French company CFC (page 4 of 5)

Correction: it’s really expensive!! Which month and how long are you looking at?

CFC Odyssey digital

Okay, it's 2 weeks, but 3,500 € for a balcony cabin is way overpriced outside of school holidays. At that price, if I may say so, I’d go for a premium company like Princess—it’d probably be much cheaper.

What’s surprising is that the prices have stayed the same, even though before the price included service taxes (it was written), and now you have to add service fees on top, so they’re basically being paid twice! The quality’s dropping and prices are going up—I’m not sure this is the right way for the company to stay sustainable...

Yeah, especially since my finger slipped. It’s 3531 € for the real price (3500!!!). That’s why I was keeping an eye out for any promotions.

I booked it at the end of April. They had a 25% discount and no solo supplement. Premium Solo Balcony for 2,648.25 €. However, for 11 nights in May with Celtic rhythms and legends, I booked a Premium Solo interior cabin for 1,650 €, still with the 25% discount. Currently, the standard sea-view cabin plus solo is at 1,792 € + 99 €. And until yesterday, I could get a 20% discount. Basically, they adjust prices based on occupancy, just like the others.

3500 € for two?

no per person 😕

Oh yeah, it's expensive. For the cabin, I thought it was reasonable, hence my question.

CFC is merging with Ambassador Cruise Line...

What is it?

Well, the French-style cruise is over... Anyway, it wasn’t working—they couldn’t fill the boat.

CFC's shareholder is becoming a minority stakeholder, and the new Ambassador group resulting from the merger will include 3 ships: the Renaissance (CFC), the Ambience (dating from 1991), and the Ambition (dating from 1999, formerly the Costa Neoriviera). This doesn’t bode well—the Renaissance will head to the Caribbean for the winter, meaning fewer departures in Europe. At Christmas and New Year’s, it was fully booked but with plenty of hiccups...

Just old boats, really... Having said that, my next cruise is also on an old boat ;)

It was hard to imagine a long-term future for this new company, which was piling up setbacks and disappointing many passengers. Let’s hope this solution saves them from the worst, especially for those with ongoing bookings. An old boat, with high prices and service below what was promised, isn’t a recipe for success.

Totally agree—they didn’t know how to retain their early customers or those from Costa or MSC who wanted to try out CFC.

Yeah, I think we can still say it was a resounding failure

Hello, Thanks for the information. We’re supposed to travel with CFC at the end of March. Let’s hope the work on the boat is finished by then. We’ll see how it goes based on previous departures for those doing the northern lights. Have a great weekend and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! Mum49

Happy New Year to you all, wishing you wonderful future travels

Hello, we’ve just returned from a 2-week cruise on CFC’s "Renaissance," where we spent both New Year’s Eves. The ship was fully booked for those two cruises, as well as the Iberian Flavors cruise in September. However, back in 2023, we were only 450 passengers on the Istanbul-Athens-Thessaloniki-Santorini route, and it was truly amazing—fewer people meant no waiting, lovely staff, high-quality shows, and so on. So, it wasn’t all negative. But I’m worried that this partnership with the English company might strip away the French authenticity of the ship. The massive ships like COSTA or MSC (with 6,000 passengers) just don’t appeal to us. For us "seniors," the calm of the "Renaissance" suited us perfectly.

hi could you tell me what you did during your layover in Thessaloniki? Thanks 😉