Hi
My fiance and I have booked this tour for our honeymoon departing Sept 12th 2005 and would love to hear from anyone who has previously done this tour (the good and the bad) or are doing it at the same time as us.
Regards
Craig

some parts are excellent and some crappy. I had a poor tour director (which made all the difference). . Hope yours is better. They will try and talk you into doing all the additional extras and also to pay tips to everyone and the tour director and bus driver at the end. What a rip off (if you ask me). . You are best off doing a bit of research yourself before you go and be sure about what you want to see and find a way to do it (you may even have to go out on your own - catch a taxi/public transport and get yourself there because it is unlikely that the tour director will help you since they get commission for every extra side tour that they convince you to go on). . Good luck.

Why would you consider tipping a rip off? dont you tip waiters, taxi drivers etc? Or are you another of the miserly bunch who expect everything for next to nothing?

I have just returned from the European Masterpiece and had a wonderful time. Our hotels were of a good standard, some better than others, but fine. Yes the TD did try to talkyou into Optionals but you don't have to do any so decide beforehand what you want to do. There is always somewhere to get a meal if it's not included, even the hotel restaurant(which we only did once). . We didn't do all the optionals, only about half, we wanted to wander around the cities ourselves after the morning sightseeing tour, others went off on Optionals and saw other things, purely personal. One pair didn't do any optionals except the last dinner and had a wonderful time. Our TD was great and very helpful and hotels will always help with public transport if needed. Our hotels weren't all out in the sticks, we walked to the Eiffel Tower!! Happy to answer any questions.

We have always felt that tipping is for "exemplary personal service" and the size of the tip should be in proportion to the size of "exemplory". . You tip well for service above and beyond normal and tip little or nothing for "normal" service with a sliding scale in between. We generally do not contribute much to pots for pooled tips since people with whom you had no contact get your money. Instead, we covertly slip our tip to the person that provided the service (tour guide, waiter, room maid, etc.)

Hi Mandy

So glad you had a great time on the European Masterpiece, we are really looking forward to the trip.
Did you stay at the Blue Marine Hotel in Paris? we are starting the tour in Paris and was hoping this hotel is used as it is easy to get there from the airport via AirFrance Coaches. Cosmos Australia via our travel agent have told us that the tour is sold out, even though it is not highlighted in Red on the Aussie web page. What options did you do?

I can be contacted directly at craigco_aus@yahoo.com or you can send a message to me via Private Message (PM) at this site.

Regards
Craig

Just back from Cosmos Masterpiece Tour. It was fantastic. We had the best Tour Director and Driver. TD was Earl Shannon and driver was Jordano so if you are lucky enough to have them as your guides you will certainly have a good trip. We stayed at the Blue Marine in Paris and you can walk to the Eiffel tower from there (30 -45 minute walk). . We arrived at the Hotel at 8.45pm and set out straight away. Got to the tower in time to buy ticket and actually went up the tower at about 10.00pm. Spectacular as the whole structure has flashing lights for 5 minutes on the hour. Well worth the walk - Next day tour only gives you 15 minutes at tower so no time to go up - so if you can get there the night before is good.
My suggestions is to do as many of the optional tours as you can afford - try doing tours that include a meal. It saves you wandering about looking for a place to eat and there is always some sightseeing included as well.
Hotels were as expected - some a little small others exceptional. All clean and totally adequate for a 1 or 2 night stay.
Be prepared for a few long days travelling and some early morning starts but it slows down after the first week.
Everything was so well organised and ran like clockwork. We had a fantastic tour and saw so much. I kept asking people to pinch me to make sure I was not dreaming it all.
Hope you enjoy your trip

KS great to hear that you enjoyed your European Masterpiece as much as we did. It was a wonderful experience which I will never forget. A bonus was meeting and befriending so many other travellers who are keeping in contact. I am currently doing my photo album for this tour (we did 3 back-to-back) and it is bringing back many memories.
We also went up the Eiffel Tower the first night on arriving and also walked there and back, which was exciting in itself, seeing the appartments and statues enroute. That was one of the highlights for me and am so glad we made the effort that night for as you said there wasn't time the next day and others were disappointed they didn't join us , those who did were very greatful to us for suggesting it.
Anyone with questions I would be happy to assist.
Happy travels

Kbazz your email address does not seem to be correct. Can you please check as I have tried to send you and email and it keeps getting bounced

we just got back from the masterpiece tour and it was GREAT! you get to see everything and you have enough time to go off on your own too. you don't have to do all of the excursions (we did all but 3 and some of them weren't so great.. ..you could do a lot on your own!). . the hotels are nice for the most part..of course there were some that werent that nice but most are very close to everything! i hope you have a great time! i know i did- i cant wait to go back! if you need to know anything just email me.. .. .. . clr2413@hotmail.com

It was great to read clr that you had a great time on the European Masterpiece tour, it seems that nearly everyone enjoys this particular tour. We were on this tour in April/May and had an absolutely fabulous time. I have just finished doing our photos and they have brought back some great memories and we are all beginning to e-mail each other as we had a terrific bunch of travellers and will all endeavour to keep in touch and hopefully meet up some time in the future. Hope others enjoy this tour in the future as much as we did.

Been there done that had a really great time. Just a little bit of advice. We did the hop on hop off bus thing in which ever city it was available such as Barcelona and London. Advise leaving this to the professionals in Rome as the tours usually bypass the long lines. Enjoy your trip. It is well worth the sometimes standard hotels and the early wake up calls.