River Beatrice Review

5.0 / 5.0
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Not What We Expected!

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on River Beatrice
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ardreen
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: May 2011
Cabin: Stateroom with French Balcony

We have cruised a ton - mostly on SeaDream - but we didn't realize how spoiled we were until we traveled on the River Beatrice. We sort of got a taste upon arrival when we pulled up in our cab and 2 staff came to get our bags. No smiles from them or "welcome to the ship".

The ship itself is lovely. No complaints there. We are 60 and 65 years old, but it seemed that most other passengers were much older than we are and mostly American. We were traveling with friends so were a party of 4. Dinner is supposed to be open seating between 7-9 pm. We had been in Europe for several weeks before the cruise and had been eating dinner between 8 and 8:30pm. So the 1st night we are enjoying a drink in the lounge about 8:15pm and the maitre d' came up to ask if we were eating dinner. He said that if we came down late he wasn't sure he could seat us together. The dining room is poorly laid out. Mostly long tables for 6-8 or round tables for 8. No one is organizing the seating when you arrive in the dining room so you have to wander around and find a place to sit. Since everyone on the ship appeared for dinner at 7pm - when we arrived in the dining room we were always joining other people half way through their dinner - so we felt pressured to eat at 7pm. Ship was pretty full I should point out.

Can't imagine going on this cruise as a twosome as there are no tables for 2 and no room service or in room dining - so you would be dining with other people every night. Not as high a staff ratio as SeaDream, but staff was always working hard, but not as friendly as I would like. We felt very regimented and that never works for us. It wasn't what we expected and we would not do it again. Also the Danube River was surprisingly uninteresting compared to the Med cruises we have done. Maybe it was just the part we saw - Budapest to Passau.

Cabin Review

Stateroom with French Balcony

Cabin 2
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