Scenic Christmas Cruise

[penang32]

Back from river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest over christmas period, 21/12 to 5/1. Cruised on the Scenic Ruby, shadowed by the Scenic Diamond.

Accomodation on second deck was good however rooms are smaller than AMA allowing for the Scenic balconies.Only place to sit in the rooms was on the bed - no real drama.

 

Approx 90% of passengers were Aussies

 

Pros:

Arriving/leaving ship well organised

Onboard staff excellent

Tour Director very efficient and friendly

Food - good selection and quality for all meals

Seating - did not experience any problems unlike on previous cruise on Amalegro - no " cattle charge" for evening meals

Wines and beer with meals - good quality and unlimited supply

Onboard entertainment - good

 

Cons:

Drinks at the bar- way too expensive

Heating in lounge and dining room - too hot,many complaints

Many people came down with colds and some did not practice normal health precautions,eg sanitising hands before eating,handling food etc

Portobellos Restaurant - nothing really special , on two occasions couples were double booked and were not impressed

Cabins on one side of the top deck were without toilet facilities in cabins for over 48 hours and were forced to use toilets in public areas.

Couple from the rear stateroom were transfered to the Diamond for one overnight stay

 

The "off boat" tours were well organised and the guides informative however due to the holiday season many shops/attractions were closed during the voyage.

Christmas markets in Cologne were very good. Stay over in Linz for New Years Eve was fun.

 

All in all cruise was enjoyable however I think that there were a number of complaints from those who experienced toilet problems

[Travelbyboat]

I am travelling with Scenic in August on their Amsterdam to Budapest cruise. I know you stated that the rooms were small compared to AMA because the space was taken away by the balcony. Since you traveled in the winter I don't suppose you made a big use of the balcony, correct? I am thinking is it worth to have one in the summer? Or is it better to have more space in the room. However, I have booked a Royal Suite so I think I will have some sitting area. If you traveled with AMA which one do you think is better overall? I get a bid anxious to see negative responses at is it getting close to my trip.

[Pugwash123]

I am travelling with Scenic in August on their Amsterdam to Budapest cruise. I know you stated that the rooms were small compared to AMA because the space was taken away by the balcony. Since you traveled in the winter I don't suppose you made a big use of the balcony, correct? I am thinking is it worth to have one in the summer? Or is it better to have more space in the room. However, I have booked a Royal Suite so I think I will have some sitting area. If you traveled with AMA which one do you think is better overall? I get a bid anxious to see negative responses at is it getting close to my trip.

 

Irene and I had a Royal suite last year and there is a sitting area. Also the bathroom is comaratively large with a good shower and a deep bath. We normaly do ocean cruises but Irene enjoyed the Scenic experience so much she wants to do it again.

[penang32]

The Royal Suite is much more spacious and you will be a lot more comfortable than we were.Although you don't tend to spend a lot of time in your cabin, it is nice if you have room to move without bumping in to each other.

The balconies would be much more usable in summer and would provide a good alternative if you did not wish to be in the public areas all of the time.

In my opinion AMA was slightly ahead of Scenic when comparing the two.

[Travelbyboat]

Thanks a lot for your help!

[Travelbyboat]

Pugwash 123, which itinerary did you have? I heard that when you wake up in the morning you can be tied to another boat so your balcony will be right up against somebody's window. Is this right? Did you experience this on your cruise? Also did the boat travel mainly in the night time? Did you have longer stays in port or you left pretty early ( I mean around 5-6 pm as ocean liners do). Did you make the use of your buttler? Did you have food delivered to your room?

Thanks for your feedback!

[belaire]

Also back from the Christmas & New Year Scenic Cruise but were on the Scenic Diamond. We followed the Scenic Ruby most of the time and on a couple of days/nights we were tied alongside the Ruby so our cabin balcony was just about a foot away from the other balcony/cabin…really had to close the curtains all the time.

 

- We also experienced toilet problems for half a day and had to line up using the public ones. We were told that somebody flushed an underwear down in one of the cabins and it blocked the main pipe.

- We were on the Danube Deck and for the first few mornings into the cruise, some idiots were jogging on the Sun Deck at 5:30-6am waking everybody up with the thumping noises. It was stopped after a number of complaints at the Reception or maybe the poor guy got hit on the head in the dark by a low bridge and never recovered!

- We never used the complimentary butler service. Our friends who used it said it was a waste of time. Butler cabin food services were only provided during meal times. If you are sick, and a large number of passengers were sick with colds, soar throats, etc. (heard that four people had to be taxied to the hospital at one stopover and a doctor had to be called in at another) and if you just want some soup to tied you over with, unless it is during meal time, forget it.

- It was really noisy in the dining room and in the lounge most of the time when cruising on board because it was winter and all passengers stayed indoor. The lounge, especially on evenings when Portobello’s Restaurant was on, was not spacious enough to accommodate 169 passengers and there wasn’t any place that you can escape to, to do quiet reading except in your own cabin…on the bed…no chair except the Royal and Junior Suites!

- All Scenic Staff were excellent, especially the Cruise Manager and the Dining Room Staff. They all really put in extra efforts! Every evening before dinner, we attended the daily briefing/port talk…all questions were answered and there wasn’t any hidden agenda about water levels etc…. complained by some of the posters on this River/Canal Cruise Board a few month back.

- Food. Breakfast was the best, lunches and dinners were just o.k. Most people complained the food was too salty! Portobello’s food wasn’t that good....we should have stayed with the regular dinner instead. Free flowing good red/white wine and Beck’s Draft beer at both lunch and dinner. Bread and desserts were good.

- We had a better mix of passengers about 65/70% from Australia, followed by Canada, UK, USA and New Zealand.

 

We quite enjoyed this Christmas/New Year river cruise, different from the regular ocean cruises. You will see more on land and mingle more with your fellow passengers…we made a lot of friends. We also like the Scenic fully inclusive package including all tippings - no optionals and quality wine/beer with lunch and dinner. Our flight to Amsterdam and our return from Budapest was something else. Unfortunately, we were stranded two nights at Heathrow and one night in Budapest because of the weather but fortunately, we did not miss the cruise and did not lose our luggage (like quite a few of our fellow passengers did).

[Pugwash123]

Pugwash 123, which itinerary did you have? I heard that when you wake up in the morning you can be tied to another boat so your balcony will be right up against somebody's window. Is this right? Did you experience this on your cruise? Also did the boat travel mainly in the night time? Did you have longer stays in port or you left pretty early ( I mean around 5-6 pm as ocean liners do). Did you make the use of your buttler? Did you have food delivered to your room?

Thanks for your feedback!

 

We did Budapest to Amsterdam. Yes sometimes you are tied up to another boat but thats just part of river cruising. My impression was that we cruised during the daytime through the scenic and interesting parts of the river and we cruised some of the more boring bits during the night. So unlike ocean cruising there was no set routine. For instance you might visit a small town in the morning and sometime in the afternoon set off on a short two or three hour cruise to your next stop. Wherever we visited we always seemed to have enough time to see what we wanted to see. Sometimes the places of interest are a coach ride away from the river but with the excursions prepaid, including the tips (one guide assured us that they do receive the payments from Scenic), it is well worth taking some time to consider your options.

[rustylink]

We are now back from our cruise of a lifetime! back from the 2009-10 Scenic Tours Christmas New Year Cruise and all I have to say at the moment is.... If you are considering a cruise with Scenic Tours, on any of their Space-Ships, make sure that you DO NOT get a cabin anywhere further Aft than Cabin 327, especially the upgrades 330-336 or the Junior Suites. These Plots definitely have the ultimate STAY AWAKE ALL NIGHT remedy.:rolleyes::mad:

[rustylink]

Well, I went on the Scenic Tours cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest on their Christmas New Year cruise 2009-10 and let me warn anyone who travels with them to make sure that you DO NOT have any cabin further back than 227 on the middle deck or 328 on the Danube deck!

 

My wife and I took the 16 day with upgrade and butler service so that this would be the holiday of a lifetime, something never to forget.

 

We paid top dollar for the experience. Being the first time on a river cruise was going to be exciting! we couldn't wait!

 

We went to Paris first to whet the appetite then onto Amsterdam. The Scenic Diamond was a sight worth seeing, the fisrt night was at the jetty and we set sail on the afternoon of the next day.

 

The ship travelled all night to get to Cologne and let me tell you that the cabin shook and vibrated so much that my wife was nauseated and physically sick all night.

 

The next day we looked like death warmed up! We voiced our complaint to the powers to be on board and were told that it is normal, this went on for 6 nights until we got to Nuremberg where we were able to get a change of cabin to a lower deck and without our butler service.

 

Also be aware that if a doctor has to be called to see you onboard that it is going to cost you about $500 for 5 minutes.

 

Truly this really was a river cruise to remember! for all the wrong reasons!

 

Maybe we should not have tried to book with an Aussie company and just stick to the Europeans who really do know how to build a ship!

[lowlander]

I agree so completely with the positive parts of Penang's review of this wonderful Scenic Ruby cruise that I wasn't going to add anything. However a couple of points that Rustylink made should be answered. I'm sorry that his experience was not as enjoyable as ours, but acknowledge that we were in Cabin 310, well forward, on the Danube deck. He is of course correct - the rear cabins are a problem according to anyone I've met who travelled in one. But all the Scenic ships are European built so his comment about the "Aussie company" doesn't really apply.

Doctors along the rivers did indeed come aboard and some passengers had to make brief visits to hospital, but that had nothing to do with the merits of the cruise, and no one was charged the kind of cost that Rustylink quotes.

I'll just take this opportunity to add to Penang's comment about entertainment. The program said modestly that a local choir would come on board in the evening in Cologne to sing Christmas carols. It was in fact a major choir from Cologne Cathedral, one of the best trained choirs I've heard, which presented a wonderful program and this is an example of the quality of the artists who came on board.

[BandMVictoria]

We also travelled on the Scenic Spaceship MS Ruby and what a disaster the trip was.

We upgraded to the Danube Deck – Cabin 333. For the whole cruise there was an obnoxious and most definitely unhealthy, stench of sewage in our cabin. One of the quick fixes (???) by Scenic staff involved “fumigating” the cabin by spraying toilet freshener all around in an attempt to camouflage the stench. It reinforced one’s impression of living in a public toilet block! It’s not pleasant when you have to leave your cabin’s balcony door open in subzero temperatures to attempt to clear the smell!

The “state of art, biological vacuum toilet system” intermittently failed to flush and then completely broke down so that half the Danube deck, including us, were without working toilets for 48 hours. Not a nice experience to have an unflushed toilet in your cabin for more than a day. The only option for us all was to join the queue for the two public toilets adjacent to the dining room.

Still it wasn’t as bad as the cabins which were flooded or had effluent spewing back into their bathroom.

We also experienced severe vibration in our cabin being at the rear of the ship. We have a four minute DVD showing the vibration is so bad that the trims around the mirror became repeatedly dislodged, things fell off shelves, glasses rattled… (You should see the video – it’s a shocker!) It sounded and felt like the ship was going to break in two. It made sleeping impossible.

The food and entertainment were certainly NOT “Five Star”. For example, vegetables were rarely seen at dinner, food in the bain-marie was often luke-warm or cold. Often the food served to us was undercooked and had to be redone. The Christmas feast was woeful.

It was our trip of a lifetime, and one we will also remember for all the wrong reasons.

When the toilets failed we emailed Scenic Head Office in Australia pleading for help. This was ignored. A response eventually came after we complained via our travel agent. Scenic staff on board offered no alternative accommodation or assistance except to use toilet air fresheners in an attempt to eradicate the stench.

Since arriving home Scenic’s response has been tardy, dismissive and just not interested. They have claimed that there have not been ongoing problems with the sewage smell, the vacuum toilet system or the severe vibration. They also stated there have been no other complaints from passengers! Scenic also claimed in a letter “we were not aware of any issues on the Ruby prior to your embarkation.”

We have spoken to other people who have complained about our cruise, including passengers on the sister ship Diamond which shadowed us this cruise. This and another site list numerous unhappy passengers with similar problems dating back into last year.

Scenic’s advertised “Setting New Standards of Excellence” leaves much to be desired. We have been patient and expected to be listened to and to have our complaints dealt with fairly. Months later we have still had no joy with Scenic. We could not, in good faith, recommend our river cruise experience to anyone.

[pully8]

thank you for sharing your experiences. sorry to hear you had such a vile time. compensation needs to be given i would think?

 

it sounds a potential health hazard the way you described the plumbing problems.

 

not very satisfactory at all.

[BandMVictoria]

If you want to experience the Scenic "5 star luxury" cabins check out this:

 

 

 

Its an example of the excessive vibration and noise many have had to put up with. Good luck trying to sleep through this.

 

This was taken on the Danube (top) deck, Scenic Ruby, during the Christmas/New Year Cruise 2009/10.

 

 

 

 

PS Don't forget the broken toilet and the room stank of sewage most of the time. Other cabins were flooded.