The reason for doing this cruise is that we wanted to explore Australia`s involvement during WW1 and WW2 plus see the French country side from the comfort of a luxury river cruise ship. The ship was generally very comfortable, excellent staff but failed in the quality of food supplied. The embarkment and disembarkment went smoothly and was well organised.

One person in our party is a vegetarian and struggled to find adequate, nutritious vegetarian meals during the cruise. There was only one vegetarian meal listed on the menu each night whereas a non vegetarian had 3 choices on the mains plus the alternative section (which did not contain one vegetarian meal). Where the vegetarian meal was not appealing there was no offer to change or make up an alternate meal. It seemed we had to either like it or lump it. On one occasion the vegetarian received the same meal as the non vegetarian minus the meat. It was a plate with a few boiled vegetables on it and that was it. A very plain, tasteless meal with little thought or imagination. Generally the quality of meals was only average. The bakery was an exception with the breads and rolls being fresh and delicious.

Scenic was notified in advance that one of our party was a vegetarian and on previous cruises with this company the chef spoke with the vegetarian and supplied nutritious, tasty meals. This did not occur on this cruise.