Venice & the Jewels of Veneto - Uniworld S.S. La Venezia - Day 1

 

Sunday 21 June 2026

We flew into Marco Polo airport with good views of Venice as we descended. The line for the ridiculous EES machines was long, but kept moving and we were through in 33 minutes. A Uniworld representative greeted us, and a people mover took us with another couple to the boat, a journey of 30 minutes.

It’s billed as an eight day cruise, but Day 1 is getting to the boat and Day 8 is leaving

There was a welcome briefing 18:00-19:00. First was a short safety briefing. The Captain assured us that if  any problems happened the ship would steer off the marked navigable channel and would beach on sand under shallow water. 

The Cruise Manager talked about the coming week in a presentation which was heavy on selling various additional experiences such as an onboard  tasting of four Italian wines, but no details were given of the wines, and so at €60 per person it seemed jolly expensive. Likewise a €75 onboard tasting of whiskey,   a €145 seating at the Chef’s table, and a Progressive Dinner with each course served in a different behind-the-scenes part of the boat at €110. On top of at least five emails prior to the cruise asking me to bid on a cabin upgrade, and the pricey Masterpiece Collection optional excursions, Uniworld seemed less like all inclusive ultra-luxury and more like desperate hustlers.

We were given a sheet to express our choices of included excursions  for Day 2 &3. This had to be signed, and doing so we signified “I understand spaces are limited and not guaranteed”.

Most of the included excursions have maximum limits. The Cruise Manager said that hopefully it’d work out that not everyone wanted to go on the same excursion, but I heard from another passenger that when an excursion was over-subscribed that rooms on higher decks (i.e. more expensive) got priority.

The boat takes a maximum of 126 passengers, reception told me this cruise has 112 pax and the Cruise Manager gave a breakdown of nationalities aboard, taken from passports;

2 China

2 Israel

3 South Africa

4 Australia

4 Ireland

5 Canada

32 UK

58 USA

(seems two hadn’t arrived by then).

 

There was one small child, a boy of 5 or 6 with parents and other adults. Although some guests had cruised before with Uniworld, I was surprised by how many had previously cruised with Gate-1, an economy company I’d only recently heard of

After the briefing was dinner.

 

Cauliflower Steak in Two Textures

The boat was moored at Basilio Cruise Terminal.

Location: What3Words.com ///paid.held.snapped

 

Then at 19:00 the boat cruised a short distance to be closers to the Doges Palace for Monday’s visit and moored at

What3Words.com ///november.bottled.loaders