We recently did back-to-back cruises with Vantage - Normandy, France and then Belgium to Amsterdam. Before reading on, please know that we had a wonderful time on both cruises. The food was amazing, tours informative, cabins comfortable and the crew of both cruises did everything they could to make sure everyone had the best experience possible.

HOWEVER, the initial reservation process to book two cabins on each cruise was excruciatingly slow and disorganized and took over 1.5 hours. We made our reservations 5 months in advance. Two and a half months out, Vantage called to say our first cruise had been cancelled because they couldn't fill it. Then, THEY ONLY OFFERED US $250 EACH for the inconvenience of our having to change airline reservations to reverse the order of our cruises. (The air fare rate we got was hundreds of dollars less per person than the rate Vantage would have charged.) The airlines (Icelandair), however, would not simply make a change because we were booking two completely different cities because of the beginning/ending of the cruise locations as well as changing dates; we were asking to be ticketed for an entirely different trip. So, we had to purchase completely new tickets (NOT with Icelandair!) and the $250 from Vantage was NOTHING! We were very dissatisfied with this offer but the "Customer Service Manager" said that was the best they could do and that our other option was to just cancel and they'd refund our cruise money. Wasn't that nice? We ate the losses we couln't really afford and tried to keep a positive attitude. (Discovered that OTHER passengers were refunded $800 for rebooking airfare for a cancelled cruise!!!)

Critical information from Customer Service right before the cruises was completely incorrect: Firstly, the port in France to find the cruise (there is more than one Conflans); then the phone number we were supposed to call to find the cruise port in Antwerp. Other guests had the same problem. Inexcusable. If you are able to put experiences with a disorganized home office and, many times rude, unfriendly administrative staff, you'll most likely have a positive and memorable cruise with Vantage. I was prompted to write this review because today I received a catalog and was interested in another cruise with a good rate for this year. I called to get more information and was spoken to so condescendingly that there is absolutely no way we will go on another Vantage trip. I will be happy to pay extra to another company who treats its potential clients with courtesy and respect.