CroisiEurope – a disappointment

The Princesse d'Aquitaine was moored and empty when we arrived far too early to board. We noticed several people approach and go down the walkway into the ship. I thought they were passengers for our cruise, but it turned out they were just leaving the ship and had stored their luggage in the lounge. However, the crew member I talked to said it was fine to leave our bags there, and without asking carried them aboard; a good first impression. We boarded before the allotted time, which was nice, and were reasonably pleased with our cabin, except that it was not the double-bedded as booked, but two twins pushed fairly close together. We went to the welcome session where we were introduced to the crew and had an extremely brief demonstration of how to put on a lifejacket. This was while the welcome drink was being served and there was so much distraction, and the drill so casual, that it amounted to no safety demonstration at all! At the very least, we would have expected them to sound the ship's alarm signal, so that all passengers would know if an emergency were to arise.

The purser told us he had seated us with the only two other English speakers on the cruise. All the other passengers were French. That turned out fine, as our dinner companions were a charming and interesting couple to spend our meals with. They had also travelled with CroisiEurope twice before.

We have recollection of the meal that night, but generally we were very disappointed with the meals. The fish, when we got it, was cod, “plaice” that we think was dabs, and salmon. There was no choice at mealtimes at all. If you wanted something different, they would do it for you, but the one time we asked for a ham omelette, we got some sort of potato-egg thing that I just could not eat. They did the omelette again, but you would think it wouldn't be hard to get that right. Breakfasts were buffet style and barely adequate. The coffee was bitter and not very hot, the juice was from a dispenser and tasted artificial, the fruit was over-ripe and the croissants were not the best either. The pain au chocolat was good, but not always available. When we did get cheese, it was at lunchtime, no choice and under-ripe (on a French ship!). The meals were consistently under-seasoned and tasteless. A bitter disappointment. One particularly bad meal was stuffed rabbit. At least 90% of the meat was stuffing. Then there was the beef wellington where the beef was very well done, the pastry was not right and where was the pâté? Neither of us could eat it. The amazing thing is that the French passengers cleaned their plates at every meal and made no comment that we know of on the poor quality of the food.

Added to that, the service was poor. We asked for a bottle of sparkling water at meal times. We had to ask for it every meal time. You would think they could remember. The CroisiEurope website says that wines will be paired with the meals, but there was only the same wine list at every meal. If we ordered white wine in the evening, the remains of the bottle disappeared somewhere. If ordered at lunchtime, the remainder of the bottle would be served up in the evening. Any open bottle of red would be delivered to the table, lunchtime and dinner, without having been sealed in any way, until it went off. If the waiter/waitress took a drink order from one of us, he/she left the table and got that one drink, without checking with anyone else! Service at breakfast time was really bad with long periods when no wait staff were in the restaurant and there was no effort to observe what might be needed at the tables.

The bathroom in the cabin was cramped (probably to be expected on a ship), but the shower leaked all over the floor and there was nothing you could do to prevent it, especially as the shower curtain didn't reach the floor. You often got a short burst of cold water while taking a shower.

Wifi was available, but only in the lounge and best if you sat very near the front desk.

Other general things: the entertainment was dire. The 'pianist': Attila (the Hun) tinkered away, hitting bad notes frequently and generally ruining the peace in the lounge. The background music was very repetitive. The crew entertainment evening was OK, but why did they have to put them through it? The entertainment brought on was not particularly brilliant either, and best forgotten. One was an evening of French chanson, enough said. Old, tired and boring. Games were desperate and dull. All done on a shoestring and no fun. The best game was 'guess the national anthem'. That's how bad it was.

The “Welcome Aboard” information sheet states “Host(ess) This person is present throughout the cruise. S/he will organise pre-meal games, the evenings and the aerobics sessions, and will provide you with information on the places we travel through. S/he will accompany you on your “exploratory” walks in certain towns.” If this person was indeed on board, we do not know who it was. There was a guy who led the games, and exercise sessions and that is all he did.

Day 2 – Pauillac and the only tour we took. Thank goodness the boat just about emptied out every day for the tours. It was lovely and peaceful on board, and we could amble into whatever town we were in and wander back at our leisure. Day 2 morning we had a wine lecture and tasting in the lounge, which was quite good. We didn't taste as we were expecting to taste wine during the afternoon tour. The tour was OK in that we got English translation and at the Chateau Prieuré-Lichine we got our own guide who was extremely nice. No complaints there, but at the tasting we only got one small measure of one wine, which doesn't amount to a tasting in our opinion! I suppose we should have read the description of the tour more literally, as “you will see the unforgettable Chateaux Lifite-Rothschild, Latour and Mouton Rothschild” meant “you will see them as we drive by”. At €44 each, this was a rip-off. To add a further insult, we stopped at a tourist-trap souvenir place on the way back to the ship, and like sheep we were all herded into the shop to buy over-priced tat.

Day 3 – Blaye. We had a lovely day wandering around the Citadel. The town was very, very quiet, apart from the flea market as it was a religious holiday, and it was warm and sunny. We enjoyed this stop very much.

Day 4 – Blaye or Libourne. Not sure which town now, but we arrived in the evening and were due to sail again at breakfast time. I was not, however, able to get off the boat for a morning stroll. The code to the gate at the top of the walkway would not work. The purser was very off-hand about it and said the code was working, but said the Ship Engineer had not closed the gate properly and that's why I couldn't get off the boat. No-one was available to help me either, as the front desk was unmanned, which it was frequently. Annoying!

On one of these days (not sure which now!) we did have a lovely cruise around the estuary and saw the troglodyte caves and fishing platforms with their intriguing purse-shaped nets. The commentary was extremely good also, if a bit 'TMI' at times.

Day 5 – back to Bordeaux A lot more sailing up and down the river. It was nice, but got quite repetitive. There are a few sights, but there's a lot of wide water with not too much on the banks. If we thought we would be seeing a lot of vineyards, we were due for a disappointment. In the evening after dinner, we had a couple of dances in the salon, then the entertainment guy made some sort of announcement in French. I caught something like “nettoyer les tables” (clean off the tables); there was some general laughter, then all the French went meekly back to their cabins, the music stopped and just one barmaid was left in the lounge. This was on Saturday night, before 10.30 pm! The four English speakers sat on in the bar and we watched the crew leave in twos and threes for a night on the town! We finally let the woman in charge of the bar off the hook and went to bed. Needless to say, service the next morning at breakfast was even more lacking than before.

Day 6 – Bordeaux to Cadillac. We explored the small town and had a nice walk round while most everyone else went on the guided tour, as usual. The gala dinner was pretty good, with foie gras, quail, cheese in pastry and baked alaska and, for once, proper wine pairings.

The crew did the minimum and no-one went 'the extra mile'. Even the best barmaid had to be asked to come back to the bar to serve us. She was having a cigarette break while on duty, and in an area which was non-smoking. A couple of the crew used this area just outside the lounge while the ship was docked. The passengers had been informed the only smoking area was on the sun deck.

In conclusion, this was not an expensive cruise, as cruises go. Also, wine at lunch, dinner, and most bar drinks were included in the cost. However, the company website blurb states

“Breakfast is an impressive self-serve buffet”

“Why is CroisiEurope cheaper than their competitors?

We are less expensive … because we are an independent, family-owned business, and we take care of everything in our operations from beginning to end … This close oversight gives us the ability to manage our costs carefully, and give you the best value for your money.

Additionally, we spend our money – and yours – on the things that matter most: experienced and friendly staff and crew, … excellent food …”

“Does the lower price mean that I will be sacrificing quality if I go with CroisiEurope?

Not at all. We like to say “CroisiEurope takes you away for so much less, but we still include it all.” … our food is unparalleled … What you will find is that our standards are high and our quality is excellent.”

Our dinner companions loved their previous two CroisiEurope cruises, but there was something very amiss with this one; on this all four of us at dinner agreed. We did wonder why, on a Bordeaux cruise in a registered French riverboat there was not, to our knowledge, a single French member of the crew. We think CroisiEurope may be cutting too many corners while simultaneously expanding their fleet and their cruise routes. Our crew was Portuguese (including the chef) and Hungarian.

I should add that I wanted to post a proper review but the Princesse d'Aquitaine is not listed as a ship, so I had to post on a forum instead.

Thanks for the report!

The Princesse d'Aquitaine was moored and empty when we arrived far too early to board. We noticed several people approach and go down the walkway into the ship. I thought they were passengers for our cruise, but it turned out they were just leaving the ship and had stored their luggage in the lounge. However, the crew member I talked to said it was fine to leave our bags there, and without asking carried them aboard; a good first impression. We boarded before the allotted time, which was nice, and were reasonably pleased with our cabin, except that it was not the double-bedded as booked, but two twins pushed fairly close together. We went to the welcome session where we were introduced to the crew and had an extremely brief demonstration of how to put on a lifejacket. This was while the welcome drink was being served and there was so much distraction, and the drill so casual, that it amounted to no safety demonstration at all! At the very least, we would have expected them to sound the ship's alarm signal, so that all passengers would know if an emergency were to arise.

 

 

The purser told us he had seated us with the only two other English speakers on the cruise. All the other passengers were French. That turned out fine, as our dinner companions were a charming and interesting couple to spend our meals with. They had also travelled with CroisiEurope twice before.

 

 

We have recollection of the meal that night, but generally we were very disappointed with the meals. The fish, when we got it, was cod, “plaice” that we think was dabs, and salmon. There was no choice at mealtimes at all. If you wanted something different, they would do it for you, but the one time we asked for a ham omelette, we got some sort of potato-egg thing that I just could not eat. They did the omelette again, but you would think it wouldn't be hard to get that right. Breakfasts were buffet style and barely adequate. The coffee was bitter and not very hot, the juice was from a dispenser and tasted artificial, the fruit was over-ripe and the croissants were not the best either. The pain au chocolat was good, but not always available. When we did get cheese, it was at lunchtime, no choice and under-ripe (on a French ship!). The meals were consistently under-seasoned and tasteless. A bitter disappointment. One particularly bad meal was stuffed rabbit. At least 90% of the meat was stuffing. Then there was the beef wellington where the beef was very well done, the pastry was not right and where was the pâté? Neither of us could eat it. The amazing thing is that the French passengers cleaned their plates at every meal and made no comment that we know of on the poor quality of the food.

 

Added to that, the service was poor. We asked for a bottle of sparkling water at meal times. We had to ask for it every meal time. You would think they could remember. The CroisiEurope website says that wines will be paired with the meals, but there was only the same wine list at every meal. If we ordered white wine in the evening, the remains of the bottle disappeared somewhere. If ordered at lunchtime, the remainder of the bottle would be served up in the evening. Any open bottle of red would be delivered to the table, lunchtime and dinner, without having been sealed in any way, until it went off. If the waiter/waitress took a drink order from one of us, he/she left the table and got that one drink, without checking with anyone else! Service at breakfast time was really bad with long periods when no wait staff were in the restaurant and there was no effort to observe what might be needed at the tables.

 

 

The bathroom in the cabin was cramped (probably to be expected on a ship), but the shower leaked all over the floor and there was nothing you could do to prevent it, especially as the shower curtain didn't reach the floor. You often got a short burst of cold water while taking a shower.

Wifi was available, but only in the lounge and best if you sat very near the front desk.

 

Other general things: the entertainment was dire. The 'pianist': Attila (the Hun) tinkered away, hitting bad notes frequently and generally ruining the peace in the lounge. The background music was very repetitive. The crew entertainment evening was OK, but why did they have to put them through it? The entertainment brought on was not particularly brilliant either, and best forgotten. One was an evening of French chanson, enough said. Old, tired and boring. Games were desperate and dull. All done on a shoestring and no fun. The best game was 'guess the national anthem'. That's how bad it was.

 

 

The “Welcome Aboard” information sheet states “Host(ess) This person is present throughout the cruise. S/he will organise pre-meal games, the evenings and the aerobics sessions, and will provide you with information on the places we travel through. S/he will accompany you on your “exploratory” walks in certain towns.” If this person was indeed on board, we do not know who it was. There was a guy who led the games, and exercise sessions and that is all he did.

Day 2 – Pauillac and the only tour we took. Thank goodness the boat just about emptied out every day for the tours. It was lovely and peaceful on board, and we could amble into whatever town we were in and wander back at our leisure. Day 2 morning we had a wine lecture and tasting in the lounge, which was quite good. We didn't taste as we were expecting to taste wine during the afternoon tour. The tour was OK in that we got English translation and at the Chateau Prieuré-Lichine we got our own guide who was extremely nice. No complaints there, but at the tasting we only got one small measure of one wine, which doesn't amount to a tasting in our opinion! I suppose we should have read the description of the tour more literally, as “you will see the unforgettable Chateaux Lifite-Rothschild, Latour and Mouton Rothschild” meant “you will see them as we drive by”. At €44 each, this was a rip-off. To add a further insult, we stopped at a tourist-trap souvenir place on the way back to the ship, and like sheep we were all herded into the shop to buy over-priced tat.

Day 3 – Blaye. We had a lovely day wandering around the Citadel. The town was very, very quiet, apart from the flea market as it was a religious holiday, and it was warm and sunny. We enjoyed this stop very much.

Day 4 – Blaye or Libourne. Not sure which town now, but we arrived in the evening and were due to sail again at breakfast time. I was not, however, able to get off the boat for a morning stroll. The code to the gate at the top of the walkway would not work. The purser was very off-hand about it and said the code was working, but said the Ship Engineer had not closed the gate properly and that's why I couldn't get off the boat. No-one was available to help me either, as the front desk was unmanned, which it was frequently. Annoying!

On one of these days (not sure which now!) we did have a lovely cruise around the estuary and saw the troglodyte caves and fishing platforms with their intriguing purse-shaped nets. The commentary was extremely good also, if a bit 'TMI' at times.

Day 5 – back to Bordeaux A lot more sailing up and down the river. It was nice, but got quite repetitive. There are a few sights, but there's a lot of wide water with not too much on the banks. If we thought we would be seeing a lot of vineyards, we were due for a disappointment. In the evening after dinner, we had a couple of dances in the salon, then the entertainment guy made some sort of announcement in French. I caught something like “nettoyer les tables” (clean off the tables); there was some general laughter, then all the French went meekly back to their cabins, the music stopped and just one barmaid was left in the lounge. This was on Saturday night, before 10.30 pm! The four English speakers sat on in the bar and we watched the crew leave in twos and threes for a night on the town! We finally let the woman in charge of the bar off the hook and went to bed. Needless to say, service the next morning at breakfast was even more lacking than before.

 

 

Day 6 – Bordeaux to Cadillac. We explored the small town and had a nice walk round while most everyone else went on the guided tour, as usual. The gala dinner was pretty good, with foie gras, quail, cheese in pastry and baked alaska and, for once, proper wine pairings.

 

The crew did the minimum and no-one went 'the extra mile'. Even the best barmaid had to be asked to come back to the bar to serve us. She was having a cigarette break while on duty, and in an area which was non-smoking. A couple of the crew used this area just outside the lounge while the ship was docked. The passengers had been informed the only smoking area was on the sun deck.

 

 

In conclusion, this was not an expensive cruise, as cruises go. Also, wine at lunch, dinner, and most bar drinks were included in the cost. However, the company website blurb states

 

“Breakfast is an impressive self-serve buffet”

“Why is CroisiEurope cheaper than their competitors?

We are less expensive … because we are an independent, family-owned business, and we take care of everything in our operations from beginning to end … This close oversight gives us the ability to manage our costs carefully, and give you the best value for your money.

Additionally, we spend our money – and yours – on the things that matter most: experienced and friendly staff and crew, … excellent food …”

“Does the lower price mean that I will be sacrificing quality if I go with CroisiEurope?

Not at all. We like to say “CroisiEurope takes you away for so much less, but we still include it all.” … our food is unparalleled … What you will find is that our standards are high and our quality is excellent.”

 

Our dinner companions loved their previous two CroisiEurope cruises, but there was something very amiss with this one; on this all four of us at dinner agreed. We did wonder why, on a Bordeaux cruise in a registered French riverboat there was not, to our knowledge, a single French member of the crew. We think CroisiEurope may be cutting too many corners while simultaneously expanding their fleet and their cruise routes. Our crew was Portuguese (including the chef) and Hungarian.

 

I should add that I wanted to post a proper review but the Princesse d'Aquitaine is not listed as a ship, so I had to post on a forum instead.

I read your review with interest - your experiences sounded so different from ours, I wondered maybe whether your expectations differed. We always describe the CroisiEurope as a Holiday Inn experience as compared to an Intercontinental experience as marketed by the more up-market river cruises. We think that the product offered,at the price given, is more than fair.

On this cruise (our third with CroisiEurope) we did take all the excursions, and were told by Jose, the host on board, that the newer lines to the region (Uniworld, Viking) have based all their tours on CroisiEurope's so are in effect offering the same tours. The tour that you took - round the Haut Medoc region was the weakest. We found that the guide directed her comments at length to the French contingent, and the English group, being only 4 on this occasion were given short shrift. If you look at the reviews on the Viking Forseti Bordeaux cruise, people there were also not happy with the 'drive past' of the major chateaux. Our guide also took us to a Chateau Beychevelle to which she had exclusive private access which was a nice extra. Our wine tasting was at Chateau Loudenne which interestingly is now Chinese owned. Both these properties had lovely river front settings.

The two other tours were both excellent, one to the corniche along the river at Blaye, the troglodyte houses and the fisherman's huts plus the village of Bourg (where there was a local market, but not enough free time here) and a tour of Blaye Citadel,and the third and final tour (we were on a four night itinerary) was to St Emilion, which was just marvellous and was only marred by poor weather as it was cool and raining. This is such a picturesque village and the visit to the winery Chateau Soutarde was outstanding. This was in contrast to the the Haut Medoc visit as we were given a number of wines of differing vintages to taste and the process of tasting and manufacturing was fully explained. This chateau has had major investment in it by a French finance house and is now equipped with state of the art equipment. The tour guide and the chateau guide between them ran an excellent simultaneous commentary in both languages.

Luckily for us the key codes worked at all stops and we could get off and wander on our own at Liborne, Blaye and Paulliac, all of which were pretty sleepy, Liborne more so as it was a Sunday and everything was shut.

Unlike you, we found the crew to be delightful and very helpful. The Captain and the Purser even helped with the service on the Gala evening. The purser, Jose who I thought was excellent told me that he had originally started at CroisiEurope as a waiter and had been promoted. This strikes me as a very positive sign: a good company that promotes their own staff from within the ranks. We were even asked if we would like a drink when we were relaxing on the sun deck. However, (thankfully it would seem), there were no entertainments offered other than the crew show, the wine tasting on board, and the daily exercise class. That suited us just fine. I agree with your comments about the heavy handed plonking on the keyboard!

We found the food not as good as on previous trips but it did get better towards the end. There are certain things we don't eat and as long as we gave notice we were always given acceptable alternatives. We had a superb magret de canard on the last evening. I think a choice of three reds, whites and roses at each meal and in the bar is more than acceptable - I'm not sure that we've been offered more on Seabourn or Silversea as standard! We also found plenty of choice in the breakfast buffet with different fresh fruit on offer each day. I don't drink coffee at breakfast so can't comment but there was a good selection of teas, and the coffee from the espresso machine in the bar was very good (at no extra cost). Free wifi was a bonus since our trip last year, as well as all inclusive drinks at all times including meals, and we found it worked in the cabin too.

In summation, we would return on CroisiEurope - we like the short itineraries they offer and the pricing is very good, and as long as one is aware of the limitations it's a very good river cruising option.

Thanks for the reviews. We are considering doing the 6 night tour next May as it fits in with a long weekend we've booked in the region and the price is very reasonable (we looked at Viking but it was very, very expensive). I think we'd be fine with this one as we just want a relaxing river cruise and not too bothered about entertainment etc. Will look on the forum to see if I can find anyone else who have used this company.

'Squarevanman' has recently been with Croisieurope on the Douro - check out his review on that thread. I think it was also his third time with the company and like me he's very positive.

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