First river cruise - Amsterdam to Budapest in June 2019

[Wings55]

 

Scenic was more expensive but considering that Scenic includes gratuities and all alcohol, the difference compared to Viking wasn't that great. I spent a lot of time reading reviews on CC, studying the respective websites and watching videos. One thing I found interesting was that there are basically UK and Australian versions of the Scenic promotional videos. The UK version features what I would call a rather stuffy older male narrator (

), whereas the Australian version features a peppy blonde female. (Example:

)

 

I'm a bit puzzled by the dress code though. On this video they talk about the "casual" dress code in the Crystal Dining Room (the main dining room) and say you can wear whatever you feel most comfortable in. At that moment the video zeroes in on a Rex Tillerson lookalike in a gray pinstripe suit.

(see the 3:14-3:46 marks). Basically everyone in the restaurant looks very dressed up. We're fine with whatever the code is, but are confused by the mixed messages.

 

You and I would get along well when it comes to pre-planning. I had a whole series of spreadsheets comparing things like amenities, cabin sizes, prices, etc. Oh, I watched all those videos too. The lady is a well know Aussie TV personality. I have no clue who the dry British guy is. :)

 

As far as the what to wear on board; don't worry about the videos. During the day we wore whatever was appropriate for the weather during our excursions. In the evening I usually wore a pair of khakis and a polo shirt. I brought a sport coat for the night at the Palace but no ties. You'll be fine.

 

Paul

[junglejane]

Thanks Wings55! I appreciate the feedback on the dress code.

[Sydneyite]

We booked Scenic for July 2019 and told them we were booking our own flights. They took off $1000 from the price because they were offering airfare for $1000. We took a while to decide which line seemed best for us.

We are doing a HAL 28 day cruuse before and also it will be our first river cruise.

Thanks everyone for the feedback! We just booked the Scenic Jewel for 6/10/19. There was some confusion about the cabin selection. I was on hold with the TA who was on another line with Scenic. I wanted a BD cabin and they offered a cabin that was not shown as a BD on the American website. I was puzzled until I brought up the Australian website and noticed that the deckplan was slightly different on the Australian website (obviously more up to date). Anyway we're booked and excited about our first river cruise.