Fortunately, we chose the cruise for the itinerary, not the customer service. First hint regarding the lack of attention to detail throughout was that although the travel agent asked the company to send the documents directly to us due to shortage of time, they were sent to the agent anyway. The boat (yes, paddle boats are just that) was very nice with comfortable staterooms and nice era-appropriated decor. Port excursions were very good, informative and well organized. The food was good, but despite the fact that the company website, the ticketing documentation and the onboard newsletter specified a "country casual" dress code for dinner in the main dining room, it was completely ignored by passengers and staff.

The fact that when we got to our stateroom there was only one set of towels and no toiletries was the second hint about service aboard, which was generally slapdash.

Service in public areas is unacceptable from beginning to end. First night dinner the server consistently screwed up the dishes. Most pepper shakers full of coarse ground pepper which doesn't shake out. Breakfast next day the hostess gave us one breakfast and one lunch menu, and there were no teaspoons for the coffee cups anywhere to be found, and when we ordered coffee the cup was not accompanied by a spoon -- something which continued all wee. At dinner next night we discovered that our 4-top table was occupied; the explanation proffered by the Maitresse'D was that somebody had taken the table of the people at ours and they had been reseated at ours -- a situation which, in addition to inconveniencing at least eight passengers could have cascaded further. The proper action would obviously have been for her to eject the miscreants. This unwillingness to confront passengers at the expense of others is of a piece with the complete lack of enforcement of the dinner dress code in the main dining room. Whilst the food at dinner was excellent, the service at the new table was initially completely unacceptable -- the waiter was in such a hurry to clear the table that we had to recover cutlery that we would need, and were constantly interrupted by his clearing dishes from the table. A complaint to the Maitresse'D took care of it. Read more