Po River - HS Michelangelo - September

[CruiseIsGood]

For some reason, American agents are not selling Po River cruises, but my mother called and got one. There is no river level problem, as agents are saying on web sites. Here is her review from the September 2006 trip:

 

ITALY PO RIVER CRUISE

Venice Before the Cruise

The trip started in Venice. Venice is a unique and beautiful city with all its water canals. Vehicles are not allowed on the roads so transportation is by water taxi, bus or gondola. We arrived a day early and had reserved a hotel for 1 night. We traveled by water from Marco Polo airport. After arriving we had difficulty finding the hotel and lugged heavy bags along the streets and up and down the walking bridges over the canals. Although I had printed hotel information from the Internet, it included no phone number to call. Hotel Doge is a converted 13th century palace and the interior is very elegant. They had a list of recommended restaurants to try, but since there are no street numbers, only region numbers, we were unable to find any of them. However, I suspect most of the restaurants are good. We had a wonderful dinner close to the hotel.

 

We walked the many streets in all directions, with shops and restaurants on either side of the street. It was pleasant sitting outdoors in the balmy weather at café or bar tables. The weather was quite warm with high humidity, and temperatures remained nearly constant in the evening.

 

The next day, we took a taxi to Murano, the artisan blown glass producing island and Burano, the lace production island. Murano was especially impressive. Late afternoon we took a water taxi to where we were supposed to meet the ship. He let us and our bags off before I realized there was no waiting ship. I panicked as I called the hotel to find out how to call the area code of the ship. By then, I was loosing the charge on my cell phone as I contacted the ship. The ship had not departed, it was in a different location and we had to walk a ways before we were able to see them. Then, of course, more walking and dragging heavy luggage to reach the ship.

 

Languages

I spent a month before the trip immersing myself in Italian in preparation for the trip. The ship was mostly French speaking, with some English. The official languages for ship announcements and tours were French and English. The ship paired you at the dinner table with people that spoke the same language. At all the ports, sales staff had sufficient English skills to understand what you wanted. Many menus were also in English as well as Italian.

 

Ship

The HS Michelangelo has 75 rooms and a maximum passenger capacity of 160 people. They had a staff of 22, with most having multiple jobs, and speaking multiple languages. One young lady spoke 5 languages.

 

The ship could seat all the passengers in the dining room, in the meeting room with the bar, or on the top sun deck. The community areas were elegantly decorated. The Passenger rooms were small but adequate, with TV, one chair, hair dryer, and liquid soap/shampoo. Reservations could be made on either the floor with the communal areas or the floor below. The rooms are the same and the view is probably the same, so paying the price differential will depend on whether or not you want to climb up and down the stairs. The ship and all its rooms were kept immaculately clean.

 

Meals

The meals were very well prepared and beautifully presented. Breakfast was buffet, and lunch and dinner were large fixed menus. Don’t expect lobster. We had multiple pork and chicken meals, and one each of lamb, salmon, duck, small fruits de mer, sole and beef fillet. Each meal had a nice variety of different vegetables, and the desserts were wonderful. The final night’s Gala was an extra special meal. All beverages, even water, were available for a charge.

 

On-board Entertainment

There were the usual pre-meal and post- meal parlor games and contests with prizes, exercise group in the morning, and evening entertainment of music and dancing. One night, entertainment skits by the crew were enjoyable.

 

Internet access is not available on board or even at some of the ports.

 

Boating

The ship moved up the river during the day, so part of the day was boating, then the ship would anchor and the excursions begin. The scenery along the cruise was pleasant, but frequently boring, since high water retention hills prevented seeing the towns and structures along the way.

 

Itinerary and Excursions – Excursions can be booked on the ship. In the small ports, if you don’t get the tour bus into town, you will not see anything because there is nothing around the docking site.

Day 1 – Boarding day.

Day 2 – Venice and optional tours of Murano (glass-making) and Burano (lace-making) are worthwhile. There is a lot to see in Venice, as well as an optional gondola ride tour through the canals. It is good that the trip provides for extra time in Venice. It is a very unique city with its canals, sidewalks and bridges over the canals and no automobiles allowed. Shopping is great if you can afford it. The US dollar isn’t worth much in Europe these days.

Day 3 – Venice in the morning, afternoon departure to Chioggia, evening departure to Taglio Di Po.

Day 4 – Santa Maria Magdelana Revere or Mantova. Afternoon optional visit of Padova.

Consider the optional evening tour of arts and traditions in Crespino a MUST, and don’t forget your camera. We were taken to a new winery that had a large group of excellent singers and dancers in brightly colored costumes. The show was comical, as well. It was wonderful!

Day 5 –Revere Afternoon tour of Verona with its Roman theatre, and setting of the story of Romeo and Juliette.

Day 6 – Boretto with optional tour of Mantova, well know for the Duke Palace. Evening cruise to Cremona

Day 7 – Disembark at Cremona.

 

Conclusion

As you will note above, this was advertised as a 7 day cruise, but 2 of the days were just to get on and off the ship. My cruise started on the 21st of the month and I counted 7 days which would make disembarkation on the 28th, so I booked follow-up travel to start the 28th. Was I ever surprised when we got to the train station on the 27th with our tickets for the 28th.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and the excursions of Italy. The river cruises have on-shore activities every day and no “at sea” days. The ship was elegant and service could not have been better. We gained the usual too much weight from the wonderful meals. We enjoyed the smaller ship size and found meeting people easier than on the larger ships. My next cruise will be another river cruise.

 

--If you have any questions, you can reach her at mail at birds2pet dot com

[steamboats]

CruiseisGood,

 

Thanks for the great review!

 

I may add that there is a river level problem on the Po River. They tried to install a lock and dam system but this won´t be completed within a couple of years. Therefore most of the cruise companies withdraw their boats as they had to shorten cruises and change itineraries on a more or less regular basis. That´s why Deilmann removed the Casanova which was originally designed for the Po River to the Rhine/Main/Danube Rivers. Only a short part of the Po River is navigable on a regular basis. They do have extreme problems with low waters during the summer months. Sure there are still cruises offered on the Po River but be aware that you´re only travelling a small part of the river. The cruises used to go much farther upriver than they are doing now. That doesn´t mean those shortened cruises aren´t nice. I just wanted to explain why there are only a few cruises offered and why TAs don´t sell them anymore.

 

steamboats