FrenchRiverCruiser

Sorry. Here's the link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2217070

I was appalled at aleeoc's report of the disembarkation PowerPoint.... And I think the compensation offered is totally inadequate. The lock closure is outside Viking's control, but they need to take responsibility for the first five days.

I posted last year about Avalon's handling of a two night delay starting our cruise because of an engine repair. I scanned and attached the handouts we were given and described the handling of the problem. Obviously, the problem was less severe than this one, but perhaps aleeoc the compensation paid and these documents may be helpful to you and your fellow passengers.

Good luck to you, and I add my deepest condolences to the families of the two pilots and to the whole Viking family.

Pully8 posted his follow up on a new thread here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221148

I'm quite impressed that Avalon persisted in trying to get in touch with him. And that his matter appears to have been resolved to his satisfaction.

Someone on this board has the theory that the mark of a good cruise line is how they handle disruptions--which will occur. Host Jazzbeau, is that you? The recent Viking Freya tragedy makes that all the more clear. The lines that folks post about here all seem to have good products as long as nothing goes wrong. But based on posts on this board the way they handle mechanical problems, lock closures, high and low water situations, etc, etc varies wildly between lines. To me, this is really worth taking into account when choosing where to spend my vacation time and money.

Host Jazzbeau, may I ask you to move this thread to the Cruise Reviews section of Cruise Critic, please? I wrote it before there was a section for posting reviews, but I hope it would be helpful to people to be able to access it now, particularly since CroisiEurope is infrequently mentioned on this board.

Since we have a guest from CroisiEurope this week, I also thought it might add to the discussion to bump it up today.

Thanks.

Mary

Here's how this unfolded from my perspective.

I flew to Amsterdam, arriving on Monday for an Avalon cruise beginning Thursday, and spent a few days with a college friend who has lived in the Netherlands since our graduation, more than fifty years ago. I booked my own flights and simply used the Dutch train to get to Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon. My documentation said to go to the Movenpick, so my friend and I went on Google maps and confirmed which sidewalk to take, where to cross the street and generally how to walk from the Central Station to the hotel. As I was walking there, I saw there were several river cruise ships docked along the sidewalk, including two from Avalon, but not including ours, the Affinity. It seemed to me that where there were two there might be three, and perhaps I could shorten the walk by dropping off my suitcase right at the ship. I boarded the closest one and asked at the reception desk where to find the Affinity. The staff there said they did not know. As I turned to leave, a guy in "civvies" (civilian clothes, not a uniform) asked me if he could help me. I asked him if he knew where to find the ship and he said it was at the Barbizon Hotel. Not wanting to go on a wild goose chase, I replied by beginning to pull out my documentation, which clearly said Movenpick. He immediately understood what I was thinking (who is this guy and where did he get this notion which was only going to send me in the wrong direction....). So he immediately said "I'm the cruise director on the Avalon XXX" (another Avalon ship). He pulled out a cell phone and called someone. He said that they all had each other's numbers, that that was the cruise director for the Affinity, and that we were indeed supposed to go to the Barbizon. Again, he seemed to be able to anticipate that I was beginning to get irritated and concerned (where am I going to find the Barbizon? Where can I find the information about where it is at the docks?) and he said he'd call a taxi for me and pay for it! He called a taxi, suggested I sit down, and got me a little glass of orange juice and grenadine to drink while I waited. A few minutes later, a taxi arrived, he went out and returned with a receipt (having paid for it), walked with me down the gang plank and put me and my luggage in the taxi.

Still mystified why the plans had changed, I went into the Barbizon and saw an Avalon desk. Another guy in civvies said "Here's the information about the refund..." To say I was surprised doesn't begin to cover it!

This guy turned out to be our cruise director Nico, who quickly filled me in. (Avalon cruise directors do not wear uniforms.) The Affinity was in dry dock because its engine needed repairing. We'd be in the Barbizon Hotel for two nights and then join the ship. Arrangements for meals in Amsterdam and complimentary excursions had been made. In addition to hotel rooms, meals and excursions, we'd get refunds for the two nights--half in money the way it had been paid (from a travel agent, from Avalon for those who had booked direct) and half in a credit for a future cruise. I'm attaching a pdf of the three handouts which outline the arrangements.

Now here's why I called this thread "Kudos to Avalon."

1. The cruise director of the other ship was more than helpful. If I had had to flounder around on my own, my whole view of this would be entirely different. I wasn't sailing on his boat, it wasn't his job, but he really stepped up.

2. Communication was excellent. When you read the handouts, you'll see they are clear and complete. The first evening, Nico went over everything again, and I really don't remember any questions. They covered everything.

3. The Barbizon is a five star hotel, and it's located closer to the center of Amsterdam than any of the river ship docks. It was partly a stroke of luck that they were able to get all 130 of us rooms in the same hotel on incredibly short notice, but it's also to Avalon's credit that they kept us in town and not in some distant suburb. Dinner the first night at the hotel included champagne and wine (they kept refilling the glasses) and was certainly comparable to the food on the ship.

4. I was cruising with friends from the UK. Friday, they went on the canal boat excursion and I went to the Aalsmeer flower market. We met where the canal boat trip ended. We then went together to the Handbag Museum. I had breakfast/lunch while I waited for them, and they had lunch at the museum. They then took one of the now included afternoon excursions to the Muiderslot castle while I went to the Dutch Resistance Museum. Because we were not having lunch on the Affinity, we were able to do one more thing than if we had gone back to the ship for lunch. We had a fuller day in Amsterdam because of the dry dock. Indeed, we also had a fuller evening. We took our "handout" and ate at a restaurant near the hotel, and then took a night-time walk, enjoying the old buildings which were lit up, and wandering into the Red Light district (a couple of awful jokes and we high tailed it out of there!). If we'd been on the ship, I'm sure we would have gone to the lounge and missed that very pleasant walk, so we had a fuller evening, also.

5. The compensation for the meals (15 Euros for lunch and 30 Euros for dinner) was more than adequate. Someone said to me that first night that he had looked forward to the four course dinners and didn't think 30 Euros would cover it in a restaurant. I actually think it would not. We went to a small restaurant near the hotel, not fancy but pleasant, and had a main dish and some wine. All three of us said we were very satisfied that we'd had a nice city dinner, and that we'd "made money!" (The meals cost less than 45 Euros).

6. The compensation happened the way they said it would. Once on the boat, we just needed to stop by Nico's desk to get our Euros. He had a big stack of 50 Euro and 20 Euro bills (couples got 70 Euros), and he just took bills from the stack and handed them to us. He asked us to "scribble" next to our name that we had received them--not much paperwork. I needed to contact my travel agency for another reason and before the cruise was over they had already received my refund.

7. They took the delay into account in discussing tips at the end of the cruise. Look at the last document. The recommended amounts for the crew were for five days only, since we had only been on board five days. For the cruise director, the recommendations were for seven days, since he'd been with us in Amsterdam.

8. We had to make up time and were not able to stop at Cologne. But they did add an excursion (complementary) to the Airborne Museum (Operation Market Garden) before we boarded.

Someone has posted here that the mark of a good cruise line is how they handle problems. By this measure, Avalon is indeed a good cruise line!

So often on this board people post stories about things going wrong and the cruise company itself seeming to make a bad situation worse. The reason for this long post is to give credit where it's due. I hope you agree that this is a model of the right way to do it!

Avalon Arrival - 1.pdf

Avalon Arrival - 2a.pdf

Avalon Arrival - 2b.pdf

Avalon Arrival -3.pdf

Avalon Departure.pdf

I have just returned from a one week cruise on CroisiEurope’s Van Gogh on the Rhone River. I thought I would post a review since I found so little on line when I was considering the cruise.

CroisiEurope is a French cruise company—according to their website they operate 25 boats on European rivers. They apparently market primarily through travel agencies, which sell package tours. On my cruise there was a group of about 50 from Denmark on a package which included three days of bus transportation and two overnights to the cruise and two days back with one overnight. Their package also included a guide/translator and all excursions (using their bus, which drove while the boat cruised and met them at the next mooring). There was a similar group with a similar package of about 25 from Holland. There were about 145 passengers (the capacity is about 160—the difference was apparently due to single occupancy of some cabins) and almost all of the rest were French-speaking (from France and Belgium), who booked as individuals and small groups of friends. There were five primarily English speaking on board—four from the UK, and I was the only American. For passengers who were not on the package tours, transportation to and from the cruise and the excursions were arranged by CroisiEurope. All announcements on board were first in French and English, and then the guides from Denmark and Holland would take the microphone and translate the announcements for their cruisers. Thus, the cruise had a distinctly European feel, but we English-speakers always knew what was going on.

The excursions provided by CroisiEurope are sold on an a la carte basis. The first night, passengers choose and pay for the excursions they want. Most people took most excursions. I had bicycled down the Rhone River and had seen many of the sights already and I had a preference for being on the boat rather than a bus, so I took only one. I relied on the section of the CroisiEurope website in English and two English language travel agency websites for information before booking and all warned that there might not be English commentary on the excursions if there were not enough passengers wanting that language. However, my tablemates from the UK took most of the excursions, and they reported that everything was translated for them, even though they were the only two English speakers on the bus. The entertainment was essentially language free. We had a singer and dancer one evening, a crew show with music video type dancing and pantomime skits another and bingo (numbers translated into all four languages) a third, for example.

The food was French. Lunch and dinner were seated meals following the French pattern of an entrée (appetizer), main dish and dessert. The food was beautifully presented—my tablemates and I commented almost every meal about how attractive the plates were. Portion sizes were French, that is smaller than we are accustomed to in the US. I was delighted because I didn’t want to worry the whole week about over-eating. The menus featured familiar food, but with a difference emphasis than in the US. We had fish three or four times during the week for the two seated meals, for example, and duck twice—once duck breast and once drumstick (really good!). I only remember salad once. The evening we had a cheese course it was on the plate with the cheese after dinner. Almost always, the meat had a sauce. Desserts were very tasty, but much less sweet than the US. All the food was delicious—I enjoyed every bite.

There was no choice. The menus were posted the night before, and one evening my tablemates and I noticed a curry dish for the next day. One of them has an allergy to chili powder, so discussed this with the cruise manager. The next evening, her meal had a mustard sauce instead, so they are obviously willing to make some adjustments. I don’t know how they’d handle a vegetarian—I’d be sure to inquire carefully if you’re in that category.

Wine was provided at no additional cost. There were eight wines available—three reds and whites and two roses. Two of them were from the Rhone valley and only one was not French. There was a wine menu if you wanted to order from it at extra charge, but we were very pleased with the choices and never even looked at it.

Breakfast was a buffet with items to appeal to the Danish and Dutch passengers as well as the French, so there were sliced cheese and cold cuts, an appliance with simmering water so you could boil your own egg, a toaster with sliced bread, etc. It took me a few days to figure this out, but the breakfast allowed passengers to balance out their diets. For example, I eat much more fresh produce at home than the plated meals provided, so I took to filling my breakfast plate with the sliced fresh fruit. There were also whole fruits (apples, oranges, pears, etc) available at breakfast. No food was available between meals.

The cabins were nice, with plenty of storage under the beds for suitcases and a closet with shelves and hanging space. There was a night stand between the beds with more storage and a small desk. The satellite TV, which only operated when the boat was moored, had two English language stations—CNBC and BBC news. The carpets and wall coverings looked very new and the whole boat was kept sparkling clean.

My search for a Rhone cruise turned up several competitors to CroisiEurope, and its cruises seemed generally less expensive than the others. When I was searching, I gave Viking my address and I’ve been inundated by their mailings ever since. There are lots of boats operating on the Rhone and mooring space is limited, so often boats moor up side by side. One day, we had to go through a Viking lobby, so I can make some comparisons of public spaces. The Viking lobby is larger than the Van Gogh’s, and seemed “richer,” with more brass and wood paneling. There were glass cases selling jewelry (I assume costume). The Van Gogh’s shop sells postcards, lavender and olives and other souvenirs of Provence, etc. The Viking ship had a twenty-four hour front desk (I believe Van Gogh’s is staffed from 6 am to midnight, and there is an emergency number that can be dialed from the telephone in the room). The Viking ship had coffee and cookies out and available. The overall dimensions of the boats on the Rhone are dictated by the locks and bridges. The Van Gogh has two decks of cabins while the Viking ship had three. The bottom of the windows on the Viking’s lower deck were at the water line, and according to the most recent mailing, these are shoulder height. I certainly felt that these bottom deck cabins would be much less desirable than any of the Van Gogh’s. A highlight of our trip was the evening cruise to see the illuminated buildings in Lyon. Since the bridges are very low, the deck chairs fold down to a “super-reclining” position, which allows passengers to sit on the top deck and enjoy the buildings on shore. The Viking ship’s top deck was much higher than the Van Gogh’s (to accommodate that third deck of cabins), so a similar outdoor cruise doesn’t seem possible on that ship. Along the Rhone, there are other low bridges, so it looks like their passengers may have to leave the sundeck from time to time while underway. On the Van Gogh, it is possible to remain on the sundeck despite the bridges, as long as you are seated. My general impression has been that Viking aspires to be a “Ritz-Carlton.” CroisiEurope is a “Holiday Inn,” completely comfortable with everything you need for a wonderful vacation, but not luxury. Croisi-Europe is less expensive than many of their competitors, and I felt it was an extremely good value.

I know many Americans cruise in order to experience a level of luxury for a week they don’t get in their everyday life, and CroisiEurope would not be a good choice for them. Also, I know the chance to meet new people is a reason many Americans cruise. I loved the couple from England who were my tablemates (we’ll be lifelong friends) and I had many nice conversations with the others on board (most Dutch and almost all Danish speak English and I dusted off my high school French to talk with the others), but the opportunities for new American friendships were certainly limited compared to a ship catering to Americans. Sailing on a French river, I wanted a French ship. I go to Europe to experience different cultures, so I was completely pleased with the cruise. I’d recommend CroisiEurope without reservation to anyone looking for a great value in a French/European experience. If you’d like things more familiar or more luxurious, I’d pay more and find a ship that caters more to the American market.

Long post…hope it helps someone.