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Yes, beginning January 1, 2024 US, Canada, Australia plus many other non European citizens will require an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETIAS) to enter most European countries.

I thought these pictures taken of the cathedral in Rouen from our river cruise in 2019 may help since you had a misty day. We spent 2 days there before moving to Honfleur and spending another 2 days. The second tower is called the butter tower and was completed centuries after the first…by taxing butter. The inside is amazing and some windows did survive.

Thanks for including us in your adventure. Great upgrade that I would have jumped on too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians onboard! I caved and turned on the furnace this morning as our high is only 7 and no sun in sight for 3-4 days. It has been snowing not too far away so the furnace may just stay on for the next 7 months. Hopefully it isn’t chilly in Normandy and you are enjoying a beautiful day in a beautiful region of France.

My goodness, thank you for telling me people like the tote bag. Paris isn’t far off as the floral border is a French velvet ribbon. Glad the hotel has cleared up the missing tub! Now what happened to the luggage elevator? Bon Voyage tomorrow and enjoy!

Your room looks very nice and comfortable. Next time (being optimistic) you will know to request a room with a tub. Love your tote bag too 😉 and glad you find it useful. That community for women over 60 is a marvellous idea and wish it was widely adopted.

That’s a brutal layover and I truly hope it is uneventful. Settle in to a comfortable spot in the lounge and rest.

I appreciate that and wish I could still drive on highways as I would come and visit you at Pearson.

Our first river cruise was on the Seine with Scenic for 11 days. We loved it! We were told by someone before we booked that since the Seine isn’t land locked as it connects to the English Channel, low water is not an issue. We chose Scenic because it was a longer itinerary, it went to the WWI Somme battlefields and we spent overnight in Honfleur.

I’ll be following along Kazu as our weather takes a dive. Thanks for the name of the chocolate shop in Bruges as I will try to find it in April when we go on the river cruise. Bon Voyage!

We cruised Scenic pre-pandemic so not sure what, if anything has changed. There was a minibar filled with our choice and when we used something it was replaced. That included chocolate, chips, some other edibles that I can’t remember as well as beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

Thank you for posting about your cruise. It is bringing back such marvellous memories as this itinerary and boat was our first experience with river cruising in 2019. I am very interested in what, if anything has changed post Covid so I thank you for your observations. We are on scenic again in April 2024 for Tulip trip.

Yes. Chef Lynn Crawford and chef Lora Kirk.

I never thought of that! Lynn Crawford has worked in the US too. The other chef is Lora Kirk. It will add a nice dynamic to the week.

I thought it may be helpful to others to follow up on this topic. It took over 3 months but we finally discovered what happened to our booked (and paid in full) Scenic Tulip Time and Belgium Delights river cruise next April which was removed from the itinerary within 2 days after paying. It has been turned into a culinary experience cruise with two Canadian chefs on board. My travel agent forwarded a letter from Scenic yesterday that informed us of the shift; said the itinerary would remain the same but a few specific food related activities have been added that we would be welcome to join. They also offered to move us without penalty and with all promotions if we wanted to shift to another 2024 date. For the record, we are thrilled. If we hadn’t paid in full we may have cancelled as our only experience was group bookings on cruise ships which is what I assumed this was. Patience paid off!

It will be an interesting comparison and I’m sure you will just love it, especially docking in Hornfleur for 2 nights. I think as a first river cruise it was a wonderful itinerary. We fell in love with Normandy. Sorry to hear about your heart challenges and I truly wish you the best

I just read your review too and really enjoyed it. We took our first river cruise on Scenic for 11 nights on the Seine in 2019 and got hooked. We are doing a tulip time in April. I hope you enjoyed the HAL cruise that followed.

This topic is very interesting to me. Being based in Canada, the big US based agencies offer wonderful incentives but the exchange rate is a killer. I used to book ocean cruises with one person who came highly recommended by other cruisers and she would book in US or Canadian dollars but her follow up service was astonishing (read that as blistering emails to us because it was a Sunday and she deserved her day off but we were on a cruise and other fellow cruisers told me to reach out as we were getting off in less than 48 hours). As a result I booked our first river cruise. But then booked our second with a national bricks and mortar agency…then covid. Now our booking has been transferred to an online agent, the bricks and mortar agency is now a wings restaurant, and my original agent is nowhere to be found. The virtual agent only responds to booking requests, no questions. I have to reach out to her to do anything, like booking flights or hotels. I’m not happy and would go back to doing it myself as convincing someone that I have a real question that needs attention is causing me too much stress.

We bought gifts for our kids from the onboard shop. There is a gym that is free for everyone to use but I never used the spa or hairdresser but they both became booked very quickly from what I heard. The spa has a menu in each cabin and if I remember correctly it had facials, massages and other treatments. only the extremely premium liquor was a charge. I remember being surprised by the variety that was included as my husband likes single malt scotch and brandy and everything was included. I don’t drink so that’s why the diamond deck is a complete waste as the one special dinner with the captain is a set menu wine pairing dinner so not for me. Our cruise has been punted 3 times due to covid so I’m not sure what we will get next April other than free economy air from Canada which we hope to upgrade.

OBC can be used in the spa or hairdresser as well as in the onboard shop. You can pay extra charges like extra laundry or pressing and a very few of the liquor not included ( but I can’t imagine what they are as everything I wanted was included).

When we were on Senic Gem in 2019, we had been in Paris for 7 days prior to embarking so we had laundry. Our cabin category, deluxe balcony on the sapphire deck, did not include free pressing at the time. We are on a tulip time voyage next April and are in a junior balcony cabin and we do receive free pressing of 2 items per day. I rolled our dirty clothes, undies, socks and all and stuffed that bag so full I wouldn’t have been surprised if it weighed 5 lbs. I never realized there was a weight limit 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️. It was a record breaking heat wave so we needed it done and I refuse to have my knickers hanging around the cabin. As for classes onboard…nonsense! We ate dinner with couples in every category cabin over our 11 days. There is an invitation only dinner once per voyage but everyone onboard is invited. The diamond deck guest get priority reservations for date and table size. With my dietary restrictions we won’t do it again as it is a set menu.

I think the baggage rules are to discourage people from bringing too much. My husband and I both had a regular sized carryon, plus one backpack and a suitcase each as we were in Paris for a week prior to our 11 day river cruise. We had the same question about dinner attire. We were on the Scenic Gem in August 2019 so I can’t remember exactly but I don’t remember many ties and only a few jackets. My husband wore what he would wear out to dinner here. And I agree, the air conditioning can be uncomfortable so I always had a light sweater or wrap with me.

@Daisi I have been one of the canoeists 🛶. My husband’s family are all in the Peterborough area.

We are booked on the Scenic Jade 10th - 17th April

Wow…it’s a mystery! I guess we will find out eventually.