We thoroughly enjoyed our one-week river cruise on U by Uniworld from Paris to Rouen and then back to Paris. This cruise was very special because we met several new friends, traveled the beautiful Seine River, participated in many fun ...
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We thoroughly enjoyed our one-week river cruise on U by Uniworld from Paris to Rouen and then back to Paris. This cruise was very special because we met several new friends, traveled the beautiful Seine River, participated in many fun excursions, learned about several French artists (particularly Monet) and visited sobering Normandy (D-day) beaches. We enjoyed many new experiences and sights that we would have missed without taking this cruise.
Our cruise hosts (Sabrina and Boris) were very knowledgeable and helpful. They organized the day-to-day activities and excursions, but they also served as individual concierges if you wanted to venture to a particular sight on your own. We enjoyed the diversity of people on the cruise coming from US, Canada, South Africa, Austria, New Zealand and many countries in Europe. We also enjoyed the age diversity ranging from twenty-somethings to over sixty-somethings. One of the best features of this particular cruise was that it was geared toward active people. Each day there was a bicycle trip or a long walk or a brisk hike.
Some of the unexpected rewards on this Uniworld river cruise were:
1. We had a guided tour of the Normandy Beaches that we most likely would not have arranged if we were on our own. In addition, our tour guide previously interviewed people that participated in D-day landings so she could share their memories with us.
2. We had a guided tour of Claude Monet house and gardens as part of the cruise before we went to the Musse d’orsay, so we could really appreciate Monet’s paintings as well as the paintings of the other French artists during that period.
3. We went to (and enjoyed) Moulin Rouge show that we most likely would not have attended on our own.
4. Finally, our most memorable adventure was that we rode on vintage motorcycles with sidecars through the winding streets of Paris up to Sacre-Coeur.
This was our first river cruise, so we were a little concerned about feeling motion on the boat. However, during the cruise we never felt any wave motion. We did feel a little vibration when the boat was under way, but it never disturbed our sleep. The room was smaller than a normal hotel room, but as most people will tell you, you don’t spend much time in your cabin. The cabin included a queen-size bed, several storage areas and closet, and a small bathroom including shower. Everything in the room worked well, and it was nice to have individual air conditioning controls in the room. We had a “French balcony”, but while we were on the boat, we spent most of our time on the roof deck with our new friends or in one of the enclosed lounges.
The food was very good but not gourmet. The French pastries and home-made ice cream were wonderful. There was a variety of foods ranging from meats to fish to pasta to grilled vegetables to great salads. All the dinners except one were buffet so you could pick whatever and how much you wanted. A few people on the boat were vegetarians and they seemed to have many options at each meal. This was a perfect trip for us, because some of the day excursions and drinks were a-la-cart. You could buy a drink package, but if you are not a big drinker, the a-la-cart option works better. Having some of the day excursions a-la-cart allows you to decide what you want to do without feeling like you had to do everything.
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