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We are thinking of UNIWORLD- Spain & Portugal- Has anyone been on that cruise? what.


marvalpert
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We are thinking of UNIWORLD- Spain & Portugal- Has anyone been on that cruise? what.

what is a good time to go for ok weather.. may ok?? cold?

What can we expect in food quality? trips?

Should we get the airfair from them? will they allow upgrade to business class?

how about where to stay before or after the cruise.

What do you do at night? is there any entertainment?

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We did this tour last September. It was a great time to be there. The scenery is wonderful and Uniworld’s tours are very well done.

 

For hotels. Uniworld stays at the Westin Palace in Madrid. It’s an excellent hotel and conveniently located across the street from the Prago and with many great restaurants in the area. I did not like the Intercontinental in Lisbon. Horribly located and poor service. Fortunately we left Lisbon at the conclusion of the tour and went over and stayed near the castles east of town for three days, sightseeing there and Caisson.

 

Uniworld will arrange any airfare arrangements you desire. I have not found them price competitive with doing it my self.

 

We had a great musician on board that kept everyone dancing and laughing in the evenings. One night that brought aboard some Portugese custom performers. One night it’s dinner and entertainment at a winery, and one night it off to see a great professional flamingo dancing show. You won’t get bored on this cruise.

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we live in Boston-- how about you? i just called uniworld and they seem to be booking up. for may-- we were thinking may 10th. what room category did u get i asked about suites all gone-- expensive

did u have category 1 or 2 or another level.thanks so much really appreciate your help

-marvalpert(AT)gmail.com

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Have only been in that area (northern Portugal) twice, in June and in April. I'm thinking May might be a very nice time, not sure about Madrid but probably it would be lovely too. We had bad luck with rain in Porto in April, but it was otherwise fairly mild; June was lovely. Would love to do that cruise, and would certainly consider Uniworld since our first experience in Egypt was very, very good.

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We cruised the Douro in August and it was scorching. I would suggest late spring or fall.

 

Queen Isabel is owned and operated by Douro Azul, and the overall experience is controlled by them and not Uniworld, who charters the ship. Same for most (but not all) of the other lines. If you have not yet cruised with Uniworld, you are not likely to notice any differences.

 

The scenery was magnificent on the Douro, but, for us, there were too many long bus rides and not enough interesting towns to explore while docked.

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Just a bit of perspective. The longest bus ride from the river to one of the tours is perhaps 45 minutes.

 

The ride from Madrid to Salamanca is about 2 hours, where you will do a nice tour, then another 3 hours on to the boat. Actually better than the three hour each way ride most people do. Madrid to Toledo is about 1 hour depending upon Madrid traffic.

 

The ride from Porto to Lisbon is broken up with two different city tours and a nice lunch break.

 

The actual river towns you sail by are pretty from the water, but not much there once on land. Uniworld takes you to some very nice stops short bus rides away. However, the Douro is not the Rhine, which is wonderful in itself! Only day light sailing, you rarely ever see another tour bus (outside of Oporto), with entertaining bus rides!

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Consider the fall as the nicest time. On both sides of the river the vinyards will be green with grapes hanging. Picking occurs late September or early October . This was our first river trip on Uniworld and am now planning my 4th one. I did a lot of comparisons before I booked it with other companies and feel they offer a quality product and continue to return.

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Went on this trip last April and the weather was magnificent. Lisbon and Porto are amazing vibrant cities (especially Porto with its waterfront and bridges). The scenery not only from the ship but also on the bus rides was spectacular. We had not seen scenery like that since our Norway cruise. The lunches we had at the vineyards and Posadas were fun and authentic. I'm leaving out a lot but there was not one person on our trip that did not love it. I can give many other details about the trip if you are interested such as the students wearing Harry Potter capes and the bats that protect the old books in the library of the University of Coimbra! Don't get me started.. definitely go on this exotic trip!

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