Scenic Eclipse

Just received my airfare reimbursement from Scenic. My ticket was $490.09. Scenic did not pay for tax/fee or my seat upgrade. Total amount from Scenic $385.00

Just received my airfare reimbursement from Scenic. My ticket was $490.09. Scenic did not pay for tax/fee or my seat upgrade. Total amount from Scenic $385.00

I'm stunned that you did not receive full reimbursement from Scenic for your entire out-of-pocket airfare cost. I have yet to hear from Scenic about airfare reimbursement, but if this is the way I can expect to be treated, Scenic can expect that I will not be sailing with them in the future. For such small dollars for them, to treat people in this way is truly unconscionable. You should have no uncovered costs due to their cancellation of the cruise, obviously through no fault of yours. I have sailed Scenic in the past on a river cruise, and enjoyed it very much. That was part of the reason that I had booked an ocean cruise with them, and in fact, even with the cancellation, had been looking at other possible Scenic ocean or river cruises for a future cruise. However, if I am not fully covered by Scenic for all outstanding out-of-pocket expenses, they can forget about me as a future customer.

another example of being petty and upsetting a customer. We are over Scenic and will NEVER consider traveling with them. This has been an awful experience. They had to know long before they notified passengers that this ship would not be ready as planned in August. Why anyone is booing with them is beyond me. We are thankful for our travel agent who got us our money back, we are sure that without her help we would still be arguing with Scenic.

We are still waiting to hear about our reimbursement for the flights. We are only claiming for a change fee on our,business class, flights from Gibraltar to Miami. They are getting off lightly, because otherwise they would have had to hand over a lot more if we were not to have done so, the tickets were Non Refundable!:rolleyes:

Unfortunately I too can confirm that Scenic HAS NOT fully reimbursed me for my flights. Not only did they use an unfavourable exchange rate on the flights themselves (the airline non refundable cancellation fee was in USD, I applied for Scenic to refund in AUD), they have failed to give me back the $140.00 credit card fee for my international flights. A very small cost for Scenic but it sends a very strong message on how little they value us. Never, never, never again will I book Scenic.

I am sorry to hear that so many of you have been affected by the Eclipse problems, and that Scenic has not see fit to do the right thing by the most important thing it has, PASSENGERS.

Here is my experience on the matter.

In June 2016 my wife and I booked the 22 day Ultimate Viking and Atlantic Canada cruise aboard the still to be built Scenic Eclipse.

This expedition cruise was scheduled to depart Reykjavik, Iceland on 30 August 2019, some 12 months after the ships maiden voyage.

Apart from the fact that the Eclipse looked an amazing ship on paper, and was going to places we wanted to visit, its schedule was almost perfect timing for the fall season in Canada.

However in mid 2017 and without warning or any reason given, Scenic changed the departure date by more than three weeks, to a 5 August departure. Of course this meant it was far to early for us to see even the early part of the fall season.

As you can imagine we were not very impressed, firstly because of the date change, but secondly because Scenic did not have the decency to contact and therefore address passengers directly.

Although I was not happy about the change of dates I did not at that stage complain, however when I discovered only by accident on the web that the launch date of Eclipse was delayed by more than five months, I decided to write directly to Scenic. Below is that communication.

--------------

Dear Sir/Madam

I am extremely disappointed that your company has not advised booked passengers directly, of the delays in the launching of Scenic Eclipse.

We booked a very long time ago and have already had one change in departure dates which we were not at all impressed about, so another one without warning would not be helpful to anyone.

As far as we are aware you have not advised agents or passenger of recent events, even though they may not directly affect some passengers, well at least not at the moment.

I would have thought that it would have been in your best interest to keep all booked passengers fully informed on significant news worthy information about the ships progress.

I would have also thought that, for very little effort on the company's part, a direct communication to all booked passengers about the construction problems and delays would have kept them in the loop and therefore onside. I'm sure I would not be the only one not impressed with the lack of reliable information.

Instead we have had to learn about the unfolding events on the web and in the news, which after all may or may not be correct.

My big concern now is that we are coming up to the stage when we would like to start booking flights, accommodation and tours both pre and post cruise. We like to do this to achieve suitable timing and at the most attractive rates.

However with little confidence with what has happened to date, and what may happen in the future, we are very reluctant to do so.

So may I suggest you please address these issues for all passengers sooner rather than later.

Kind regards

---------------

Reply from Scenic

Please see below a statement from our Founder and Chairman:

RE: Notification of Scenic Eclipse Launch Delay

The scheduled launch of Scenic Eclipse, the World’s First Discovery Yachts, has been delayed until late January 2019 due to delays within the shipyard.

However, please be advised that your sailing and scheduled itinerary is not impacted by this delay.

Please be assured we are working hard to complete the delivery of Scenic Eclipse and we foresee no further issues with our scheduled departures from January 2019 onwards.

Designed to deliver the ultimate experience of a lifetime, Scenic Eclipse takes ocean cruising to a whole new level – marrying luxury, discovery and safety and setting a whole new benchmark in design and innovation to bring you this amazing cruising experience.

Over the coming months we will be making some exciting announcements about Scenic Eclipse. These will include additions to the world-class on board and operational teams as well as product and destination experiences.

We look forward to welcoming you on board Scenic Eclipse.

Yours sincerely

Mr Glen Moroney

Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours

Founder and Chairman

-----------------

My Reply to the above

Thank you for your reply.

However since there was absolutely no empathy in any of your reply it inspires even less confidence in Scenic's ability to show concern for its customers. It seemed to me, that it was more about flying your own flag.

Kind regards

---------------

As you can gather I'm extremely disappointed at Scenic's response to what was I thought quite a reasonable request. In my opinion the reply was most unprofessional.

If that was the type of response that the 1200 passenger received after the 2013 floods in Europe, its no wonder that they had a class action brought successfully against them.

They obviously have still not learnt from that experience. Pretty sad really and one that certainly cost them a lot of money.

Now they have an even bigger problem with the delayed launch of the Eclipse, which I might add was probably out of their control. But the question must be asked, how did they respond, did they make a bad situation even worse by not addressing the issues correctly with those directly effected ????

There is no doubt a lot of people have been effected and most if not all would now not be happy. Companies that point to the fine print in their documentation and at the same time ignore customers feelings and needs, in my opinion deserve to flounder.

Scenic is about to enter the now very professional expedition cruise market that is currently way outside their current expertise. To do so successfully they will need to nurture every single customer or potential customer that they can find.

The above response from “customer care” and the Company chairman does not indicate that they are willing to nurture their customers at all at the moment.

You may recall I was not impressed when they changed our sailing dates without explanation or an apology.

I also have to wonder if they can even have the Eclipse running smoothly as an expedition ship by August next year, that extra five months would have made a big difference to its fine tuning.

It takes a long time to mould crew and staff into a well functioning team, and the trip around Iceland will possible be, only the second true expedition experience they will have had prior to the August cruise. So that introduces a high probability of teething problems and with management that has shown little regard for handling customers concerns, it could make for some interesting challenges.

To me Company's such as Scenic should take full responsibility for any significant decision they make that will or even may have an impact on passengers travel plans and or experiences.

They certainly should not pass the buck onto Travel agents who have no idea on how the Company makes its decisions. This just puts agents in a very unfair position of having to deal with some very unhappy passengers. It really is totally unreasonable and in my opinion should not be tolerated in the travel industry at all.

So please Scenic, get YOUR ACT together.

Hooray,we finally received our refund for the cruise!!!!!!

Still waiting to hear about the additional,"reasonable expenses",the flight change fee!

I have now received total 100% refund of all expenditures. Cruise,tours,travel insurance and all airfare. I did not use a travel agent and dealt directly with the Boston office which was very accommodating.

The overall disappointment I still have with Scenic with their lack of communication, time we all have set aside for our trip and effort to provide proof of reimbursement for a lousy 25% will never be acceptable.

Scenic I know you read this thread step up to the plate

I have now received total 100% refund of all expenditures. Cruise,tours,travel insurance and all airfare. I did not use a travel agent and dealt directly with the Boston office which was very accommodating.

 

The overall disappointment I still have with Scenic with their lack of communication, time we all have set aside for our trip and effort to provide proof of reimbursement for a lousy 25% will never be acceptable.

 

Scenic I know you read this thread step up to the plate

Well done. Unfortunately I was forced to use a Travel Agent, by Scenic USA, I could not book directly, which I have always done in the past,due to the fact that I live in Spain. That has never caused a problem before, I book travel directly with Airlines online and Cruise company by phone and e-mail in London, always pay by C/C, this time had to make a Bank Transfer, what is that??? Still waiting for additional expense refund!

Today I received a check from Scenic for my airline ticket taxes and fees, I received three separate checks from Scenic. Cruise refund, airline ticket and airline tax and fees.

Today I received a check from Scenic for my airline ticket taxes and fees, I received three separate checks from Scenic. Cruise refund, airline ticket and airline tax and fees.

That's great news. Did you also get reimbursed for the cost of your seat upgrade?

Today I received a check from Scenic for my airline ticket taxes and fees, I received three separate checks from Scenic. Cruise refund, airline ticket and airline tax and fees.

Terrific news,still waiting for mine!🙄

I did not get my airport tax or fuel duty from Scenic but have had to apply to airline to reimburse me for that (still waiting for that refund!). Can't understand how they are using different criteria for reimbursing each individual?! Not very professional.

I did not get my airport tax or fuel duty from Scenic but have had to apply to airline to reimburse me for that (still waiting for that refund!). Can't understand how they are using different criteria for reimbursing each individual?! Not very professional.

It maybe if your from the US or not. Are tickets (US) included all fees in the price.

If you canceled your ticket with the airlines the taxes and fuel duty should be refunded to you. Maybe Scenic is making sure that you are not getting those costs refunded to you by the airlines.

As I said before we were treated fairly by Scenic on the refund as long as we provided proof that any part of our trip could not be refunded. Its frustrating and time consuming process without much competition.

It’s funny how no updates on the Eclipse now for over 6 months. I’m sure those that have a late January cruise are a little uneasy if their cruise is still on schedule for departure.

Wishing everyone successful refund.

In the same boat as all of you. We received our full fare cruise refunded by check from Scenic. Got a 25 percent discount on a cruise we had already booked for next year.

Still waiting for hotel and airline refund. They say ours is complicated and will take more time.

In the same boat as all of you. We received our full fare cruise refunded by check from Scenic. Got a 25 percent discount on a cruise we had already booked for next year.

 

Still waiting for hotel and airline refund. They say ours is complicated and will take more time.

Like you, we are still awaiting the airline change fee,instead of asking for refund of the Business class tickets from Europe, we are using the flight ticket to go to Miami in March and do another Silversea cruise.We were also booked on the Cuba trip for October. I do not see what is so "complicated" about our additional expenses being reimbursed. I see a lot of passengers have already received theirs.

I am sorry to hear that so many of you have been affected by the Eclipse problems, and that Scenic has not see fit to do the right thing by the most important thing it has, PASSENGERS.

Here is my experience on the matter.

 

 

In June 2016 my wife and I booked the 22 day Ultimate Viking and Atlantic Canada cruise aboard the still to be built Scenic Eclipse.

This expedition cruise was scheduled to depart Reykjavik, Iceland on 30 August 2019, some 12 months after the ships maiden voyage.

Apart from the fact that the Eclipse looked an amazing ship on paper, and was going to places we wanted to visit, its schedule was almost perfect timing for the fall season in Canada.

However in mid 2017 and without warning or any reason given, Scenic changed the departure date by more than three weeks, to a 5 August departure. Of course this meant it was far to early for us to see even the early part of the fall season.

As you can imagine we were not very impressed, firstly because of the date change, but secondly because Scenic did not have the decency to contact and therefore address passengers directly.

 

 

Although I was not happy about the change of dates I did not at that stage complain, however when I discovered only by accident on the web that the launch date of Eclipse was delayed by more than five months, I decided to write directly to Scenic. Below is that communication.

 

 

--------------

Dear Sir/Madam

I am extremely disappointed that your company has not advised booked passengers directly, of the delays in the launching of Scenic Eclipse.

We booked a very long time ago and have already had one change in departure dates which we were not at all impressed about, so another one without warning would not be helpful to anyone.

As far as we are aware you have not advised agents or passenger of recent events, even though they may not directly affect some passengers, well at least not at the moment.

I would have thought that it would have been in your best interest to keep all booked passengers fully informed on significant news worthy information about the ships progress.

I would have also thought that, for very little effort on the company's part, a direct communication to all booked passengers about the construction problems and delays would have kept them in the loop and therefore onside. I'm sure I would not be the only one not impressed with the lack of reliable information.

Instead we have had to learn about the unfolding events on the web and in the news, which after all may or may not be correct.

My big concern now is that we are coming up to the stage when we would like to start booking flights, accommodation and tours both pre and post cruise. We like to do this to achieve suitable timing and at the most attractive rates.

However with little confidence with what has happened to date, and what may happen in the future, we are very reluctant to do so.

So may I suggest you please address these issues for all passengers sooner rather than later.

Kind regards

---------------

Reply from Scenic

Please see below a statement from our Founder and Chairman:

 

RE: Notification of Scenic Eclipse Launch Delay

 

The scheduled launch of Scenic Eclipse, the World’s First Discovery Yachts, has been delayed until late January 2019 due to delays within the shipyard.

 

However, please be advised that your sailing and scheduled itinerary is not impacted by this delay.

 

 

Please be assured we are working hard to complete the delivery of Scenic Eclipse and we foresee no further issues with our scheduled departures from January 2019 onwards.

 

 

Designed to deliver the ultimate experience of a lifetime, Scenic Eclipse takes ocean cruising to a whole new level – marrying luxury, discovery and safety and setting a whole new benchmark in design and innovation to bring you this amazing cruising experience.

 

 

Over the coming months we will be making some exciting announcements about Scenic Eclipse. These will include additions to the world-class on board and operational teams as well as product and destination experiences.

 

 

We look forward to welcoming you on board Scenic Eclipse.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mr Glen Moroney

 

 

Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours

 

 

Founder and Chairman

-----------------

My Reply to the above

Thank you for your reply.

However since there was absolutely no empathy in any of your reply it inspires even less confidence in Scenic's ability to show concern for its customers. It seemed to me, that it was more about flying your own flag.

Kind regards

---------------

 

 

As you can gather I'm extremely disappointed at Scenic's response to what was I thought quite a reasonable request. In my opinion the reply was most unprofessional.

If that was the type of response that the 1200 passenger received after the 2013 floods in Europe, its no wonder that they had a class action brought successfully against them.

They obviously have still not learnt from that experience. Pretty sad really and one that certainly cost them a lot of money.

Now they have an even bigger problem with the delayed launch of the Eclipse, which I might add was probably out of their control. But the question must be asked, how did they respond, did they make a bad situation even worse by not addressing the issues correctly with those directly effected ????

There is no doubt a lot of people have been effected and most if not all would now not be happy. Companies that point to the fine print in their documentation and at the same time ignore customers feelings and needs, in my opinion deserve to flounder.

Scenic is about to enter the now very professional expedition cruise market that is currently way outside their current expertise. To do so successfully they will need to nurture every single customer or potential customer that they can find.

The above response from “customer care” and the Company chairman does not indicate that they are willing to nurture their customers at all at the moment.

You may recall I was not impressed when they changed our sailing dates without explanation or an apology.

I also have to wonder if they can even have the Eclipse running smoothly as an expedition ship by August next year, that extra five months would have made a big difference to its fine tuning.

It takes a long time to mould crew and staff into a well functioning team, and the trip around Iceland will possible be, only the second true expedition experience they will have had prior to the August cruise. So that introduces a high probability of teething problems and with management that has shown little regard for handling customers concerns, it could make for some interesting challenges.

To me Company's such as Scenic should take full responsibility for any significant decision they make that will or even may have an impact on passengers travel plans and or experiences.

They certainly should not pass the buck onto Travel agents who have no idea on how the Company makes its decisions. This just puts agents in a very unfair position of having to deal with some very unhappy passengers. It really is totally unreasonable and in my opinion should not be tolerated in the travel industry at all.

 

 

So please Scenic, get YOUR ACT together.

We are also booked on that 2019 Reykjavik Quebec cruise.Our TA told us of the change of dates as soon as it was made.

However today I went to the Scenic site to see if any updates on the delay of the Eclipse-absolutely nothing at all.So I went to individual cruises and our 5th August cruise for 2019 no longer is showing.Searching Eclipse cruises for August 2019 comes up with-nothing found.

So I googled the shipyard.It doesn't look good-

https://www.total-croatia-news.com/business/29804-government-s-plan-for-rescuing-shipyard-focuses-on-real-estate

It states that the Government has no idea how many of the 17 ships on order will be cancelled or if any will be completed.

Fortunately it appears it is just my work computer-programs are ancient.It is a Government computer.TA has been in contact with Scenic.No further info but everything is OK and no further delays expected.But I will be keeping an eye on developments at the shipyard!

We are also booked on that 2019 Reykjavik Quebec cruise.Our TA told us of the change of dates as soon as it was made.

However today I went to the Scenic site to see if any updates on the delay of the Eclipse-absolutely nothing at all.So I went to individual cruises and our 5th August cruise for 2019 no longer is showing.Searching Eclipse cruises for August 2019 comes up with-nothing found.

 

So I googled the shipyard.It doesn't look good-

https://www.total-croatia-news.com/business/29804-government-s-plan-for-rescuing-shipyard-focuses-on-real-estate

It states that the Government has no idea how many of the 17 ships on order will be cancelled or if any will be completed.

I was under the impression that the Eclipse left the boat yard when they posted the video showing it leaving. I thought it was going through its final fitting.

I tried to to find out where exactly it is right now, to no avail.

We are booked with air and tours all set for April 5th 2019 sailing. Now I am really getting nervous about our trip.

That letter from Scenic is the same exact one we received a few months ago.

I was under the impression that the Eclipse left the boat yard when they posted the video showing it leaving. I thought it was going through its final fitting.

 

I tried to to find out where exactly it is right now, to no avail..

I'm guessing they floated it out of that bankrupt shipyard to that Italian shipyard that was going to buy them. And when it got there, they found a lot of stuff not build right or poor quality parts. Probably had to dry dock it again and pull items off. that accounts for additional six months of repairs and fit-ups.

Just my guess....

Unfortunately Scenic seems to be choosing to keep progress (or otherwise) on the Eclipse to itself. It is doing nothing for Scenic's credibility. After disappointing so many people with its last minute cancellation of cruises up to late January (and the associated brand damage), you would think they would want to be completely transparent about the likelihood of departures going ahead early next year. If everything is on track, let people know so they can plan with confidence. If not, stop accepting bookings, let affected passengers know early enough to avoid unnecessary expense, time etc, and update their website with information . By keeping everyone in the dark it is perpetuating the image that Scenic doesn't care about its customers at all.

I agree it really would be really nice to be given more information upfront, just so customers can have much more confidence in the Company's handling of what has now developed into a very bad situation.

It does seem that Scenic has found itself in this very awarded situation through lack of communication both to agents and passengers.

In future they really do need to seriously consider changing their policy about keeping all booked passengers fully informed on these and other important developments. They were certainly eager to do that when everything was going to plan. I sure they would benefit by continuing that, even when things are not going to plan.

I have some good news though, Scenic has now contacted me directly, and this time shown more consideration and compassion, which has eased my concerns a little. I was certainly appreciative of them making the effort to make direct contact, its just a shame that they had not seen fit do do so much earlier, and of course to all other passengers as well.

I certainly expressed my thoughts to Scenic about these issues and was promised that they would be passed onto top management. Where is goes from there who knows!

The Scenic office in Australia still seems very confident that all sailings after January 2019 will be on time, but then since they have not updated us on where and how the ship is to be completed, it may still be out of their hands. I guess, only time will tell!!!

I agree it really would be really nice to be given more information upfront, just so customers can have much more confidence in the Company's handling of what has now developed into a very bad situation.

It does seem that Scenic has found itself in this very awarded situation through lack of communication both to agents and passengers.

In future they really do need to seriously consider changing their policy about keeping all booked passengers fully informed on these and other important developments. They were certainly eager to do that when everything was going to plan. I sure they would benefit by continuing that, even when things are not going to plan.

I have some good news though, Scenic has now contacted me directly, and this time shown more consideration and compassion, which has eased my concerns a little. I was certainly appreciative of them making the effort to make direct contact, its just a shame that they had not seen fit do do so much earlier, and of course to all other passengers as well.

I certainly expressed my thoughts to Scenic about these issues and was promised that they would be passed onto top management. Where is goes from there who knows!

 

 

The Scenic office in Australia still seems very confident that all sailings after January 2019 will be on time, but then since they have not updated us on where and how the ship is to be completed, it may still be out of their hands. I guess, only time will tell!!!

I am very glad to hear you actually spoke to someone. It would be nice to see what progress has been made on the ship so far. I am praying this all works as planned from here on in.:halo:

That's great news. Did you also get reimbursed for the cost of your seat upgrade?

Yes. Sorry for late response I was traveling.

I believe Scenic knew about the problems with Croatia shipyard and still continued to negotiate with Croatia shipyard for a great construction price. If this is true Scenic is low class cruise line and only cares about money not quality. Cruisers should think twice before spending large sums of money on a low quality ship. Remember their goal is to make money not a quality ship.