S.S. Maria Theresa Review

4.5 / 5.0
60 reviews

Superb food, excellent service - shame about the decor

Review for Europe River Cruise on S.S. Maria Theresa
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ChrisMG
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: May 2015
Cabin: Stateroom with Full Open-Air Balcony

For obvious reasons I have never had the opportunity to familiarise myself with the decor of the average 17th century baroque brothel but, had I done so, I am sure that I would have felt perfectly at home as soon I had set foot on this ship. Whatever possessed them to decorate it as they have, I cannot imagine. Almost the entire ship is a melange of gold leaf, shiny stuff, tassels, mirrors, glass, marble, ornate furniture, competing textile patterns and, in the dining room and lounge, badly made Austrian style curtains. Added to which the whole lot had been distressed (I spent a worrying few moments when we first got to our cabin trying to get the brown spots off the mirrors, only to realise that they were supposed to be there). The one oasis in this headache-inducing riot of over-the-top, disneyesque fantasy was the Leopard Bar at the back of the boat which was cooly and impeccably decorated and furnished; we spent most of our time there when we were sailing.

Having said that, and despite their obvious attempts to make it appear otherwise, this is a brand new state-of-the-art, luxury ship, full of the sort of 21st century touches that you would expect and extremely smart from the outside (one could feel quite superior when passing lesser boats to get to our handsome vessel). It was only two-thirds full and so there was always lots of space to sit where you wanted, to move around or to use any of the facilities offered on board. I don’t know if things would have been different if the ship had been full.

The beds were enormous and very comfortable (in fact, they could have been a foot narrower and given us more cabin space which was extremely limited). Unlike the previous reviewer, we had ample hanging and drawer space.The walls were actually padded so there was no noise at all from adjacent cabins, nor could we hear the ship’s engines. The shower room was full of marble and mirrors and was quite luxurious with optional underfloor heating. The shower (big enough to bend over and pick up the soap when you drop it) had the option of a hand-held shower or a one coming from the ceiling. The hot water never ran out. The shower gel, liquid soap and body lotions were in dispensers fixed to the wall. The hairdryer was not fixed to the wall and was very powerful. At night, there was a gentle blue light which did not invade the sleeping area - a good idea. Towels and flannels were beautifully fluffy and soft.

Cabin Review

Stateroom with Full Open-Air Balcony

The Cabins

I would dispute Uniworld’s description of the cabins which, for me at least, was very misleading. We paid extra to have a Category 1 cabin which, according to the brochure has ‘open-air balconies that, with a touch of a button, will raise the glass to create a completely enclosed conservatory’ In fact, there are no ‘open-air balconies’ . The ‘balcony’ is just part of the cabin and the top half of the window drops down behind the lower half. You cannot step outside the cabin. As far as I could see, the only difference between cabins with ‘balconies’ and the cheaper option was that the more expensive cabins had additional sliding glass doors which cut off about the 3 feet of the cabin nearest the window when they are closed. As Category 1, 2 and 3 cabins had the same floor space, the sliding doors mean that the more expensive cabins had a smaller usable floor space than the others. For me, therefore, the only justification for the extra cost was that we were on the highest deck but it probably wasn’t worth the extra money.

The beds were enormous and very comfortable (in fact, they could have been a foot narrower and given us more cabin space which was extremely limited). Unlike the previous reviewer, we had ample hanging and drawer space.The walls were actually padded so there was no noise at all from adjacent cabins, nor could we hear the ship’s engines. The shower room was full of marble and mirrors and was quite luxurious with optional underfloor heating. The shower (big enough to bend over and pick up the soap when you drop it) had the option of a hand-held shower or a one coming from the ceiling. The hot water never ran out. The shower gel, liquid soap and body lotions were in dispensers fixed to the wall. The hairdryer was not fixed to the wall and was very powerful. At night, there was a gentle blue light which did not invade the sleeping area - a good idea. Towels and flannels were beautifully fluffy and soft.

Unfortunately, the temptation to fill the cabin with gizmos had not been resisted. All the lights were controlled by sort of touch-screen control panels and I never did work out how to switch off the lights that I wanted too switch off. How I longed for good old-fashioned switches. The main mirror was a sort of display panel when activated which, at least, meant that you did not have a free-standing television taking up space.

Port Reviews

Regensburg

We visited the BMW factory in Regensburg and, for us, it was the best excursion of the trip. It was like glimpsing into the future. A highly automated factory with quite scary robots. The tour took three hours and our guide was excellent and very informed. Totally fascinating.

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