Darwould

At one of the sessions chatting about the whole trip and future available trips, our tour Director Alex opened the floor for questions and I asked about water levels. This was toward the end of the cruise, and there had been no mention before. He did say that the Scenic Jade is paired with the Scenic Jewel in the schedule so these sister ships are programmed on later cruises this year on opposite sides of a problem area for low water so that the guests in both can be swapped by bus across the low water level area to continue their respective trips if that is required. We saw the Scenic Jade three times on our trip, so it appears Scenic doesn't anticipate water level problems in the early part of the season. The other question was why the ships are registered in Malta when owned by an Australian company... and the answer was if they were registered in Australia the labour cost due to more restictive labour laws would be much higher increasing the cruise cost to passengers. . Alan

We finished our Amsterdam to Basel Scenic Jewel cruise on the 24th April with no water problems...I noted Kaub marks on the wall were down a couple of meters from flood marks as we went by. Only water issue was Strassbourg Canals were too high for the tour canal boat to go all the way round the town as water was too high to allow travel under some of the bridges... thanks for your updates... Alan

I phoned Scenic last week and during the conversation asked about the 50 euro OBC mentioned above re luggage. They said this was last year's perk and they are not offering it in 2024.

Just a "hello" to notamermaid and the rest following this thread. We are going on the Scenic Jewel April 10 - 24 from Amsterdam to Basel. It is our first European River Cruise... and we of course are wondering about the river levels, amongst other things... One thing for sure is we will find out during the cruise, like it or not!. notamermaid... I'm wondering where you live on the river, and why you got interested in continuing to monitor the river levels and post all this useful information?. Alan (Darwould)

If you book early with a deposit and changeable fare to get the stateroom you want, you can watch for the sales (sometimes only on a specific day) anytime before final payment and change to a better final price...or deal (price plus perks). However, you may lose some of the perks of the initial booking (for example, free gratuities)...it's all a trade off, but has saved us thousands of dollars over the years. We have also made a deal to get discounts from the ta in exchange for doing all the legwork... ie walking in with the info on the cruise, stateroom, and deal that is available at the time.