Primarily chose this cruise due to the itinerary and the visit to the Normandy beaches. Our first cruise with Scenic though have been on Avalon and Un-Cruise adventure river cruises. We were met at the airport and promptly taken to the ship with everything nicely handled. Took about an hour with Paris traffic to get to the ship but the van was comfortable. On the return, we were chauffeured personally with a Mercedes sedan which was wonderful and unexpected.

Crew was amazing and were everywhere assisting in a myriad ways. No request was too much or a problem for them. Room service was prompt and tasty. You will see your Butler all over the place. Adam was ours and he was fantastic. Kudos to the management for superb training. By the way, this is an Australian cruise lines lots of Aussies, Brits, and Americans mostly in the 50-80 range. All inclusive so drinks were free and used top brands. Every day were new drink specials but the Margaritas were the best anywhere. Nice wines from all over France and as much as you wanted. No one abused the flow of alcohol as has been a problem with other lines.

Valerie was the cruise director and she was excellent. The tour of the D-Day beaches consisted of a short visit to Arromanches D-Day museum at Juno beach followed by a long lunch and then a short visit to Omaha Beach and the American cemetery. This was far less than we wanted so Valerie arranged a private vehicle (extra $) to go to St Marie d'Eglise, the wonderful museum there, Utah beach, and then on to Omaha where we met the rest of the ship's tour. It worked out beautifully but would have been very disappointing since we did not come several thousand miles to just have a nice lunch. Unexpected was the wonderful little French fishing villages especially Honfleur and Les Andelys. Rest of the tours were well organized and very enjoyable. Everything ran like clockwork with absolutely no glitches of any kind. Couple of hour long bus rides but the buses were comfortable. Suggest using the TV's on the busses to amplify the historical information about the destinations. Monet's house and garden in Vrnon-Giverny were beautiful but made far less enjoyable because of the large crowds. Chantilly castle was beautiful and enjoyable too.Very much enjoyed shopping with the Chef in Paris. Read more