Scenic Cruisers: When did you receive your final documents?

[TrojanGal]

Scenic cruisers - when did you receive your final cruise documents?  The land portion of our Gems of the Danube cruise starts June 24. We haven’t received anything from Scenic yet via email or mail. 

[LA88]

Same here.  Jewel of Europe starts June 27 but we'll be staying at the Scenic Hotel on the 25th.  Nothing yet as of today.   TA said Scenic is behind on paperwork and most likely we'll be getting an electronic (email) package instead.

[texasstar]

We received our documents by email about 3 weeks prior because I hounded the travel agent.  We were going over early.  The box with the backpacks, luggage tags and official documents came after we left.  I did not know where the ship was docked until the day before we boarded because I called the ship and asked.

[Host Jazzbeau]

We got the box with the backpacks [too heavy to bring anyway] and other stuff [all unnecessary] after we had left.  We did get the electronic documents [not necessary to have in hard copy] in time.  Bottom line is that there is nothing you need, except the exact location of the ship – and since you'll be on the Scenic land portion you don't even need to know that.

[TrojanGal]

1 hour ago, LA88 said:

Same here.  Jewel of Europe starts June 27 but we'll be staying at the Scenic Hotel on the 25th.  Nothing yet as of today.   TA said Scenic is behind on paperwork and most likely we'll be getting an electronic (email) package instead.

We are also staying in a Scenic booked hotel, in Prague. I have no idea how we get from the airport to the hotel even though Scenic is supposed to provide transportation. My TA was able to get the hotel name from Scenic just in case they drop the ball at the airport. These days I  just have to pack my patience and hope for the best. We booked this trip in 2019 and it has been canceled 3 times. We are really looking forward to traveling international again! 

[jimmymac613]

2 hours ago, TrojanGal said:

We are also staying in a Scenic booked hotel, in Prague. I have no idea how we get from the airport to the hotel even though Scenic is supposed to provide transportation. My TA was able to get the hotel name from Scenic just in case they drop the ball at the airport. These days I  just have to pack my patience and hope for the best. We booked this trip in 2019 and it has been canceled 3 times. We are really looking forward to traveling international again! 

We’re currently on a Scenic cruise.  We left early and spent 4 days in Amsterdam before the cruise.  When we left we had not yet received our backpacks, however, we received everything that we needed through e-mail via our TA about a week before we left including all of the transfer information for pickup at the airport.

[Canal archive]

Jimmymac613 when you arrive at the airport just act like any normal VIP and look out for your name being displayed by what may seem to be some random person at the barrier.

[LA88]

11 hours ago, jimmymac613 said:

We’re currently on a Scenic cruise.  We left early and spent 4 days in Amsterdam before the cruise.  When we left we had not yet received our backpacks, however, we received everything that we needed through e-mail via our TA about a week before we left including all of the transfer information for pickup at the airport.

Thanks. I was wondering what will happen if Scenic don't pick us up at the airport in Amsterdam.  Do we call Scenic then or just take a taxi to the airport on our own?  Hope my email package will have the airport pickup information.  9 days counting down and no package or email from Scenic yet.  Zero communication from Scenic so far and I'm just relying on this forum for info.  Our first river cruise.

[jimmymac613]

12 hours ago, LA88 said:

Thanks. I was wondering what will happen if Scenic don't pick us up at the airport in Amsterdam.  Do we call Scenic then or just take a taxi to the airport on our own?  Hope my email package will have the airport pickup information.  9 days counting down and no package or email from Scenic yet.  Zero communication from Scenic so far and I'm just relying on this forum for info.  Our first river cruise.

Scenic didn’t stand there holding a sign at the Amsterdam airport like some of the other companies.  They tell you to go to the Burger King and in front of it there is a place with a “Meeting Point” sign.

[Canal archive]

Jimmymac613 huge no no that’s not Scenic it’s the pick up company complain bitterly to Scenic. We’ve had similar instances in various parts of the world not with Scenic the worst in Singapore at Eede when a judicious application of the backhander soerted things out but not to the happiness of the locals

[Host Jazzbeau]

11 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Jimmymac613 huge no no that’s not Scenic it’s the pick up company complain bitterly to Scenic. We’ve had similar instances in various parts of the world not with Scenic the worst in Singapore at Eede when a judicious application of the backhander soerted things out but not to the happiness of the locals

We had the opposite situation:  Scenic official documents said to meet opposite the Gare du Nord in Paris, but the driver was inside the station with our name.

[Canal archive]

We had both in Paris but the driver and his assistant then had to break the news that we were in a hotel for the night and not at the boat. First cruise and the de-marinisation  took longer than they thought. Although still the transfer companies decision but I don’t think they wanted to loose anyone.
 

[English Tim]

We got the backpacks by post from Scenic on same day we got email from TA.

 

Scenic acknowledge big communication problems but once on travels all wonderful.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:38 PM, TrojanGal said:

I have no idea how we get from the airport to the hotel even though Scenic is supposed to provide transportation.

 

Agree that contact info for your transfer person with an explanation of where to meet them will be included in your email.

Our transfer driver called us at the Lisbon airport when it was taking an inordinate amount of time to come out of immigration because of lost luggage.  He assured us he would wait however long it took. I think he was carrying a Scenic sign.

Had all the same pre-cruise concerns about Scenic's lack of communication, but once we started our pre-cruise tour all was well. Communication and service "on the ground" were excellent.

[loriva]

Our emailed final documents from Scenic--received two weeks before our trip because we asked to have them "expedited"--included a transfer voucher and a fairly vague description to look for the driver outside customs.  We've arranged for drivers before and always found them in the appointed place holding a sign with our names on it and expected the same from Scenic upon arrival in Vienna on 14 June.

 

Lufthansa had, however, decided we wanted to spend an additional four hours in Frankfurt airport.  (Our arriving flight was an hour late and by the time we cleared immigration, the additional security you need to pass through despite being a transfer, and made it to our gate we had the joy of watching our aircraft pulling away from the gate.  (Lessons learned:  plan on three hours between flights in Frankfurt.  Also, if your gate is a long distance from where you exit security stop at the first gate and ask them to call your gate and tell them you are coming a quickly as you can.  We saw someone else do that when we were waiting to board our flight.)

 

Immediately called the number Scenic provides for contact in Europe.  Spoke to an agent and gave her our new flight information.  She said she would call the local service provider and have the driver waiting.

 

When we arrived in Vienna, however, there was no driver.  Called Scenic again and this agent told us she did not see anything in our record about a delayed/new arrival flight.  She checked again with the local transit company, then called us back and told us to take a taxi to the hotel and Scenic would reimburse us.  When we met the Tour Director the next day, he asked for our receipt and promised to reimburse us.

 

To be continued in a separate thread on our full cruisetour experience.