I Booked The Cheapest Cabin on a LUXURY River Cruise Ship

I’ve recently disembarked a cruise where I stayed in a cabin that was almost entirely under water.

The cruise line described the cabin as “elegant and nostalgic,” and I stayed there for a week with my Dad.

I’m not sure they’re the words I would use necessarily, but we certainly did see some interesting sites from down here, including the padded walls and lots of water. 

Cruises onboard the ship usually start at around $500 per person per night, so my expectations were high going into this, much higher than usual.

I hoped that I wouldn’t feel claustrophobic given that there was only one way into and out of the cabin.

I’ve wanted to take a luxury river cruise for years, but I’d never found a trip within my budget. That was until I found a cruise on sale on the SS La Venezia sailing from Venice.

It did make me wonder why the cruise had been reduced so much, but I decided to book the cheapest cabin on the ship to find out for myself. 

There was a note about the windows being situated on the waterline but I didn’t read too much into that at the time. I was just so excited to be able get onboard. 

The cheapest and smallest cabin was called the “Classic”, and that sounded good to me.

I hoped that I wouldn’t find it strange if we literally had water splashing over the windows, but in reality, the problems we had weren’t ones I’d thought of before.

The majority of the cabins on the ship are either called “Deluxe” cabins with a big window, or they are balconies or suites.

I found the cabin on the deck plans. I had booked all the way down on deck 1, cabin 107. There were only seven cabins like this on the entire ship. The rest of the cabins on this deck are for the crew. 

The cabin’s plan did make it look like the beds separated, which I was happy to see, but it didn’t look like there would be much space there, which was a little bit worrying. 

I was trying to find video tours or pictures, but there isn’t a lot of information about this ship that shows the bed situation.

I assumed that I would have been told if the beds couldn’t separate – and I wouldnt have booked this particular cabin if I had known.

We boarded this cruise at around 10 a.m., which is very early, but our cabins weren’t ready until 3 p.m. We had full access to the rest of the ship and could enjoy the included drinks and food.

When we were walking to the restaurant for lunch we walked down the corridor that had the suites on it. Of course I had to have a look inside, it’s impossible to resist, it’s always exciting to look around cabins and perhaps even more so when they’re not yours. 

The suites here might look quite patterned but when look at my cabin you’ll see that this is actually toned down compared to where I stayed, if you can believe it.

All of the suites onboard are unique in their design and the big balconies did look lovely. Some of these suites hold three people and the rest of the cabins on the ship just hold two. 

I knew our cabin wouldn’t have any fresh air or outside space but after spending some time on the top deck I just decided this would be my big balcony.

There wasn’t a shortage of space up there and the sofa seats were very comfortable. 

I was so excited when our cabin was ready. Me and my dad went down the stairs all the way to deck one, past the tea and coffee machine with the cookies and the laundry.

The corridor felt bright and modern. It definitely felt like we were down inside a ship but not in a bad way. It was patterned but it wasn’t too much. I really wasn’t prepared for the cabin though.

I’m not sure I have the words to describe this room, for the first time, I am lost for words.

The first thing I noticed when I went into the room was how there was a pattern all over the walls – and also the floor, and the ceiling, it was on the door to the bathroom, the cupboards, even the stool and the chair.

There was a tiny little bit of white around the bathroom door but I’m sure they would have put the pattern there too if they could! 

They certainly got their money’s worth from this pattern. I’m glad they didn’t also put it on the bed. That would have been too much. 

This ship was actually completely refurbished in 2020. This is the new design and I’ve got to be honest the more research I did into the old design, the more I realised I preferred that.

Before the refit, it was just light and stripey. Some things, like the beds, have remained, they just added the pattern everywhere.

The year before the refit, the ocean ship MSC Opera crashed into this ship. It caused a lot of damage, and Uniworld sued MSC for 13 million euros. Oops.

I honestly hoped that this pattern wouldn’t give me a migraine. I have suffered from migraines in the past, and usually, they mess up my eyesight before I get the headache part.

I thought if that happened in this cabin if I was laying in bed and looking up at the ceiling, I might not even notice that my eyesight was going weird! Especially since the lights did flicker, but I hoped that they wouldn’t always. They did – and speaking to others it was the same in their cabins. 

I did like the room though, it felt fairly spacious for a river cruise cabin and I loved the windows.

These were right on the waterline and water would come up if a boat went by us on the other side. I did wonder what this would be like when we were sailing and I’d find that out the next day. 

On the bed was a cruise overview, which was very helpful, and a fluffy luggage mat. Our luggage was here when we arrived, which makes sense.

It didn’t have too far to come, unlike on the big ocean ships, where sometimes it has to go up 18 decks. Our luggage just came in and went down one level, easy peasy.

It didn’t take me very long to realise that although the beds were set up as twins, they couldn’t move even 1cm apart.

The desk on my side and the bedside table on the other side were heavy and fixed. Usually, I’d just move one over a little bit and push over my bed if I had to. I knew that wouldn’t be possible here, though.

If I hadn’t paid much for this cruise I probably would have thought that was fine, but I really thought this was quite disappointing for a luxury line.

There are plenty of friends and family who cruise together, and you’ve got to get on to sleep this close together.

Luckily I do get on well with my Dad and I ended up sleeping upside down for the entire cruise – and kicking my dad in the head when I slept, by accident of course… 

When I’ve cruised on budget river cruise lines in the past, we’ve always been able to move the beds apart. 

I loved the mirror on the desk and here there was a drawer for all of my bits and bobs. I did bring some chocolate with me for the journey and this cruise was so hot that this is how my chocolate ended up. Still tasted good though.

There was a little jar on the desk and we would find some chocolates in here. Everything felt very solid and heavy, I’m sure it was all of a good quality and the attention to detail was impressive.

On all of the patterned panels they would be these circle bits, I think I’d call them studs.

The door handles all felt very ornate, I think that’s a good word for this cabin. 

Perhaps the most important feature of this cabin was the air conditioning and I’m so happy to report that it worked perfectly. Coming back into this room after being outside was like a breath of fresh air, literally. 

We unpacked our bags and there was plenty of storage for the two of us for the week. There was a good mix of hanging space and drawers as well as a safe. 

Every cabin onboard has its own bathroom, and I loved the design of ours. It felt a lot calmer than the rest of the cabin, and there was a good amount of storage in here, too. 

The shower itself was pretty big although I could sit on the toilet and wash my feet in the shower if I wanted to.

That’s pretty standard for river cruise cabins though and this bathroom could be on pretty much any river cruise line without issue.

We didn’t set sail this first night so I wouldn’t get to experience what it would be like to sail. What I would get to experience though was how this cabin was in the dark.

The blinds there did have the same pattern on them too – of course they did… 

Because I was sleeping upside down I would fall asleep looking into the mirror, I’m not going to lie I do think this is more creepy than relaxing. When my eyes were closed I slept very well and I actually didn’t have any weird dreams.

The beds were very comfortable and whatever makes bedding good quality, this cabin has it. The branding was lovely and even the towels in the bathroom had the Uniworld logo. 

The cabin felt very quiet and we always slept very well. One of my favourite things to do in the cabin was to watch the TV. I usually don’t watch TV when I cruise, but this TV has a channel that was interesting to me, the “lounge cam.”

This meant that we could see what was happening in the main lounge without leaving our cabin.

That was particularly helpful on 70s night, when I put on these trousers to bring a bit more pattern to the room. I AM KIDDING. We could see that other people were already up dancing on the dance floor. 

One problem that a lot of cabins have is they don’t have enough plug sockets. That wasn’t a problem on this ship at all, we had far more than we needed, in reality.

Most of the sockets were over near what are called the vox boxes. These were little devices we used when we went on excursions so that we could always hear the guide.

Uniworld do include excursions so that was a nice treat. Most of the places we went to on this cruise we stayed there for a couple of days. That meant that we really didn’t sail much but that worked well for us.

When we were sailing away from port we would usually be up on the top deck enjoying a cocktail. If we were down in our cabin, we would see the water splashing over the windows. 

This didn’t bother me at all but I can see how it could scare some people. The thing that got me was that the cabin would go so dark when the water splashed over us. Most of the cruise we didn’t have the main lights on because of the flickering and the pattern. I thought it was great fun. 

Even when we weren’t sailing you could often hear the water when other ships went by us, I found it quite relaxing. The water noise might make some people need the toilet though and I could see somebody accidentally going into the wardrobe because the bathroom door is camouflaged to look like the walls!

There were lots of little touches in this cabin where you could tell that Uniworld had paid attention to detail.

The bed frame for example, or the the “Do not disturb” bean bag. You did hear me right there, a “Do not disturb” bean bag!

Most cruises have either a button you press that lights up a light outside the room, or a magnet that you can stick to the door, on here though it was a beanbag and that summed up the whole cruise perfectly.

The beanbag worked very well, I’m not sure that I really get it, but I can see what they are doing, it was a luxurious beanbag. 

If we were on “do not disturb” and they wanted to leave us the daily schedule for the next day they’d put it in a nice little bag and leave it on our door handle. Sometimes they’d leave us little treats too but we mostly just ate cookies. They were so good. 

In a few ways I felt like this cabin was style over substance, the blinds for example they look nice being that weird shape but it meant that we couldn’t ever completely block out the light.

Again not a problem for me I can sleep through almost anything, but I know some people wouldn’t like that and when a cruise costs as much as this, I think it’s right to be a bit more fussy. 

Our cabin was cleaned every single day and it was always spotlessly clean. I think this is a prime example of something being ‘good’ but not to my taste, the walls for example are padded.

I’m sure it helps with dampening down sounds but it was a bit weird, probably harder to clean too if you accidentally spill a cup of tea on the wall – it must happen. 

We could occasionally hear guests in the other cabins if they sneezed or flushed the toilet. but overall it was quiet and peaceful. Nobody walked by our room unless they were staying in a cabin down here too.

We didn’t really miss having any outside space, and although I’m sure it would have been nice, I don’t think it would have been worth the upgrade.

Especially since it was so hot on this cruise, you’d have to keep the door closed anyway if you wanted to keep the temperature of the room down.

The beds still don’t split properly in the balcony cabins, and they have the same pattern. It’s a bold choice, but plenty of people love it. 

I paid £1998 ($2600) for this week long cruise for me, based on two people sharing this cabin. My dad also paid the same price.

That was me booking in a Christmas half-price sale, but the normal price for this room was closer to five or six hundred pounds per person per night.

For a balcony cabin it was around 50% extra. Remember that we were docked pretty much all the time and only sailed for a few hours a few times in the week.

To find out what we got up to on the rest of the ship and if I felt it was worth the price tag, check out this video next. We saw some incredible things on this cruise you are not going to want to miss this video:

Before You Go

Compare this cabin to cabins onboard a budget river cruise ship owned by TUI here:

Budget River Cruise Cabin Review – (TUI – Photos, Deck 1 & 2 Superior Cabins)

Find out about everything I ate onboard this luxury river cruise ship below:

Here’s Everything I Ate on a Luxury River Cruise (Main Meals, Buffet and More)