Day 1 - Luxury Uniworld Cruise
The point of this post and the other day-to-day blog posts of my cruise along the Danube with Uniworld Boutique River Cruises is to hopefully answer some questions about what a river cruise really looks like and some of the fine details of the daily itinerary, the parts that you don’t see on an overview.
Everything in this post pertains specifically to the itinerary I did, and all itineraries will look differently, depending on which sailing you’re on and which destinations it takes you to! My sailing was the Enchanting Danube on the SS Maria Theresa, Budapest to Passau.
We spent 8 days on the luxurious and ornately decorated SS Maria Theresa.
This photos was taken at our stop in Durnstein, Austria after our exclusive
visit to the Nikolauhof vineyard, a 2,000 year old vineyard - one of the oldest
in the world.
Just to quickly look at my stops as a whole, this was how each destination was allocated among the days we were on the ship.
Day 1 - All guest boarded the ship and we stayed docked overnight in Budapest, Hungary.
Day 2 - We stayed docked in Budapest all day and that evening, before sunset, set sail for Bratislava, Slovakia
Day 3 - Early morning we docked in Bratislava stayed for the morning and set sail that afternoon for Vienna.
Day 4 - We stayed in Vienna all day and set sail for the Wachau Valley (Dürnstein & Melk, Austria) after dinner.
Day 5 - Before breakfast we docked in Dürnstein Austria, stayed throughout the morning and around lunchtime sailed just down the river to Melk, Austria. (My favorite day!)
Day 6 - By sunrise, we were docked in Passau Germany, and stayed for the rest of the day and overnight.
Day 7 - Still docked in Passau, we packed and disembarked.
We boarded the SS Maria Theresa on Sunday, but arrived in Budapest the early evening before, on Saturday, which I feel was perfect, even though I could have absolutely spent much more time in Budapest before we boarded the ship. But I’ll talk more about my time in Budapest in another post! Below is just a sneak peak.
Even arriving only one day before our ship sailed, we still got to spend a full 48 hours in Budapest because Uniworld gives you a full day in Budapest built into the first day of the itinerary. We spent the first night on our own in a hotel and the second night in Budapest on board the ship in our stateroom. I love history and wanted to learn more about the beautiful city of Budapest, but knew that the tour the next day would provide several stops around the city and loads of historical information. We spent the night we arrived (Saturday) and the next morning and early afternoon, exploring on our own. (Again, near-future posts coming about Budapest because it’s all worth it! But this is about the actual cruise and it’s daily itinerary.)
First of all, I want to say this about river cruising, the term river cruise definitely has some connotations that seem to turn a lot of people off to actually trying a river cruise. Is it literally a cruise down a river? Yes. But the connotation that accompanies the term river cruising, I feel, does not match the actual experience. I’m here to just paint a picture of the reality of being on a river cruise, which is quite honestly the best travel experience I’ve ever had.
The actuality of it is that you are more-so on an immaculately ran boutique hotel that transports you from destination to destination without having to unpack at all, all while including literally everything that you need for the trip aside from your clothes and personal items. Sailing with Uniworld is truly all-inclusive. I can’t stress that enough.
Most cruising…ocean, river, small ship, etc may claim mostly inclusive, but then there’s still so many things you have to end up tacking on to make it whole…not Uniworld! Not only is everything you need included, it is of the highest quality from the staterooms and decor to the exclusive experiences, service on board, and food/drink.
Sunday was the day to embark (guest boarding the ship and the cruise begins) and you were able to check-in to your stateroom at 3:00 PM, although you can board earlier and have them hold your bags while you begin enjoying the beautiful ship. Since we spent the morning around Budapest, we chose to join the ship right around 3. Checking in was simpler than you can imagine. They checked all the necessary documentation (passport and cruise ticket), but the staff is so incredibly prepared to welcome their guests it was absolutely a breeze and took no time. I definitely want to take some time to go into detail about the difference between small ship and large ship cruising which definitely revolves around how the lesser the people onboard the greater the quality of the experience! But again, that’s for another post.
The first evening there was not much structure, which was actually perfect! People are arriving and getting checked in all throughout the day so it’s very flexible. It made me feel like I didn’t have to rush around and get ready for something right away and I could take my time getting settled in. We got checked in at the front desk and our bags were taken to a room for us, which I’m all about shedding my bag as soon as possible. When we got to her state room, our bags were waiting for us and we took our time unpacking putting everything away and getting settled in. Once we finished, we wanted to get familiar with the ship which is not large but still has plenty of space and never felt crowded whatsoever.
At the beginning of the evening before dinner, there was a welcome talk and introduction to the staff who were fantastic! They told us everything we needed to know and by the time we are done we headed to dinner.
The chef prepared Dinner was absolutely phenomenal! It had many choices with variety so there is some thing for everybody plus regional wines that the onboard Sommelier spoke about right before dinner.
There’s no assigned seating so you can sit wherever you’d like and you don’t feel stuck. I like to change it up for meals depending on where the best view is or if the ship is sailing or docked, so it was really just wherever I preferred which I appreciated or we could always return to one of my favorite servers.
The Baroque Restaurant onboard the SS Maria Theresa was exquisitely decorated, had plenty of space for every guest. We never felt like we wouldn’t get a good seat or table, no matter if we showed up right when the meal started or wanted to take our time arriving. The tables had plenty of space whether you ordered one dessert or three! And the servers took the best care of you.
Once we finished dinner, we headed to change into our swim suits to visit the indoor heated pool, which was beautifully decorated just like the rest of the ship. The pool is actually located in the Bar du Leopard, but is enclosed in glass and when you walk into the pool area the sensors cause the glass to completely fog the glass giving you total privacy. Such a creative use of space!
The Bar Du Leopard, where the pool is located, is always open, and tended by a bartender after 9pm. It was a popular place to socialize in the late evening. Once we left the pool we sat in the bar and enjoyed some cocktails while we met and talked with the other guests, who also happen to be Texans. Leave it to Texans to find each other halfway around the world on a small ship! Before we knew it we were exhausted from jet lag and the evening, which is another reason I was grateful for such a relaxed evening, and headed for our stateroom.
The Bar Du Leopard in a hidden corner of the SS Maria Theresa.
All throughout the week I kept thinking to myself the programming and itinerary had such a perfect balance and had been thought out so well, from the second I stepped onto the ship (honestly even before I arrived!) until the time I was dropped off at the airport by my chauffeur. An A++ for the first evening onboard the SS Maria Theresa.
