Scenic Tours Jewels of Europe cruise review

[Travelbyboat]

My husband and I just got back from the Jewels of Europe river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Right from the start I must note that this type of cruise is not for younger audience. We are in our thirties and felt trapped on the boat considering that Scenic doesn't have privileges of other well established river cruise boats. There was a lot of cruising during the day, average stay in ports was about 2-3 hours. For someone who wants to do a lot of sightseeing and not feel rushed all the time to hurry back to the ship before it leaves you will be greatly dissapointed. Scenic should definitely think about changing their arrival/departure schedule to allow more time in ports and more overnights. I saw a lot of AMA and Viking ships arrive much earlier and dock overnight. As you may think docking in a port of call requires a reservation probably set years ahead so AMA, Viking, Uniworld being well established companies will be ahead in this. Also keep in mind that docking space is limited in ports of call. It leaves no space for Scenic and this is why they do a lot of crusing or drifting even if close to port, and have to leave early or arrive late.

Food is decent, but definitely not gourmet as you may expect. There is almost no seafood, portions are limited. When you ask for additional plate you mostly likely will hear "no" and you almost feel guity about asking for more because nobody else does. We were told that the food is prepared for exact number of persons on board. Thank God we booked a Royal Suite which had a butler. Right from the start we asked that we get sandwiches in our room by 10:30 pm because we are going to bed late. Our friends who had a lower category cabin came by at that time and we ordered for them as well. Otherwise they would have no food beyond 7 pm. White wine was decent, reds were horrible. Our Royal Suite was ok, nothing special, very plain decor. We loved our balcony, this is definitely a plus when traveling on a river cruise. TV entertainment is very limited, there is not a wide on demand selection. The strongest points I note here were the service of the staff on Scenic Emerald (including our butler Sveto and cruise director Werney). The crew on Emerald did outstanding job. Dining room was serviced very well. I can note the same thing about Scenic Saphire which we got transfered to because our boat couldn't pass underneath the low bridge in Germany. Scenic Saphire service was not good at all, we always had to ask in the dining room for someone to help us with food/drinks unlike the Scenic Emerald where staff always anticipated what you need and when. Boat to boat service difference was tremendous. We are greatful that we started off with the Emerald and stayed on it for 75% of our cruise. 25% stay on Saphire was terrible and the only things that compensated for it were the beauty of Vienna and Budapest, our latest ports of call. One more thing I can note is that Emerald was not built like Saphire (even though Scenic will likely tell you this). Emerald steel is much thicker and the boat looks better appointed than Saphire. We were in the same Royal Suite on Emerald and Scenic. We couldn't hear a thing on Emerald, on Saphire we couldn't make a late evening phonecall to relatives because the couple next door (also in the Royal Suite) told us that they could hear everything and wanted to go to sleep earlier. We could hear every cabin door close, every person walk by on the deck on Saphire. At 6 am we were waken up by footsteps of someone jogging on the sun deck. We could hear the noise and vibration of Saphire in our Royal Suite cabin when the boat was moving full speed. This wasn't the case when the boat was drifting slowly. Overall soundproofing on the Saphire is bad. Of course we wouldn't have known the difference should we not have a chance to switch from Emerald to Saphire at the end of the trip. If you expect a 5* cruise as promised you will be disappointed as were other American/Canadian couples staying in other 3 Royal Suites we talked to. This is a solid 3.5* cruise. The ports of call were beautiful and we are not sorry we went on this cruise. However I feel that Scenic is not ready for an American market (99% of the passengers were Australians). I now see that Australians are very close in their demand to Europeans, not super high standards or expectations. For example on one of the excursions we were sitting on the bus and it was very warm inside, we were waiting for all people to get on board the bus before we could leave. Everybody was sweating but not a single person walked up to the driver and asked him to put air conditioning on. I did and almost felt guilty. There are a lot of things Scenic must improve before they compete on the US market. Overall we are happy that went on this cruise, this was a different experience. If you ask would I do it again I would probably say no until river cruise industry comes up to the same standards as ocean cruises.

[caviargal]

Right from the start I must note that this type of cruise is not for younger audience. We are in our thirties and felt trapped on the boat considering that Scenic doesn't have privileges of other well established river cruise boats. There was a lot of cruising during the day, average stay in ports was about 2-3 hours. For someone who wants to do a lot of sightseeing and not feel rushed all the time to hurry back to the ship before it leaves you will be greatly dissapointed.

 

Food is decent, but definitely not gourmet as you may expect. There is almost no seafood, portions are limited. When you ask for additional plate you mostly likely will hear "no" and you almost feel guity about asking for more because nobody else does. If you ask would I do it again I would probably say no until river cruise industry comes up to the same standards as ocean cruises.

 

I am sorry you did not enjoy your trip and were disappointed with Scenic. From your description, I would not have enjoyed it either.

 

As for port stays and overnights, this information is readily available before hand. Long days in ports and overnight stays are musts for us, as we do not care to be on the boat during the days. So we book accordingly. That issue could have been avoided with the proper research.

 

We are very active and like to get out and about on our own so we choose ports carefully. AMA offers bicycles and we intend to try them next for even more flexibility in port explorations.

 

I disagree that river cruise lines are not up to the same standards as ocean cruises. As with ocean cruises, there are the Carnivals as well as the Crystals and you get what you pay for - as well as what you research to see what would be the best fit for your own priorities.

 

I had fresh fish every night on my Avalon cruise. We were always asked if we wanted more of anything but had more than enough to eat.

 

And I enjoyed the red wines served and am fairly particular about my wines.

 

We had a standard french balcony cabin and found it as large and as well appointed as our balcony cabins on RCI, X and HAL.

 

Again, it sounds like choosing Scenic and that particular itinerary were the real reasons for your disappointment. I personally do not feel a generalization of all river cruise companies and experiences not being up to ocean cruise is appropriate or accurate.

[Ozjohnno]

I've read a number of reviews now on Scenic Tours and love them or hate them there appears to be a constant throughout and that's changing ships mid-cruise because of water levels. During the same period of travel you never seem to read about any other cruise line having similar problems. Maybe Scenic did not do their homework before starting this European adventure and have vessels with different drafts to the other cruise lines. I'm an Australian and we looked at Scenic Tours for our cruise next year but they were more expensive than Tauck and we didn't like what we'd read about them.

[Travelbyboat]

Caviargal,

 

You may be right, my experience is based only on Scenic Tours and not any other company because I only had Scenic experience. But as you can imagine if you pay US%15k for a river cruise portion alone and have the same experience it will likely turn you off completely from the other river cruise experiences, this is the privelege of being the first opportunity. If it is spoiled you are not likely to make another similar trip again even on a different company. My experience on the ocean cruises (not Seabourn, not Crystal) were on on the Princess and Royal Caribbean and I felt they were better suited for an American market food/service/time in ports wise.

[caviargal]

Caviargal,

 

My experience on the ocean cruises (not Seabourn, not Crystal) were on on the Princess and Royal Caribbean and I felt they were better suited for an American market food/service/time in ports wise.

 

That is interesting. Were there mostly Europeans on your river cruise? Our Avalon sailing was North Americans and Australians.

 

My last few cruises on RCI were such disappointments in the food department - not to mention being overrun with misbehaving children and bratty teens. We booked specialty dining every night on our last half dozen ocean cruises (HAL and RCI) to avoid the mediocre food and rushed service as well as the loud and large main dining rooms.

 

As for ports, we enjoyed getting on and off without tendering, without waiting in line with hundreds/thousands of other passengers, without being subjected to a search so they could make sure we were not "smuggling" aboard a bottle of wine (heaven forbid we want to drink a nice bottle in our cabin and not pay exorbitant prices) and also enjoyed the port locations that were not overrun with ships. On ocean cruises, it is common to have a number of ships in port, each dumping off a couple of thousand people. The ports have lost a lot of their charm, at least for us.

 

It has been 2.5 years since we have done an ocean cruise and we will only do another when we can swing one on a small ship - under 700 passengers - that presents an interesting itinerary. We are over the rest of them as the experience is not something we enjoy any longer. We are happy to fly to the Caribbean and spend time at a resort that suits us, rather than take any more homogenized large ship cruises.

 

I think that the type of cruise one chooses is more a matter of individual travel style and expectations and not a matter of what is "suited" for an American market.

 

That's just my opinion based on one river cruise so far and well over 100 ocean cruises.

[lincs]

I did the cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest and was expecting 5* service. The lasting impression was that the brochure was good and they are good at marketing......

This was at best 3/4* but at a luxury 5* price and there are many other lines which would be just as good at £1000 or so per person less.

Cabin were fine, bed linen towels and housekeeping excellent but not much else. They may be slightly bigger cabins but that includes the balcony and often in Europe the weather is not good enough to use the balcony - the bed is so big that you can not even get a chair in it.

Food was at best mediocre and service not that good. I hate it when waiter have dirty clothes.

These cruises tend to be mainly australians who are good company but they have a lot of sun anyway and tend not to use the upper deck so perhaps that was why they did not have waiter service, towels or even mattresses for laying out in the sun.

Itinerary not too bad but rushed and a bit superficial but for a taste of central europe quite good.

Above all very poor value for money and not the luxury they claimed, which I expected or paid for - would not use them again.

[LHT28]

I did the cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest and was expecting 5* service. The lasting impression was that the brochure was good and they are good at marketing......

This was at best 3/4* but at a luxury 5* price and there are many other lines which would be just as good at £1000 or so per person less.

 

 

what other river cruise lines have you used before & how does it compare to Scenic?

[cormike1]

I have to agree with one of the earlier posters that if you do your research and really know what you like and dislike, then you can have a wonderful river cruise. We have been on 3 (another coming up in Feb) and with 3 different companies and enjoyed all of them. Each company was different, each ship was different and we knew ahead of time what to expect. With the internet there should be no surprises with your cabin, tours,etc. From reading your posting "travelbyboat" I think you were expecting it to be like a cruise ship and they certainly aren't. What they offer though is a very relaxed way of seeing places in Europe that the big cruise ships can't get to. When you say they are not geared to the American market, what is the American market supposed to be like. I think if you look up where alot of these companies have head offices, you would see that they are out of the U.S. I don't know about Scenic but we had lots of Americans and Aussies on our cruises and I didn't hear a lot of complaints about the cruise. I love the fact that 2000 people are not getting off the boat like they are with the large cruise ships. There have been all ages on the river cruises we have taken so I don't think you should specifically say young people would not enjoy them. Our Princess cruise on the Golden to Hawaii this past Oct/Nov had huge amounts of people of average age I would say at about 75. Did it bother us that we were way younger...no we talked to alot of people and met wonderful people from all over the world. That is one of the reasons we love travelling...the people, the scenery and the history are the fun part of our vacations. River cruising is not for everyone but it is a great way to see some small towns/villages that you would not get to see otherwise. All I can recommend is research, research, research!