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Certainly they finish a "cruise with a flair hoping all will leave contented"....and possibly forget that the eight day, seven night "cruise" is actually, in total, less than seven days. Question, in the Souther France tour does the boat actually ever arrive in Chalon-Sur-Salone (CSS)?

Many post claim due to high waters the boat never made it (despite other boats making the journey). We stayed in Lyon for a few days prior to the cruise, then boarded a hot and sweaty train to CSS. After lugging our suitcases up many flights of stairs were met by a rep who stated that the boat wasn't coming and we'd be bused by to Lyon the following day at 1PM. We returned to the station at 1PM only to learn that a 12 o'clock bus had since departed.

Finally at 2:15 we, and a number of others, were bused back to Lyon. We were later bused back by SRR to visit Beaune, a charming city and told there would not be a walking tour of SRR since it was merely an uninspiring port city (not at all true). The actual time aboard this bus was about 3.5 hours, very boring. Halfway through the "cruise" Weds at noon, the boat actually started moving.

So we spent far too much time in Lyon which, with better planning, particularly since "high water" seems a recurrent problem, could have been spent in Avignon and Arles, too fascinating towns. Top deck, which always looks great in their adds, was seldom open.

Having said this (and I won't get into comments about tours and optional tours, which were not prudently planned, is that the boat is lovely, the food good and the staff great. The planning of excursions, however, was not well conceived.

Location: Bronx, New York

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The new boats used on the Portraits of Southern France cruise are way too tall and consequently the top deck cannot be opened as the boat would not go under the bridges!! It's not that the bridges are too low but the boat is too tall - bad design. Viking added an extra deck so that they could have extra rooms (more money) but didn't consider the bridges.

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