Croisi and Amadeus

[sjde]

We haven't been on either Croisi or Amadeus but are considering it. We've been on GCCL , AMA and Viking. How do these compare? I'm guessing not as nice maybe as AMA, given the price difference. TIA!

[ljandgb]

I haven't cruised Amadeus, but have cruised Croisi and Avalon.  Croisi is definitely lower scale than Avalon.  That said, our Croisi Rhine cruise was our first river cruise and I had (almost) no complaints.  The ship was small-ish, which was nice as there were fewer passengers.  The decor was a bit outdated and a bit worn at the edges, but spotlessly clean and the crew was absolutely delightful.  The passengers were a mix of French and American, with a small smattering of Aussie.  

 

My only issue was that meals are a set course, no ordering from a menu.  If you did not like what was being served, you could have previewed the menu in the morning and requested a chicken breast instead.  My husband did this a few times over the week.  I more prefer veggies and most dishes were very meat centric. All dishes were very influenced by the local cuisine.  I found myself scavenging garnishes.  

 

If there were more choice at meals, I'd not hesitate to sail with them again.  

[CielBleu]

We have cruised on Croisi and Avalon so far. We love both of them. However, we have done two barge cruises and an ocean cruise with Croisi; not a river cruise. The barge cruises had a set menu, as mentioned above, but the food was so good that no one objected. We did have choices on the ocean cruise. We have a river cruise next month, so I suppose it will be set meals and we will see how they are. When we cruise on Croisi, we already know that it's different from some of the others like Avalon, but we embrace those differences. That said, I definitely recommend booking a 5-anchor ship on Croisi rather than a 4-anchor ship. The 5-anchor ships seem much nicer. We have not done Amadeus, but the recent reviews I've seen have mostly been very positive.

[Daisi]

@CielBleu, I hope you do a review on your Croisi cruise, they do some rivers (Vltava and Loire) that look really interesting. We're used to Avalon, so hoping that they are at least close.

[id est]

We've recently done Croisi barge cruise and can't recommend it to anyone. We were not so lucky with the food on our barge cruise: no choice and every day hit or miss. Some days only ate bread. Keep in mind: their ships are old, our barge was in desperate need of repairs, mold under AC vents, outdated dirty furniture etc... It's a low level budget line and you feel it everywhere: tours, entertainment, drinks and so on....

Edited August 27 by id est

[Daisi]

4 hours ago, id est said:

We've recently done Croisi barge cruise and can't recommend it to anyone. We were not so lucky with the food on our barge cruise: no choice and every day hit or miss. Some days only ate bread. Keep in mind: their ships are old, our barge was in desperate need of repairs, mold under AC vents, outdated dirty furniture etc... It's a low level budget line and you feel it everywhere: tours, entertainment, drinks and so on....

 

The barge tours are probably a lot different than the river cruise ones, just like Viking's river cruise is a lot different from it's ocean ones. I've been researching Croisi river cruises since January, and from what I can see, they are competitive. Just trying to confirm about meals, as it does look as if there is a choice available, and how they operate. You can't go on the Loire or Vltava any other way, so really hope they are starting to get competitive.

 

[CielBleu]

8 hours ago, id est said:

We've recently done Croisi barge cruise and can't recommend it to anyone. We were not so lucky with the food on our barge cruise: no choice and every day hit or miss. Some days only ate bread. Keep in mind: their ships are old, our barge was in desperate need of repairs, mold under AC vents, outdated dirty furniture etc... It's a low level budget line and you feel it everywhere: tours, entertainment, drinks and so on....

Which barge were you on?

[id est]

MS Jeanine

[Canal archive]

In 2022 we self cruised the Canal de Nivernais and encountered at least three hotel barges, I think independent and all absolutely immaculate. Do look through the internet as some look amazing. We also met up with various others doing our thing! Which included to our slight surprise quite a few Americans so the evening entertainment was on several occasions just a little towpath - party.

 

Canal de Nivernais France.