Abarb

Good morning (my time) Yarco ,

I will write in more detail, but can I postpone it for a week as our daughter flies in today from London and will be home for only a week before returning there for possibly a few years. My mind will obviously be very occupied for the next week.

regards

Hello Walt,

How very much I appreciate your positive and complimentary feedback.

You are on the same wavelength re the food; we certainly did embelish the meals, cut out the lunch provided and made sandwiches from ingredients bought ashore, Improved the salad with extras such as onion, exta tomato and cucumber, made our own salad dressing etc. Bought extra fruit ashore, biscuits and coffee grains. Some mornings at breakfast, the cook would poach eggs for us and with the addition of sliced smoked salmon, and packaged hollandaise sauce bought at the last port, and warmed in the microwave, we had eggs benedict. We usually had a supply of nice cheeses and biscuits for happy hour.

Wine and beer on board was very cheap; Californian chardonnay and Merlot for $US4.20 a bottle. Heiniken 375 ml bottles, by the carton of 24 cost under $US20carton.

So you can see we didn't do it too badly.

Hello Yarco,

Good to hear from you and read your comments and comparisons.

No doubt you are correct in what you say but it still comes down to a difference at the present time from what it started out as.

It would seem to me, that none of the profits from passengers fares are being returned in upkeep and quality of food.

Ron and I went prepared that we were travelling on a working vessel and all that that entailed. I dont want to make a big deal out of the fact that the service and food and state of accomodation did not live up to previous reports, I just think that intending travellers should be aware of the current situation so that they will not be disappointed.

We were fortunate to share the voyage with two other really nice people.

The four of us had a lot of fun and and an added bonus was that one passenger was moving from France to New Calendonia so came with a projector, a hundred or so movies, and some wonderful music on CD's.

It sure helped to pass the time and enhance the ambiance.

Abarb

thanks for the response, Pies.

On the night before departure, the Captain gave we passengers a form to complete with set questions briefly regarding our experience on the ship.

I found the questions too narrow, so filled the plain reverse side of the form with details of the shortcomings as I saw them.

I spoke to the Captain when returning the form and got the impression that he doesnt send the actual form to CMA CGM, but instead writes up a report made up from all the passenger reviews, on each voyage.

I think I will give contacting the Sydney Agent a miss. If we ever decided to do another freighter cruise I will use an agent from N.Z. or U.K.

Hello all, My husband and I returned from Tilbury, London on the container ship CMA CGM "Matisse" recently. We sailed from Tilbury on the 6th September, 2008 and arrived in Botany Bay, Sydney Australia on 13th October, 2008, so my comments are very up to date.

I had carried out as much research as I could regarding what we could expect on this Company's ships and the information available led me to believe that we would have French Officers, european crew, 5 course at lunch and dinner with wine and buffet breakfast, all with silver service.

From the pictures the accomodation looked very nice and comments by previous passengers of their experiences sounded wonderful.

I first want to say that both my Husband and I have fantastic memories of our 6 weeks voyage and are so glad that we undertook it, but there are some aspects that need to be addressed realistically.

When Matisse was launched in approx. 1999, she was probably very smartly fitted out, but it seems to me that in the intervening years nothing has been spent to maintain her passenger accomodation in good order. These areas now look tired and grubby; the carpets in the cabins and lounge are dirty; the table and chairs chipped, dowling coming apart in the chairs; upholstery stained. Tiles and grout in our shower stained with black mould marks, shower curtain in need of replacement. The fitted bed sheets dont stay on the mattress overnight as the elastic has worn out. 1 pillow provided to each bed, no spares on board.

The "gymnasium" consists of a tabletennis table in the library and an old exercise bike and rowing machine in a small storage room. (a good range of reading material left behind by previous passengers)

There are no sunbeds or deck chairs on Matisse, just a couple of old vinyl and tubular steel dining chairs out on deck.

Breakfast consisted of, cold meats and sliced cheese and boiled eggs on the sideboard, juice and Milk. Make your own toast, eggs fried, and if you asked, 2 thin rashers of bacon. Coffee in a thermos and hot water in a thermos, tea bags. A bowl containing 4 pieces of fruit was usually available for passengers.

Lunch started with watery soup with a small bit of meat and maybe a couple of bits of vegetables, bread rolls, a casserole type meal with potato and usually a small serving of a vegetable.

A bottle of red wine, a bottle of water.

Dinner could be chicken, pork or beef, (a couple of times fish was served) with boiled potato and 1 vegetable. bread rolls, water, red wine. dessert not much...say 1/2 a tinned pear, or a piece of cake.

a bowl containing lettuce and a few pieces of cucumber and a couple of slices of tomato.

In my opinion there has been drastic cost cutting by the company. The cooks did the best they could with the inferior quality meat and chicken and other ingredients but it was very simple and monotonous

There were always a selection of condiments on the table.

Starting in Le Harve, we supermarket shopped in every port and supplimented and embelished our meals.

The Officers are no longer of French Nationality, but now are Romanian, the crew are Phillipino.

Approx. one month before our departure from Australia (12 weeks before expected departure of Matisse) I discovered that the schedule for her departure from Tilbury had been brought forward by two weeks, drastically affecting our independant travel plans. I became aware of the alteration because I had been following her schedule on the internet. I was not advised of the change by the Company or the Sydney Travel agency who have the monopoly in Australia as Agents for CMA CGM. In my dealings with the Sydney agent I had the impression that she thought she was doing me a favour!

Fortunately, we were able to alter our travel plans, so that we could still make the voyage. In reading the fine print there does not seem to be any way a passenger could claim a refund of deposit, if the ships schedule is brought forward and it is quite possible that they would be responsible for the full fare if they cancelled so close to departure.

In the days preceeding the new departure date from Tilbury, the schedule was again altered and Matisse went from Philadelphia direct to Rotterdam and then Dunkirk before arriving in Tilbury. This meant that we missed these two previously included Ports and necessitating extra nights in a London Hotel. So the message here is that intending passengers MUST BE FLEXIBLE.

We were fortunate in that at every port we had sufficient time to go ashore during daylight hours. This might not always be the case. The four of us usually took a taxi from the Wharf and shared the cost of hiring the cab and driver for a few hours. The Captain and/or the ship's agent supplied the phone number of approved cabs in a couple of Ports, otherwise the gatekeeper phoned a cab for us.

The above is not written to put anyone off container ship travel, but I have read here on this forum and in other publications glowing reports of 5 course meals, superior accomodation etc. that are so obviously out of date, and in fairness to intending travellers hope to have put the record straight.

This is a quickly written report of our experiences and I will be happy to elaborate and answer any questions in relation to our experience, posed on this forum .

Abarb.

Also you might contact a New York agent...Maris Freighter and Specialty Cruises, 1320 State Route 9, Champlain, NY 12919. I get a monthly mag. from them and they seem to be the experts in USA for freighter and container ship travel.

Good luck