River Countess Review

Difficult cruise - hard to write the review, but I feel like I should

Review for Europe River Cruise on River Countess
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RockCat
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Aug 2013
Cabin: Stateroom with French Balcony

It was 42 degrees Celsius (107 F) the day we arrived in Venice for the cruise. We were told that night that one of three air conditioners was out, and that the Po River was too low to cruise, and the only cruising would be in the Venetian Lagoon. The A/C was "fixed" 5 days later, they said, but the temperature in our room was high enough that even my wife, always cold, was laying naked on top of our bedding until 2 in the morning hoping for sleep. I, on the other hand, soaked the bed with sweat every night and got at most a couple of hours sleep. Due to increased drive time required on the bus excursions all being from Venice, one agenda item was skipped (not too bad, actually).

The crew busted their behinds for the passengers - I was going through 2 or 3 shirts each day, they had to be wringing wet since they were working in hot kitchens, laundries, and bustling around the boat. They were troopers, and everyone on the cruise was extremely impressed by them, especially the way they kept a positive attitude and a smile almost always on their faces. On Friday, a fan did appear in the lounge, which helped a lot during the port talk. If we had not been told every day that the a/c would be fixed "today", I would have purchased a small fan for our room and maybe gotten a little more sleep.

I guess that is the real point of this ramble - we felt that the management of Uniworld was not upfront with us, nor were we treated with the respect I try to show my customers when confronted with difficult issues that are beyond my control. Honesty and transparency are always appreciated, but did not happen here, or at least not until after the fact. They had to know in advance the Po would not be available, but we were not informed - same with the A/C.

Cabin Review

Stateroom with French Balcony

Cabin 1

The bathroom door could not open all the way since it hit the bed before it got that far. The bed was physically comfortable, but the room was too hot to sleep in. On the bottom floor, I swear we could hear everyone on the boat when they flushed their vacuum toilets, but it was probably only 25% of them. I might have slept though it if it hadn't been so blasted HOT!!

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