A group of 8 recently chartered a barge with European Waterways for a 7 day canal cruise through Burgundy. We were all gathered in Paris, had fully paid for the trip and then told via e-mail the day before departure the cruise was going to be through the Loire Valley instead. We were given no opportunity to discuss with them, object, etc. The revised itinerary was substantially sub-par to what we had expected. One of the key disappointments was the increased speed of the boat that was required to cover much greater distances. This allowed very little time to enjoy the anticipated land activities along a slow moving barge as advertised. There were also excessively long van rides for excursions. Their rebuttal to a post cruise complaint letter was essentially the components of our revised trip were no different than their other cruises. However, a simple math calculation makes this hard to believe: based on what the pilot told us the route we took approximated 120 miles compared to the published itinerary which was approximately 45 miles - i.e. 3 times the distance in the same number of days. Nevertheless, to mitigate our disappointment they would give us a 10% discount for another cruise within the next 2 years. After factoring in air fare and the necessary pre and post cruise costs in France their generosity is well under 5% of the total cost. read more
