Uniworld Dry Docks River Tosca & Replaces Her with Miriam on Egypt’s Nile River

Uni­world Dry Docks River Tosca & Replaces Her with the Miriam on Egypt’s Nile River

If you’ve been plan­ning a trip to Egypt, you’ve prob­a­bly read a lot about the new River Tosca ship that Uni­world sails on the Nile River.

A Mes­sage from the Pres­i­dent & CEO of Uniworld

Dear Val­ued Uni­world Travelers,

There has been quite a bit of infor­ma­tion writ­ten about the River Tosca since it launched a cou­ple of months ago, and I wanted to take this oppor­tu­nity to per­son­ally give you an update on where things stand.

Over the last sev­eral years, we have seen a grow­ing inter­est in Egypt, which is a glo­ri­ous des­ti­na­tion. As a com­pany, we saw the need and oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide trav­el­ers to Egypt with a Nile River cruise ship that would be of a sim­i­lar high stan­dard as our ships in Europe. Uni­world com­mis­sioned the River Tosca with the goal that it would be one of the most lux­u­ri­ous ships to sail the Nile.

Unfor­tu­nately, we expe­ri­enced some unex­pected chal­lenges in intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and we are not happy with the cur­rent qual­ity of work­man­ship fin­ishes in sev­eral areas of the ship. The most obvi­ous exam­ples are the floors in the state­rooms, main stair­well and cor­ri­dors which were dam­aged and scratched dur­ing the instal­la­tion; the mosaic tiles in the restau­rant; and the paint and wood­work in the state­rooms. We have there­fore made the deci­sion to dry dock the ship for seven weeks to cor­rect the cur­rent defi­cien­cies. The ship will there­fore be out of ser­vice between Feb­ru­ary 1, 2010 and March 19, 2010.

We do have an alter­na­tive ship, the Miriam, which we will use while the River Tosca is dry docked. Uni­world has suc­cess­fully used the Miriam prior to intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and the ship is a good sub­sti­tute. The crew from the River Tosca – includ­ing the Hotel Man­ager, Exec­u­tive Chef, and Exec­u­tive House­keeper, all Uni­world employ­ees from our Euro­pean oper­a­tion, will be onboard the Miriam. We will also bring onto the Miriam some of the spe­cial ameni­ties cur­rently avail­able on the River Tosca, such as bed linens, robes, slip­pers, and bath prod­ucts. We will be offer­ing a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age to those clients sail­ing on the Miriam as we under­stand that some of our guests will be dis­ap­pointed with the ship change; how­ever, we will work very hard to ensure they still have a won­der­ful vaca­tion in Egypt.

We are also going to proac­tively reach out to our guests who are trav­el­ing prior to Feb­ru­ary 1 to update them on the sta­tus of the River Tosca.

This was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion because we know that this will have an impact on our val­ued guests – some who have cho­sen to travel with Uni­world because they wanted to expe­ri­ence the new River Tosca. It is also a dif­fi­cult deci­sion because, even with the cur­rent defi­cien­cies of the ship, the over­all feed­back we have been receiv­ing from guests who have already trav­eled on the River Tosca is very pos­i­tive. The Cairo pro­gram, the Tour Man­agers, the excur­sions, the food, and the ser­vice onboard the ship have all been very well received. And of course the des­ti­na­tion itself is fab­u­lous. It is how­ever the right deci­sion for us to make.

Uni­world has built our very good rep­u­ta­tion today on being a very reli­able river cruise oper­a­tor and we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing our guests with a fan­tas­tic vaca­tion expe­ri­ence and value – in every region where we oper­ate. When we re-launch the River Tosca in March, we are con­fi­dent that we will achieve this com­mit­ment in Egypt.

After sev­eral years of suc­cess­fully launch­ing ships in Europe, the expe­ri­ence in Egypt has been a hum­bling one for me and the entire Uni­world team. I want to per­son­ally apol­o­gize to any of our guests who we may have let down and please know that we are work­ing hard to achieve our stated goal of oper­at­ing a lux­ury prod­uct in Egypt.

Kind regards,

Guy Young
President & CEO
Uniworld River Cruises, Inc.

If you’ve been plan­ning a trip to Egypt, you’ve prob­a­bly read a lot about the new Uni­world ship River Tosca that  sails the Nile River. She’ll be out of ser­vice from Feb­ru­ary 1–March 19, 2010, and here’s what the com­pany CEO is say­ing about it:

A Mes­sage from the Pres­i­dent & CEO of Uniworld

Dear Val­ued Uni­world Travelers,

There has been quite a bit of infor­ma­tion writ­ten about the River Tosca since it launched a cou­ple of months ago, and I wanted to take this oppor­tu­nity to per­son­ally give you an update on where things stand.

Over the last sev­eral years, we have seen a grow­ing inter­est in Egypt, which is a glo­ri­ous des­ti­na­tion. As a com­pany, we saw the need and oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide trav­el­ers to Egypt with a Nile River cruise ship that would be of a sim­i­lar high stan­dard as our ships in Europe. Uni­world com­mis­sioned the River Tosca with the goal that it would be one of the most lux­u­ri­ous ships to sail the Nile.

Unfor­tu­nately, we expe­ri­enced some unex­pected chal­lenges in intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and we are not happy with the cur­rent qual­ity of work­man­ship fin­ishes in sev­eral areas of the ship. The most obvi­ous exam­ples are the floors in the state­rooms, main stair­well and cor­ri­dors which were dam­aged and scratched dur­ing the instal­la­tion; the mosaic tiles in the restau­rant; and the paint and wood­work in the state­rooms. We have there­fore made the deci­sion to dry dock the ship for seven weeks to cor­rect the cur­rent defi­cien­cies. The ship will there­fore be out of ser­vice between Feb­ru­ary 1, 2010 and March 19, 2010.

We do have an alter­na­tive ship, the Miriam, which we will use while the River Tosca is dry docked. Uni­world has suc­cess­fully used the Miriam prior to intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and the ship is a good sub­sti­tute. The crew from the River Tosca – includ­ing the Hotel Man­ager, Exec­u­tive Chef, and Exec­u­tive House­keeper, all Uni­world employ­ees from our Euro­pean oper­a­tion, will be onboard the Miriam. We will also bring onto the Miriam some of the spe­cial ameni­ties cur­rently avail­able on the River Tosca, such as bed linens, robes, slip­pers, and bath prod­ucts. We will be offer­ing a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age to those clients sail­ing on the Miriam as we under­stand that some of our guests will be dis­ap­pointed with the ship change; how­ever, we will work very hard to ensure they still have a won­der­ful vaca­tion in Egypt.

We are also going to proac­tively reach out to our guests who are trav­el­ing prior to Feb­ru­ary 1 to update them on the sta­tus of the River Tosca.

This was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion because we know that this will have an impact on our val­ued guests – some who have cho­sen to travel with Uni­world because they wanted to expe­ri­ence the new River Tosca. It is also a dif­fi­cult deci­sion because, even with the cur­rent defi­cien­cies of the ship, the over­all feed­back we have been receiv­ing from guests who have already trav­eled on the River Tosca is very pos­i­tive. The Cairo pro­gram, the Tour Man­agers, the excur­sions, the food, and the ser­vice onboard the ship have all been very well received. And of course the des­ti­na­tion itself is fab­u­lous. It is how­ever the right deci­sion for us to make.

Uni­world has built our very good rep­u­ta­tion today on being a very reli­able river cruise oper­a­tor and we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing our guests with a fan­tas­tic vaca­tion expe­ri­ence and value – in every region where we oper­ate. When we re-launch the River Tosca in March, we are con­fi­dent that we will achieve this com­mit­ment in Egypt.

After sev­eral years of suc­cess­fully launch­ing ships in Europe, the expe­ri­ence in Egypt has been a hum­bling one for me and the entire Uni­world team. I want to per­son­ally apol­o­gize to any of our guests who we may have let down and please know that we are work­ing hard to achieve our stated goal of oper­at­ing a lux­ury prod­uct in Egypt.

Kind regards,

Guy Young
President & CEO
Uniworld River Cruises, Inc.