Tripology Travel Experts Blog: Germany

Rhine/Main Christmas Markets River Cruise: The Wining and Dining

Since delicious cuisine is integral to any memorable journey, let's discuss the river cruise food. In a word: amazing.

All the staff I have encountered—not just in the dining areas—are uniformly cheerful, friendly, courteous, and helpful. It will definitely be a hard landing to everyday life after the pampering of the River Duchess staff. Only two more days of this unforgettable cruise before I fly home. I’m dreading it already.

Getting all that delicious food to the passengers in a timely manner is the responsibility of Restaurant Manager Francisco. A young man, he has already worked half his life managing restaurants in the world’s best ocean cruise liners, and now Uniworld is fortunate to have him onboard. Clearly his wait staff admires his abilities and leadership, and that translates to excellent customer service. Personable, efficient, and gracious, Francisco seamlessly ensures that diners are served what they want, when they want. Customer service is impeccable, attentive yet not obtrusive. Within a day, it seemed that the wait staff was attuned to all the passengers’ food preferences and idiosyncrasies—no mean feat.

 Francisco is also solicitous of dietary restrictions, and in the case of our vegan diets—admittedly restrictive and confounding to most restaurants we have attempted to patronize—Francisco personally trudged to specialty food stores in port to buy us vegan foods to supplement the ship’s regular food stores—and in his ‘free’ time, no less! That is what I call exceptional service.

 For those who enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, several wine varieties are freely poured which complement the gourmet meal. Also in Francisco’s domain is the bar staff in the Lounge, serving up traditional and specialty drinks, light breakfasts and lunches, and a delightful afternoon tea time with Dariusz’ musical accompaniment.

 Under Francisco’s attentive guidance, the wait staff excels in the delivery of a crucial element in the enjoyable memories of a vacation. No one goes hungry or thirsty on this River Duchess cruise.

Each of the chefs under Milos’ expert leadership has his own specialty, whether it is divine soups or the salads or entrees. Every meal a different menu item; in fact, I don’t remember seeing the same dish served twice on this entire cruise. When you have so many culinary geniuses working at a feverish pace in 1,000 sq ft, the kitchen could easily heat up. So I think that’s where Chef Milos’ executive leadership creates a cohesive team in extracting the best of everyone. The Executive Chef creates the menu and oversees the entire kitchen operations. Well done, Milos. Consistently the best meals I have ever eaten in my travels—or at home for that matter. It will be most difficult to return to my pedestrian homecooked meals after experiencing Chef Milos’ teams’ creations. Sigh.

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