Uniworld - Italy July 05

[melindda]

We are thinking of doing one of Uniworld's Italy river cruises this summer and would appreciate any feedback from any previous cruisers. We would be interested to learn of your overall experience including the ships, food, and tours offered. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[goeurope]

We are thinking of doing one of Uniworld's Italy river cruises this summer and would appreciate any feedback from any previous cruisers. We would be interested to learn of your overall experience including the ships, food, and tours offered. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

I haven't been on Uniworld's Northern Italy cruises (in fact, I've never cruised with Uniworld, period), but there are two things that you should know about cruises on the Po:

 

1) Water levels can be a problem. Deilmann has repositioned its CASANOVA to Germany in 2005 because of low water levels in the summer on the Po during the last several years. I believe some cruises were cancelled and others required juggling of itineraries. And if the water level is too high (extremely rare, but it happened in late Ocober and early November last year), the ship may not be able to reach the Po at all. (Mind you, there are worse things than being stuck on a ship in Venice and the Venetian Lagoon!)

 

2) Po River itineraries are less scenic than river cruises on the Rhine, Danube, or Rhaone/Saone. The ship mostly ties up in industrial ports or out-of-the-way places, with the passengers being transported to towns or cities of interest by bus. This is okay if you view a river cruise as an "unpack and repack once" group tour, are interested mostly in the shore excursions, and don't mind spending a fair amount of time on a bus, but it may be disappointing if you were hoping to step off the boat and explore interesting towns and cities as you'd be able to do on many other rivers.