Uniworld
reviews and complaints

We took a Uniworld River cruise for the 7th time. On June 7th 2023 on the SS Beatice to Eastern Europe. We were very disappointed with the way we were treated, the charge to change rooms, the food, lack of attention to our requests and the excursions We Were given a cabin with a small window on top and when asked to be changed since the 3rd floor was half empty, they charged us $400 dollars each. It was my husband's 60th birthday celebration and no mention of it, not even a cupcake and I had filled out all our requests online before the cruise. We do not eat meat or shellfish. They served us a Caesar salad with ham in it after telling the waiter our dietary restrictions.

Most of all, I want a call from Uniworld explaining why this big change in service and an apology. We have been such loyal customers and have referred so many people. We feel so unvalued. We also would like a refund for the extra charge to change rooms.

I have called Uniworld seven times and no return calls. I've been told that Valentine is working on our complain told she would call me back that was on June 8th, 10th 16th, 30, and today Jul 5th. and other dates that I did not note. Our booking number is 3136992.

We paid over $15,000. for this river cruise and not very happy with customer service. Would like a call back, cell [protected].

Geri and James Gribben

On 10/21/22, while on board the SS Maria Theresa, I tripped over a pole that was lying on the top deck. This pole is to hold the canvas top up and over the top deck. It was collapsed at night and being difficult to see, I tripped over it. We spoke with the staff and he told us to send in a claim if we received a bill from the hospital. I just received a bill from Kepler Universitats Klinikum in the amount of $292.59 for X-ray and ultrasound which showed a fractured rib. Please advise me on how to handle this.

Thank you,

Nancy A. Hajt

[protected]@gmail.com

1) The local agent for Uniworld in Singapore is not responsive. They need a lot of nudging before they respond to passengers.

2) I have requested from Cruise Manager for my recent Venice cruise from 2 to 9 October 2022 that I did not receive the online survey. She immediately informed that she would respond to my request. Upon leaving the cruise ship on 9 October, I have not received them. The reception guy in the cruise informed me that it will not be so soon that I receive the online survey, and it will a few days later, when our mutual friend from US in the same cruise received it whilst on the cruise. This is puzzling.

3) I wrote to my local agent in Singapore and after much nudging, Emmanuel responded that Uniworld cannot re-send online survey and if I need give any feedback it must be done via email. Sorry, I find this reason very appalling.

4) Finally, I must say that the experiences were good except that the lady Sommelier, Nina on our cruise lacks the genuinity serving the passengers. She picks which table to top up the wine and we (with our US friends) were not comfortable in this approach.

5) Unfortunately, due to my bad post experiences with Uniworld, we will decide NOT to take our next Danube cruise with you.

This cimpanie treat their workers like numbers. Lie and hide worked hours to the authorities and reflects on crew salaries.
Lie and hide from the sanitary authorities.
Promise bonus and don't pay them.
Don't pay to crew members that injury them thelves while working.
And on and on and on.
When you book a cruise there are so many cruise lines so please don't chose this cruise line why give money to a companie that treats people like numbers and lie to you constantly.
They don't care about anything but money.

I have asked 4 times for the following information without an answer.

Please help me.

I would appreciate a PDF with all details, including transportations, from (1) Prague airport - hotel in Prague, (2) from Prague - Nuremberg dock and (3) from Frankfurt dock - airport.

Also please include the name of hotel in Prague.
Never received these details.

In summary, a detail report of all activities from arrival at Prague airport to departure at Frankfurt airport.

Thank you,

VGalan

We unfortunately were the group to board the River Countess when it was hit by MSC. They provided two options- leave the next day with 500 dollar flight refund per ticket and refund for river cruise portion (Milan land was before). Option 2: stay in hotel, continue program by bus with ZERO compensation including no food of drinks. It was impossible to get a last minute flight change for under 500 dollars. They also refused to listen nor entertain the possibility of option 3: stay with some compensation for the reduced services provided or option 4: stay at hotel, cancel cruise with compensation for cruise. Their crisis management was poor and one sided. We called customer service and refused to listen. MSC provided a full refund, allowed guests to stay on ship, provided transfers, free alcohol and drinks, and 50% off next cruise. I feel UNIWORLD managed the crisis poorly and should offer more compensation, especially knowing MSC will eventually pay them.

My wife and I completed the European Jewels cruise between October 19 and November 3. The purpose of this message is to convey our very high level of dissatisfaction with this cruise and the manner in which Uniworld has managed the issue of low river levels this year. This was our third cruise with Uniworld, and the first time we were ever less than totally thrilled with the experience.

Of course, this complaint has to do with the impacts of the extended drought and low water levels in Europe. Since returning from our trip, we have seen numerous other complaints filed about this issue on-line. I will not go into a lot of detail about the impacts on us. You certainly have the specific data from this cruise, as well as numerous previous comments about people's desires to cruise on the river versus travel by bus. You have also heard from customers about the frustrations of having to pack and repack multiple times. We would certainly echo all of those complaints.

Distinct from the comments of others we have seen on-line, the core of our complaint is that Uniworld has been aware of this issue all summer and did not give us the opportunity to decide for ourselves whether we wished to proceed or postpone. We had purchased expensive trip insurance for just such an eventuality. However, Uniworld only notified us late the day before we were scheduled to depart for Budapest, effectively taking the decision away from us and forcing us into a highly substandard experience of tremendously less value than we booked.

Before going further, let me complement all of your personnel for working hard to make the best of a bad situation. The Uniworld personnel on all three ships (SS Beatrice, River Empress and River Princess) performed magnificently, as always. The only exception was that the level of food quality seemed to be less than we had experienced previously on the SS Catherine and SS Maria Theresa. We were especially disappointed with the number of buffet dinners early in the cruise. Regardless, the meal service provided by the staff was outstanding.

Specifically for us, it was disappointing that our cruise was slowed in the section between Budapest and Passau which we had cruised in 2017 on the Maria Theresa. It resulted in us missing scheduled sites in the Passau to Amsterdam section. For example, an added stop in Linz that was inserted to pass time waiting for water levels to hopefully change was completely undesirable to us. Even then, that excursion was abbreviated and far less interesting than we had experienced the year before. Throughout the entire recent trip, we either missed excursions entirely (e.g. Weissenkirchen Village Day, BMW Factory Visit, Rothenburg Walking Tour, Bamburg) or our time in a location was extremely accelerated (e.g. very brief time in Nuremberg where we entirely missed the Documentation Center tour). Of course, the lengthy bus rides from Budapest to Vienna and then from Vilshofen to Wurzburg were totally unexpected when we booked our trip and highly undesirable. The net effect was a vacation of far less value, certainly not worth what we paid.

As compensation for these deficiencies, Uniworld provided us with a letter at the end of the cruise on October 31 offering $200 per person onboard credit plus a Future Cruise Credit of $1, 500 per person that must be used during 2019. Frankly, we feel that this level of compensation is far below the value we lost on this cruise. In addition, we think that any Future Cruise Credit should be more generous in the period of time it could be used. The credit should be available for at least two years in order to facilitate vacation planning.

This letter only covers the highlights of our issues and concerns. Our two previous experiences with Uniworld were both outstanding and have set our level of expectation very high. We request that you consider offering us much more favorable compensation for this disappointment in order to continue enjoying our business. Feel free to respond by email or call us at the telephone number you have on file if you would like more information.

We previously submitted this information to you via a direct email on November 5. We immediately received an automated response from you stating we should hear from you in 7-12 business day. I followed up with you on November 15, but did not receive a response. It has now been 13 business days and 18 calendar days without a specific response. We appreciate a timely response, even if you choose to otherwise ignore our concerns.

RANDY & ELAINE STANSBERRY
stansberry.[protected]@gmail.com

Brian & Kelly McNally
2/136 Knutsford Ave
RIVERVALE WA 6103

22 September 2018.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I write seeking a financial recompense in relation to a recent disastrous river cruise my wife and I endured on your "River Royale" from Bordeaux to Bordeaux from 12 August 2018 till 19 August 2018.
We booked for the "Castles along the Rhine" cruise from Amsterdam to Basel on the same dates but were informed, by text message 48 hours before boarding the "SS Antionette", that this cruise had been cancelled and we were offered a full refund or an alternative cruise and there were 3 options with the Bordeaux cruise one of these.
As we were in Europe for a week either side of the cruise a refund was not an option and we would never have gone on a cruise that was exclusively for connoisseurs of wine as all it involved was constant trips to ‘chateaus' and ‘vineyards' - the rushed nature of the offering did not allow us to be aware of this.
The reason for the original cruise cancellation was the unseasonaly hot European summer reducing the water levels of the Rhine - we understand Uniworld cannot control nature however a trip that was planned for 18 months to see the beauty of the Rhine and the castles in the region was replaced with a sub-standard vessel where only 74 passengers were onboard when it can accommodate 130.
Even the Jacuzzi on this vessel was ‘broken' for the entire 8 days of the cruise and we had to endure sailing on a filthy brown tidal river and docking at average at best locations certainly not what we paid a substantial amount of money for.
While we have no fault with the bar and restaurant staff on this cruise we found the cruise director and the ships senior officers to be less than friendly and at times rude.
We were also informed that we had been upgraded but were still on the bottom level with a view out of our porthole of dirty brown water - I wonder where we were initially being housed if this was an upgrade.
We were also informed that Uniworld would carry the cost of the changed flights to get us from Amsterdam, where we were to board the "SS Antoinette" however we had already paid for flights from Basel to Moscow via Paris and have not had these costs refunded so I assume Uniworld has used these monies to pay for the Bordeaux - Riga - Moscow replacement flights.
So, by my reckoning we are entitled to a refund in relation to the cost difference of the cruises, airfares and compensation for the ruining of our holiday.
I look forward to your reply to the above.
Yours respectfully
Brian McNally

My husband and myself have just returned home form doing the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise from 5/8/18 - 20/8/18. We had a lovely time. The staff where all great, the food was really good and the hospitality of everyone on the ship was excellent.
We totally understand that Uniworld do not have any control over the weather and the water levels and we understand that on occasion the ship cannot get through. Even though it is a bit disappointing to disembark we where happy enough to do that.
My problems is once we where off the ship we felt that we where on our own. Even though there where guides on the buses, once we got to our accommodation we had to try and organize where to eat and how to try and catch up with other people. That we could have coped with but on the last day of our tour we requested, even before we got off the ship if we could have a final gathering all together. When we asked our guide on the last day she said it wasn't possible. We where all very disappointed. My husband, myself and one other guest got together and organised as many guest as we possibly could to meet for drinks at the New Yolk Palace. The staff at the accommodation helped us organize a room and charged each guest 18 Euro to attend for one hour. My husband asked our tour guide if Uniworld could please pay for drinks but her response was no. That was very disappointing when you consider if we where still on the cruise this was all a part of the package. It would have also been nice to have a Uniworld representative speak to us on that night.We all ended up having a wonderful night (no thanks to Uniworld). For the amount that Uniworld paid each guest before they got off the cruise, it definitely did not cover all the out of pocket expenses that we incurred.

This is the 3rd trip I have done through your organisation but the first time I have been so disappointed.
Please respond to my email on [protected]@y7mail.com

We recently took a european river cruise with uniworld (For the first time).

My wife and I have done ocean cruises with chrystal, oceana and river cruises with grand circle travel and viking.

You don’t need to read all my review since the gest of it is – never go anywhere with uniworld!

Details:

They are incredibly unorganized and could not give me a detailed itinerary like everyone else in the travel business provides before the trip.
I called their “customer service” to try to get more details since I was trying to arrange some business meetings. The “customer service rep” said that’s all we can give you, we’ve been doing this for over 30 years and then hung up!
They make the airline reservations for the passengers! Our flight arrived one hour before the ship left amsterdam. And, of course, we had no details that it was even leaving the same day as passengers arrived. One couple missed the ship. Every ship waits until the next day or stays in the original port for a couple of days to take tours.
The stateroom was the smallest room i’ve ever been in, including every hotel, guest room and ship in my experience. My wife and I (And really we’re not big people) had to create a “dance” routine to get from one side of the bed to the bathroom, door, etc.
The food was awful. Every third day we had the same appetizers!
But the service was worse than the food! No organization among the waiters, obviously no training, no game plan as to who had what tables.
One night we were never served the main course, but as bad as the fool was that might have been the one good thing about the trip!
There was no epidemic of illness, but everyone on board left with a cough! ? I think it was the ventiation system!
The only single redeeming social value of the company is that the bar was open for free drinks (Yes free) all afternoon and evening. Free drinks were also served at lunch and dinner. Of course the cost of the cruse reflected the “free” drinks so if you didn’t drink you pay way, way more than any other cruise.
They had surveys on board periodically, but you know if you write anything bad on them, they’re just tossed in the trash. There was an online survey you could take, but when I got back it didn’t work. ?