Sissi67

4 hours ago, loriva said:

 

Glad to hear that Sissi67!!  When you arrive in Amsterdam--and time permits, of course--could you post some details of your experience there, please?  Where is Scenic docking?  If it is the area out of central Amsterdam, is Scenic providing shuttles and what is the schedule?  What is the timing for the Freechoice tours on the day the ship arrives in Amsterdam, i.e., are they in the morning and allow time to do something else in the afternoon?  (Both the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum require booking a 15-minute entry window to visit, so trying to figure out a safe time during our docking time in Amsterdam to do that.)  Does Scenic allow you to do two of the options--say, the walking tour AND the canal cruise?

 

We are on a similar cruise itinerary (Basel to Amsterdam, but only Rhine River) in June on the Scenic Jade.  I sent the ship an email last week with these questions, but reception did not respond.  (Ship had some serious engine problems, so I guess they had bigger issues.)

 

Many thanks,

 

Our cruise will finish in Amsterdam in the morning. No excursions in Amsterdam are included as we will only arrive there that morning.

Scenic will do transfers to the airport but since we will stay in Amsterdam they will just arrange a taxi for us. You will love your cruise!

Day 11 of 15 day cruise from Basel to Amsterdam on Scenic Opal. Today we are in Maastricht. Our amazing luck with sunny days continues. It’s been such a beautiful and fun journey we will for sure book with Scenic again! 
Our cruise director has informed us we will not be able to visit Veere as planned due to lock maintenance issues. But the planned excursions will still take place that day. And that is basically the only issue we have had. Very happy especially after all the issues others have been facing.

Rhine and Moselle are every bit as beautiful as I had heard. Spring flowers and trees are in full bloom, very few other river cruise ships around, so glad we booked to go in April. Highly recommend Scenic if you are looking at booking.

Happy Easter from Scenic Opal! We are now one week into the cruise and currently in Bernkastel. Sunshine has followed us every single day and that has made the spring trip even better. Our cruise director Alex is fun and very good at keeping everything running smoothly, the crew is amazing and we continue to have the best culinary experience possible. Each day has been fabulous. We did a guided tour of Bernkastel this morning and after lunch will take the e-bikes for a spin through the wineries on the hillsides. Sitting on our sunny deck hearing the church bells and feeling the breeze…waiting for yet another amazing meal to be served…this is my idea of heaven on earth!

Greetings from onboard Scenic Opal. After all the hassle and worry we boarded the ship in Basel on Monday and it’s been incredible first few days of two week trip. 
There seem to be quite a few people who were booked form Ams to Basel and then joined our cruise once theirs was cancelled. Ship is about 85% full.

Food is amazing, staff can’t do enough for us and the weather has been great! Today was the first time we sailed during the day. Thanks to the warm and sunny day we even spent time in the vitality pool. 
Now I understand why so many of you keep going on cruises…I feel very spoiled. 

Notamermaid, thank you so much for your reports! I’m now in Basel and it’s very windy here as well. Tomorrow is supposed to be wet and windy but then the weather starts to improve. We are very excited to board our ship on Monday and to spend Easter this year cruising through the German wine region. I have never seen the amount and type of Easter decorations that Germans do anywhere else in the world. Im also really looking forward to seeing the tulip fields outside of Amsterdam. So very excited to be here in April! 
I really appreciate your experienced voice on the Rhine water levels. And I’m happy to hear we should have no problems related to water levels. Thank you!

54 minutes ago, Daisi said:

They just arrived in Amsterdam to sail on the Jasper to Basel, leaving on the 11th....only to find out their cruise has been cancelled due to lack of passengers.  

OMG! You mean to tell me there’s still things to worry about?! We have arrived in Basel, departing on Scenic Opal to Amsterdam April 11th. 
I can’t even think of that happening. We booked in 2018 so it’s been 4 years of waiting for this cruise. I would lose it if they cancelled our cruise now! Those poor people in Amsterdam. 

I’ve gone from desperately trying to contact Scenic before flying out to hoping I won’t hear from them now before departure! LOL!

Just had a sauna and spa at our hotel, tomorrow we will start exploring this beautiful city. I was worried everything would be brown and bare after hearing about the cold snap they had but it’s so green here! Birds are singing, trees are budding and spring is in the air. 
 

More from Scenic Opal next week once I’m sitting down with a glass of sparkly.

3 hours ago, kw@sea said:

I have been following this thread with interest. My mother, brother, sister-in-law and I are booked on the April 16 Secrets of the Douro cruise. For some reason my mother and I have not had our air reservations (through Emerald) ticketed yet. My brother and sil flights show as paid and ticketed on the Delta website.

 

Of course all attempts to contact Emerald are fruitless. They called me back once, at 6 am my time, which I of course missed. Now they are not even offering the callback option.

 

I am beyond stressed. Sissi67, I would love the contact info for your helpful rep if you are willing to share.

My story with Scenic didn't end by getting the documents and backpacks. Apparently our gift vouchers were supposed to be in the backpacks and due to the IT issues they didn't make it. So I made the decision to go to our local Scenic office to pick them up in person. Not willing to deal with any more delivery issues! It also gave me an excuse to meet Donald, my new hero who finally stepped in to take such good care of us and to make sure we have everything we need. He has literally taken all the stress off me!

Donald's email is donald.mcpherson@scenic.ca

He did mention he can only do so much for customers in other countries. We are in Vancouver Canada.

I hope you will get your docs soon and can start getting excited without worrying about a thing!

7 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Great news @Sissi67

 

So if I have calculated your dates correctly:

•  cruise starts April 11

•  backpacks received 3/29 [13 days ahead]

•  docs received 3/31 [11 days ahead]

 

Now I just have to add 14 days to know when to start stressing over my April 25 cruise!  😉

That’s correct. However, not everyone leaves home the day before the cruise. We fly out on April 5th. So the docs arrived 5 days before flying out and I didn’t know anything about the backpacks until 7 days before leaving home. To me that’s too close for comfort. In fact, the automated email reply from Scenic kept telling me “two to three weeks prior to departure”. The backpacks had been sitting at local FedEx depot for a week and were scheduled to be sent back to FedEx main storage in Calgary yesterday morning. It was sheer luck I picked them up the night before. The only reason I even heard about them was by getting a local Scenic rep’s email address from a friend. He has since stepped up and taken care of us. All the other reps have just promised replies, docs, emails without follow through. Yes, it has been very stressful as this is not a cheap vacation. It’s nerve wrecking to get ready to fly to Europe not knowing if there even is a ship to go to. 
I hope you won’t have any of these issues and they come through with documents soon. If not I’ll give you our reps name and email address.

I got our final docs today! Such a relief. And then I found out our gift vouchers were supposed to have been inside the backpacks but thanks to the IT issues they didn’t make it. So they were sent by FedEx today. If I get them I’m turning them into a stress relieving massages on the ship! After all the worrying and chasing after Scenic that seems like a good way to get into the right vacation mode.

According to our local Scenic rep they will continue to have issues for the next few weeks as they go through the backlog of customers. But if we can get going so will the rest of you.

I’ll update somewhere along the way. Time to pack!

Canal archive, not a silly question, I was hopeful when the backpacks arrived but the only documents in them were the medical forms. The final cruise documents will be emailed. I’ll let you know how this goes. 

No documents yet🙄 but we did receive a fedex package of two backpacks, luggage tags etc. That’s a step forward I guess. 
Counting sleeps now and starting to pack. I’m sure we will have a great 15 days of cruising with Scenic but they sure haven’t made it easy so far! 
 

Bit of good news for a change. I made contact with our local Scenic office and finally got some information. Scenic had sent a package including back packs etc who knows when and they are sitting and waiting at a local FedEx facility. I was given a tracking number and now I can go pick them up. This was the first time I've heard of them sending anything. 

Our final documents including the ships phone number should arrive later today or tomorrow. 

I'm just happy and relieved to have made contact with someone who communicates and responds to my emails and hopefully we will be all set before we fly out next week. 

All I can say is keep emailing and calling them. I even left a fairly stern message on their Facebook page awhile back. That resulted in an immediate reply by phone. But whatever was promised on that call never happened. 

The main reason I’m wanting the documents is that the contact phone number to the ship should be in them. We need to find our own way to the ship after spending few days in Basel. Currently I don’t know where or when we should be to board the ship. Our friends are coming in from Paris by train. When should they plan to arrive? Hoping to receive that information soon to put my mind at peace. I asked for all kinds of other info as well but as we’re starting to pack I’d be happy to have the contact info.
All of my numerous calls and emails have been replied with the same “the documents will be emailed two to three weeks ahead of the cruise date”

The lack of respectful communication has been a big let down. I really hope the cruise itself will change this feeling.

I celebrated too soon. I still have not received anything from Scenic.

No email and no documents.

The person I talked with did tell me we would not be tested nor require negative test results at boarding. Only proof of vaccinations.

That was a week ago and hopefully that will not change before our cruise.

We fly out next Tuesday. Cruise starts April 11th.  I sent another email to Scenic this morning and it wasn’t a love letter. I’m tired of chasing them around trying to get information that was promised again and again. We will go to Basel and hopefully end up on the ship somehow. Very disappointed in their customer service. 

Finally! I received a call from Scenic and got answers to my multitude of questions.

The documents will be emailed as there is no time to send them by mail anymore. We all should get them very soon.

No Covid testing at boarding, at least as of today. As Europe's numbers are again climbing that can change anytime. 

I was assured our cruise is most definitely going ahead which is exactly what I needed to hear!

Time to start counting days! Leaving home two weeks today.

I’m also unable to get to trip details, it just says Closed for finalization. Which at first sounded good, as in they were getting our documents ready. 

I did talk to Scenic agents few times before they lost the phone lines. I was promised the “document package” well ahead of time. So far nothing. Not even an email. This is our first ever cruise of any kind and I have to say I’m not impressed at this point. We fly to Zurich on April 5th. That’s two weeks away and I’m starting to wonder if there will be a ship to go to. 
Since I booked our own flights and pre cruise hotel we will be spending four days in Basel no matter what. But that’s all I know at this point. 

Ptcgal, we are booked  on Scenic Opal starting April 11th in Basel.

im in Vancouver, BC and called the 1-866 number on their Canadian website. 

I got hold of and talked with two separate Scenic reps in the last few days as I’m concerned about getting the documents prior to flying out. We leave to Europe on April 5th and they told me at first that our docs with all info would arrive in mail 7-14 days prior. They have since promised to send everything by email. I booked our own flights so don’t have to worry about that as much. 
This is our first ever river cruise, booked in 2018 so it’s been a long time coming. We chose Scenic after our friends raved about their experience on the same cruise. I’m a bit surprised how they have not managed to get their website working but let’s hope that’s our only hick up with this trip considering what’s going on in Europe.