Uniworld SS Antoinette - WOW!

[SuiteTraveler]

I'm a veteran of 15+ ocean cruises and just did Uniworld SS Antoinette Castles of the Rhine last week. All I can say is WOW! I will be writing a more detailed review, but if you are considering this cruise, BOOK IT! Don't hesitate - it was AWESOME! Everything from the ship to the stateroom to the employees to the included tours to the optional tours, food, wine etc - was outstanding! Let me know if you have any questions about this ship or the cruise. I was extremely impressed with the entire operation - totally first class all the way!

[quilter35]

We have booked this cruise for June, 2013. It will be the first river cruise we have taken. We have gone on several large cruise ships and decided those cruises are just too big.

 

I am really glad to hear you had a good experience. So far everything I have read sounds positive. Any advice on the excursions they offer? I believe a couple of the places have choices. I'll be looking forward to seeing your full review.

 

Kris

[SuiteTraveler]

We did Amsterdam to Basel.

 

You will be tempted to sign up for every single extra excursion and even go on all of the included excursions, but don't do it! Make sure to give yourself some down time to enjoy the beautiful ship!

 

Cologne -

 

Included: 45 minute walking tour with time on our own. I wanted to buy some original Eau de Cologne and also some of the little beers (Kolsch) that are special in Cologne.

 

Kobblenz, Boppard

 

Included: Aerial tram - they may take this down soon, so we took advantage of the opportunity to go on it. The views were amazing!

 

Optional: Marksburg Castle - includes the opportunity to climb 81 stairs just to get to the foot of the castle, then it's lots of steep cobblestone hills that are difficult to climb and even more stairs inside the castle. I enjoyed it, but if you are not nimble or don't have good balance, give this one a pass and instead enjoy the ship and get a massage!

 

Rudesheim:

 

Included: I believe we first took a tourist choo-choo into Rudesheim and I bought a musical beer stein (which my husband says he is NEVER drinking out of it, LOL!), a Steiff Porcupine (for good luck in the kitchen) and some ice wine in this town. We also stopped for some special coffee drinks.

 

Exclusive: Castle Vollrads wine Tasting - Outstanding and well worth going to! Don't miss it. The castle (schloss) is beautiful with a very tragic history and the wine is great! They have one of the most unusual wine stoppers I've ever seen, btw. The wine is distributed in the USA, so we didn't buy any wine but did take the name of our local distributor.

 

Germersheim:

 

Included: Speyer Walking tour - very interesting and not that difficult of a walk.

 

Optional: Tour of Heidelberg with Castle Visit - I loved this castle, but it included another steep climb on uneven surfaces and if it had been raining, I don't think this would have been very safe - especially the hill of cobblestones going down into the room with the worlds biggest wine barrel. Heidleberg is absolutely beautiful, but it was hot that day and not that enjoyable being out in the heat.

 

Kehl (Strassbourg)

Included: We meant to take the canal cruise but were so exhausted from the previous day, we skipped it and slept in. As it turned out, many who went complained that they could not take photos from the enclosed canal boat.

 

Optional: Black Forest excursion with outdoor museum: This was absolutely awesome! It is about a 2 hour bus ride to get out there and well worth it! We enjoyed the Cuckoo Clock shop - many people bought Cuckoo Clocks - sometimes several that cost more than $1,000 for their lucky family members! The outdoor museum was also interesting. Imagine people in the Black Forest did not figure out that it would be good to have a chimney from the oven in their kitchen until the 1900's! The outdoor museum includes many eateries with local specialities and hand woven straw shoes. It's a very interesting place!

 

Breisach

 

Included: Full day tour of Alsace - 3 different towns or shorter 2 town tour (gentle walking tour.) I started on the 3 town tour and after the 2nd town, decided to switch to the 2 town bus and went back to the ship to pack. I was exhausted. But I want to say that both towns I saw were gorgeous and well worth visiting. My husband went to the 3rd town and said it was more modern. I must admit I fell in love with Alsace and we plan to go back on a land visit so we can go to the wineries!

 

My main advice is don't try to do every single excursion or you will get totally exhausted. If I had to do over, I think I'd probably skip Marksburg Castle - so many steps and really nothing different than most other castles in Europe and since it was so hot that day, I'd skip Heidleburg, too - especially if it was raining that day. But I have to admit the Heidleburg castle was stunning with panoramic views and I loved seeing the biggest wine barrel in the world. Still Heidleburg was lovely. I'd probably do Heidleburg over Marksburg if I had to pick one or the other. The best of the optional excursion to me was the Black Forest one - that was so scenic and didn't require a lot of exertion, yet was just really great and a total change of scenery!

Edited May 14, 2012 by SuiteTraveler

[quilter35]

Thank you for all the wonderful information! I know what you mean about trying to do everything and getting totally exhausted. We did a 12 day Northern Baltic cruise and did something almost every single day. Although we enjoyed seeing everything, it was just too much.

 

Although the cruise is still a year away, I love the anticipation that goes along with it. Are there any books you would recommend reading prior to the trip?

 

Again thank you so much for your detailed information. I greatly appreciate it!

 

Kris

[SuiteTraveler]

Since neary everything is completely planned out for you, you won't need to do much in the way of preplanning your trip. But I did find some interesting websites and books that may be of interest in anticipating your trip:

 

This is the fascinating and tragic story behing Schloss (Castle) Vollrads:

http://www.robert-temple.com/nostalgia/countMatuschka.html

 

Interesting information on Cologne Cathedral:

http://www.koelner-dom.de/home.html?&L=1

Don't miss the relic of the 3 Magi in there!

 

Eau de Cologne:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eau_de_Cologne

 

http://www.jolique.com/perfume/origin_eau_cologne.htm

 

Ehrenbreihstein Fortress:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenbreitstein_Fortress

 

Rudesheim:

(Best shopping on the Rhine, IMO in terms of options and also the musical museum is very interesting and the town is very photogenic - it almost feels unreal. The town reminds me of "The Shambles" in York.)

http://www.siegfrieds-musikkabinett.de/frame.htm

 

Speyer Cathedral:

http://www.speyer.de/de/tourist/sehenswert/dom?switch_language=en

 

The Jewish Courtyard:

http://www.speyer.de/de/tourist/sehenswert/judenhof?switch_language=en

 

This is the Cuckoo Clock place they take you to:

http://www.house-of-black-forest-clocks.com/default_e.asp?seite=226

You can preview their Cuckoo Clocks here:

http://www.house-of-black-forest-clocks.com/shop_e.asp?UID=421552122763&W=1&L=1&G1=1&G2=0

You also get to try to Black Forest cake - it's great - and have some cherry schnapps!

 

Beautiful Colmar:

http://france-for-visitors.com/alsace/vosges/colmar.html

About Kayserberg:

http://france-for-visitors.com/alsace/vosges/kayserberg.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might find this book helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rhine-Roland-Recht/dp/050051058X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337032079&sr=1-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Up-Rhine-Down-Danube-ebook/dp/B004WLCXJY/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337032221&sr=1-5

[quilter35]

Thank you again for all this information. I have printed this out and shared with husband. You are a wealth of information!!

[SuiteTraveler]

Thank you again for all this information. I have printed this out and shared with husband. You are a wealth of information!!

 

You're welcome! I just thought this cruise was so absolutely great that I wanted to share with anyone interested. BTW, the ages of passengers on this cruise ranged from late 40's to our new 90 year old friend, Phillip from the UK! We really got to meet a lot of very nice and interesting people and had a great time! I know you and your husband will too!

[jevans9772]

Thank you for all of the great info! We have booked back to back 8 day cruises next July '13: Budapest > Passau on the River Beautrice and Basal > Amsterdam on the Antionette. We book a Catagory 1 on the first and a suite on the second. Any thoughts on the cabins? We have probably taken 20 cruises over the years on large ships. Moving to smaller. The last was Silver Seas Spirit. These two Uniworld river cruises are our first. Thanks again!

[RvrCrzr]

The cathedral is amazing both inside and out. The sound of the organ and singers inside is incredible. Very moving.

[atcken]

You're welcome! I just thought this cruise was so absolutely great that I wanted to share with anyone interested. BTW, the ages of passengers on this cruise ranged from late 40's to our new 90 year old friend, Phillip from the UK! We really got to meet a lot of very nice and interesting people and had a great time! I know you and your husband will too!

 

My wife and I are flying out tomorrow for a pre-cruise stay in Amsterdam before taking the S.S. Antoinette on 7/1 for the Castles along the Rhine cruise. Info from you and others on this board has been very helpful - I plan on posting a trip review/tips after we return in mid July to try and add to these postings.

 

We are also veteran cruisers but this will be our first river cruise and it sounds like we made the right choice. Can't believe our trip is finally here and we're really looking forward to it!

 

Ken

[Palm City Cruiser]

Thanks for your impressions of the cruise. We are booked for the same departing Amsterdam on 15 July. Could you please give us some insight on the cost of some of the optional excursions? I assume we can charge to our onboard account?

 

This will be our 1st river cruise also after approx. 20 ocean-going voyages.

Thanks again.

John

[The Sweeties]

Good to know, we're going in 2 weeks and looking forward to it! Would love to know if you did any of the optional excursions and if so which ones?

[editor@cruisecritic]

SuiteTraveler, I'm with you on the "wow" factor of SS Antoinette -- we took a Christmas Markets cruise in December, when it was gray and rainy and snowy and the ship was just a fantastic base (though a bit too cool for a swim, the movie theater was nice and so was the Leopard Bar for pre- and post-dinner revelry.

 

I think it's the most beautiful ship of any kind I've ever been on and totally agree with SuiteTraveler's point to balance the shore outings and make time to enjoy the vessel.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

 

 

I'm a veteran of 15+ ocean cruises and just did Uniworld SS Antoinette Castles of the Rhine last week. All I can say is WOW! I will be writing a more detailed review, but if you are considering this cruise, BOOK IT! Don't hesitate - it was AWESOME! Everything from the ship to the stateroom to the employees to the included tours to the optional tours, food, wine etc - was outstanding! Let me know if you have any questions about this ship or the cruise. I was extremely impressed with the entire operation - totally first class all the way!

[Clarabels]

This sounds just wonderful. It is making it really hard for us to decide. Scandinavia/Russia or Castle Rhine tour? We are going back and forth. Both a trip of a lifetime. So glad to hear great things about S.S. Antoinette.

[atcken]

My wife and I are flying out tomorrow for a pre-cruise stay in Amsterdam before taking the S.S. Antoinette on 7/1 for the Castles along the Rhine cruise. Info from you and others on this board has been very helpful - I plan on posting a trip review/tips after we return in mid July to try and add to these postings.

 

We are also veteran cruisers but this will be our first river cruise and it sounds like we made the right choice. Can't believe our trip is finally here and we're really looking forward to it!

 

Ken

 

We just returned a few weeks ago from our Castles along the Rhine cruise onboard the S.S. Antoinette. I have to echo every positive thing said about this ship on this and other boards. The ship is fantastic, the crew was excellent, and all of the excursions were at the very minimum enjoyable and interesting (which means most were even better than that). We did them all (included and optional) except Black Forest. And the food on this ship has got to be some of the best I have ever had over any previous cruise.

 

Our pre-cruise and especially our post-cruise experiences (arranged by our travel agent) in Amsterdam and in Grindelwald, Switzerland, also were phenomenal and worth the extra time and expense.

 

I recently submitted my cruise review for the S.S. Antoinette to cruise critic so it should be up on the member review site within the next day or so.

 

Feel free to ask me any questions on here or via email if you'd like.

[anna227a]

Do you think I'll see the castles on their Christmas Markets cruise?

Also, in their videos, it looks like everyone is always dressed up. Is that really how it is, or is it okay to pack jeans for when we go out on excursions? Thank you.

[griffsmom]

We were on this cruise in September. Dress was very casual... jeans will be fine for excursions.

[beesKate]

Unless you sit in your cabin with the drapes closed, you will see castles. Some depends on which of the Christmas Market cruises you're on. If you are on the Rhine, it would be hard to miss them. The Main has castles, just not as many and the Danube fewer still. But if you are cruising in an area with castles, the cruise director should point them out or let you know (especially if you ask them to let you know).

 

As for attire, it is much more casual than the advertisements. Dressing up for me may have been changing my shoes and switching my top. Dressy for women may be a fancier top, very few bring dresses or skirts. Men tended to wear khakis, shirts or sweaters. A few wear jackets and ties, but you'll probably be in the minority with both a jacket and a tie. I wouldn't wear fleece or athletic wear to dinner, but they'll be fine for excursions. We tend not to take too many pairs of jeans because they're heavy and tend to attract cold and damp. Most important is comfortable (and for December - warm!) shoes and socks.