Just recently returned from the European Masterpiece that Cosmos offers, in general I would not recommend traveling on this tour. Most of the hotels and meals that are included are substandard. Specifically hotels are way out of the city center which made us rely heavily on public transportation or taxis which can add up. The tour pushes optional excursions and will actually cut short included tours to ensure that the minority of people who are going on an optional will be able to make their tour on time. I found the tour directory to be pretty much worthless, only telling us of the local history and insights on a few occasions even though this information is provided by Cosmos. Also the directory berated several customers when she made a mistake in counting the number of people for an optional excursion. She also checked out of the tour for the last three days when people refused to fill out the review of the tour and didn’t tip her. Overall the trip itself is good to see so much of Europe though the stops in the cities are quite short and the travel times on the bus are long. For example, if you’ve dreamed of seeing the Louver museum in Paris, don’t take this tour because you only have one day in Paris (Monday) and it is closed on this day. I’ve traveled independently in Europe up to this point and will do so again after this experience. Would recommend looking at some other tour companies.

rsmetana it is a shame that you had a bad experience on the European Masterpiece tour as my husband and I did this tour in April/May and had a brilliant time. We had a terrific TD, yes there was some 'pushing' to do optionals, but not too heavy and we all did what we chose to do. He gave plenty of info on the history and other info on places we were visiting. It does seem that the TD can make or break a tour.
You are correct in that the timing of the tour does prevent entry into the Lourve, which didn't effect us, but others were a bit disappointed, but you can't see everything anyway as time does not allow it. Those wanting to see the Lourve could start the tour in Paris and visit before it starts.
The hotels do change from tour to tour as ours definately were not all out of town, and when they were it did not affect us at all. We actually walked to the Eiffel Tower, only about 25minutes. The only time we used public transport was in Rome to get back to our hotel and that was quite convenient, about 15 min walk from the station. Our hotel was 5 min walk to the station for Venice, we opted for an optional that night, but a couple caught the train to Venice. So although the same tour, hotels do vary, unfortunately you seem to have copped a bad lot.
All our meals were great. Only once did some have a complaint about the quantity of the meal not the quality. We all kept complaining about how much we were eating.
We never once had included tours cut short for Optionals, in fact our TD organized the coach to pick up the non optional people at the end of the Optional and take them back to the hotel so we didn't have to use public transport.
I can only recommend this tour. Like all trips you can be lucky or unlucky.It is a shame that you had a bad experience.

Mandi,

We just got back from the European Introduction tour in August. My sister and I had the time of our lives. We had the best TD and Bus Driver. I think it really made a difference. We plan to go on the masterpiece tour next. Could you please tell us the TD and bus driver you had. It sounded like they were great! We would really appreciate it.

Our TD was Mark, he was from Amsterdam, and our driver was Marino, from Italy, we also had Marino's son, Andrea, while he had leave. Both drivers were terrific, gentlemen and very friendly, as well as being extremely competent drivers. I never realized how difficult the driving was going to be in some of the cities. We even had to reverse down a reasonably busy street in Barcelona (missed the right street and there were lots of one way streets) and Marino managed no problems. It was such a sight seeing Mark direct him, we were all amazed.
I really think TD especially can make or break a tour. We did 3 tours back-to-back and were lucky to have 3 great TDs.
The TD don't do lots of the Masterpiece tours as it is such a long one, it gets spread between them, so you may be lucky in the future, difficult to say. We also met Mark's girlfriend, also a TD with Cosmos, and she was lovely too, Karen was her name.
Any questions regarding the tour I would be happy to answer.
I can't recommend this trip too highly. We all had a brilliant time.
Happy travels.