It appears only negative comments are showing up for this cruise. But.......
We just got home from the Portraits of Southern France cruise with a three day extension in Paris and had a wonderful time!
Everything about the trip from being met in Marseilles, to the ship itself, to the daily and optional tours, to the meals were first rate all the way. No attention to detail was missed as far ...
The Hermod is only a year old and is in beautiful condition and very well maintained by the staff. It is simply gorgeous. The public areas are very well appointed. The dining room suffers from a low, hard ceiling and is very noisy. It really needs sound baffles. You have to shout to carry on conversations. The service was very slow--only 10 servers for 184 passengers. Ten minutes to get a glass ...
Based on a wonderful Rhine cruise on Viking last year, we booked the Portraits of Southern France river cruise for this year. What a mistake. We arrived in France at the tail end of the European heat wave. The temperature was in the upper 90s. The air conditioning on the ship was not functioning properly and the cabins/restaurant areas were very warm to the point of being uncomfortable. We were ...
With careful consideration, we decided to take a Viking River Cruise to the south of France. The goal was to not have to take buses, not to have to pack and unpack and enjoy "cruising" on a river. We left Sunday for an 8 day cruise. Monday evening as the boat sailed and went into the Lyon first stop at 8am, the captain backed the boat into something and all 8 propellers were damaged. The boat was ...
I booked this trip as a RIVERBOAT CRUISE. The boat was only able to cruise for 1 1/2 days due crew error (crew on the boat informed us the boat was damaged the first night by backing into an object). Starting the fourth day of our trip the boat became a very expensive hotel room and then things got worse. On day five we were offered the opportunity spend an entire day on a bus for the included ...
Six of us booked the 14 days titled France's Finest. We got only as far as Lyon on day two of the second half of that trip on the Viking Hermod. As told by other people, the ship was rendered not able to continue because the ship hit something.. We all felt the jolt during the nite and even light in our bathroom went out.
That was the end of our cruising. After two more nights aboard, we ...
Things got off to bad start when the van that was supposed to pick us up at the airport did not appear for hours...and only came after urgent calls to the ship. So we lost half a day of exploring the embarkation town. (The hotel manager on the ship did give us a generous drink package in compensation, but we were frazzled even so.) There were similar delays and disorganization on the transfer to ...
This was our 4 trip with Viking--all except this one have been absolutely terrific!!
We were on the Spirit and then moved to the Hermod. First thing we noticed was how bright and upscale the reception area was, very impressive. Next thing was how tight our room was compared to the Spirit. Shelf/drawer space was less and the shower was tight due to being tile/glass doors, therefore easy to hit ...
I have nothing bad to say. The trip was flawless and wonderful. I had some flight problems on the trip over. With a few phone calls I was on a back up flight and the Viking representatives were there to greet me in Paris.
The ship's crew, especially the Social Director and girls on the desk, were great. As were the maid, the waiters and staff. This was only the ship's first or second cruise so ...
We really enjoyed the cruise from beginning to end! There are a few areas which could use some minor changes to attract a younger crowd. Most of the guests on our cruise seemed to be in their 60s-70's and older. We are in our 50's, so some things weren't quite as suited to us. The piped in music, individual cabin music , and the piano player played music more suited to an older crowd.
The shore ...