English Tim

We spent three nights at Avignon, followed by a day at Viviers, a pretty little town, with one tree-lined avenue leading to the dock from the town square. Avignon was very busy and we enjoyed dinner and a concert at the Pope’s Palace. Food and entertainment excellent but heat overbearing. Last night we had torrential rain on arrival in Lyon, so only about half the pax, mostly the British, ventured to an excellent choral concert, the rest staying on board. We are now docked at Quai Claud Bernard, which apparently IS the usual place.

Crew, food and wine are all fabulous. You’ll have a great time.

Once on board you’ll want for nothing. The crew are amazing and so kind. You’ll miss out if you don’t come.

On Saturday night we all went to the Pope’s Palace for dinner accompanied by four musicians. It was absolutely sweltering and quite unpleasant although the music and food were excellent. Yesterday we did a Chateau Neuf du Papes wine tasting.

Tomorrow, they’re giving each passenger €30 to have lunch out in Avignon.

A/c works very well. Last night, one of the propellers hit something and stopped working, so it will be inspected when we reach Avignon, shortly. Watch this space, as they say.

Very hot today, June 17, with many opting out of tours. wifi can be very slow, so don’t expect much.

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.

It was very comfortable with a hot powerful shower. The loo was very small, so it needed some agility! The ship is very comfortable and about 60% capacity. I don’t think the ship’s Internet is good enough to upload photos, so they will have to wait until we get home. The ship wifi isn’t very good, so having trouble posting. June 16 The weather is getting hotter and apparently heatwave is on its way from Africa! Today we are at Chalon sur Saone, which is very pretty. Rosy has gone on a wine tasting but I preferred to explore on an electric bike, which was fun. I also enjoy the session in the gym the salt room, which is supposed to be cleansing. This afternoon we’ll be cruising, so the hydrotherapy pool beckons. The photos seem to be uploading today, which may be because I’m sitting in reception.

We are now on board, but the ship was at a different place than we expected. It is burst on the Saone near Confluence. We stayed last night at Hotel des Artistes near Place Bellacour, in the centre. We bought 24 hour Lyon city tickets, which include the Rhône airport express. The ship is beautiful.

Picked up on time and trouble free drive to the airport. Very quickly through security and into lounge. As we have plenty of time, we have decided to do a lounge crawl, to try different champagnes.

We are being picked up by Addison Lee, who may have taken over Tristar. It is usually a Mercedes E class and as we are about to become platinum we don’t pay any excess mileage, which saves us about £100 each way.

We have now been able to check in for our flights and we leave Heathrow tomorrow afternoon. Scenic chauffeur company called us to arrange our collection. They are allowing what should be plenty of time.

Originally my wife and I were booked on scenic to travel on the Douro river in Portugal, but as were able to book a last minute trip on this cruise, last October, we changed it to the river Rhône this June. We have booked a junior suite, which gives us a little more room, some pressing of clothes and a wine pairing dinner on one evening, which we particularly enjoyed last year. We also upgraded our flights to Club, which gives us more room, particularly as we are able to book front seats free of additional charge. As Scenic provide airport transfers we are able to relax and drink champagne 🥂 At Lyon we’ll buy 24 hour visitor passes, which include airport travel, travel around the city and entry to some attractions. We have booked one night in Lyon, at Hotel des Artistes, as we like to relax not worrying about arriving late flights, etc. The hotel is centrally situated and very close to the cruise port. We are fully vaccinated and have to prove this at airport check-in, along with completing passenger locator forms prior to arrival.

Yesterday, I composed a long post about my forthcoming Scenic cruise, I cannot see it to add to it. Maybe I forgot to press the post button, but did anyone see it? It was headed scenic Sapphire.

You won’t be disappointed. In our experience, however challenging the shorebased offices are, once on board ship everything is fantastic.

We’ve just received our final docs and scenic freebies, so I’ll start a new thread for those who might want to follow our experiences.

I don’t know whether posters are aware but if you have a booking reference from Scenic (6 digits), you can go to your booking under manage my booking.

We will be Platinum and get completely free transfers. We are also BA Gold (for 12 months)! The entitles us to breakfast in First lounge and free seat selection. We did ask for Eurostar to Amsterdam, but I believe they used the same booking reference for BA, which probably allowed them to transfer the flights free of charge. We are indeed on Sapphire deck in deluxe balcony suite.

We’ve now accepted the reverse itinerary on Jade, theoretically losing our benefits of two items pressed each day and a degustation dinner. I had asked to transfer to Amsterdam on the Eurostar, but we have been booked from Heathrow. Early start too, as we have to check in at 06.20.

Will also be missing him, as our cruise is on June 14 not July 14!

Sadly this thread is full of complaints and pre-cruise enquiries, but very little post cruise information from those who have returned home. Please post reviews to help the rest of us who may be anxious. We are also due to cruise on Ruby from Budapest to Amsterdam in August position, but this has now been cancelled and we have been offered Jade on the reverse itinerary on the same dates. This has meant a change of suite grade, with so far a derisory offer of compensation (less than we originally paid for the upgrade)! I’ll keep you all informed of any changes.

We chose to fly Club, to hopefully get more options. We fly in the day before, staying in Lyon and return at 18.30 on disembarkation day. We only briefly considered Eurostar, as we have a three hour journey to London, then crossing London, making it a difficult journey as it requires an overnight stay in London. However, now that we are platinum we have discovered we have a transfer to London included, which would make quite a difference in future.

Nice to see you posting. We are on the June 14 departure from Lyon.