Scenic Omdömen 38

I booked a Scenic trip to Greece this August and took out insurance as my wife had cancer which was in remission. Sadly my wife died last December so I notified Scenic with the necessary medical documentation that we would be cancelling the trip Despite emails and phone calls I did not receive the refund until March 10th. NOT HAPPY !!!

My wife and I recently went on a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest on Scenic Amber.
It was without a doubt the most disappointing holiday we have had in the last 12 and a half years of our retirement travels.
The excursions in each port were good but the ship over all is not fit for purpose both as a luxury vessel and for the river it cruises.
Number one problem. Is the lounge area its too small for the number of guests. You are invited to congregate there each evening to listen to the port talk. Each night there would be at least several fellow passengers standing as there were not enough seats, standing for 45minutes to an hour is not great when your supposed to be relaxing.
Number two problem. Is the lack of service during the port talks there is not enough staff to keep up the service to the 1800 or so passengers. Our supposed butler was there serving drinks which means if we wanted to have service in our room at that time it was non-existent. Once waited over 25 minutes for a staff member to take my order.
Number three problem. The ships design has not allowed for the often seasonal low water levels that can occur during the year. At one point in the journey we could hear the ship touching the gravel bed of the river. Unfortunately for us the last 3 days of our journey could not be completed and we had to endure a bus journey to get to Budapest.
The bus Journey is certainly no luxury cruise. Imagine being strapped into your bus seat unable to get up and walk around for 5 hours. No free-flowing drinks no mingling with the other passengers, no lounging around outside of the evening talk time. No ordering a snack at the bar. Packing and unpacking your bags in the hotels was not a relaxing holiday. The food at one hotel would not have passed the quality of the Sunday roast at the local pub in Australia, so much for luxury.
Number four reason. The food and wine served up was sub-standard for a supposedly luxury cruise. It’s over $1,000 per night per couple. The only Australian red wine on the menu was Penfolds Koonunga Hill shiraz retail $13.95 a bottle hardly a luxury offering. The European wines were of a similar standard the cheap variety. The food was pretty ordinary and one steak I got was too tough to eat. The smorgasbord area did not have what would be considered high quality cuts of ham, small goods etc. The ships kitchen area I suppose is small and cooking for the 180 + passengers is hard. The range of meals was also substandard for a luxury cruise.
I regret to say that I was also touched (scammed – taken advantage of) by the company employee.
Now the company policy is if you don’t take up your flights or your package does not include flights you don’t get any transfers and that is fair enough. So when the disruption occurred and we were bussed the company representative proudly announced the company would arrange transfers, thinking that’s one less thing I have to do great. Well it so happened my less than 3 Km trip cost me 20 Euro. The fellow picking us up was a free lancer not a registered Uber or taxi but he did have a plastic sign on the dash that said Scenic. In fact a registered taxi fare for that Journey is between 5-6 Euro.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the Scenic fleet can have Problems due to the water level especially from Vienna to Budapest. But I note there were other river ships of European providers that were able to traverse the stretch of river between Budapest and Vienna when our Scenic ship could not.

Cotswolds hotel motel christchurch. This place was booked by trip advisor reviews. Well to say it's a mile off is an understatement. We were given a room in motel part smelly dark carpet frayed a trip hazard as my wife found out stainless steel shower tray which isn't nice the carpets did smell the 2 soft chairs were absolutely filthy and we put towels on them to sit down. We complained and move to another room which was marginally better but not to any standard. The house staff did what they could and no way were they to blame.We went to the bar got 2 wines red and white both were sour and the barman disagreed and we had to argue to get them to open a new bottles.The next day they gave us a token for a free drink each as a sorry thing .We went to the bar and the little barman wouldn't believe us and studied the tokens. HE gave us a red and white wine each sat down and they were both again sour well hassle to get him to accept they were bad .Luckily a tall english lad came over smelled both then poured them and opened new bottles saying to the little guy they have been in sun and opened to long. So terrible experience and the one breakfast we had we couldn't eat it was disgusting horrible hot food poached eggs still in hot water so were solid mushrooms must have been at least 1hr cooked so £30wasted .Definitely wouldn't go back again.

Really low standards in the Spa.Bad behavior from Operations manager Gabor Herman.I will not recommend to anyone to have any contact with him.So low and unprofessional

Scenic river cruise was fantastic in every way. Professional, amazing staff. Cabins were immaculate. Food way better than ocean cruises. Anyone complaining must be very hard to please indeed!

Definitely NOT 5 star experience.
My first Scenic Riverboat Cruise and definitely my last. I booked the Romantic Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel. The ship was the Scenic Pearl and was absolutely filthy. The ship requires significant maintenance and a complete overhaul of furnishings - many of which were ripped or broken.

I am a seasoned traveller that has had the pleasure of enjoying many 5 star experiences.

The Scenic Pearl definitely did not deliver a 5 star experience from lack of cleanliness to poor service from some of the staff and the cruise manager.
This was sold to me as a 5 star cruise. Unfortunately the cruise failed to deliver what was promised.
1. My room was not cleaned properly.
2. The duvet cover was stained. The duvet cover had blood stains and had to be changed. The second duvet cover also had stains. This also was changed. The third duvet cover was ripped. With the change of the bed linen halfway through the cruise I was also given a stained duvet cover.
3. The skirting around the bed was ripped and hanging, detached from the metal base.
4. There were stained finger marks on all the light switches.
5. The balcony had lots of long white hair clumps on it. I’m a brunette.
6. Some of the coat hangers in the cupboard were broken.
7. Some of the seats in the lounge area were ripped. Most of them had crumbs and dried food on them from the previous night.
8. The floor in the lounge was also dirty with crumbs and food from the previous night. It was never cleaned properly for the duration of the cruise.
9. The tables in the lounge were not regularly wiped so there were stains and finger marks all over the tables.
10. Several times I was given linen napkins that were stained.
11. The video showing the safety features was pixilated and unwatchable. I brought this to the cruise director’s attention, but he shrugged and said they could do nothing about it.
12. The stair railings leading to the dining room were not wiped regularly and had finger marks and stains all over them.
13. The Captain’s Table dinner was held at the back of the dining room with no separation from the main area. It was noisy and uncomfortable. This was not a special experience as is usual for a Captain’s Table dinner.
14. The tours were often held in towns that were completed closed due to timing or holidays. I was unable to visit museums or galleries in these towns, nor could I shop. Having organised this tour for quite some time, Scenic would have been aware of the closures.
15. The butler service was mediocre at best with the simplest of requests not being met.
The ship has significant wear and tear and is definitely due for a complete overhaul. Not a luxury 5 star ship.

I understand that this was the second last tour of the season. I paid for a 5 star experience with Scenic and this cruise very much failed to deliver.

A very expensive and disappointing experience. I contacted Scenic Australia's General Manager Customer, Operations and Administration and sent him photographs of the various issues. His response was to offer me a $500 voucher to use on future Scenic cruises by way of apology.

I will not be travelling with Scenic again.

Five of us did a family trip to Antarctica in February this year. VERY expensive holiday, a holiday of a lifetime with our grown-up kids - it was over £80,000 (yes, you read that right), all inclusive of the boat, hotels and flights from/to the UK. There were 5 of us in 3 cabins on the boat.
We booked via ROL Cruises, who were great.

The Scenic Eclipse boat and the staff were very good.

However, I cannot recommend Scenic as a company and would not travel with them again.

Some reasons:

a) Scenic's smart terms and conditions - lack of key expected feature but no comeback
One of the key reasons we booked with Scenic was to go in the submarine on the boat, under the sea in Antarctica. Yes, wanting such a thing is asking a lot - but this was a one-off, a really expensive holiday of a lifetime.

However Scenic emailed us a few weeks before the start date saying "sorry, no submarine".
No compensation for the lack of this key feature; no option to cancel. Of course Scenic insisted we had to pay 100% many months before.

I complained to ABTA and went to arbitration. The arbitrator (and Scenic themselves) accepted that the submarine was a key reason for booking with them but Scenic's terms & conditions are 'well written', with the result that it seems if Scenic don't supply a key feature like that, tough luck - no compensation, no comeback. (I lost at arbitration.)

b) Choice of FlyBondi for the charter flights Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and back
FlyBondi are the cheap carrier in Argentina, with the emphasis on cheap. Dirty airplanes; terrible/non-existent food on a 3.5 hours flight; hours late for the return flight.
Look at the Google reviews of FlyBondi: to give you some idea, 2 of us toured South America after Antarctica but there was no way we would fly with FlyBondi.

c) Scenic's 24-hour emergency line - useless
Our last night in Buenos Aires we tried booking in for our flight the next day back to the UK.
But the British Airways website said 'check in from Rio de Janeiro'. That was not us; that was our 2 daughters who were flying from Rio.
The flight back to the UK was booked by Scenic so Scenic should know and Scenic could sort it out right? As it turned out, no.

We spent hours on the phone with Scenic's emergency line, bounced around the world to their different sites as it got later and later in the evening.
All we got was:
- a confirmation email from Scenic that was EXACTLY incorrect, that said that 'we were checked in from Rio de Janeiro' (not much use to us when we were in Buenos Aires);
- and then when we finally spoke to Scenic UK a suggestion that "we [Scenic] really don't know if you have a flight back from Buenos Aires - suggest you go to the airport early tomorrow and find out".
So we headed out to Buenos Aires airport early the next day, not knowing if we actually had a flight back to the UK - although we had paid Scenic for it.
We lost our last evening in Buenos Aires and had a stressful end to our £80k holiday. Of course, no compensation from Scenic for this.

d) Courtesy-car penny-pinching
Part of the deal was that Scenic would send a courtesy car to collect us from home to take to Heathrow, up to 100 miles included. We had 3 cabins, so 3 cars, so total 300 miles?
As it turns out, no.
Two collections were from London: both ~25 miles each, so way less than the 100 miles.
One collection from Bristol so 115 miles, so 15 miles over.
BUT between the three, a total of ~165 miles - all included? No.

Scenic insisted on charging for the 'excess' 15 miles at £2 per mile, each way. A small amount but it shows the poor attitude of Scenic. (As it happened ROL Cruises covered the cost.)

e) Flight & luggage penny-pinching
Included in the price were return flights from the UK to Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires to Ushuaia.
However, 2 of the 5 of us were not taking the return flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires [2 of us doing other travelling].
A refund from Scenic for the flights not taken? No chance.

Also, we wanted to give a bag to the 3 who were taking the return flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires, of our spare Antarctica clothes.
Scenic's response: "yeah we know that 2 of you are not taking the flight and also therefore we are not taking your 2 bags - but if you give a bag to someone else that will be an excess bag and we will charge you". Nice.
Again, ROL Cruise stepped up and said they would cover the cost as it was unreasonable of Scenic.

~~~~~~~~~~~

So, if you don't mind spending serious money with Scenic, then have them penny-pinch, and possibly not provide a key feature [the reason you booked] but then have no comeback or compensation and get no support if there is a problem then fine, go ahead with Scenic.

However, if you are looking to book a cruise to Antarctica or elsewhere we would recommend ROL Cruises in the UK - just don't choose Scenic.

We have just completed a Emerald trip (the same company as Scenic) on the Danube and it was first class in every way. The water levels were fine and even the weather was on our side. We previously did a river trip with Scenic on the Rhine the water levels were high and so prevented travel on the upper levels but this did not steal from the experience. All efford was done by Scenic for us to enjoy the cruise. Yes the Scenic cruise was more expensive but what an experience it was. It would be impossible to find any fault and I consider it very good value for the extra cost. We took the cheaper option for cabins on both trips and were not disapointed with our choice.

I have taken three Scenic holidays - two riverbased and one land based .
Cannot fault the trips. Scenic are definitely premium priced but do deliver a premium product!

Although I respect people’s right to complain, I cannot understand how people have come to some of these conclusions. I spent most of my 20’s and 30’s working as a Nanny for some of the most wealthy people in Europe. I lived with them, travelled with them and was so lucky to have experiences above and beyond those that “normal” people get to have. I definitely think Scenic live up to their six star luxury tag, I also think some people have no idea what six star means. My sister and I have travelled with Scenic twice, end of 2020 for the Christmas Markets cruise and the Mekong River cruise in January/February 2024. They were exactly what was advertised, even the one just post Covid. Yes, it was difficult to talk to an agent prior to the first cruise. Their computer system had been attacked AND we had just started to come out of Covid. For those who don’t know, the Australian Government restrictions during this time were some of the most severe in the world. But we DID get everything sorted before we left. No, there were no casinos, theatres, shows etc on board…you knew this when you booked. This is not a floating shopping mall, thank goodness. Also, don’t bring your kids, this is not a child friendly environment. I honestly can say the food was excellent, apart from one room service breakfast. I agree about the Butler, on the European cruise we hardly saw him, always someone else, BUT, if you sit back and expect them to somehow know what you need without asking you will get nothing. When we asked for things, they were promptly provided. On the Mekong cruise, service was even better, in fact the whole experience was beyond our expectations. What did annoy me on the Europe cruise was the behaviour of other passengers. The people who drank to excess and became loud and rude, or passed out in their dinner…yes that happened. The man who, at EVERY meal, told the chef how he should be preparing the food. The man who was so drunk at the special concert, he bashed into a server, causing her to drop the tray of drinks she had. He then YELLED AT HER for getting champagne on his jacket. The woman who yelled at the waitstaff because her polenta was not what she thought it would be, it was perfectly normal, well cooked polenta. The rude woman that shouted at the guide to “get better English lessons” You are in a foreign country, and the guide spoke very very good English, what she did not speak well, was trashy American. Lucky for us, these type of passengers were not part of our Mekong river cruise. We are off to New Zealand in February 2025 to sail on the Eclipse 2 and look forward to another excellent adventure. Unfortunately, it is mostly people who had a bad experience, for whatever reason, who write reviews

This cruise line bears no resemblance to its marketing and advertisement. It's an absolute garbage barge. I've sailed on Crystal, Silversea, Regent, Seabourn, Oceania, Celebrity and Scenic. Scenic is the very worst.

The problem is that its corporate office does not care about passengers' experiences and instead focus almost exclusively on courting travel agents. On my recent cruise with Scenic, at nearly every port travel agents were escorted through the ship and given priority over passengers. Scenic would roll out the red carpet for them (champagne, cold towels and so on) but would refuse to do the same for paasengers.

They also do absolutely nothing about bad passenger behavior including allowing passengers to yell homophonic slurs at a gay couple and threaten violence on others. They simply did not care. Now if you are an unruly passenger who enjoys slurs and threats, this may be a good line for you.

The excursions are a total joke. Things get cancelled without notice and without any real attempt to give passengers another option. For example, after we missed two ports over several days, we got a letter from Scenic advising us that we missed the ports...days after the fact.

The ship seemingly has deferred maintenance and a lot of things were not operative (air conditioning on deck 5, stabilizers, propulsion system, etc.) but Scenic didn't divulge that to passengers. Instead we found out the hard way. Scenic frankly was less than forthcoming when we asked. It was Cruise Industry News that actually disclosed the truth - the ship was headed for dry dock for repairs.

Time and again corporate's response was a condescending dismissal of numerous passengers' concerns. The corporate view is passengers are lucky to be on Scenic. They also remove negative comments from their Facebook page to ensure potential passengers never see the truth. It's a deceptive practice.
On our cruise, passengers were given surveys but when so many started to came back negative, oddly other passengers started noting the "sumbit" button was malfunctioning. Coincidence...maybe.

The best thing that could happen to this line is for it to go insolvent and be sold to a company that doesn't hate passengers.

Totally deceptive company. Stay far away! They'll lure new clients / Travel Agents in with glossy marketing materials and slick Instagram videos, however, I'm here to tell you the real-life experience is absolutely nothing like what's advertised. Not "6-star" as they repeatedly claim. This isn't even a 4-star line on its best day. Total misrepresentation. They'll tell you they have helicopters, submarines, and Zodiacs. What they won't tell you is that they're rarely, if ever used as they're routinely broken, or, when they are, they're reserved for Travel Agents. Scenic prioritizes Travel Agents over paying guests by parading hoards of travel advisors through a ship that paying passengers are on. On what planet is that "6-star"? Scenic allows them to board / tour the ship before paying guests. The A/C system in a majority of the ship does not work--tons of deferred maintenance (a majority of cabins and common areas were without A/C), however, we were told it was due to the fact the ship wasn't moving. Another blatant lie. Scenic knew about this as well. In addition, Scenic knew that the propulsion system wasn't working properly which made for an extremely uncomfortable voyage as the ship was constantly bouncing around. The outdoor bar on the sun deck is self-serve and never staffed. Also not 6-star. Scenic operates the company as a ponzi scheme of sorts: courting new-to-Scenic cruisers and Travel Advisors who were foolish enough to fall for their deceptive advertising only to realize that the onboard experience is a far cry from what was promised. The corporate customer service team is non-existent and guests will receive an auto-reply email stating their matter will be responded to in "seven business days". Buyer beware! The Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor reviews don't lie and I encourage you to read them all. This is a very expensive cruise vacation and I don't want to see anyone else taken advantage of by this duplicitous organization. Book with ANY other cruise company. They do not stand behind their product and treat paying guests as a burden. They do, however, roll out the red carpet for Travel Advisors: free helicopter tours, cold towels, champagne (paying guests receive none of these things)--it's all a farce. As the saying goes from the Wizard of Oz: pay no attention to what's going on behind the curtain. I wouldn't recommend this cruise company to my worst enemy. Pathetic.

Pros
Comfortable ship though jaded
Good service by reception bar & waiting staff.
Cruise director tried hard to make things run as smoothly as possible under the circumstances

Cons
1
We were doing back to back cruises Lyon to Lyon & second one from Porto. Scenic in their wisdom booked us on a 640am flight from Lyon & had our transport booked for 345am
When we arrived at Lyon airport check in the staff were bemused that we were booked on that flight which then had a 4 hour waiting time in Madrid to connect to Porto. Total time from leaving Lyon cruise to arriving at Porto cruise was 11 hours.
On checking Iberian airlines timetable we found there was another 1225 pm flight that day that arrived in Porto at 4pm the same day!!! Travelling time of 6hrs still not ideal but a better option that getting up at 3am.

2.
While we understand that scenic has no power over the weather we feel decisions were not made in the best interests & comfort of the guests

3.
After 4 nights in Avignon instead of the scheduled 2 we were finally transported back to Lyon as the boat was unable to leave the port. The bus trip was 3.5 hours after which we were deposited at a large square in the city centre
We were left for 3hours to get lunch before being transported to our accommodation. There were a number of infirm people who could not walk very far so choices for lunch were virtually non existent for them

4
We were told that once we arrived at our accommodation our luggage would be in our room
Not the case, luggage was everywhere in the foyer
Radisson blu had two lifts to get all 140 pax to reception on 32nd floor!
The distribution of keys was a complete farce with 2 people calling names for at the same time. It was pure chaos. The were 2 hotel lifts from 32nd floor for 200 rooms over 5 floors. Total time from Lyon to getting keys for room 8 hours.

5
The provided dinner on Saturday night in Lyon was disgusting. Considering it was a last minute booking for 140 people we were not surprised

We had been very tolerant to scenic decisions but ran out of patience with such poor management choices
Considering we paid over $20,000 for this cruise it is without doubt one of the most disappointing and badly managed cruises we’ve ever been on (we’ve done 10 different cruises)
While cruise director worked hard for the guests she was obviously hampered by decisions made by scenic management
These decisions were not in the best interest or comfort considering the age demographic of the pax

Conclusion
All in all the Lyon cruise was not going to be what we’d hoped after we were delayed 2 days in Lyon
In Avignon we watched the Avalon ship beside us disembark their pax before the rain hit Avignon on Thursday
All in all a much better decision for their pax

Scenic needs to kindly explain why many Canadian travellers are offered a deal for a couple to only pay for 1 pax after only doing one previous cruise!

Australians who had done several cruises had never been offered such discount & had paid full price for both pax!!!!!!!!
Could not in all honesty recommend a Scenic Rhone river Cruise after this experience.

Scenic cruise InjuryUsing Scenic bikes - be wary
I sustained a serious injury that became infected because a Scenic supplied bike was not safe to use. No first aid kit or FA people on board to help manage. I incurred medical costs and could not participate in booked activities because of the injury. Scenic will not accept any responsibility nor compensate for the $ loss I have incurred.... incredible weasel words in all correspondence. The fact the incident occurred is one thing, how it is responded to is what shows character - in this case Scenic have failed badly.

Using Scenic bikes - be wary

I was waiting from Chelsea from Newcastle NSW after job application and interview. She said they were expanding. Hiring 5 staff. Did online interview and advised after morning meeting the next day shall be advised after lunch. At 5.55 pm got a message. I was less experienced. Seriously. I have a commendable record. This is so disheartening. I believe in doing what you say you shall do. Glad I know better than rely on her next cruise. Lies and all that 👍

Booking this trip was not a pleasant experience. The agent I dealt with seemed to go out of his way to be as awkward as possible. I was all for cancelling at that point. Plus every time there was even a minor change we got stacks of the same paperwork sent to us.
So I started this trip in a pretty negative frame of mind which was frustrating due to the pretty hefty price tag of this holiday.
The flights were fine, although we ended up paying far more than if id booked them myself. When I pointed this out to the scenic agent, the response was tough, that's the deal their flight team had.

Arrival at the airport was a little hectic but someone was there to greet us and we got on the bus ok to the ship. If you fly in earlier, we were advised that no later transfer would be done. It was only by chance the boat couldn't make it to Basle so we joined up with the group at the airport for a bus transfer.
Very warm greeting on our arrival. I did feel special which was nice. This was our first river cruise after many ocean cruises.The Pearl was a little dated but it looked well cared for and clean. The room was small and the balcony was separated from the next one by a metal screen, with large gaps all the way around. Not great for conversations. Our balcony door also wouldn't lock. We reported this first thing but nothing. Engine noise was occasionally annoying, and there was vibration. And we weren't near the back.
Mini fridge was stocked with a small bottle of wine, Gin, vodka, whisky one beer, orange, & apple juice and 2 or 3 cokes. I asked for Drambuie and Sprite to be included but was advised I had to go to the bar for those.
What made this holiday so good. The people we met, the gorgeous scenery and the staff working so very hard. Having sailed on many ocean cruise lines, this service was miles better. You were constantly asked if you needed anything. We saw little Butler service. That was fine. Not something we felt we needed anyway although the odd check from him would have been nice. Our cabin Steward did a great job keeping the room clean. Food was a mixture. Sometimes excellent and other times like pub food. Lack of consistency was strange.The bar staff were absolutely outstanding as were the waiting staff in the restaurant.
Entertainment was generally ok if uninspiring. The entertainment manager was a very good singer but he was up for three nights of the seven. The rest of the entertainment was bordering on amateur hour. This aspect was really disappointing. Only one night due to the itinerary could you get a shore to appreciate local entertainment.
Security measures were pretty much not seen. Perhaps they had hidden measures. I forgot to tag back in one night. Only realized next morning but no one checked. People seemed to wander on and off the ship.
Trips were generally good, but too short. Far too little time to explore some of the gorgeous towns and cities we visited. Some of the guides English was also a challenge. Occasional welcome home drinks were nice, and cold flannels were occasionally offered.
We did the e-bikes on board which was great fun and the most strenuous tour offered. It was a shame that no water based activity was offered.

So despite the really poor customer service during the booking process which I think needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, the crew on Pearl turned my very negative views into a real positive.

Would we sail with scenic again? Jury still out especially reading about too little/ too much water and scenics handling of these issues with unhappy customers.

We have just had the BEST holiday.We have just done the castles & vineyards trip down the Rhine.
Basically if I could give Scenic 10 stars I would.It was indeed 5 star luxury from the start!The ship was fabulous as were ALL staff.Nothing was too much trouble. Food,fabulous!!
All basically beyond our expectations.

Was thinking about booking a danube river cruise but after reading these reviews I am now not going to. I notice none of these reviews have been answered by Scenic. That tells you something else. Pity because on their website the cruises looked good. Thank you everybody for your reviews

we have always had the best holidays with Scenic and today I rang on 2 different numbers to enquire about the New Zealand holiday and waited for over 1 hr on 2 different lines and had to eventually hang up, very disappointed.

Seasoned cruise traveller, first time Scenic River cruise - never again. The only thing 5*star about this company is their marketing - over promise and under deliver. Pleasant staff but this must work within very rigid guidelines - I have never encountered a more non guest friendly cruise company. Had a junior suite, a butler is mere figment of their marketing BS - decor was chrome and mirrors and the food and wine and embarrassment.