sbjornda

Watch out for an alcohol exclusion clause on out-of-country medical insurance. There is find print in some policies that say the insurance is void if ANY alcohol is found your the bloodstream. There was a story out of Australia a couple years ago of couple that was left with hefty medical bills in Switzerland because a gentleman fell down the stairs of the ship, resulting in a serious concussion, but he'd had a couple of drinks with supper - and though he was not visibly inebriated, the company invoked the clause anyway and declined to pay.

When I retired I had a choice of a couple of supplemental insurance plans, both of which covered out-of-country expenses but one of them had an alcohol exclusion clause. I went with the other, even though it was a bit more expensive, because I really want to enjoy (in moderation) the wines and beers on the cruise and don't want a cheapskate insurance company pulling a fast one on me.

Bottom line: Read the fine print. Caveat emptor. Especially if you're not a tea-totaler. 

Smaller lines often do  not use English as their main language (unless the cruise is specified as English), so be prepared. It may be difficult to understand announcements broadcast over the speaker system, some of which may be safety-related, schedule changes, etc. I have no direct experience with TUI, though. Their web site appears to be all in Dutch, so I doubt they're marketing to an English-speaking audience, but if you're comfortable with Dutch (or whatever the language of that specific cruise is), you'll be fine. 

In general, the "sticky" threads at the top of this page are an excellent place to start learning about river cruising - lots of bang for the buck.

Best wishes,

Sterling

Certainly that's not the case with Scenic river cruises. Once the ship is docked you are free to come & go as you will. You just need to check out / check in so they have a head count before sailing on. 

It's more a matter of upstream vs. downstream. When sailing upstream you are slightly more likely to experience engine noise and vibration as you sail against the current, but unless there's a flood going on, this is likely not to be very significant. Folks on the lowest deck or nearest the propulsion system are more likely to notice. When sailing downstream with the current you often travel faster; if you're on the top deck trying to photograph things as you sail past, you'll have less time to compose the shot. I would say the average passenger won't notice the difference unless it's pointed out to them.

The river itself is no different either direction. It meanders enough that sometimes you'll have the sun on your side of the ship and sometimes you won't. If the scenery is a major attraction for you, you'll likely be in a lounge or top deck so you can see both banks of the river rather than in your cabin. There's good stuff on both sides. When docked, the captain usually points the bow upstream; if you have to "raft" alongside another ship in dock it really is up to chance whether the ship you're rafted to is on your port or starboard (or maybe both).

The other factor is where you want to spend your time before & after the cruise itself. If you're traveling directly from home, you may wish to consider flying a few days early to a) start adjusting to the time zone and b) give yourself a cushion in case your air travel is disrupted. Then the consideration will be which city you want to spend some time in. Similarly at the end of the cruise, are you flying straight home or spending more time in Europe? That may help you decide where you want the cruise to end. 

2 hours ago, mapsd said:

I was curious if its commonplace to have ALL of your laundry done daily, or is it considered tacky, or an abuse of the system to have things cleaned every day?

 

Do we feel safe having delicates/fine washables done?

It's perfectly fine to get stuff done daily, especially in a Royal Suite. Your butler is there to serve you.

As for delicates... you're taking your chances, but (especially for Royal Suite passengers) you should feel free to ask your butler for advice. And think carefully whether it's worth your while to take anything delicate or expensive with you; for us, at least, it would create more anxiety than it's worth, and would detract from the overall experience. Everyone is different, though.

The short answer to your question is "Yes" - you can pack fewer clothes and get your laundry reliably returned every day, provided that you put it in the bag in the morning in time for them to pick up. It's very easy and convenient. 

Just be aware that towards the end of the trip they shut down the laundry service a day early (at least according to my 2 experiences with them). If you're flying straight home after the trip it's probably not a bother, but if you're traveling onward, you'll need a few items to tide you over to your next laundry spot.

19 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

This will be a good test of their customer service!

I wish you the best of luck with that. I found that, while their on-board customer service was top-notch, they do have a bad  habit of letting non-standard administrative questions (e.g. something that their support people can't answer by simply looking up a FAQ) fall between the cracks in their bureaucracy. I hope you get an answer; I asked via email about their choice of route through the Netherlands a couple of years ago and received nothing other than an automated message that my question  had been received. Complete crickets since then. Maybe since your question potentially affects a sale, they'll pay attention. Best wishes. 

20 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

Thanks.  I'm trying to figure out how the slightly larger PD suite would feel.  The bathroom seems larger and better laid out (really big shower).  Otherwise the extra width seems to give a small wall unit next to the balcony – is that more storage, or a desk?

Have you used the "Virtual Tour" on their web site? That might help. I thought PD and BD were the same size on the Scenic Gem, which is their Seine ship?

In terms of choosing a size, some considerations:

• How much time do you think you'll spend in the cabin vs. the public areas of the ship? If you're a more private person you might want to spend more time in the cabin, so the larger space might be appropriate. If you plan to spend very little time in your cabin, you can save some money.
• How large are you and your traveling companion? The extra foot or two at the end of the bed might be useful if you're frequently having to walk past each other. If one or both of you are on the "plus" size, you'll likely appreciate the extra space. 
• How long is the trip? For short trips we don't need as much space, but for longer trips we want extra room so as not to feel cooped up.

We've done the Royal Balcony aka Royal One Bedroom suite twice, and loved it, though of course it does hit the pocket book quite a bit harder. Both were 14 day cruises. On our next one, probably Douro for 11 days, we're going to try the Deluxe Balcony PD/BD. We poked our nose into several suites at the end of the cruises, once they were vacated, and I don't think we would want anything smaller than PD/BD for ourselves because we like some time to ourselves in the room. On the opposite end, there are folks who are happy with the smallest staterooms because they spend almost all of their time in the public areas of the ships; chacun à son goût! 

Hope that helps.

Just to expand a bit on "Priority Dining Reservations" - that would allow you to request a specific day for your L'Amour meal, rather than their simply assigning it to you whenever. If you have a wedding anniversary during the trip that might be good to have, otherwise it's probably not worth much.

I just rebooked our planned June 2021 Douro cruise to June 2022. Unfortunately the pre- and post-cruise land extension options aren't settled yet, so they advised me to check back every few months until they become available. Price held steady plus a few benefits. 

Sterling

Scenic's Romantic Rhine & Moselle includes stops in Veere, NL, which is very small, also Xanten, Cochem, Bernkastel, and Rüdesheim. Even Maastricht and Koblenz are not huge cities in comparison to, e.g., Amsterdam. It was a bit more of a relaxing cruise than the Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary.

Do you have a Travel Agent? We used a 3rd party Travel Agent for our first Scenic cruise, and that TA easily found a Prague extension for us. If you're directly using Scenic as your Travel Agent, you can always phone them up and ask.

Best wishes.

Scenic's bikes are electric-assist, which would probably not appeal to serious cyclists. There are usually one or two opportunities per trip when you can choose to cycle for a few hours along the river with a group rather than taking the daily city tour, and you're always able to forego the daily tour and take one of the cycles out on your own as long as you're back on board in time for departure. 

The river cruises are more like bus tours than ocean cruises. It's quite structured. You're in a different town or city every day, you have 1 to 2 hours of guided walking tour followed by 1 to 2 hours on your own, followed by a (usually) strict departure time. You can forego the walking tour and go wherever you want (optionally using the Scenic Tailormade software for guidance), but with Scenic you've already paid for the guided tour so it's up to you whether you find value in that. Only a few times per cruise will you be moored in one place in the evening or overnight to give you an opportunity to explore at your leisure.

The main difference from a bus tour, of course, is that your hotel moves with you; no need to pack and unpack every day or two, and you have much nicer amenities and more space to move around while travelling. And butler service, unlimited coffee, alcohol, snacks...

River cruising, like bus touring, is not to everyone's taste, but you won't know for sure until you try it. If you want to explore a particular town or area more deeply, you could consider making it part of a pre- or post-cruise vacation stop. We treat it as sort of an "overview" of an area, identifying places we might want to explore more deeply in future years. 

In Budapest it was nice to be on the starboard side because we had a great view of the parliament buildings. Other than that spot I don't think it matters much.

There's a 2018 version at https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf. I found it by browsing the UNECE site; it's linked from this page: https://www.unece.org/trans/main/sc3/where.html so hopefully one can always find the most recent version from there. 

Sterling

The Scenic Jasper was supposed to be in Regensburg today, but she appears to be stuck downstream at Passau. My guess is there's a ship swap happening.

Sterling

14 minutes ago, daveil said:

One other question I have on the Rhine.  Is their a map that shows where the locks are between Basel and Amsterdam?

 

Daveil

Here's a rather large map of Europe's inland waterways. You can zoom in and see where the locks are along that stretch.

https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf

Sterling

2 hours ago, TravelerThom said:

split-level and the forward portion of the boat is 2 level with that portion of the sun deck remaining open during the R-M-D transit. 

Scenic's ships are likewise split level. That's the only company I've used so far, so I thought that design was common. Just goes to show that I still have one or two things left to learn in life. 🙂

Thanks,
Sterling

12 hours ago, DougK said:

In these cases, if passengers are willing to forgo the port, they can instead enjoy a day of cruising.... Has anybody chosen to do this? 

I haven't done it myself, but I have seen some folks who were not feeling well stay on board. Apparently often those stretches of sailing are through territory that is industrial or otherwise uninteresting to most cruisers, and/or going through several locks (including possibly waiting hours in a queue). I'd rather explore a European town, but if I had a sprained ankle or something I can imagine far worse ways to spend time than being waited on while reading a good book aboard a river cruise ship.

I tracked the Scenic Jasper on that route last month, and it arrived in Basel at 1:30 a.m. Of course as other posters have said, there are a lot of variables. If you have the time and money you could spend a night at a hotel in Basel or Zurich that would give you a bit more control over your timing. You could also consider using Scenic as your travel agent for booking the flights; then they have a degree of responsibility to help you out if things go bad.

Sterling

17 hours ago, daveil said:

On Google, I found an image of the Mittlere Brücke, or Middle Bridge in Basel showing it in 2013 with "high flood waters".  I'd assume that bridge was used because it most clearly showed how high the waters were, implying it probably has the least clearance for river traffic.

Interesting - when I've been tracking Scenic's ships on that route they appear to dock close to the Three Countries Corner, which is downstream from the Mittlere Brücke. Now I'm curious. Thanks for digging that up.

Sterling

On 6/7/2019 at 2:02 PM, acwmom said:

 

Could you list those? This early 50's lady would like to visit them😁

 

Robin

Bamberg! Rauchbier! Dozens of competing breweries! But the one thing in common: They all taste like beer plus bacon. Mmmmm. 

OK, it`s a bit of an acquired taste. 🙂

I've only been on one Scenic cruise so far, but I didn't feel compelled to tip anyone at all. There were some folks for whom that simply felt so "wrong" that they convinced the cruise director to accept tips that would be divided amongst the staff and crew. I don't know how common that is on Scenic cruises; our second one is coming up this summer and I'll be interested to see if that happens again. I did not see or hear of any direct tipping; certainly not the bus drivers and city tour guides. I think the butler would have taken it as an affront. Folks may have left a tip in their cabins for the hotel staff but if so they weren't talking about it.

If you time your laundry right, or are in a more expensive cabin with unlimited laundry, you truly do not need your wallet from the time you're picked up at the arrival airport to the time you're dropped off at the departure airport. Unless you want some souvenirs, or need premium spirits from the bar. Our experience was that they were very much a first class customer service focused group of people. 

We really liked Scenic and made use of all the amenities. We like the way the balconies can be configured in the suites - there are inner glass door and an outer window that can roll down, so the space can be either part of the cabin or closed off from it - handy if one of you wants fresh air and the other doesn't. They truly are all-inclusive; you could leave your wallet at home except for souvenirs or airport expenses before you get picked up or after you get dropped off. Not cheap, but we think they provide good value.