Scenic Cruise Lines NOT Spectacular

[SBN]

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!!

[Roz]

River cruises can turn into bus tours for a variety of reasons.  It can be very disappointing, but Scenic got you to the places on the itinerary.  

[SBN]

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.  

[Gourmet Gal]

High or low water levels can affect cruises the same and the bus tour is the way it’s usually handled without any additional compensation - most cruise lines reserve the right to do so in writing.  Check your small print to determine if Scenic met their obligation to you.  I’m not sure how much you really missed in terms of “cruising” as most of it takes place at night.

[Kristelle]

 

 

Sorry to hear your trip was messed up like that.

 

We had a magnificent 14 day cruise with Scenic and would book with them again.

Can't comment on how crises were handled as we didnt have any.

 

However  I did book a Mekong River cruise  and somebody from Scenic was suppossed to contact me  couple of weeks ago to discuss it - and so far, nobody has.

So perhaps their cruises are good but their sales service not so much.

 

anyway below is copy and paste from their Europe River cruise book, so this tells you what compensation they will pay.

 

Are you being compensated $450 per person per day - which would seem within their stated amounts? 

Did you have choice to disembark and get full refund for non taken part of cruise? If so, they will say you could of exercised that if you were unhappy with arrangements?

 

What does an itinerary deviation look like? How could it impact my trip and how might I be compensated?

Minor Disruption Coaches transfer guests from their original Space-Ship to a new one on the other side of the obstruction. These ‘ship swaps’ are performed with the least impact possible with your Cruise Director accompanying you onto the new ship with all belongings. You will be accommodated in a suite of the same type and value; should this not be possible you will be compensated the difference in the value of the suites.

Prolonged Disruption Coaches may be used to transfer guests to included sightseeing locations, while continuing to be accommodated on your Scenic Space-Ship. A prolonged disruption may also require the Space-Ships to continuously cruise without stopping for touring. Under Scenic’s River Cruise Cover you will be compensated between $100-$200 per person, per day of the disruption should we not be able to fulfill the sightseeing listed in the itinerary.

Extended/ Major Disruption Accommodation may need to be provided off-ship in hotels with all meals provided. To the best of our ability, we ensure hotels are of similar standard to your Space-Ship. Meals will be included, however, alcoholic drinks and amenities such as butler service, may or may not be included. Touring is by coach. As we understand this experience will not be same as being on board a Space-Ship, under Scenic’s River Cruise Cover you will be compensated based on the suite category booked, between $300-$800 per person, per day for up to seven days. Alternatively, a full refund for the remainder of the cruise may apply should you choose to disembark and end the journey.

[Host Jazzbeau]

19 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

Under Scenic’s River Cruise Cover you will be compensated between $100-$200 per person, per day of the disruption should we not be able to fulfill the sightseeing listed in the itinerary.

 

3 hours ago, SBN said:

The[y] did get us daily by bus to these locations.

Since SBN admits that Scenic did get them to all the sightseeing listed in the itinerary, they are not entitled to any compensation.  Therefore it seems that what Scenic offered is a good will gesture, not a legal requirement.

 

3 hours ago, SBN said:

Simple math reveals we missed out on about 40% of our "cruise".

No, you may have lost 40% of your cruising but you did not lose 40% of your cruise or of your trip.

 

If the amount offered combined with the quality of the trip enjoyed doesn't satisfy your expectations, there are plenty of other river cruise lines to try.  But in my experience it will be hard to find one that equals Scenic's quality overall.

[SBN]

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.

[Kristelle]

You didn't answer my question whether it is $450 per person per day

 

You didn't mention 'complexities regarding food and cabin services' in your previous posts - what does that mean exactly? 

 

Yes of course it is disappointing but I'm not sure Scenic are doing other than their brochure says they will do.

[terry&mike]

Admittedly, Scenic has always had a less than stellar administrative side. Their home office communication, and pre and post cruise service and responses leave a lot to be desired. This has been the case going far back before Covid. 

 

But to counter that, the Scenic onboard experience, from cabins to staff to tours to care to food and beverages, is the top in the river cruising market. 

 

It is unfortunate that you had an incident while sailing, that impeded the ship's ability to continue to sail, and now you are stuck dealing with the administrative side of Scenic, which is their weak point. 

 

Two things to keep in mind, you lost some of your sailing time which was swapped for time on a bus, but you did not lose your accomodations, service, food & beverages, care, and touring, which are most of the value of the product. The second thing, is that you mention they communicated with your travel agent rather than directly with you. There are agreements in place that when a guest books through a travel agent (in the US, not sure about other countries), the travel agent becomes the representative of the guest and the cruise line should communicate through this avenue. 

 

I'm sorry you were disapointed, but hope you found a way to enjoy this lovely area of France, and the other benefits of the Scenic product. Travel is a bumpy road for sure, so I'm always of the mind to make the best of whatever situation occurs as I realize how fortunate I am to be out seeing the world. 

 

Wishing you future Happy Travels on whatever line you choose. 

[SBN]

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+.  

  

[Canal archive]

Personally others on CC will know that I have been and still am a big supporter of Scenic and I know they as a company are not perfect. So if you are so positive as to the inaccuracies of the Captains and through him Scenics statements of the occurrence then you should report it to the correct authorities, these should be pretty straight forward to find through the internet. If not for your own satisfaction but towards the safety of future customers not only of Scenic but other cruise companies because if as you say one can do it then so could others.

[notamermaid]

Wow! What a shock. Glad to hear you were let us say somewhat fortunate and recovered quickly.

 

May there have been staff injuries? Sounds as if something was not right.

 

You say it was foggy, always a more potentially dangerous situation. Not sure about weather conditions on the Rhone, was there already fog? I mean when did you sail you have not given a date or month?

 

You say they never got back to you. What was the time frame?

 

I agree with Canal archive that if you are sure that this was handled far too poorly do contact authorities.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Kristelle]

56 minutes ago, SBN said:

With that said, here is the rest of the story for those who still feel the need to offer support to Scenic.

 

 

You seem to be seeing this as us vs them.

 

I dont think anybody is blindly supporting Scenic so much as sharing their own experiences and, in my last post, the direct words of Scenic in their brochure about compensation for missed touring.

 

If you are being offerred $450 per person per day (you still havent clarified that, not sure why?) then that seems within the amounts stated in their fine print - not that fine, was in regular size writing and easily found in their literature.

 

I think you need to cut the staff a bit of slack for poor service that evening - if items in kitchen were broken, food lost, staff minor injuries - seems possible in scenario you describe - then I think they were doing their best in the unforeseen circumstances

Odd that it continued at deteriorated level for rest of trip

 

I have had a great experience with Scenic but my above comments would be same for any other company

[SBN]

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. 

[notamermaid]

Okay, were you on the Scenic Sapphire in April? I recall reading about that accident briefly.

 

notamermaid

 

[SBN]

Yes, April 11 departure from Lyon

[SBN]

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

 

[notamermaid]

Thanks for the info.

 

French newspapers reported. This one says no one was injured... which is not what you saw clearly:

https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/drome-un-bateau-de-tourisme-et-de-commerce-se-percutent-a-chateauneuf-du-rhone-6994203

 

And it was followed up by stating that the ship was immobilized for three days and then allowed to leave the following morning with a rather benign tone to the whole article: https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/transports/ardeche-la-croisiere-immobilisee-dans-le-port-de-viviers-devrait-partir-ce-lundi-soir-7001050

 

Not sure that there is anything more you can do apart from telling other people of your experience - which you have done here. Someone else by the way did so earlier this year in a review: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=703195

Edit: I think this the one you have just posted.

 

Sorry, what an experience.

 

I hope all your travels since then have been without problem. Safe travels from here on.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited October 10, 2023 by notamermaid

[SBN]

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!!

[Kristelle]

4 hours ago, SBN said:

 

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.

 

  I don't think anyone is particularly supporting Scenic. 

 

Just trying to give perspective and of course we could only go on information given.

 

There are several other unfavourable reviews relating to the incident or to Scenic in general? 

 

 

[Little Monty]

3 hours ago, SBN said:

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!!

 

I've had good experiences with Scenic but am aware things don't always go to plan. I do feel for you and your fellow passengers. The whole experience sounds dreadful.

 

I'm not sure if you are aware of this case below ... which took more than 10 years to resolve ;

 

Scenic forced to pay $26 million in settlement - Cruise Passenger

 

This is a summary of the actual court case;

 

High Court uncaps damages for disappointment and distress in cruise ship class action | Australia | Global law firm | Norton Rose Fulbright

 

As best I understand, the complainants in the court case were all Australians protected by Australian consumer legislation.

 

I note in one of the attached reviews the word 'bankruptcy' is used. There is no suggestion that I am aware of that the Australian operations have faced such a situation and Scenic continues to advertise and operate as normal - so I assume this may be a reference to a UK based subsidiary or something similar.

 

Best wishes.

LM

 

 

[Canal archive]

The above company involved was Evergreen an Australian subsidiary or offshoot of Scenic, but I must admit I thought the complainants were American (I most probably got that wrong)  I’m also wary of 10 years as it’s been resolved for some time and I’ve only been aware of CC for 10 years. 
Although bringing up this case is unhelpful as all river cruise companies learnt a lesson from this legislation and regardless of country would seem to have it covered.

 

Reading between the lines of this and other cruise line debates I’ve a horrible feeling it’s a blowback from the effects of Covid to all companies and on top for Scenic the internet hacking.

 

I reiterate this should be reported to the correct authorities in France were it occurred and Malta were the ships are flagged, or Glen Moroney himself, he’s the big cheese!

[SBN]

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". 

[Kristelle]

Re reviews about other things (ie apart from ones about this incident)  - as always, there are some negative reviews about any company - I don't see more for Scenic than others though and I read a lot of reviews

 

 

[SBN]

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