Five previous wonderful trips with Vantage. This was very disappointing. First, after a very long wait at the airport to be taken to the ship, we had a terrible two hour bus trip to Vernon. Told that "stuff happens" and the ship was too wide to get through a lock to Paris. A narrow lock was open, but the wider one was broken. Viking and AMA ships were in Paris, the Venture was not. I agree that stuff happens, but the lock had been broken for a few weeks, and still may be. Should have notified us that we were not going to be parked in Paris, so no evening strolls, no Van Goh museum, so nice meals. Had we been notified, I would have rescheduled. Very annoying, particularly since the staff barely apologized.

Then, while parked in Vernon twice (heading west, then on the return) we were not even given an informal walking tour of this lovely town. Plenty of history (Rommel's base after D-Day, 12th century fortress, etc. I had to learn about the town by following around a Viking tour-guide. In the past, the tour directors would have taken the initiative to walk us around. The new system of a cruise director and concierge is terrible. Bring back the three cruise guides.

Another change is amazingly cheap. Rather than offer bottles of water when leaving ship for a tour, we were told to bring one of the TWO we were given each evening. Two pint sized bottles of water. The hotel manager and tour director were indifferent to customers. Read more