SBN

Not sure what your comments mean. Personally, I wish they WOULD see the remarks. Maybe they would change their ways and the next Scenic travelers would receive some genuine customer service. And, if they were an American company I would have some recourse.

Thank you for your input and I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Here’s my issue. With the letter we received we trusted Scenic to do "the right thing ". They set the bar. Not the passengers. They lied and failed. Period.

Sorry about the attachment. I have no clue! Here is a photo of the letter so perhaps the jpeg format will work better

On my computer the attachment downloads into "My Files" where it opens when prompted

Try this On Board Letter.pdf

Well, I will respectfully disagree with you regarding the reviews. Certainly nobody has 100% positive reviews and the dissatisfaction points vary greatly from line to line and cruise to cruise. I have spent the past few days reviewing lots of reviews because I am about to book another cruise. My observation is that since re-opening after Covid there are more negative reviews regarding most carriers. Lack of service being the #1 complaint. It is fair to say that is the case regarding service levels in all industries since covid. Regarding Scenic there seems to be a greater proportion of dissatisfied cruisers regarding a wide variety of issues. One common issue is their lack of response to issues brought to their attention on board, as well as multiple complaints regarding their response/reaction to logistical issues, such as ours. This is illustrated by noticing that not 1 single negative review to Scenic in Cruise Critic prompted a response from them. Nor did they respond to any positive reviews. And that was amplified in my case by the complete lack of response to my communications from management. So obviously they don't care what people think once they have your money. I can't help but notice you continually attempt to minimize Scenic's position. I respect your allegiance to your fellow countrymen, but perhaps you are not entirely objective? Take a look at the attached letter we recieved on board. I'm just telling you the promised interaction NEVER occurred. Regardless, I will just say it again...Buyer Beware! On Board Letter.pdf

I did write a letter to Mr. Moroney and detailed the events. The communication was sent via certified US mail and it was confirmed that it was delivered to the corporate office. In this letter I asked him to put himself in our shoes and made a plea for him to "do the right thing". After 3 weeks of no acknowledgement I sent emails to Elizabeth Fettes, VP of Sales for Scenic USA and to Kelly Hogan, Regional Sales Director of Northwest USA. I included copies of everything I sent to Mr. Moroney and again included a request to "do the right thing". About a week later I received an email and a follow up call from Mr. Alan Moules who is a Customer Care Coordinator. He was sympathetic but essentially told me "end of discussion". Also, there was a previous question above from Kristelle asking if the negative reviews I mentioned were specific to this incident, or to Scenic in general. The answer is "both".

Thank you for the link to the articles. Interesting it does say the company reported no passenger injuries but there is no mention of crew injuries. Regardless, I know what I saw. Now that I have searched reviews in Cruise Critic there are several other posts on this incident. There are also several other unfavorable reviews. I'll just repeat, buyer beware!!

Having seen the comment above that "I read about the accident briefly" I decided to Google the incident. Here is another person on that cruise who posted a review on Cruise Critic Scenic Sapphire Cruise Ship: Review, Photos & Departure Ports on Cruise Critic

Yes, April 11 departure from Lyon

Thanks again for the comments. To address the issues brought up by all' No, the $450 was per booked passenger for the entire trip. LIke I said, it was roughly 5% of the cruise cost. We did miss cruising roughly 150 miles of the Rhone because one of the last days was supposed to be a full cruising day back to Lyon We missed an overnight stay in Avignon. As a Catholic, this was one of my most anticipated ports because we were supposed to have lots of time to explore Avignon. Avignon was roughly a 2-hour bus ride away and there was no way that was a reasonable substitution for the experience of 2 days in this historic city. I attempted to file a protest with some authoritative body but here is the bottom line, American citizen, Australian company, France cruise. In the US, on non-US cruises the only option is Federal Maritime Commission and this type of thing is not within their oversite authority. The deterioration of service led us to believe that crew members were injured but we have no proof of that. The collision was violent and the positioning of the crew quarters and work spaces probably had a greater impact on those areas, The front of the ship was heavily damaged and the French authorities would not allow the ship to move without necessary repairs. We had lots of hammering, welding, scuba inspecting and outside tradespeople coming on and off board for 4 days. If I came across as "us vs them" I apologize if I offended anyone. However, I felt that some of the comments supporting Scenic were rather flippant considering the totality of events. As stated earlier, my brother and his wife traveled with me and my wife. They had taken a Scenic river cruise previously and loved them. That cruise had some logistical issues as well but my brother and sister-in-law said that Scenic performed well and that is why we chose Scenic for this trip. They were appalled at the difference in the deterioration of post collision service levels. In addition, our travel agent highly recommended them and she was very disappointed in how things developed. She conferred with multiple colleagues and universally they agreed the compensation offered was unreasonable. My only recourse now is to let people know that Scenic usually provides a great experience when things go right, but they are not a company that I would trust to do the right thing in adverse times.

Thank you for your input. With that said, here is the rest of the story for those who still feel the need to offer support to Scenic. The morning of the accident we were sailing down the Rhone river. It was extremely foggy and we were moving quite fast, to the point that I mentioned it to my wife. I was still in the cabin and we had the cabin most forward on the top deck. My wife left to go up top and was on the stairs when the collision with a cargo barge occurred. I was knocked backward into a wall and as I looked out over the deck I saw this massive barge sailing passing so close I literally could have touched it. Items came flying off the shelves and several glass items shattered. I ran out of the cabin (in my underwear) to check on my wife. She was knocked backwards and managed to stay upright however others were not so fortunate. Several people were knocked to the ground, and thankfully none appeared to be too serious. I did see them applying first aid to one lady who was knocked to the ground in the restaurant and was bleeding on her arm. Then things got weird. First, there was absolutely no announcement to the passengers. The collision occurred at roughly 8:00AM and the first announcement to passengers was at 3:00PM. In between those times whenever anyone would ask a crew member for any information, the canned response was "the captain will make an announcement later". Then at 3:00Pm the captain appeared and told the assembled crowd "This morning we had a collision with a barge. We were not at fault because we were not moving at the time." This was an absolute lie. Period! We did nor mis-hear this. Every single person I spoke with heard exactly the same thing. Secondly he said "Fortunately nobody was injured". Another blatant lie. Up to this point the service onboard had been very good. However from this point forward the cabin butler service deteriorated significantly. And, the restaurant service became abysmal. On one occasion we timed it. After we were seated it took 18 minutes before ant wait person appeared. From that point it took almost 2 hours to complete our meal. We then noticed our butler was working as a waiter. We noticed other housekeeping staff waiting tables also. This probably explained why the butler service deteriorated. Also, the restaurant and bar started getting low on supplies regular liquor items became unavailable with no reasonable substitutes. Our cabin category allowed us an evening meal at "La Rive". Unfortunately, on our night, because we had to be bussed to a concert over the dinner started at 4:30pm and we were rushed through it so we could be on time for the concert. Great food, very unspecial experience. We were given a letter from our cruise director (who the next day had a cardiac episode and was taken off the ship by ambulance), and this letter stated QUOTE "Once the cruise has been completed, the Customer Service teams in your regions, with a full clear overview of the cruise from beginning to end, will call you directly to discuss your cases on an individual basis." NEVER HAPPENED. Period!! You can defend this company all you like. Their handling of this particular incident was abysmal and rated a big fat F+.

We were not offered any choices of compensation on board. It was only after the cruise was completed. There are other complexities regarding cabin and food service levels that occurred after the collision as well. Our traveling partners had cruied with Scenic prior and recommended we try this one. They too are as disappointed as we are, as are multiple other travelers we have communicated with after the fact. Bottom line...cruise with Scenic at your own risk. As I stated, in life you are measured by performance. In this case Scenic failed miserably.

Yes, I understand that, but in this case the interruption was not weather related or water level related. We are experienced cruisers and understand the complexities of river cruising. I am not claiming that Scenic was at fault. Regardless, I have spoken to quite a few people that have experienced similar issues and in literally every case on virtually every other cruise line the cruise line resolutions were vastly more equitable. In my investigation I have found 3 other Scenic ship "incidents" and in each of these cases the compensation was $450 per passenger. It is quite obvious that this is their default compensation regardless of the circumstances.

Do not book any cruise with Scenic! To keep it short, 4 days into a 10 day trip through the South of France on the Rhone River we had a collision with a cargo barge. It was an unfortunate accident but Scenic's reaction after the fact was abysmal. After the accident and we were stranded in Viviers France. We did not get to cruise or dock to Tournon, Avignon or Arles and missed roughly 150 miles of cruising the Rhone River. Simple math reveals we missed out on about 40% of our "cruise". The did get us daily by bus to these locations but we did not sign up for a bus tour. So here is the real issue, we spent over $8500 per person for the cruise. This did not include airfare, the $8500 was only the cruise expense. We were promised IN WRITING that the company Customer Service team "wIll call you directly" (never happened) and offer "an acceptable compensation package". Well their compensation was $450 cash + a $225 future cruise credit per passenger!! Simple math..we lost 40% of our cruise and we were refunded 5%!! And all of this delivered via email to our travel agent, not even to us directly!! We spoke to several industry experts and we determined $2500 cash, or, $3500 credit to a future cruise, was a reasonable request considering the circumstances. We appealed this all they way to the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Glen Moroney, and we were told "too bad, so sad". Scenic Luxury Cruises turned our Spectacular South of France cruise into a mediocre middle of France bus tour and then snubbed their noses at us. This company obviously does not respect their passengers. People are often judged by how they respond in a crisis. In this case Scenic has failed the test. Our advice is book your next cruise with ANY company other than Scenic!!