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No lanyard on Scenic in April. Just a reused credit card sized ID badge used to scan off and back on the ship. It isn’t used for anything else.

UPDATE: I just wasted 25 minutes on the phone with a Scenic phone agent who appeared to know less than me. We have booked a Spectacular South of France river cruise which goes Lyon to Lyon. The agent kept putting me on hold to research but did not identify that she was new. She tried to tell me if I took the Paris Extension the boat would meet us in Paris! Then she said we would go by coach to Lyon. So I informed her that it was an hour + flight so I was put on hold again and she came back to say that it would be a high speed train but no extensions are available in Paris for our trip in 12 months. She said her supervisor said that we ONLY accrue loyalty points for sailing days therefore pre/post hotel nights or extension tours do NOT count for loyalty point balance.

This is very true. I have a vestibular issue and someone grabbing my seat for support in a non-emergency would set off vertigo in an already moving plane.

I had an accident on a Scenic boat in April. I broke 4 bones (2 in my left foot, 2 in my left hand). This happened on day 2 of our 7 day trip. My DH enjoyed our excursions while I stayed onboard in the lounge or with it elevated with ice in our cabin. It wasn’t an issue. Tell her to bring a few things she likes to do: book, tablet, knitting, etc. Just try to get a wheelchair in both airports as it will really help.

Thanks. I have searched the website (which I find problematic in Canada anyway) and only found something on using Scenic hotels to bump up to 20 days and get those perks. i will call this afternoon after their US office closes so I can speak to the Canadian office in BC.

Does anyone know if you accrue loyalty points for city extensions? We booked our 3rd river cruise with Scenic in June 2025 and I noticed on the invoice that we will be about 350 points from moving up a level. So we were thinking of taking the Paris 3 day extension or booking the Scenic Lyon hotel so I could search out some silk.☺️

You will find most shops open late on Mondays so plan on a leisurely breakfast on Monday morning or book a tour.

It is an overwhelming decision to book your first river cruise. As others have said, it is helpful to know what you want and go from there. For our first we wanted to do the Seine return from Paris. Scenic was the only company that offered an 11 day itinerary, had an excursion to The Somme battlefields and one of only 3 (at the time) that could dock directly in Honfleur. Also not going to Juno Beach would have been a deal breaker. Scenic filled all our must haves and all of our wants. Plus the larger cabin sizes were attractive to me as I use a cane and can fall easily. They even threw in a free bag of laundry which was so appreciated as we spent a week pre cruise in Paris. Now it is a free kg of laundry but in April that was enough for our needs. I suggest you do a Google search on river cruise comparison chart and look at what each line includes to find out which things are important to you. We left our 7 day trip on Scenic with a 0 balance owing in April. That is very important to my DH.

He also meant, now that I have had time to think and remember, the Seine is not reliant upon snow melt and rain for replenishing its water as the Danube and Rhine are.

I was worried about our August 2019 11 day Seine River cruise in the months leading up to departure. My husband happened to have a client who knew a lot about navigation. He told us that since the Seine connects to the English Channel, the world would be in a dire state before there are any water issues on the Seine.

We stayed at the Hilton Doubletree Centraal Station in April this year for 3 nights before our river cruise. It was the suggested hotel with free airport transfers and port transfer but we walked to our boat in less than 10 minutes. Good location and free breakfast in a corner king room. That breakfast buffet was extensive and very good.

That’s what we were told in April too (to take a photo from the tv). But they also said Tailormade was just being updated and since we were the first cruise of the season it wouldn’t be available for another month. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here is the ramp of a Gate One River boat on Day 1 as we passed to reach our boat, which wasn’t bad. Upon return to Amsterdam a set to two aluminum steps had to be used for the ramp wasn’t long enough to reach the dock without the steps. The ramp was steep. These aluminum steps had no railing. On the Seine river, the closer we got to Honfleur, the more the boat was affected by tides. So we may have been able to walk off the sun deck in the morning but may have a very steep ramp to reach the middle deck upon our return.

@DASI photos are indicative of the first set of stairs on Scenic boats with the exception of the railings which are attached to the stairs themselves, not the boat infrastructure. This made me let go of the railing to get down the last step, which is why I fell. I now have 4 broken bones. My 2 fingers on my left hand and my ankle plus a bone on the side of my left foot. I have 9 sets of physiotherapy exercises to do each day trying to recover mobility and I will be in an air boot until at least July 2 when I go back to the fracture clinic next. I have attached pictures from different Scenic boats as my accident happened on day 2, I didn’t get any photos from the sun deck on the Jade. I have not encountered steps as steep as those with the aqua arrows. That said, the stairs are steep from the lobby deck up to the lower sun deck and less steep from the lower sun deck to the upper. I fell on the steps from the upper sun deck to the lower but these stairs were covered in wet astro turf.

I had to look back to page 6 of this thread for the information. I booked the tour through TripAdvisor, post #134 (I think). Search on WWII history tour. It was excellent and they send a document with all photos and information discussed during the tour. Although it is an excellent tour it is not a typical happy tour.

We loved our 11 day Seine voyage on Scenic. It is one of only a few that sails directly into Honfleurs and you spend 2 nights there. Beautiful place, especially when all the coaches from the other riverboat companies leave.

In my experience, only on Scenic, the cabin attendant cleans the cabin and makes the bed. The butler does everything else. Our butler also worked in the dining room and served at Table La Rive. We called for ice many, many times after my fall and it was mostly other butlers that brought it i wouldn’t book Scenic because of the butlers but it is nice to know they are there if you need something or an unplanned event occurs.

Just search for deck plans. Yes you can separate the beds. No there is no bar on the Sun Deck but if people are up there so will the crew!

Some only include wine with lunch and dinner and you pay for any drink outside the dining room.

Sorry to learn you are facing such conflicting information. Not acceptable but also not surprising. I found out that what you are told ahead of time may not be the situation onboard. Having just had an incident on Scenic, the sister of Emerald, hopefully I can help. For your consideration, the gangway is not very wide and sometimes can be steep. A crew member would have to take the wheelchair on and off the ship as it is improbable that you could use it on the gangway. There is probably an elevator but it will not go up to the Sun Deck where your safety drill will likely be and where you will have to go if your boat is rafted with another. The “stairs” to reach the Sun Deck, usually one long set and one shorter one, are steep. My boat, The Scenic Jade had railings that were attached to the stairs so didn’t go all the way to the deck. This was the issue for me as I had nothing to grab when my foot slipped off the stair. Would you be content to miss a port if rafted? Just something to consider. I was not offered the onboard wheelchair. The only day I went on an excursion after my accident on day 2, my husband rented a wheelchair and I had to disembark down the gangway by myself as it was too steep and narrow for my husband to be beside me. The crew used the boat’s wheelchair to get me to the coach but returned it to the boat. There was no coordination upon return to have the wheelchair waiting. Also the boat/cruise director did not assist with getting the reserved wheelchair to the coach which meant my husband had to run quite a distance to get the chair and get it back to me. We lost our group by that time and had quite a time finding them. I don’t see an issue with a walker or rollator onboard but unless you are in a top suite there won’t be much room in the cabin for it. It can’t be in the hallway as it would be an obstacle for other crew and passengers. You would have to make arrangements to keep it at the end of the corridor by the stairs. So all this to say that I think it is very possible but may not be practical. Taking it on the coach for excursions would take coordination if possible at all. Every coach I was on had 4-5 steep stairs to get into it and quite narrow in seats and aisle. Hopefully most ports you can just get off and be in town? If I can help please ask.

Scenic has a time range but as others have said, most people show up within the first 10-15 minutes of opening. There are more tables for 2 though. There is also room service.

Having lived in Montreal for years, outdoor stairs were normal. Originally built to save space inside the building, they also served a more practical purpose: so landlords did not have to heat spaces that were infrequently used. Most of them are built of iron with slats so the snow falls through, though your picture showed a solid floor but the railings are wide enough apart to shovel the snow through. We can now buy curd here. The kids call it “squeaky cheese”. Maybe it will come soon to your grocery store. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤞

Safe travels home. I just checked, your high there today will be 14. It will feel balmy!

Next Tuesday morning at 10:30 I will be getting a call from Scenic’s manager of customer care. I emailed on April 30 and received an automatic reply that a response could take 7 days but I was notified of the email today, just 48 hours later. I will let you know how it turns out.

Our first family cruise in 2011 was on the Volendam. I “won” a treatment on embarkation day. There was a message on our cabin phone to book my free treatment. The hard sell was uncomfortable for me. Top it off that it was Glacier Bay day and when the hard sell wouldn’t stop I said I wanted to go outside. Her reply “why, you can see glaciers any day”. I said maybe you can but not me. Then she presented me with a bill. I said I won the treatment. She said she had no record of that. She went out to the manager who said she didn’t believe me. Needless to say, I never stepped in the spa on any other HAL cruise.