uniworld vs viking rhone river cruise

Trying to decide for October booking. We have never River cruised but have ocean cruised. We are active 50+yo, prefer to use ship as floating hotel and explore regions daily and see as much as we can. I am having trouble finding information about "times in ports" and what to expect at each port. Even when I call, they won't give me specifics. For anyone who has taken Lyon to Avignon cruises, can you provide information about each port you can remember, like how long in each port, how long are excursions, when do you have to be back on ship, does ship dock right in port or is it a bus ride to get into town?

Any information is helpful! Thanks!

I can't comment on the itinerary and port times but I have sailed 3 times in the last 4 years with Uniworld and I researched Viking considerably before our first cruise and thought I would give you some observations about Uniworld as we were 50 when we first sailed.

Uniworld will be more inclined to have active excursions. They have bikes on board that can be checked out, a small workout room, and a fitness person on board. They will actually have bike excursions, hiking excursion and I believe in France a kayak excursion. By most accounts the demographics are a little younger but you will find you are on the younger side of the spectrum probably on any river cruise line. There tends to be fewer people on Uniworld's ship with smaller excursion groups which works well with moving faster and seeing more.

Uniworld is a more inclusive line with all gratuities, drinks 24 hours a day and MOST excursions. They do offer a few optional excursions that are usually space limited or longer distances. So many will argue that they are not truly all inclusive. There is a self serve laundry on board which is nice if you are active and need to wash clothes. They provide the detergent. If you choose a suite which we have all 3 trips then your laundry is done for you and you will have butler service as well as a larger cabin.

Uniworld is considered a luxury line and would probably compare more favorably to Scenic and Tauck on the French rivers as well as Crystal on the Danube. You may also want to look at AMA for a more active line then Viking.

I'm sure you will get others input but thought I would chime in with my 2 cents worth.

We did the Rhone with Uniworld in 2015. I scanned all the daily programs in and posted a link to them in my review. If you want a detailed day by day description take a look. Happy to answer any other specific questions you may have. Like papa B me, we are very happy with Uniworld.

Link to daily programs here. There is also an overview sheet listing the timing of all of the excursions in that folder too. Obviously things may have changed, and can change on no notice, as river cruising is not as predictable as ocean cruising. Link to my review is in my signature.

Thank you for the very useful post. Are the optional tours available on all sailings ? Unfortunately there’s very little information on them on the Uniworld website and cruise companions for Europe 2018 are not yet loadsd

There have been 2-3 optional tours on all 3 of my cruises. They have run 40-79 Euros. Important to note that these are in addition to all of the included tours and we have found that you wouldn't feel cheated if you don't take one and most do not. We took two of them our first cruise, 1 our second and none our third.

We did our first river cruise Avignon to Lyon on Uniworld and just loved every minute of it! Most of the ports were small walk arounds or biking, and felt there was just the right amount of time there. We fell in love with Lyon and while I felt we had enough time there, I would love to go back or spend time at beginning/ end of cruise there.

We ended up doing a couple of nights in beautiful Avignon prior to our cruise and toured the Countryside of Provence - exquisite in every way!

We fell in love with the Uniworld experience so much that we are cruising the Danube this spring with them!

Hi, we just came back from a fantastic cruise with Viking on the Danube. It was so good that we booked the Lyon to Avignon with them.

Be sure to look at other options. Emerald and Avalon both cruise the Rhone. We chose Avalon last year because we like the 200 sq. ft. Panorama cabins with beds that face the windows and we also liked the fact that Avalon sailed all the way to the little town of St. Jean de Losne rather than stopping at Lyon. This gave us a day of day-time sailing (with optional excursions for those who preferred) at the end of the cruise where we could relax.

Whatever line you choose, I would suggest trying to find a cruise that takes you to Beaune on a Saturday. The weekly market was a great experience for us. It also gave us an opportunity to buy food for lunch on our train ride to Paris.

Be sure to look at other options. Emerald and Avalon both cruise the Rhone. We chose Avalon last year because we like the 200 sq. ft. Panorama cabins with beds that face the windows and we also liked the fact that Avalon sailed all the way to the little town of St. Jean de Losne rather than stopping at Lyon. This gave us a day of day-time sailing (with optional excursions for those who preferred) at the end of the cruise where we could relax.

 

Whatever line you choose, I would suggest trying to find a cruise that takes you to Beaune on a Saturday. The weekly market was a great experience for us. It also gave us an opportunity to buy food for lunch on our train ride to Paris.

I like this post.

Nuances & features like posted above can make a big difference in your choice of cruise line.

We enjoyed our Viking Rhone cruise but if you're new to river, check out Avalon.

Thanks for all the posts! We are probably going to go ahead with Viking (lyon to avignon) for several reasons but uniworld looks great too. Any advice is appreciated. Will continue to read about Avalon, Uniworld and port excursions.

I will venture one suggestion. If you're a chocolate lover, be sure and visit the Valrhona Cite du Chocolat in Tain l'Hermitage. It wasn't mentioned on our Avalon cruise, but I had read about in my pre-cruise planning. Our ship docked across the river in Tournon, but I skipped that walking tour (I'd seen enough churches) and make the ~1 mile walk to the chocolate shop.

Valrhona is a world famous chocolatier, and their showroom is incredible. There are tons of free samples. My favorite were little chocolate disks arranged in bins, with each labeled with the percent cocoa they contained, so you could go from very light to very dark chocolates and taste the sometimes subtle differences. I bought about €25-30 worth of chocolate, and when I went to check out, the cashier asked if I liked milk or dark chocolate. When I told her my preference, she reached down and grabbed a handful of samples and dumped them in my bag.

Highly recommended!

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g674303-d3704337-Reviews-Cite_du_Chocolat_Valrhona-Tain_l_Hermitage_Drome_Auvergne_Rhone_Alpes.html

https://www.citeduchocolat.com/en/

I will venture one suggestion. If you're a chocolate lover, be sure and visit the Valrhona Cite du Chocolat in Tain l'Hermitage....

 

Highly recommended!

Definitely! We were there too.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Forums mobile app

We skipped a wine tasting excursion to visit the Valrhona store, and ended up with enough extras added to our bag of purchases to share with friends and families, besides what we had already purchased for them. I still miss that chocolate!