Scenic Sapphire Amsterdam to Budapest Cruise

[di monde]

Hi

This is my first post and first River cruise. We are booked for May, 2009 on the Scenic Sapphire - one of their new 'spaceships'. Has anybody cruised with Scenic - I'm very interested to hear of your experience.

 

Di Monde

[Alice1203]

Scenic will launch its first ship later this month so we will have to wait for feedback until that time.

[Jack1]

We are booked for July 2009 on Scenic and are hopeful someone will post reviews for this season.

Faye

[Ricky Chan]

We are booked for July 2009 on Scenic and are hopeful someone will post reviews for this season.

Faye

 

Likewise for us. anxious to read the review. This is an inaugaral season for this company.

 

Ricky

[Hideawaycouple]

Di Monde,

 

We too are booked on a Scenic Cruise (Amsterdam to Budapest) for May 2009 (departing Amsterdam May 18). It is also our first time for this type of cruise. We will also be interested to hear of any replies. One question to you - how do you know you will be on the 'Sapphire'?? Surely there will be many sailings by Scenic, judging by the departure dates so was just wondering how you find out what ship you will be on? We are looking forward to it very much.

[Ricky Chan]

Di Monde,

 

We too are booked on a Scenic Cruise (Amsterdam to Budapest) for May 2009 (departing Amsterdam May 18). It is also our first time for this type of cruise. We will also be interested to hear of any replies. One question to you - how do you know you will be on the 'Sapphire'?? Surely there will be many sailings by Scenic, judging by the departure dates so was just wondering how you find out what ship you will be on? We are looking forward to it very much.

 

Your confirmation will show the name of the ship. I also got the cabin that I requested.

 

We are taking Danube cruise in September, 2009 from Budapest to Prague

 

Ricky

[emel]

Also first time poster and River Cruiser. We've booked for Nov 3/08 from Budapest to Amsterdam. Still have to decided on hotel in Budapest. Getting a lot of good information about Budapest from others on this board. Thank you very much. We have some weather concerns but this was the only sailing available for the deck we wanted. We've been in Southern Europe in November and weather was great but not sure what to expect in Nov. further north. How can we predict anyways with the climate changes we've been having. But at least the towns should not be overly crowded. Also, with the balcony having some overhead protection, if it's raining hopefully it won't sheet down the window and obscure the view, which is a concern I read on another thread.

Anxiously awaiting some feedback from the cruises this summer. I will definitely post a review. ML

[Jack1]

ML-We will hold you to it for a review!!:) Many of us are anxiously waiting for any news once they get underway.

Faye

[di monde]

Hideawaycouple

 

We are booked on the same cruise leaving Amsterdam 18th May, 2009. We are having a couple of days in Budapest after the cruise and any recommendations for accommodation would be great!

[sanny]

I'm confused about why you say that Scenic are launching their first ship this month. I've trashed my old brochures but I know that Scenic had a couple of ships last year, are launching a couple more this year, and a couple more next year .... I'm sure that there have been many sailings to date. I agree though that there's not much talk about it. I think that the reason they may seem 'new' is because they're just launching (in a big way) into the North American market. Maybe I've heard about them well before this because I'm Australian, and they're an Australian company?? BTW my husband and I have just booked on the Scenic Diamond sailing from Amsterdam on 23 March 09. I used this site and lots of other research when making my choice.

[emel]

Sanny, The launch is in regards to their own ships, which are new this year the Scenic Emerald and Scenic Sapphire. The new ships are described as Space Ships. They will also be launching 1 or 2 more next year. The reports I read on that are contradictory. The ships they used in the past were not their own. I just posted a comment in another Scenic thread in regards to the launches this year. ML

[emel]

Hideawaycouple

 

We are booked on the same cruise leaving Amsterdam 18th May, 2009. We are having a couple of days in Budapest after the cruise and any recommendations for accommodation would be great!

 

di monde, I have no experience with Budapest hotels but I've recently booked the Best Western Parlament. For several reasons. The location, the pictures and the numerous favourable reviews and the price 95 Euros (non refundable) for the room not per person. I figured it was worth the gamble and travel insurance will cover it if we have to cancel. Even paying our own transfers we'll save $200. CND over the ScenicTours's cost for a pretour hotel for two persons for one night. Here's the site I used for the info. www.booking.com/hotel/hu/bestwesternhotelparlament.html?

You can check out other hotels as well. Good Luck, ML

[sanny]

thanks EMEL, come to think of it I do remember that in last year's brochure Scenic stated that some departures would be on MS Poetry(??). Anyway, looking forward to some feedback on the 'space-ships'. I'm booked in Cabin 323 (D Cat) so hoping someone can give me some positive feedback there??

[di monde]

Emel - thanks for the information on Budapest - I'll check out the web site. It will be great to read some reviews! :)

 

Di Monde

[GrannyLorr]

We have booked one of the Scenic cruises for November this year (17th) out of Amsterdam to Budapest. Only booked it yesterday so havent got confirmation yet....keeping fingers and toes crossed. :D I will certainly be writing a review...will be taking my laptop with me. Hopefully if wi fi is available I will be able to write as we sail along. I always do that on our Seabourn cruises. I enjoy it and others seem to as well, well at least they say they do!! :eek:

[liesure suit larry]

Hi

This is my first post and first River cruise. We are booked for May, 2009 on the Scenic Sapphire - one of their new 'spaceships'. Has anybody cruised with Scenic - I'm very interested to hear of your experience.

 

Di Monde

My first river cruise also booked scenic budapest to amsterdam july 28 2008. Not much about the "space ships" on the net, hope some one wtites a post before we leave in 8 days

[Jack1]

larry, seems like you may be the first one to sample this line. Hopefully it will be a great cruise for you and please remember to come back and post your experience for those of us who are booked.

Faye

[liesure suit larry]

larry, seems like you may be the first one to sample this line. Hopefully it will be a great cruise for you and please remember to come back and post your experience for those of us who are booked.

Faye

Hi Jack1. I feel so sorry for you guys waiting for your cruise, we have been booked since May '07 and the wait has seemed to take forever. We could have gone a bit earlier but decided to wait for the new "spaceships". We are doing the 21 day cruise 3 days Prague - cruise - 3 days Paris, also staying in Paris an extra week to do the sightseeing thing, as this is our first river cruise.

[Jack1]

Hi Larry

I know what you mean about waiting..... we booked July 2009 river cruise in Sept 2007. Had to sneak a couple other cruises in between because of my addiction to cruising. Just got off Alaskan cruise and have a Carribean cruise booked in March 2009.

We are doing 3 days in Paris precruise before the 14 night Amsterdam to budapest cruise. Please report on the precruise portion also if you don't mind. We have booked the precruise with Scenic also.

Not too much longer for you now. Safe travels!

Faye

[liesure suit larry]

Hi Faye

Are you also staying at the Scribe Hotel in Paris?

You were right about being the first on Scenic Sapphire, got a call from Scenic Tours saying the ship is still in the dock awaiting rain (go figure)

Andrew.

[orchestrapal]

Our TA just booked us for the 24 day cruise in May '10. Do you guys think Scenic will have it's act together by then? You should see the receipt they sent her... looks like a 3 year old wrote it. Hope to hear good news when they finally get going.:confused:

[Jack1]

Andrew, sorry but had to laugh at your last post! Wonder what that means? Is it stuck until it rains? We had enough of the wet stuff on our Alaskan cruise last week, should have sent it there maybe?

We are booked into scribe for next summer and are hoping to do couple days early too. Scenic said they didn't have the hotel rates yet for next year to give us (but that was a few months ago).

I am trying to figure out what would be the earliest to book flights out of Budapest once the cruise is finished. I thought I would wait a few more months before asking them that question. I think they have their hands full just trying to get this season afloat!

Ochestrapal- had to smile about your receipt, our confirmation is on revision #24 or somthing like that!! And we didn't make most of those changes! Oh well, gives me something to smile about!

Still looking forward to doing this trip with these newer ships, I am sure we will be pleased. Doesn't take too much to keep us happy. Just feed us, show us new(or old) things and give us a quiet clean room to sleep in. Shouldn't be too hard for them to do that!

Faye

[orchestrapal]

Faye:

I would not book any flights until I had a guarantee from Scenic that they were not going to change the dates of your cruise. Ask them in advance that they would pay any change charges you would incur if THEY changed the dates.

We just got their beautiful new brochure and when we called they said "none of the dates are certain, they are all subject to change."

They do scare me a little and I am glad they put in writing that the deposit we paid is "fully refundable." They also told us last week that the deposit to hold a suite was $125 and today they charged $500.:confused:

[liesure suit larry]

Faye, word is they are trying to get some inflatable pontoons to raise it to the desired level to get it into the river system, they have got their "best engineers on to it."....I'am sure things will work out okay.....stand by for updates. Maybe we wont be the first passengers! :cool:

[steamboats]

Andrew,

 

The information about launching the ship sounds pretty stupid! Actually there is enough water in the rivers here in Germany. We don´t have any low water areas right now.

 

According to Scenic´s announcement the SAPPHIRE is running since July 4th

 

http://www.modernagent.com/Resources/Editorial.aspx?n=42368

 

According to the Passau harbor website the SCENIC SAPPHIRE will be in Passau tomorrow (and this website is frequently updated).

 

steamboats