Savoring France Trip Report April 6, 2022…Buffet Dinners!
Enjoyed 2 nights in Paris as part of the Savoring France cruise. As mentioned in my other thread the Intercontinental Hotel left much to be desired but the tour team has been great. Everyone really enjoyed the Cordon Bleu macarron class. The train ride was uneventful and our tour guide Emily was wonderful.
Today we boarded The Emerald and am very impressed with the ship decor and our suite but my husband and I are very disappointed to learn that the first 2 nights’ dinners are buffets. Tonights was pretty bad. Lunchtime salads, and desserts, fishy fish and really poor looking food in general. Pax were polite about it but hadn’t yet returned to their rooms to discover in the daily program that the same Viking-like fare is on order for tomorrow night as well. Not sure if this will be every night - there was a mention of a special dinner later in the cruise. The Cruise director included in her welcome remarks that staff has been hard to find. Now we know the repercussions. Of course Scylla is to blame here but Tauck should have more say so. Also, there will be no meals served in Arthur’s.
I cannot remember if my previous Tauck cruise included turndown service but there was none tonight. One chocolate was left in our mail slot with the Daily Program. There are two people in the room.
We sail away tonight, one day early due to high water. This is not a great start at all and I am now reconsidering my next cruise. I don’t think Tauck is ready for prime time. Disappointing.
Comments
Quite an anomaly! We took this tour in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is very odd to not have the ability to order off a menu every evening. And no Arthur's at all! Hopefully things will improve.
I think that we have to adjust to a "new normal" post- (or living with-) Covid, unfortunately.
Did you serve yourselves? Yuck horror, or did the ship staff serve you behind screens or something similar.
When we were on a tour, not on a Tauck one, as Covid started, a buffet at the hotel, we all served ourselves, some people literally coughing over the food. At that time, we didn’t even know how you caught Covid. Since then, it’s made me realize that with buffets, literally hundreds of people can touch the same serving implements as you. I’ve never been fond of buffets, but now, yuck, plus all the extra risk of other things in food that sits around Luke warm.
I leave on Monday for this tour doesn’t sound too great. Maybe they will work out bugs before next week. I’m not a fan of buffets especially if it is self serve.
Not much we can do about it now.
Self-serve buffets were not offered when I took the Douro River cruise last fall. We were served what we wanted. There was a small self-serve area dedicated to individual deserts, however. I abhor buffets and opted for soups at lunch. We could order off a menu every evening. It was very nice.
With tourism picking up in Europe this year competition for staff trained in hotel, restaurant, etc must be fierce. Our TD in France last year noted there were many of the hotel staff that had been let go during shutdown. You have to wonder how much of the experienced workforce they can usually count on found other jobs during covid. I'm selfishly hoping this is resolved before our fall Douro cruise.
This is really disappointing, we are also on this cruise and while there was talk of staffing shortages and need for patience there was no mention of adjusting the premium price we paid for the sub premium service we are receiving on this cruise.
Oh, dear, clearly covid's impacts are still with us, but esp. as this is called Savoring France, it is disheartening. I just searched my archives and see I took the same-named cruise, my first with Tauck, in April 2011 aboard the MS Swiss Jewel. I remember loving every minute, and if there was a buffet, it would have been only at breakfast. My hotel in Reykjavik this summer, on my own, last I read is having people use food service gloves at the morning buffet. I have enjoyed ethnic buffets on ships, offered some evenings in addition to main dining room.
Just had a talk with the CD and she explained that is exactly the case. Staffing issues and everyone is scrambling. It looks like four dinner buffets on this cruise. The risk is with unmasked guests going through the buffet line and guests who may or may not have sanitized their hands. The CD can only remind guests to comply and we all have to hope for the best. As time goes on hopefully those on future cruises will have better options. Honestly, the entire endeavor is pretty high-risk with France being at 36% of peak Covid cases. Good news is the food was better tonight and the excursions were excellent today. Lyon is a fascinating city and the winery in Burgundy was a treat.
Thank you for the heads up review comments above. My last two riverboat cruise trips with Tauck on the Danube and Rhine (2017/2018) were excellent with the cuisine and crews onboard. Unfortunately, today it is what it is. I sincerely hope that the Christmas Markets on the Danube that I am scheduled to go on in Dec. 2022 will have improved by then. Sigh.
Guess we roll with the punches I just finished packing and checking in. Got my masks and vaccines, also got a covid test yesterday just in case.
I took two trips last year-Oct non Tauck, to Armenia/George and Costa Rica and survived. I just want to go now not great waiting.
Gourmet Gal,
I am glad you are enjoying the excursions. I know how frustrating it is for guests to not follow protocols. It might help if a number of guests expressed their concern and reminded the tour directors that all guests had to sign the Travel Well Pledge. I guess all you can do is to wear your mask to protect yourself from them.
How many guests are on the boat? Forgive me if you already mentioned this.
My experience has been that despite tour directors requesting people keep their masked on, they are ignored by some guests, the Pledge means nothing to them.
So our concerns have been heard and last night instead of the planned dinner buffet we had a plated and served dinner. A much appreciated improvement and the food quality went up a notch or two. Tauck is really trying to make up for the issues. FWIW Jhinca, the fare for this cruise is a bit less than the subsequent ones because the weather is usually cooler, river levels can be high which can result in more coach time and the first cruise is always a bit of a shakeout. Unfortunately the fact remains that there are some arrogant and/or forgetful people on board who have to be reminded about masking and hand sanitizing. Without being militant about enforcing Covid precautions I think the Tauck team is doing the best they can.
I’m going to continue to appreciate the great quality of the tours and the thoughtful little extras provided by Tauck.
Thx for your postings. This cruise is on my radar
Although not a Tauck tour back in the mid-1980s I was on (there were only 20 of us), we stayed at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris (apparently many Americans stayed at the Intercontinental then, which was considered by the group I was with then as being "too American." LOL.). I will say that the historic Crillon was gorgeous and very expensive.
We just arrived today in Paris for our Savoring France tour on Wednesday. A glorious, sunshiny day in Paris! The hotel is beautiful and we look out our windows at the opulent Opera House! Life is good…and we are a bit jet lagged! No paperwork needed or required going through Passport control…had it all, needed nothing! Off to a wonderful beginning!
Have a great time, enjoy every moment.
Nancy, hope the weather is better for you than for us. It’s been either snowy, rainy, sleeting, windy or just plain cold everyday so far. Today in Avignon looks to be a bit better, finally.
We have enjoyed two gorgeous days in Paris…rain tomorrow then looks sunny again on Thursday. I’m sorry your weather has been so cool…
The weather is lovely in the Northern Rhône right now. Ready to get off this ship tomorrow. Not sure how the pre departure Covid testing went today but one of the Tour Directors tested positive two nights ago. There seems to be a lot of coughing and sniffling onboard for the last several days so I’m hoping I can make a clean getaway tomorrow.
There was a lovely 7 course tasting menu last night along with fresh oysters and champagne in the Panorama lounge. The quality of the food has definitely improved. Could have done without the Chateau d’Uzes dinner two nights ago. It was a solid hour drive each way and though the venue was interesting the dining hall was not very elegant and the food was just okay. It was a long night and it came at a point in the tour where many people are tired of bus rides.
My overall impression of this cruise is that too much time is spent on busses and sometimes the logistics are not as spot on as they should be. Someone was left behind in Roussillon yesterday and many trips run late. Things are much more spread out here compared to the Rhine and Danube.
We did this cruise pre-Covid and our experience was nothing but positive. Timing I guess. Travel safe.
I just don’t understand why Intelligent people don’t understand, that when you go on a tour, you have to accept being on buses. Even the alternatives, flying or trains would involve lots of waiting around pre- boarding. Depending on the country, most have beautiful scenery. I think there would be complaints if only small areas were explored just so you don’t have to spend too much time on a bus. Tauck is very good about dividing bus times up. But if you go on a river cruise, many interesting sites are not near rivers.
I’ve taken other river cruises with far less bus time.
I guess river cruises need people to learn a little geography and look at the itinerary more carefully before choosing. .
We took this tour in 2015 and absolutely loved all aspects of it. I agree that the evening at the chateau was mediocre with respect to the dinner, but we thought the setting was quite nice. I don't recall any long bus travel but do enjoy some time on the bus, especially watching the beautiful scenery go by. It just proves the point that we all have different expections and experiences.
British - I assume you are you are directing this at some or specific river cruisers and not all. We have been on 4 river cruises and have had nothing but great times and nice experiences on each one. 😁
We have been on three cruises during the pandemic. None of them was fully staffed, but none of them were fully booked. They could not operate all of the normal dining venues, but they did a pretty good job. The food on all was good, but the food on the Star Breeze was ‘really’ good.
British, I am not appreciating your patronizing tone. I am an experienced cruiser avid traveler and I am simply pointing out that this particular cruise has quite a few long bus rides compared to other itineraries I have taken. You have no idea what research I did.
Expectations and preferences. British hates boats, and loves buses. Some of us hate buses and love boats. It is certainly useful to me to learn of boat trips that have long bus rides. They get moved to the bottom of my list. By the way, during our stays at the BA Hilton, all of the employees that we saw were wearing name tags that said, “Trainee”. Almost everyone in the travel and leisure business is a new hire, so some patience and understanding is required. The new employees do learn quickly. After my first request for ice I gave a tip of a couple bucks. After that when I requested ice, I could hang up the phone and walk to the door where the guy with the ice bucket was already standing in the hall.