Uniworld River Baroness and Ambassador

[fibremissus]

In resonse to another post looking for information on the River Baroness (I think it was by poohkey?), I thought I would start a thread about information on both the River Ambassador and River Baroness, in case others were looking for info on either ship.

We have not yet travelled on either ship, but we will be travelling on the River Ambassador, leaving in a couple of weeks!!!

I was wondering what the River Ambassador (the sister ship of the River Baroness) would be like post renovations, and I was worried that there were no pictures in the Trafalgar 2007 brochure, nor on the Uniworld website.

I contacted someone on the Uniworld website (in customer relations) and he kindly advised me that there were indeed pictures of all of their ships, including pics of the staterooms, dining rooms, etc.)

Here are his directions for finding pictures on the River Ambassador, but there is similiar info for the Baroness in the same area.

 

"The River Ambassador is very similar the River Baroness, so much of the information is the same. On the Uniworld webpage at the bottom there is a link to our media (http://www.uniworld.com/media/) On the right is a Box with various options in it. Click on "Image Library" The next page will ask you to accept the terms, and then take you to a page to select your region. Select Europe, and then a page will display with many pictures of our ships, and destinations. About 2/3 of the way down there are 13 pictures of the River Ambassador, plus a deck plan."

 

With respect to the amenities available on the ship, I found a link on the Uniworld website

www.uniworld.com

Under "Reservations", select "Frequently Asked Questions", and you will get the options for "Cruise Companion booklets" and you can select the "Europe Grand River Cruises". You can then download the booklet, which is actually the same as the booklet which arrived with our cruise information today (except that in ours it gave particular info on our itinerary)! In this booklet, it indicates that there are self serve laundry facilities on the ships, except for the River Ambassador. But it also tells you very helpful information about what other amenities are available in the room (eg safe), etc. It was very useful information!

 

Hope this helps!!

Sorry this post is so LONG!!

[H2Otstr]

We JUST finished a trip on the River Ambassador this past week. We were the first trip from Amsterdam to Basel with 3 extra days in Luzern. Did "Castle's Along the Rhine." If you need any questions answered you can send an email to H2otstr@aol.com, or ask here for all to recieve the answers.

 

Sharon

[pacmom]

H2Otstr,

 

My husband and I are hoping to take this Amer-Basel cruise next year. Thought the boat was the River Queen. Did they change it? Where did you stay in Zurich? Hope you don't mind if I e-mail some other questions, when I think of them. Thanks, Pat

[fibremissus]

Hi Sharon

Thank you so much for your post.

We are doing the exact same cruise in early June. We have booked a few extra nights in Amsterdam prior to the cruise. I figured it would help us adjust to the time change, etc.

I would be curious to know your general impressions of the cruise and the ship!

We are wine drinkers, and my impression from reading other posts is that you can bring your own wine on board, but will have to pay a corkage fee in the dining room if you drink it in there. Is that correct?

We have never done a trip like this before and we are getting very excited!

Thanks very much!

Libby

[H2Otstr]

Pat, send any questions you have my way and I will answer them.

 

Libby,

We were a little disappointed in the cruise in general. We were the first trip for the season and I think we were the trial run. Hopefully by the time you go all the kinks will be worked out. They just seemed to be a beat off. We were on Viking last year. Another person on our cruise had taken 8 river cruises and his comment to me was "I would give Viking an A+ and Uniworld an A." I have to agree. Cabins were much smaller than Viking, even though a lot of time was not spend there.

All of the shore excursions were wonderful. I think we had more time on our own with this cruise vs Viking. Most of our cruising was done at night and we were in port more. Several people chose not to take the included walking tours and went off on their own right away.

Yes, you can bring wine on board. The corkage fee was stiff (in my opinion); I think somewhere around $15. We had the white house wine most evenings (6 Euros). Some people took their purchased wine to the upper deck and opened the bottles themselves. I don't think there was any additional fees for that.

[H2Otstr]

Pat, forgot to address the extra 3 days. They were in Luzern, not Zurich. Uniworld put us in the Swiss Monopol. It is a very old hotel, directly across the street form the train station and one block from the Lake. Rooms were clean, but "tired" looking. The location was perfect for walking but extremely noisy. On Tuesday night the young people carried on till 4 am. I understand there was a disco directly underneath our hotel and that was where all the noise came from.

[fibremissus]

Pat, send any questions you have my way and I will answer them.

 

Libby,

We were a little disappointed in the cruise in general. We were the first trip for the season and I think we were the trial run. Hopefully by the time you go all the kinks will be worked out. They just seemed to be a beat off. We were on Viking last year. Another person on our cruise had taken 8 river cruises and his comment to me was "I would give Viking an A+ and Uniworld an A." I have to agree. Cabins were much smaller than Viking, even though a lot of time was not spend there.

All of the shore excursions were wonderful. I think we had more time on our own with this cruise vs Viking. Most of our cruising was done at night and we were in port more. Several people chose not to take the included walking tours and went off on their own right away.

Yes, you can bring wine on board. The corkage fee was stiff (in my opinion); I think somewhere around $15. We had the white house wine most evenings (6 Euros). Some people took their purchased wine to the upper deck and opened the bottles themselves. I don't think there was any additional fees for that.

 

Sharon

Thank you so much for your candid response. I am sorry to hear that you were a little disappointed. If it works better for us I will let you know, but that doesn't help you much. It was nice to hear that most of the cruising was done at night. For my husband and I that would be fine, and we are also happy to have more free time in the ports. It was also great to hear that the excursions were good. Did you take any of the optional/extra tours or did you do only the included tours?

I agree with you that the corkage fee was steep. But nice to know that we can have our wine elsewhere on the ship without that additional fee.

My husband and I normally do our own organizing and travel by train. So this will be a very new experience for us!

Take care and thank you very much again for your information.

Libby

[H2Otstr]

Libby, we took all three extra trips. Marksburg Castle ws OK. LOTS of walking here. Uneven coblestones and lots of steps, many uneven. Some of the older folks had a problem walking. Emphasis was placed on the rigorous climb for this trip. Optional dinner was good. The only poblem was that we were in one room and the entertainment was in another so we had to continually jump up and go from one room to the other and vie for a place to see everything. Heidelberg was great. This was the best of the three for us.