Croissi Europe

[stan vermeers]

Decided to book Croissi river cruise on Loire river for next summer. We will be touring the chateaus in that area and have heard good things about Croissi. We booked the 6 day instead of the 8. We realize it is a French speaking ship, but made sure they have English guides as well.

We have been on the Rhine and Danube with AMA, which we loved. Hoping this is a good equal river cruise as far as the ship. Ports seem a little limited. But excursions seem ok.

 

Comments...positive or negative...are appreciated.

 

Linda

[squarevanman]

I have been on 5 of their cruises and loved every one of them. I have posted a couple of reviews which you should find by using the search facility on cc. I envy you as I really would like to go on one of the paddle ships but circumstances dictate no river cruising for a few years.

[caviargal]

Decided to book Croissi river cruise on Loire river for next summer. We will be touring the chateaus in that area and have heard good things about Croissi. We booked the 6 day instead of the 8. We realize it is a French speaking ship, but made sure they have English guides as well.

We have been on the Rhine and Danube with AMA, which we loved. Hoping this is a good equal river cruise as far as the ship. Ports seem a little limited. But excursions seem ok.

 

Comments...positive or negative...are appreciated.

 

Linda

 

We have cruised with AMA 8x and love the line.

 

While in France about a year ago, we were able to tour the Carmague, one of Croisi's 5 Anchor (highest level) ships. It was clean and well maintained. That being said, it was nowhere close to the overall quality and appointments on any of the AMA ships we have sailed, which includes the oldest in their fleet. Cabins were small and without any of the upscale touches we are used to. Dining options are very limited (we were able to look at both the lunch and dinner menu for that day) as compared to AMA.

 

We also crossed through the lobby of their Beethoven and Van Gogh while rafted, which were even more spare and basic.

 

We are upscale travelers and Croisi is not a line we would consider.

[pacmom]

We did this trip with Croisi last Oct. The cabins are smaller than their other boats. It was probably because we had a balcony. The bathroom was really nice--great shower. This is a strange river, not dredged at all. We did not make it all the way, but no big deal.

 

We used Road Scholar for this trip, so had our own guide and driver once we were out of Nantes. It was a wonderful way to see this part of France.

 

The public spaces were very nice. Lounge had comfortable seating. Bar open a lot. In the dining room, we were always at the same table. There were few English speakers and they were all seated near us.

Food was very good--always something that said "you need to eat this".

Happy to try to answer any questions. Pat

[stan vermeers]

Thank you all for your reviews of Croissi. We also have a balcony, mainly because that was all that was left. :) There are very few reviews of the Loire trip. So decided to post.

Our "problem" is where do we really want to travel. This river cruise, in conjuction with the land chateau travel on our own, fleshes the trip out and makes it worth flying to Europe from Ca.

 

I really appreciate all 3 of the remarks!

Any chateau or restaurant that you would recommend?

 

Thanks

Linda

Our trip is June 7, 2018. Will definitely review.

[Paulchili]

We did the Loire Valley as a land trip a few years ago and did ALL the Chateaux. They are all special, different and worth it - do as many as you can.

We are thinking of doing Croissi in the future - would love to hear about your experience.

[gnome12]

Chenonceau is probably the loveliest chateau, spanning the Cher river. The gardens at Villandry are gorgeous.

 

I have done most of these on bicycle tours, and found that it was better to stick to only one chateau a day (with cycling). Even with a car, I'd probably not try to do more than 2 a day.

[Paulchili]

Agree with above. Chenonceau is lovely but Chambord is the most visually stunning (from outside, anyway)

One a day chateau is good advice - it allows you to enjoy other attractions of the area.

[stan vermeers]

Paul

What town did you stay in. Trying for a central location.

Yes plan to see above 3 chateaus/gardens. Will try to see 2 a day.

 

We are excited to visit this part of France.

 

LInda

[Host Jazzbeau]

Paul

What town did you stay in. Trying for a central location.

Yes plan to see above 3 chateaus/gardens. Will try to see 2 a day.

 

We are excited to visit this part of France.

 

LInda

 

Not Paul, but: we stayed in Amboise at Le Vieux Manoir (rec. by Rick Steves) and found that both a good central location and the hotel to be charming and delightful. We visited Chambord, Chenonceaux, and Villandry (plus the sound & light show at the Amboise chateau). More details about our Loire Valley experience in the entries for Aug. 30 & 31 in my blog: https://jazzbeauxfranceblog.wordpress.com

[Paulchili]

Paul

What town did you stay in. Trying for a central location.

Yes plan to see above 3 chateaus/gardens. Will try to see 2 a day.

 

We are excited to visit this part of France.

 

LInda

 

We did this trip as a land driving trip in 2000 - so I am not sure how pertinent the info is today.

FWIW, these are the hotels we stayed in

Chateau de Beaulieu in Beaulieu

Chateaux du Marcay in Marcay

Hotel D'Anjou in Angers

H. du Bon-Laboureuer in Chenonceaux

Le Medicis in Blois

Hotel D'Arc in Orleans

We did more than 1 chateau per day as we had a car - 10 in total

[stan vermeers]

A huge thank you to Jazzbeau and Paul for all the info in that area.

 

It helps to have a start point to decide travels in a new region.

 

For me this area is new and I'm really looking forward to seeing as much as we can.

 

Again thanks!

 

Linda

[Paulchili]

Linda,

You are most welcome.

It is a wonderful part of the world and I am sure that you will enjoy the entire experience - sights, food, etc.

[exbiologist]

I sailed with Croisi this past spring on the Danube. Great cruise, wonderful staff. Definitely knew you were in a foreign country though. Maybe brush up on a little French for hellos, thank yous, excuse mes, and what not. The only real downside is we had one guide that sucked in that she felt she couldn't switch between French and English so she would describe something that we had long passed in English. We had a fluent French speaker with us who would try to keep up with her by translating for us, so then she quit translating all together and just stuck to French. Very frustrating, I wanted to throttle her. Other times we had great guides that switched back and forth or had English only guides which were even better for us.

 

Food was pretty good. Night life is what you make of it. Service excellent. The gala night on my ship was more formal than described.

[stan vermeers]

Exbiologist thank you for your review!

 

My husband and I are excited to visit the Loire area and take this new (to us) river boat line.

We will just go with the flow. It will be a new area and what we see/learn will all be new.

 

Thank you to everyone who responded!

 

Linda

[smoothersailing]

Paul

What town did you stay in. Trying for a central location.

Yes plan to see above 3 chateaus/gardens. Will try to see 2 a day.

 

We are excited to visit this part of France.

 

LInda

We stayed in Tours which was very central for visiting the Chateaux, also Amboise was chosen by others we met on our tour.

[Member]

I read somewhere that "Croissi" is one of the very few the excludes shore tours from its voyage price, which we prefer.

[marchie1053]

We did this trip with Croisi last Oct. The cabins are smaller than their other boats. It was probably because we had a balcony. The bathroom was really nice--great shower. This is a strange river, not dredged at all. We did not make it all the way, but no big deal.

 

We used Road Scholar for this trip, so had our own guide and driver once we were out of Nantes. It was a wonderful way to see this part of France.

 

The public spaces were very nice. Lounge had comfortable seating. Bar open a lot. In the dining room, we were always at the same table. There were few English speakers and they were all seated near us.

Food was very good--always something that said "you need to eat this".

Happy to try to answer any questions. Pat

 

We drove over the Loire at Angers on Friday 22nd September. The water level was extremely low - rainfall in central France this year has been very poor and because the Loire Valley is a major crop area of France with 2 harvests each year, the water extraction for irrigation plays havoc with the water levels.

 

Although the river is not dredged (as far as I am aware), there is a significant amount of sand extracted for building etc but the river still looks like a huge beach with two sizeable streams - one on either side of the 'beach'!

 

It will need a very wet winter for water levels to rise - in July and early August, there was virtually no rain and temperatures in the 32-40 degrees range for days on end. We had left a damp Scotland at 13 degrees on 1st July and arrived south of the Loire to a hot 28 degrees as a prelude to the following week's 35 degrees!

 

The chateaux are fabulous buildings to visit - Blois, Amboise and Chenonceaux are probably my favourites.

 

If you enjoy cycling and the cruise allows bike hire, the cycle path (well away from the road) runs alongside the Loire river and extends to over 500 miles. Plenty of chances to burn off the calories!

[marchie1053]

Not Paul, but: we stayed in Amboise at Le Vieux Manoir (rec. by Rick Steves) and found that both a good central location and the hotel to be charming and delightful. We visited Chambord, Chenonceaux, and Villandry (plus the sound & light show at the Amboise chateau). More details about our Loire Valley experience in the entries for Aug. 30 & 31 in my blog: https://jazzbeauxfranceblog.wordpress.com

 

The 'Son et Lumiere' shows are wonderful - Blois is quite dramatic but it is also a really good chateau to visit during the day as well. Amboise is fabulous - the old town is beautiful to wander around or cycle and balloon trips take off from the Ile D'Or at the rear of the Camping Municipal which is a gentle 10 minutes stroll from the chateau.

 

The chateau at Meung sur Loire is a wee gem and unusual in 2 respects. Firstly it was occupied by the Germans in WWII and in the stables there is a wall painting of a German Officer and his horse. Secondly, there is a Well where 'Les Oubliettes' ('The Forgotten') were despatched. Killing people was frowned upon so victims were lowered down the Well to a shelf (the Well has a domed shape from inside so climbing back out is impossible) and a fixed amount of food & water was lowered down each day. As more prisoners were added, the competition for rations intensified and the stronger shoved the weaker off the shelf to drown in the Well water below ...

[Host Jazzbeau]

Chenonceau also has an interesting WWII story. The chateau spans the Cher river, which was the dividing line between occupied France and Free France. There is a door on the 'back' side of the ground level which was used as an escape hatch for hundreds of Jews and French peasants to escape.

http://www.historyundressed.com/2013/02/castle-of-week-chenonceau-ladies-chateau.html

[ljandgb]

We just returned from a Croisi Rhine trip. It was also with Road Scholar, but that really only meant that our group had a separate tour guide and bus, and sat together at meals. We were on the Lafayette.

 

I would agree with everything already said. The ship was spotlessly clean, and the crew was delightful. The lounge was comfortable, though the chairs in the spots with the best view did show a bit of wear. There were fresh flower arrangements on board. Lunch and dinner was a set menu, generally French, though with some German dishes thrown in given the cruise location. Most of it was very good, if not what I would normally eat at home. It was consistently better than my MSC Yacht Club dining from this summer on Splendida. They were very good about working with dietary preferences/needs, if given enough advance notice. They did not encourage last minute, sit down to the table "oh, fish tonight? Can I have something different?" Dh does not eat fish though, and we told them at the beginning of the cruise. Every seafood dish had an alternative presented to him.

 

Language was not an issue. Most of the crew spoke good enough to fluent English. The cruise director did switch back and forth between French and English so quickly that I frequently didn't realize she was speaking English until half a sentence later.

 

I will say I was a bit shocked when we were moored next to a Tauck and Scenic (I think) ship and had to walk thru. I suddenly felt like the poor cousin. Those ship interiors were, for lack of a better term, shiny. Lots of glass, brass, mirrors, and marble. The rooms did not look that much bigger, from what I could see 4 feet from my window, though even a few square feet can make a difference in those little rooms. That said, our room was perfectly fine for what we needed, and the bathroom, particularly the shower, was spacious. If you need fancy, though, you may not be happy. If you are ok with clean, well kept, friendly, and comfortable, you should be ok.

 

There is actually a show called "Dream Cruises" on AWE (A Wealth of Entertainment) network that ds found. One of the episodes is about a Croisi Loire cruise on the Loire Princesse. Just checked our DVR, it was season 6 episode 1.

[marchie1053]

We stayed in Tours which was very central for visiting the Chateaux, also Amboise was chosen by others we met on our tour.

 

Tours, Amboise or Blois are pretty central for accommodation - we tend to camp in our trailer tent in Summer on Camping Municipal sites (Amboise is opposite the campsite - and we had exclusivity - because there was no-one in the Chateau looking across at the campsite and saying 'That would be lovely to stay in ...' whereas we on the campsite ... :D

 

 

If you are driving in the Loire Valley or its related Departments (Loire et Cher, Indre Loire etc), a small detour in the Tours vicinity is the delightful town square of Montoire sur-le-Loir. Then look for the signs to the 'Gare Historique' about 500 metres (we walked to it!) and the Old Train Station contains a small Museum to commemmorate the meeting that took place between Hitler and Marshall Petain on 24th October 1940 where the former tried to persuade Petain to join in against Britain.

 

 

It's such a simple site in such a rural setting - yet the outcome of WWII may have been different had Petain and Hitler formed the alliance ... 10 minutes for photographs and for reflection on how things might have been.

[stan vermeers]

So interesting! Thank you all for sharing these amazing "gems".

Wishing we had more time there. Perhaps we should get a guide to fill us in on things like the above.

 

Thanks again,

Linda

[Host Jazzbeau]

So interesting! Thank you all for sharing these amazing "gems".

Wishing we had more time there. Perhaps we should get a guide to fill us in on things like the above.

 

Thanks again,

Linda

 

If not, I recommend the Rick Steves France book. The section on the Loire valley is very comprehensive and will help you choose a base location, where to stay and eat, the chateaux you want to see, how to get there, and detailed info on each chateau.

[stan vermeers]

JAZZBEAU,

 

Great idea. And easier too.

And probably more detail too.

Thanks!

 

Linda