Uniworld 10 August Highlights of Eastern Europe (Budapest to Bucharest) is a GO!

[Ritabob]

Wow, what a relief 😄 I was worried there were not enough choices for dinner.  The photos you posted  made me want to be right there with you enjoying the meal...and dessert!

Have a great time!

RB 

[Roz]

PhD-iva, what a relief.  That's why we cruise - to eat. 😁

[notamermaid]

26 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

I think my technical difficulties give a poor impression of Uniworld. Yes, three choices of starters, some soups, several mains, several desserts. I will try to do better in future to provide the entire 2 page menu. Lots of choices, sorry to imply otherwise. Food is excellent. Having a great time!

Good to read. And thanks for the food photos. Looks inviting, especially the dessert.

 

notamermaid

 

[Roz]

@notamermaid, I have a French friend here who despises corn🌽 .  To her, it's chicken 🐔 feed.  

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, Roz said:

@notamermaid, I have a French friend here who despises corn🌽 .  To her, it's chicken 🐔 feed.  

 I can hear the word chicken feed spoken with a French accent. LOL. But I would not go that far. Corn just stands out as being from "across the pond" typically, although it has crept into German cooking over the decades, especially in salads. I eat it. For some older Germans, turkey still is a little exotic by the way.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Oh yes corn fed chicken, I’m not to sure about the yellow tinge.

[dkf11]

Hi this is PhDiva posting under dKF11. I’m not able to access the Internet, but I promise to post complete menus as soon as possible. Everything is fabulous, food is fabulous, cruise is fabulous. Fabulous.

[Roz]

Enjoy your cruise and don't worry about us.  You can post when you return home.

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Roz said:

Enjoy your cruise and don't worry about us.  You can post when you return home.

I second that. Looking forward to reading about the adventures when PhD-iva and dkf11 get home.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by notamermaid

[dkf11]

We are both having a great time. A few tips:  The internet has not worked during our days in Serbia unless you have a VPN installed on your phone or other device so I highly recommend you install a VPN if you plan on traveling through Serbia. The food is very good. The only problem is with the buffet bottlenecks. You do through the line and tell staff what you want but it is quite a challenge at the omelet station or the carving station. Those stations are at the end of the U shaped station so it’s very awkward-  you get stuck there even if you don’t want the food there.  Finally Uniworld will perform whatever type of COVID test you need to get back home at your cost. 

[PhD-iva]

We arrived in Bucharest yesterday. Let’s see if I can finally post something here. The other day I got access to the Internet and posted a long paragraph about the wonderful food. After I pressed submit everything vanished including my post. So this is a test. I will post the menu from day 2 to accompany the photo of my meal.

Yippee! It worked!

Edited August 18, 2021 by PhD-iva
Edit

[PhD-iva]

Here are some photos of my stateroom. I booked the lowest category of state room, and Uniworld give me a free upgrade one level. I believe it is the classic level.  My state room was closest to the lobby but I never heard any noise outside my door. It was very convenient to everything. The ship is not large to begin with, but I was closest to the stairs to go down one level to get coffee in the morning, etc.

there were plenty of hangers in the closet and shelves for storage. The bathroom is very small, but that is life on a river boat. Everything was in really good condition, very good shape. I also made a four minute video of the state room which I will try to post to YouTube after I get home and then provide a link here.

[PhD-iva]

On board the ship they tried to minimize paper, so we didn’t get a lot of itineraries or agendas printed. Each day I would take a photograph of what was posted in the lobby. I will attach the agendas for the trip. I was very impressed by how uniworld found interesting places for us to visit. I will also post some of the paper-based descriptions we used to select which optional itineraries we chose.

Edited August 18, 2021 by PhD-iva
Correction for auto text

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks @PhD-iva

 

When I'm traveling [or on days when CC is acting funky, like yesterday!] I compose my posts in Word and then copy/paste when I'm ready to send.  That way if the post goes 'poof' I still have the text.

 

PS – I'm glad that your trip wasn't jinxed by putting your hat on the bed!

https://people.howstuffworks.com/unlucky-to-leave-hat-on-bed.htm

[PhD-iva]

48 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Thanks @PhD-iva

 

When I'm traveling [or on days when CC is acting funky, like yesterday!] I compose my posts in Word and then copy/paste when I'm ready to send.  That way if the post goes 'poof' I still have the text.

 

PS – I'm glad that your trip wasn't jinxed by putting your hat on the bed!

https://people.howstuffworks.com/unlucky-to-leave-hat-on-bed.htm

Good tip! I tend to use text messages to draft each day a description of the day. I can text myself, or text friends or family. On this trip since I am traveling without my husband, Each day he’ll get my rough thoughts that I will use later to flush out into a trip description. I don’t think I have access to word on my iPad mini or on my iPhone. I’m not that very good with technology.

Edited August 18, 2021 by PhD-iva
Edit

[Ritabob]

Thank you for posting all the daily programs.  The information in them covers so much. How did you cope with the daily temperatures?  I would have been a wilted mess.

What was your highlight?

RB 

[PhD-iva]

1 minute ago, Ritabob said:

Thank you for posting all the daily programs.  The information in them covers so much. How did you cope with the daily temperatures?  I would have been a wilted mess.

What was your highlight?

RB 

I live in Central Texas and walk 4+ miles every day, so I don’t have any good advice for you since I am accustomed to the heat.
While I liked the itinerary overall, perhaps two of my favorites were the full day excursion in Rousse, Bulgaria. We toured two very ancient Greek orthodox churches, and uniworld organized an a cappella choir to sing to us. The male singer was a member of the Bulgarian national opera. The typical Bulgarian lunch was interesting and a Bulgarian folk dance group performed for us. Also the excursion in Vidin Bulgaria was very interesting. We climbed up some red rocks that are part of an ancient Fortress. Getting up to the top was quite an adventure.

so many more things to talk about, but my last excursion will be starting soon to tour the royal palace in Bucharest.

[PhD-iva]

For those that are interested, Uniworld passengers were required to wear a face mask when walking in the ship hallways, in the lobby, in any common area or on your way to a seat in the lounge or in the palace restaurant. Once you were seated in the lounge, service was very fast to get a drink in front of you. I think it was probably more polite to wear your facemask in the palace restaurant for breakfast or lunch as you passed along the Buffet line. Passengers were asked not to serve themselves but to let staff and servers to serve them. Not all passengers complied with this, but for the most part they did. 
I never had any complaints about service in the lounge or on the sundeck. In comparison to celebrity, where my previous experience was that your  included alcohol package was only good if you could access a bartender. On this sailing I was told capacity was 110 passengers and this particular sailing had 70 passengers. 
if I had to tell you the weakest link in the experience, it was the 24 hour self-service coffee machine. It was definitely not to my liking, and I am a coffee fiend. I was told that the regular machine which could brew cappuccinos, was out for service. So presumably the 24-hour self service coffee will improve once the better machine has been repaired and returned.

[kent9xxx1]

Hi PhDiva,

Do you know what is the house champagne serve on Uniworld?  What about cocktail and other beverage?  It is available at all time?

[PhD-iva]

On 8/18/2021 at 10:36 PM, kent9xxx1 said:

Hi PhDiva,

Do you know what is the house champagne serve on Uniworld?  What about cocktail and other beverage?  It is available at all time?

Here is a picture of the complementary bottle of champagne that my TA arranged as part of my package. I suspect that the house champagne is not the same quality as this. But I’m not sure which brand is their house champagne.

in addition to the champagne, Uniworld gave me a bottle of red wine, a box of chocolates, a vase of fresh cut flowers and $125 shipboard credit.

I didn’t spend a lot of time in the lounge, nor did I frequently have any alcohol besides a wonderful beer with lunch so I asked some other experienced cruisers about availability of alcohol throughout the day. They all agreed that alcohol is available 24/7. The bar is not always staffed in the lounge, but it would be very easy to find someone to hunt you down a cocktail at any hour.

it was a great cruise, and I’m going to try to put together some more itinerary details. I got home around 2 AM last night, so I’m starting to fade away a little bit now…….

Edited August 20, 2021 by PhD-iva
Edit

[PhD-iva]

I am back home and trying to get a travelogue written before the memories fade. I find it is helpful to jog my memory of small details 10, 15 years after the trip. I won't bore you with all my tiny details, but I can post some more photos of the ship.  My stateroom was a Deluxe, upgraded from a Classic (correction to a previous post). The stateroom was closest to the stairs and the reception, although I never heard any noise. It was very convenient to the lower deck where the 24/7 coffee machine and tea is available, a laundry room and a fitness center, a jewelry store and access to a printer. I didn't take any pictures of the laundry room, but there are 2 washers and 2 dryers. I think I also saw an ironing board and iron.

One of my few complaints was that the coffee was not to my liking. The regular coffee machine, which could make cappuccinos, was out for repair. Perhaps the 24/7 coffee will be better when it is returned.

[Canal archive]

PhD-iva thank you so much, a very interesting insight into a different cruise line. I hope you like the bubbly some few years ago an acquaintance of ours was the U.K. rep for Taittenger. He was the quintessential English gentleman. His name was Teddy.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Canal archive

[beesKate]

Hi PhD-iva, where is central Texas are you?  We're southwest of Austin and doing this same trip in reverse next year.

[PhD-iva]

8 hours ago, beesKate said:

Hi PhD-iva, where is central Texas are you?  We're southwest of Austin and doing this same trip in reverse next year.

We’re in San Marcos, near the university where I used to teach. I think you’ll like the cruise! I did 😁

[boblerm]

On 8/21/2021 at 9:14 AM, PhD-iva said:

I won't bore you with all my tiny details,

PHd-iva, thank you for taking the time to provide the info about your cruise, I am glad that you had such a great time.

FYI, any details are greatly appreciated, no matter how tiny!😀

Bob