Uniworld Pricing

Hi All,

Just a quick question to any & all Uniworld cruisers out there. We've cruised with them 3 times-2014, 2017 & 2018 & I'm just looking online at their cruises for 2019-is it me or are the prices significantly higher than they were last year? I'm looking at Castles Along the Rhine, Brilliant Bordeaux & Burgundy & Provence specifically. I could be wrong but they seem to be a lot more expensive than they were last year. To put it plainly, if I'm right (hope I'm not) Uniworld is out of my price range now.

Thanks in Advance!!

Hi All,

Just a quick question to any & all Uniworld cruisers out there. We've cruised with them 3 times-2014, 2017 & 2018 & I'm just looking online at their cruises for 2019-is it me or are the prices significantly higher than they were last year? I'm looking at Castles Along the Rhine, Brilliant Bordeaux & Burgundy & Provence specifically. I could be wrong but they seem to be a lot more expensive than they were last year. To put it plainly, if I'm right (hope I'm not) Uniworld is out of my price range now.

 

Thanks in Advance!!

They do seem a little high. In the past, they tend to start discounting in late October or November. I have to say I haven't been a fan of their current leadership, and feel the higher prices are due to trying to keep UbyUniworld afloat. Minimum age of cruisers has also been altered to down to 4 years......

I'm sailing on Viking Ocean next spring for a change of pace, and will reassess Uniworld next fall. Crystal is looking good to me as well.

Robin

Thanks Robin,

They just seemed high to me especially since we were less than thrilled with our cruise back in July. We did the Paris & Normandy that you did & had a lot of disappointments with the itinerary. That's why I didn't review it here on the boards because I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about our trip & about the company in general-didn't want to sound like a downer or give a bad impression to those who haven't traveled with Uniworld before. Now that a few months have gone by I was willing to look at them again but my husband is still a pretty firm no. He wants to do a Tauck land based tour for next summer (we've done 9 with them) but I love the "unpack once" kinda thing. I'd love to do a Tauck river cruise but they are out of my budget (we do Disney every Spring but to afford a Tauck River Cruise I'd have to skip Disney & can't do that!! LOL)

Have you done Viking Ocean before or is this one going to be your first?

Thanks Robin,

 

They just seemed high to me especially since we were less than thrilled with our cruise back in July. We did the Paris & Normandy that you did & had a lot of disappointments with the itinerary. That's why I didn't review it here on the boards because I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about our trip & about the company in general-didn't want to sound like a downer or give a bad impression to those who haven't traveled with Uniworld before. Now that a few months have gone by I was willing to look at them again but my husband is still a pretty firm no. He wants to do a Tauck land based tour for next summer (we've done 9 with them) but I love the "unpack once" kinda thing. I'd love to do a Tauck river cruise but they are out of my budget (we do Disney every Spring but to afford a Tauck River Cruise I'd have to skip Disney & can't do that!! LOL)

 

Have you done Viking Ocean before or is this one going to be your first?

This will be our first. I am looking forward to a river type experience on a smallish ocean cruise, with no kids! Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Uniworld. We enjoyed what we did, which wasn't the "usual" choices, as we had done Paris Normandy before.

I just rented the remainder of my DVC points for this year and all of next year's points. We are Disney'd out for a while:-), and this way, I can fund trips to Europe!

Robin

We very much enjoyed our Uniworld cruise in Portugal this year. Yes, all the ships on the Douro are smaller and the crews are Portuguese with the exceptions of Captain, Cruise Director & Head Chef on our cruise but it was excellent. Our cost was WAY less than Viking River for the same month. June 2018. Go figure.

Been on Viking Ocean & going again. Top notch. Ship seems very uncrowded. Uniworld folks concerned that liquor is not included 24/7 can buy the Silver Spirits package which includes it. Break even point is 3 drinks per day per person otherwise they cost around $9 to buy a martini or Jack Daniels. SS pkg also gets a wider selection of wines. But many of them are also inexpensive.

Viking does not have those red buttons to summon waiters for drinks.

We cruised both Uniworld and Crystal this year. It was our 3rd Uniworld and our last. The prices are up, the quality of food down, as were tours. Yes Crystal had issues with their ground personnel, changing itineraries, etc however food and tours were top notch.

The Crystal ships are new, and offer many amenities such as in room refrigerator, and Nespresso machine for that AM coffee.

The Crystal Cove is so much brighter than the same area in the Uniworld ships and in our opinion had better wine list and alcoholic beverages. If you want a snack on Crystal you have the Bistro; on Uniworld there is some candy.

Both had passengers who were new to travel, obnoxiously loud in the dining rooms, and other annoying issues. We realize that is part of the experience and one we do not desire to further experience.

If you have issues don't expect a great reply from either company. Do consider the many other companies that offer top notch food and accommodations.

We will pass on future river cruises as they are too limiting Better we settle into a great hotel, eat when and where we want, and do private tours for the same or less investment.

Everyone has an opinion, and needs to find the right balance . Yes I agree that unpacking one time is just so nice.

We loved our first 2 Uniworld's (Paris & Normandy on the Baroness & Venice on the Countess). We redid Paris & Normandy this summer on the Joie de Vivre with the intention of doing some of the things we hadn't done before-all of which were canceled. Not to turn this into a complaint fest but Monday's excursion to Chateau la Roche Guyon-canceled, the ship docked at Chateau Galliard. It's nice but once was enough. Our big disappointment however was that we signed up for Mont Ste Michel & it was cancelled for lack of participation. To say we were disappointed is an understatement!! We had another of our excursions canceled due to lack of participation as well. Our cruise director just gave a very vague "oh, Mont St Michel only runs about 50% of the time"-no "sorry" or anything. And no "sorry" for our other excursion either-just a "that one never runs".

The ship was great, the staff (except for the cruise director) was awesome, we enjoyed the food but just felt disappointed overall. This isn't to discourage anyone from taking this trip-if you've never been to Normandy you'll enjoy the trip but we just made the wrong choice.

But, there's always next summer to plan for....

I’ve cruised with Uniworld five times (2007 to 2016) and very much enjoyed them. My latest cruise, however, was on the Douro this summer with Emerald. I had cruised the Douro in 2012 with Uniworld so was able to compare the two. Emerald was considerably less expensive (several thousand dollars) from the Uniworld cruise at the same time this year and the only significant difference was that Emerald did not include bar charges (although one evening when things were particularly lively the CD declared an open bar!). Otherwise, beer and wine at lunch and dinner were included as were all gratuities. I thought that Uniworld’s excursions were marginally better, and there were optional excursions at extra cost on Emerald. However, this has also been the case on recent Uniworld cruises I have taken since that line became “fully” all-inclusive. All in all I found that Emerald’s service, including the meals, was comparable to Uniworld and overall much better value.

I have the impression that Uniworld has become significantly more expensive in the past few years since I last travelled with them and I am not sure that they represent the best value for money today. I do think that from my experience that Emerald offers better value than Uniworld. Although I have not travelled with their parent line Scenic, I don’t think I could justify paying their exceedingly high fares. River cruising has become quite an expensive proposition compared to other modes of travel, and although I have enjoyed my river cruises, I’m not sure that I would do it again in Europe.

That said, I am currently researching a Nile cruise and am looking at Uniworld and Emerald. I’m not interested in Viking, even though I enjoyed my Viking cruises in Russia and on the Mekong, and Scenic I really consider over the top.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I find the prices have crept up - and the "sales" aren't as inviting.

We have done 3 (of 13 completed) with Uniworld --> Paris & Normandy, Christmas Markets on the Rhine, and Russia. Once they went all inclusive, they were priced a bit out of reach for us. I have been looking at Venice (realizing there isn't much sailing) - but the prices keep climbing. We usually travel Aquarium class (ie: lowest category) so I pay close attention to inclusions, excursions etc.

We are now duplicating some rivers - and so look for a trip that has "options" and/or different stops. And - hopefully, no cancellations. When we did Paris/Normandy with Avalon last October, we got a smoking deal - and had only 2 days that the excursions were the same or similar (in Rouen & Paris). In Rouen, we went on our own to the new Joan of Arc museum (attached to the cathedral) - and in Paris, just walked over to the Eiffel Tower for a tour that went beneath the tower to see the workings of the elevators.

We are considering Uniworld for Egypt in a couple of years --> hopefully they won't price themselves out of the running before then....

Fran

Good morning...…..glad I found this thread.  I just booked my first UNIWORLD cruise.....on the Douro.  Lisbon to Porto for April.

Phil, my sailing is on Queen Isabel.    Seems there are many pros and cons about Uniworld but my deposit is already down so hopefully it is a really good cruise

Thoughts from any of you would be appreciated

If it doesn’t turn into a bus tour due to low water levels, we are set to do our second Uniworld cruise November 9, Budapest to Amsterdam on the River Duchess. We did Budapest to Passau last year and thought Uniworld was the best cruise line we had ever experienced out of about 12.

I have become increasingly concerned about negative reviews here, noting the change in management and service from 2017 to 2018. I guess we will just have to see.

I am also worried about only a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam between flight from Seattle landing in Amsterdam and boarding flight to Budapest.

Been a member here long enough to understand that most people who post on Cruise Critic are honest and sincere in expressing their opinions, but that individual experiences can differ drastically. Also important to understand that for many people who cruise, loyalty to a particular company seems to be something like religion.

Viking, for example, has many loyal followers, but we had our very worse travel experience in over 40 years of traveling, including living in two third world countries, with Viking. Yet some people we met on our Viking cruise were on their fifth cruise with Viking.

So chin up....and let’s both hope Uniworld’s performance has not deteriorated as some have described on the cruises we are taking!

1 hour ago, Begete said:

If it doesn’t turn into a bus tour due to low water levels, we are set to do our second Uniworld cruise November 9, Budapest to Amsterdam on the River Duchess. We did Budapest to Passau last year and thought Uniworld was the best cruise line we had ever experienced out of about 12.

 

I have become increasingly concerned about negative reviews here, noting the change in management and service from 2017 to 2018. I guess we will just have to see.

 

I am also worried about only a 2 hour layover in Amsterdam between flight from Seattle landing in Amsterdam and boarding flight to Budapest.

 

Been a member here long enough to understand that most people who post on Cruise Critic are honest and sincere in expressing their opinions, but that individual experiences can differ drastically. Also important to understand that for many people who cruise, loyalty to a particular company seems to be something like religion.

 

Viking, for example, has many loyal followers, but we had our very worse travel experience in over 40 years of traveling, including living in two third world countries, with Viking. Yet some people we met on our Viking cruise were on their fifth cruise with Viking.

 

So chin up....and let’s both hope Uniworld’s performance has not deteriorated as some have described on the cruises we are taking!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the way we are looking at things also. Our first two Uniworld cruises were exceptional. That said, how things go for us in December will play a big part in whether our 4th cruise is on the same line. Although the rivers are outside their control, the way they handle the situation is not, to a large extent. 

As far as pricing, we haven't looked at future trips at this point, but although we've seen some increases in the past we've also noticed generous discounts both from our TA and Uniworld.

We cruised Uniworld back in 2010 and were very pleased, after tiring of the normal and usual cruises at sea.  Since that time Uniworld has become more "inclusive," yet from what I read, still not fully inclusive as there is always something extra offered for more $$$.  We will take river cruise #2 on Uniworld next year - this cruise is much more expensive.  Reading the threads on Uniworld has me a bit concerned yet I will keep my expectations high and see what happens!

On 11/16/2018 at 1:56 PM, DaKa2002 said:

We cruised Uniworld back in 2010 and were very pleased, after tiring of the normal and usual cruises at sea.  Since that time Uniworld has become more "inclusive," yet from what I read, still not fully inclusive as there is always something extra offered for more $$$.  We will take river cruise #2 on Uniworld next year - this cruise is much more expensive.  Reading the threads on Uniworld has me a bit concerned yet I will keep my expectations high and see what happens!

I just got off a 9-day cruise on the River Princess, and there were no extra charges.  What extras are you referring to?  There were a couple of optional tours, but 2-3 included tours in each port.

A big difference I'm seeing for 2019 is a lack of solo pricing.  Unless I'm missing something, the part of the website which used to list cruises with no or reduced single supplements is no longer there.  I hope that doesn't mean solo cruisers have to pay double all the time.

Roz

It is not your imagination. The problem is their new pricing and incentives. When I booked my 2018 Christmas market cruise I received 10% off for paying in advance, 5% for being a past cruiser and another $500 off due to the number of cruises I have taken with them (8).  Unfortunately the cruise was cancelled at the last minute due to the low water levels.  Uniworld refunded our money but when we tried to book for 2019 we were advised the same cruise, same ship, same room would cost $2,735 MORE.  They eliminated all booking incentives except a whopping $100 for being a past passenger. Viking and Tauck offered me more incentives and actually acted like they want repeat customers.

1 hour ago, DC0743 said:

It is not your imagination. The problem is their new pricing and incentives. When I booked my 2018 Christmas market cruise I received 10% off for paying in advance, 5% for being a past cruiser and another $500 off due to the number of cruises I have taken with them (8).  Unfortunately the cruise was cancelled at the last minute due to the low water levels.  Uniworld refunded our money but when we tried to book for 2019 we were advised the same cruise, same ship, same room would cost $2,735 MORE.  They eliminated all booking incentives except a whopping $100 for being a past passenger. Viking and Tauck offered me more incentives and actually acted like they want repeat customers.

Ouch, that's a big increase for the same trip!  It's too bad our River Heritage discounts aren't as good as they used to be.  My husband & I are about 99% sure we'll be doing a land tour with Tauck for summer 2019 (more in our price range) instead of a river cruise.  Of course there is always 2020 to plan for.

41 minutes ago, need2travel1 said:

Ouch, that's a big increase for the same trip!  It's too bad our River Heritage discounts aren't as good as they used to be.  My husband & I are about 99% sure we'll be doing a land tour with Tauck for summer 2019 (more in our price range) instead of a river cruise.  Of course there is always 2020 to plan for.

Tauck puts out a nice product.  Their 2019 Christmas cruise was about $2,600 less than Uniworld for the same class cabin. It was all inclusive and the only difference was no Butler in suites but I can live without that.

We sailed Uniworld in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and had great trips.  Was planning another river cruise with them for next year but they discontinued the free room category upgrade if space was available benefit.  We took advantage of that River Heritage benefit on the second and third cruise and saved $$$.  Without the potential for that upgrade we decided to try Viking instead.  Hope we aren't disappointed.  

We just got off our 13th river cruise with Uniworld.  It was the Nile River cruise and it was absolutely great.  All their employees, both on the ship and in Cairo, went over and above to insure that we had a good time.  Our Egyptologist, Ossama was the best tour guide imaginable.  He was with us from the time we got to the hotel in Cairo until we departed the country.

The River Tosca was in very good shape.  Meals were superb (gained too much weight)! 

All in all, a great trip, probably our best!

That said, I can see how some of the recent changes in corporate policy concern frequent travelers.  We have always paid early and made use of discounts for past cruisers.  We have even gotten free cabin upgrades.  With those items gone, we will have to consider the overall value before booking our next cruise. That is a shame because we really like the Uniworld ships, employees, food, tours, and overall product.

The problem is that increased demand for the product results in many cruise lines dropping previous incentives that are no longer needed to fill ships.  Just when I finally qualify as a previous Uniworld customer.  Bummer.

1 hour ago, philw1776 said:

The problem is that increased demand for the product results in many cruise lines dropping previous incentives that are no longer needed to fill ships.  Just when I finally qualify as a previous Uniworld customer.  Bummer.

Even though the official upgrade incentive is no longer there, I have been upgraded one category on my most recent two cruises (both of which sailed during the "new" terms)

Robin

11 minutes ago, acwmom said:

Even though the official upgrade incentive is no longer there, I have been upgraded one category on my most recent two cruises (both of which sailed during the "new" terms)

 

Robin

The three cruises we took with Uniworld were all April departures.  None of the ships were full.  The last cruise in 2013, Paris to Normandy, we were upgraded from a Cat 4 to Cat 1.  If they are still upgrading unofficially, when there is availability, why don't they make it a River Heritage benefit again?  

Booked my first Uniworld Cruise today! They were having a sale until Dec 31 and I do believe if I were a previous pax you’d receive a $200 discount or OBC. I’m a newbie for Uniworld, but I’ve always wanted to try it based on the glowing reviews from CC posters I trust. 

2 hours ago, Got2Cruise said:

Booked my first Uniworld Cruise today! They were having a sale until Dec 31 and I do believe if I were a previous pax you’d receive a $200 discount or OBC. I’m a newbie for Uniworld, but I’ve always wanted to try it based on the glowing reviews from CC posters I trust. 

Yah, I just yesterday got a mailing offering discounted cruises, etc.  That's how I found and booked my 1st Uniworld cruise in Portugal last year.  There are several good river cruise companies.  It pays to shop around for deals. Uniworld for that cruise was considerably less expensive than Viking my usual river cruise choice.  
I'm confident you'll be happy with your Uniworld booking. 

Were Booked my first Uniworld Cruise today! They were having a sale until Dec 31 and I do believe if I were a previous pax you’d receive a $200 discount or OBC. I’m a newbie for Uniworld, but I’ve always wanted to try it based on the glowing reviews from CC posters I trust.