This was our 4th river cruise with Uniworld, having been on the Castles of the Rhine, Bordeaux and Provence trips previously. We chose the 11 day Enchanting Christmas & New Year's Cruise on their newest ship SS Maria Theresa. We wanted to celebrate my 60th birthday, and to experience Christmas in Europe. Being from Australia we hoped to see snow but this was not to be this year. In fact the water level in the Danube was so unusually low that the ship was unable to sail further than Vienna, so we spent the last 2 nights in Budapest in a hotel. More about that later.

We were interested to compare this ship with her sisters SS Marie Antoinette and SS Catherine, both of which we had loved. We were not disappointed. Her decor features a more restrained soft colour palette but is otherwise similar and equally beautiful, some would say more elegant. The large dining room, salon and smaller lounge with enclosed swimming pool remain. We found the new tiny "cafe" room on the lower level to be handy and were surprised we didn't encounter more passengers there. Self-serve hot drinks, iced teas etc and a small range of snacks were available around the clock, with little tables and seating enough for 10 or so people comfortably. It also has a larger version of the mirror TVs present in our staterooms. Two of us enjoyed relaxing there one afternoon watching a recent on-demand movie without having to sit on a bed.

Our Category 2 staterooms at 194 sq ft (18 sq m) were an adequate size, all the more because of the generous and clever storage space, including huge drawers in the en-suite vanity. There was a small table and chairs next to the french balcony. We actually prefer this arrangement over the full balconies in Category 1, as they reduce the size of the room itself. Read more