to the St Marks mosaics. We also climbed the 84 steps + ramps of the bell tower

Next to Mazzorbo where we tasted one wine and we're able to walk the vineyards. They apparently had other wines too, but the one we tasted was a rare grape, the bottle of Murano glass and "simple" gold leaf for a label. At $140 a bottle we passed, but there were other options we just didn't see or taste

The Burano lace making demonstration was more like walk through this shop where one lady sits making lace and here are our prices. The town was very scenic and we took so many pictures. You are on your own for lunch, but we just stopped at a casual bar for a beer and pizza, calamari and a tuna bruschetta.

We slowly cruised back. For those concerned about long bus rides, the long boat rides were worse. We were in a water-bus with hard plastic seats. There was a "tiny toilet" and you could be outside in the rear of the boat. There are other larger boats where the passengers could walk around, but our boats were rows of 3 seats on each side of a center aisle.

After we arrived back from the island tour, had a quick Prosecco, my husband and I walked to the Rialto Bridge. It was about a 25-30 minute walk from the Countess.

After dinner we had opera in the lounge. There was a piano accompaniment and a male and female singer. It was really nice, but I think a lot of people didn't go up because they didn't like opera.

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I talked to several people who went to Bologna and thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. The pasta making was more of a demonstration than a class, but very interesting. The bus ride from Polesella was a little more than an hour. The bus ride to Ferrara was 30 minutes. I wouldn't let the bus ride turn you off about Bologna unless there was some reason they couldn't sale to Polesella.

They brought an excellent 3-piece combo on board last night. We sailed from Polesella to Porto Viro. The shipped docked outside a propane distributor. Nothing very scenic about it. For this cruise, I'd say avoid port cabins and go with starboard. We're in 304 and it's very convenient to the lounge and exit/entrance.

I will say this is not a cruise for people with limited mobility. It would be very hard to tour Venice if you couldn't climb stairs to cross the bridges. In Chioggia today the bus drops you off at one end the market and we spend 3 hours in the market etc. before walking to where the ship is docked at 12:30 for a 1:30 departure. We left a little late because one couple misunderstood and got back late, needing to take a taxi.

Chioggia is really charming and the market has everything you'd ever need. My husband bought a nice 5€ hat that was probably made in China. It was very hot and sunny, but when you caught a breeze it was quite pleasant.

The mid-cruise evaluations were due yesterday and there's been slight changes is level of service. Friends commented that they didn't know there were breakfast specials, the hotel manager told us corporate had told them to discontinue posting them. However this morning the servers presented everyone with a printed menu listing the specials. We had crepes, friend had the Belgium waffles.

The cruise manager has also been much more available. He's quite helpful and personable, he was just hard to track down before.

We've had sunny warm days... a bit warmer than what I packed for. But the Chioggia market had a huge selection of women's (and men's and children's) clothing. Chioggia also has several nice churches.

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Today was the Ferrara or Bologna day. Although we had planned to go to Bologna, as did 2/3 of the ship, I woke up feeling bad and wasn't going anywhere. My husband switched to Ferrara, and I slept.

When I finally made it up and around I saw 6 or so others that stayed on the ship. When the Ferrara group came back, I found out that if I had to miss a tour, this was a good one to miss. Apparently the vox box amplifier wasn't working. So the one guide for 30-ish guests had to shout, or when in the Duomo had to whisper and no one could hear. My husband did say the guide was very good and looked out the guests more than the cruise director. I was waiting to see if our impression of the CD changed and it hasn't. He just seems to do the bare minimum. I don't know who's responsible for making sure the Vox boxes work, but it seems like he could have double checked.

Although the ship had a shuttle going back to Ferrara for 1.5 hours, only two couples went back. We were one of them so I could see the city. Most of the smaller shops were closed for their mid-day break, opening between 2:30-4:00. Of course the shop selling ceramics that was listed on the daily schedule was closed until 4, the time the bus was leaving back for the ship. Kind of a disappointing excursion day. I'll be curious to hear how the Bologna tour went. That excursion did include a 1.5 hour commute each way.

I will say wi-go has been horrible. They did put extra wireless hotspots in the lounge and other common areas. However the whole system has been out, including tv, phones etc. Although it's a strong signal now, I've been relying more on my t-mobile 3G connection which has worked great.

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The Milan hotel was the Star Rosa which is located a block behind the Duomo. It is very convenient. Uniworld staff set up a table before reception that is manned during certain hours of the day. The local hosts also have bottles of water available if you want them &a they hand them out on excursions.

The hotel's breakfast buffet is included. You are on your own for lunch and dinner (& gelato). The local hosts and hotel concierge can recommend restaurants and the concierge can make reservations if needed.

The rooms were nice, not terribly spacious but not European-style tiny either. There was at least 1 USB charger but no US style plugs if you have a lot of devices to charge. There was decent storage for limited clothes, a tub-shower combo, although our room had a pretty high step-in if that's an issue for you. There was a bidet and toilet. The room did have air conditioning that you could control.

Although we didn't have an opportunity to take advantage of the bar, we did walk by and see they had a nice selection of fairly substantial snacks to have with your wine or drink.

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The St Marks evening experience is really amazing. They allowed the cruise director to video it (generally no cameras allowed) search for Uniworld Ricardo on Facebook. Susan is narrating. Today is Padua was rather warm. We did the extended tour of St Anthony's which I would recommend unless you wanted more time to explore Padua on your own. After Venice it is more of a city (with cars!). If you have the opportunity to walk back from any excursion in Venice go for it. It's always better to get lost in Venice than to take the direct boat back to the ship

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And our delay was "only" 30 hours... typo above

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What started out as a dreary morning turned into a beautiful afternoon. We toured the Doge Palace, crossed the Bridge of Sighs, toured the prison then back across the Bridge of Sighs. We did get in before it was too crowded. We found our way back from St. Marks, easily following the signs that said l'accademia. Map my walk had it at 2.5 miles, but we may not have taken the most direct route, stopping in shops, churches etc.

This afternoon we cruised the islands. There was a great guide narrating the islands, she was also one of the Doge Palace guides, Susan is her name.

The weather was almost perfect, there were a few sprinkles between the sun, a cool breeze in places, warm sunshine most of the afternoon. The servers were attentive, one was passing blue prosecco, the other was taking orders and had water too. Prosecco and Belinis were the perfect accompaniment to the cruising.

We are having the "welcome reception" and gala dinner on Tuesday night. Several days into the trip.

I missed the "secrets of tiramisu" this afternoon since I was still up too enjoying the scenery and weather.

The upper deck has the same chairs as the Catherine. The regular chairs are fine, but the lounge chairs are awkward and uncomfortable. The back doesn't go up high enough so you need to slouch to get any head support.. or maybe I just don't know how to sit in them.

We have been rafter next to a CroisiTours, Michaelangelo ship. So the people on the port (left) side of the ship have no view. Not that ours is spectacular since we're docked in the same place, but we have seen several large cruise ships pass by.

We have an early dinner tonight due to the St. Mark visit.

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American was the airlines and points are not going to cut it on this one. Arrived In Venice. Although we'd been tracking the Countess on MarineTraffic we won't be able to dock at the closer in docking space this week due to the art show. Apparently private yachts have taken all those spaces this week. But it's still all very walkable even from San Basilio. We just need the get our bearings in day light. The St. Mark's after-hour visit is tomorrow, so an early dinner. I think they're just not mentioning a "welcome dinner". Only 63 people came from Milan, but a British couple we met before dinner mentioned they arrived today directly in Venice. It makes me wonder if they may market differently to the GB market. They were told the cruise was pretty fully booked.. but with my math, unless a lot of people arrived directly in Venice we're only about 2/3 full.

For those curious minds, although they announced they request no shorts in the dining room, we did see one of the suite guests (male) dining in shorts.

Tomorrow we do a walking tour, then an afternoon cruise around the lagoon.

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Uniworld is a river cruising company. Since Italy doesn't have as many navigable rivers they start in Milan before moving to the ship in Venice

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Since I have time on the bus between Milan and Venice, I thought I'd try a post. Our flight from JFK to Milan was cancelled due to mechanical issues causing a 36 hour delay in our arrival. Unfortunately that meant we missed all the organized touring in Milan. We arrived at the hotel just after 1 pm Saturday, too late to catch up with the group at the Last Supper. There were 3 different touring times -- which I'll update after I get a chance to review the daily planner.

We did make the most of our 1/2 day in Milan. We bought tickets to the Duomo roof and museum combo ticket, I think 2 euros more than buying them at the regular box office. At that point we just wanted to really start the vacation. The day was sunny and warm and you could see the Alps from the cathedral roof. We didn't have time to go the museum, but it was convenient after our travel nightmare. There was a special celebration at the Duomo all day for the Virgin of Lourdes. The Uniworld group actually had their official tour on Friday afternoon because Saturday they w weren't allowing group tours due to the special events. There was also a big musical production on the life of Christ in the plaza that evening. It was very special to be there that day, even though we only saw the very end of the production.

The hotel was very nice and I wish we could have enjoyed it more than the 18 or so hours we were there.

The wake up call for Verona was 6 am, leaving the hotel at 7:30. We had 2 fairly full buses, about 35 people in each bus, which needed up being 35 people in each group for our Verona tour. I thought it moved a little slow, but we wandered a bit from the guide.

The lunch at the wine estate was very nice.. and now everyone is napping on the bus. I don't know how often I'll come back to post, but if you have any questions let me know.

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The good thing about the Rhine and the Danube (also the Main) is that the distances between ports is actually rather short, so a good amount of time is spent in town. My experience is only with Uniworld, and on their website, if you click "already booked" then "cruise companions" https://www.uniworld.com/en/already-booked/cruise-companions/ they have much more detailed explanations of their tours, and indicate if you have extra time to explore on your own. We found that on the Rhine and Main the tours did fill up most of our port time. On the Danube, we seemed to stay in one place longer and had more free time to explore.

Thanks! I'll be using T-Mobile for the first time on our upcoming trip next week. Hopefully data combined with the wi-fi will work for my sporadic updates.

As mentioned, there's no reason to bring US $ unless you plan to use them at the US airports. Bring an ATM card and get maybe a few hundred in Euros if you think you'll use them. It all depends on the cruise line -- will you need tipping money? buying things in markets (instead of stores)? drinking at bars in port instead of on the ship? We've rarely spent that much in cash... more like $200 (but in euros).

Just a few more weeks. I can't promise I'll do a "live" update, nor the complete photo report that JP does... but I'll try to post at least highlights, etc. On vacation I do normally post at least one photo each day on Instagram, user DeboraRichter