What is going on with Scenic Cruises

[BellsRUs]

18 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The Arosa Aqua is now keeping the Scenic Jade company, they are both in the harbour at Cologne Mülheim.

 

Has anybody received notification of what is going on?

 

notamermaid

 

We are supposed to board the Jade tomorrow in Budapest and finally received emails this morning that we will be on the Pearl instead. I’ve been following the Jade’s non-progress on my Marine Traffic app, so I figured that would be the answer, but it took them a long time to notify us.

[loriva]

3 hours ago, BellsRUs said:

We are supposed to board the Jade tomorrow in Budapest and finally received emails this morning that we will be on the Pearl instead. I’ve been following the Jade’s non-progress on my Marine Traffic app, so I figured that would be the answer, but it took them a long time to notify us.

 

Thanks for the update, Patti.  I wonder why the delay in notification, which is not in keeping with a company that advertises "being cared for to the Nth Degree."  Perhaps they thought they would be able to repair the problem during the long stay in Duisburg, maybe they needed a part, or they needed to consolidate sailings due to staffing or supply chain issues as others have reported.

 

The Pearl and the Jade are very similar--but not exact copies.  I hope your suite is comparable to the one you were to have on the Jade and your trip is fabulous.  We're hoping to board the Jade in late June after a land package with Scenic for the Passion Play in Oberammergau, so interesting to see the fate of the ship.

 

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, BellsRUs said:

We are supposed to board the Jade tomorrow in Budapest and finally received emails this morning that we will be on the Pearl instead. I’ve been following the Jade’s non-progress on my Marine Traffic app, so I figured that would be the answer, but it took them a long time to notify us.

It was kind of obvious that you would not board the Jade when I realized she had stopped sailing at Cologne. They really could have notified you day before yesterday already. But then, I gather logistics needed sorting. Glad to read though that you have a ship to sail on and I hope the Pearl and its crew and staff will give you a wonderful experience on the rivers.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Believe it or not I’ve mentioned to the office team at Scenic U.K. also some of the staff from the Europe H.Q. before that what’s going on with their ships in mainland Europe is very clear to their customers and their waffling is superfluous to requirements. Then when you board the crew know exactly what’s going on. I’m sure that it’s a trait of an awful lot of office staff that they think their above their customers. A fault of to many businesses in my estimation.

[Gourmet Gal]

That’s good of you to communicate the sentiment directly but you know, there’s a tiny fraction of cruisers who research down to such a granular level.  People here on CC do but a tiny percentage of cruisers have even heard of CC and many don’t think to follow on FB.  I know there are other marine traffic and river info sources as well but the average pax is not going to bother.   

[sbjornda]

13 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

A fault of to many businesses in my estimation.

Yes, that. Whenever I call Scenic Canada's number, it seems as though every decision has to be approved by a Supervisor and I'm put on hold for unreasonably long times while this bottleneck is managed. That, combined with the same observation you had about communication with customers, leads me to think that the Scenic corporate management philosophy is the old-fashioned Command And Control model, a.k.a. "Theory X" rather than "Theory Y". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y If any of those folks went to business school then they must have slept through those classes, or simply chosen to ignore the evidence. Empowering your employees and engaging your customers in business processes is a healthier approach, though it does require that all levels of management get smarter about how people work. I think it's gotten worse since the cyber attack happened, which is an understandable knee-jerk reaction ("circle the wagons") but not very self-reflective.

 

I've used a Lean approach to reduce wait and call duration times on a Service Desk, increase First Call Resolution Rates, and reduce mistakes. It works well -  you have relatively  high volumes and relatively consistent deliverables that lend themselves well to trial-and-error, A/B testing, and gathering actionable metrics, even though the result is not a physical product. A lot of call centre tools will capture most of the data for you, but managers have to be willing to manage by the numbers and actually pay attention to what's going on. You have to put in some effort to define what "defects" look like, and you shouldn't do that in the absence of your customers. You should trust your staff (most managers have two ears, two eyes, and only one mouth and they should be used in that ratio when observing your staff) and let workers suggest and attempt reasonable improvements with their teams' processes (while always keeping safety as the top priority). 

 

In the end, though, it's a culture change, and that takes years to happen and is not at all a comfortable experience to those whose only life so far has been Command And Control.

 

Sorry for the off-topic rant. 🙂

 

Sterling

[gnome12]

I worked for a short period of time for the Canadian subsidiary of a Swiss insurance company. Every decision had to be approved in Switzerland, down to the purchase of desktop computer equipment. It was very frustrating.

[Canal archive]

No, go for it Sterling I’ve lived with a master marketer all my married life and my two daughters followed in their father’s footsteps with exceptional success. It just makes me so ——————- when companies don’t seem to realise that their customer base are born with a brain. I’m absolutely surprised that an Australian company puts up with it.

I'm glad i wasn’t involved in the nitty gritty you don’t sell  Satalites like that!

[mvjcruise]

13 hours ago, BellsRUs said:

We are supposed to board the Jade tomorrow in Budapest and finally received emails this morning that we will be on the Pearl instead. I’ve been following the Jade’s non-progress on my Marine Traffic app, so I figured that would be the answer, but it took them a long time to notify us.

So if the Pearl is handling the original Jade cruise, what ship is handling the Pearl cruise that is scheduled to leave Amsterdam tomorrow? I don’t see any Scenic ships in Amsterdam.

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by mvjcruise

[BellsRUs]

9 hours ago, loriva said:

 

Thanks for the update, Patti.  I wonder why the delay in notification, which is not in keeping with a company that advertises "being cared for to the Nth Degree."  Perhaps they thought they would be able to repair the problem during the long stay in Duisburg, maybe they needed a part, or they needed to consolidate sailings due to staffing or supply chain issues as others have reported.

 

The Pearl and the Jade are very similar--but not exact copies.  I hope your suite is comparable to the one you were to have on the Jade and your trip is fabulous.  We're hoping to board the Jade in late June after a land package with Scenic for the Passion Play in Oberammergau, so interesting to see the fate of the ship.

 

 

7 hours ago, notamermaid said:

It was kind of obvious that you would not board the Jade when I realized she had stopped sailing at Cologne. They really could have notified you day before yesterday already. But then, I gather logistics needed sorting. Glad to read though that you have a ship to sail on and I hope the Pearl and its crew and staff will give you a wonderful experience on the rivers.

 

notamermaid

 

We had figured out we weren’t going to be on the Jade and were thankful our cruise wasn’t cancelled since we had left home on Saturday. We are truly looking forward to our first river cruise! I ended up on crutches, but I’m ready to make the best of it!

[notamermaid]

2 minutes ago, BellsRUs said:

I ended up on crutches, but I’m ready to make the best of it!

Oh dear, sorry to read that. Hope it is not too painful. I am sure the staff on board will pamper you if you cannot venture out much. But perhaps there is a solution for you with a temporary mobility scooter at least in a large city. The great thing about river cruising is that other than on a land trip you do not have to be on and off a coach or carrying luggage every day.

 

You sound in good spirits, though. Great.

 

notamermaid

 

[pete_coach]

20 hours ago, sbjornda said:

Yes, that. Whenever I call Scenic Canada's number, it seems as though every decision has to be approved by a Supervisor and I'm put on hold for unreasonably long times while this bottleneck is managed. That, combined with the same observation you had about communication with customers, leads me to think that the Scenic corporate management philosophy is the old-fashioned Command And Control model, a.k.a. "Theory X" rather than "Theory Y". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y If any of those folks went to business school then they must have slept through those classes, or simply chosen to ignore the evidence. Empowering your employees and engaging your customers in business processes is a healthier approach, though it does require that all levels of management get smarter about how people work. I think it's gotten worse since the cyber attack happened, which is an understandable knee-jerk reaction ("circle the wagons") but not very self-reflective.

 

I've used a Lean approach to reduce wait and call duration times on a Service Desk, increase First Call Resolution Rates, and reduce mistakes. It works well -  you have relatively  high volumes and relatively consistent deliverables that lend themselves well to trial-and-error, A/B testing, and gathering actionable metrics, even though the result is not a physical product. A lot of call centre tools will capture most of the data for you, but managers have to be willing to manage by the numbers and actually pay attention to what's going on. You have to put in some effort to define what "defects" look like, and you shouldn't do that in the absence of your customers. You should trust your staff (most managers have two ears, two eyes, and only one mouth and they should be used in that ratio when observing your staff) and let workers suggest and attempt reasonable improvements with their teams' processes (while always keeping safety as the top priority). 

 

In the end, though, it's a culture change, and that takes years to happen and is not at all a comfortable experience to those whose only life so far has been Command And Control.

 

Sorry for the off-topic rant. 🙂

 

Sterling

To be fair, Scenic is an international company. They cannot provide instant answers from a national or local perspective.

Also, during this covid time, many, if not most call centres have been sent to homes of the workers. The workers do not have the ability turn their chair and ask a co worker or supervisor questions.

I say this because my Son is a manager at CAA (automobile association) and all his call centre persons are operating from home and that causes all sorts of call centre problems and difficulty in helping CAA members. Their wait lists have gotten absurdly long and service has dropped. When call centres workers were all in one place, problems and questions were easier to resolve.

I am not defending Scenic, (well, maybe I am) but covid has created unforeseen, unpredictable and, unfortunate situations, especially for international companies.

Sorry for the off topic retort.

[notamermaid]

16 minutes ago, pete_coach said:

I am not defending Scenic, (well, maybe I am) but covid has created unforeseen, unpredictable and, unfortunate situations, especially for international companies.

Sorry for the off topic retort.

Good point. And do not be sorry. Apart from this affecting Scenic, it could be a lasting thing, if the structure of the workplace before covid does not return. I myself have been affected by communication problems at work that got worse during covid. It is a challenge but also a duty towards the customer to ensure things run smoothly. Also with ensuring computer systems run well. I cannot count anymore all the notifications and e-mails I have received at work to tell me to be careful of spam, hacking, etc. Be prepared, every employee, but also from the top down. I have the suspicion Scenic was not prepared enough for a computer system breakdown. As a side note, I have not been a fan of their website from when I first looked at it, perhaps five years ago now. Kind of, lovely photos, luxury excellence marketing words, but the info what I was looking for was often difficult to find and a couple of times lacking completely. It has not improved yet in my opinion. But then, it all depends whether you want to provide the info or encourage a prospective customer to phone.

 

notamermaid

 

[Linconian]

We leave home next Saturday for cruise on Scenic Diamond Sunday 15th.  Still not received Backpacks, luggage tags, tickets etc.,  Is this the norm?

[Canal archive]

Seems a bit late we’ve had ours usually within two weeks of departure. If you used a TA get them on the case, if you booked direct (we always have) email, phone maybe even write 1st class, everything seems to be getting back to normal now when you get through be very positive. They should at least email all details or courier them to you.

We really enjoyed the Bordeaux cruise and is one we would do again.

[Cisterna]

4 minutes ago, Linconian said:

We leave home next Saturday for cruise on Scenic Diamond Sunday 15th.  Still not received Backpacks, luggage tags, tickets etc.,  Is this the norm?

 Hello  We will be  on the ship with you ~ We will be flying in , leaving Friday the 13th (!!), landing on the  14th staying overnight at the Intercontinental Lyon .  We have not received our Backpacks with documents, but did receive emailed summary  with vouchers on April 29, I called Scenic this past Wednesday and was told they are having problem with the vendor , and should get backpack net week! I really don't need another backpack, luggage tags -( you are to put them on after you get to France not before (if flying there), when we get to the dock they can make a tag for my luggage, and I have my own earphones for the scenic tailormade app~ since we use or our own  phones instead of them giving us a VOX for the tours .   Here's the bottom line

YOU need to print out your vouchers if you have transfer and/or hotel vouchers, and you need to print out the Health Questionaires , so you can fill them out before you get on the boat. 

Also they say to download the Scenic Tailormade app before you leave home-

Hope this helps rather than overwhelms !See you on the ship!

 

 

[loriva]

@Host Jazzbeau Looking forward to hearing your read-out on the Scenic Gem!  And whether you were able to gather any information on the problems Scenic has faced recently and projections going forward.

 

Hope you had a great trip!

 

[ScenicLoginforLarry]

Scenic's front office customer service is surely an "F".  And it doesn't seem to get any better.  Slow response times answering the phone (45 minutes to 2 hours), uncertain and sometimes conflicting answers from their agents, inability to give specific answers, and unable to resolve customer issues.  Their accounting department must be an "F MINUS MINUS".  They are unable to accounting for the funds I've paid, made a huge credit card charge error, and are telling me that it will take 6 months to get another huge credit for a pre-trip that they cancelled.  We cruise a lot, and the arrangements for this cruise has been unlike no other.  Certainly top management is aware of what's going on, but this hasn't changed now in months!!!!  Frustrated with their lack of customer service.

[PhD-iva]

4 minutes ago, ScenicLoginforLarry said:

Scenic's front office customer service is surely an "F".  And it doesn't seem to get any better.  Slow response times answering the phone (45 minutes to 2 hours), uncertain and sometimes conflicting answers from their agents, inability to give specific answers, and unable to resolve customer issues.  Their accounting department must be an "F MINUS MINUS".  They are unable to accounting for the funds I've paid, made a huge credit card charge error, and are telling me that it will take 6 months to get another huge credit for a pre-trip that they cancelled.  We cruise a lot, and the arrangements for this cruise has been unlike no other.  Certainly top management is aware of what's going on, but this hasn't changed now in months!!!!  Frustrated with their lack of customer service.

I am also absolutely disgusted w the pre-cruise performance (or lack thereof) to date. This will be my first and LAST cruise w this cruiseline.

[San999]

19 hours ago, Linconian said:

We leave home next Saturday for cruise on Scenic Diamond Sunday 15th.  Still not received Backpacks, luggage tags, tickets etc.,  Is this the norm?

We are on the scenic Diamond right now. We didn’t get our paperwork until just before we left the US..and some didn’t even arrive until after we left the US. But don’t worry, they were clearly prepared for people arriving without the usual paperwork. I am doing a separate posting about our trip…just started the post today. Weather has been fantastic 

[San999]

18 hours ago, Cisterna said:

 Hello  We will be  on the ship with you ~ We will be flying in , leaving Friday the 13th (!!), landing on the  14th staying overnight at the Intercontinental Lyon .  We have not received our Backpacks with documents, but did receive emailed summary  with vouchers on April 29, I called Scenic this past Wednesday and was told they are having problem with the vendor , and should get backpack net week! I really don't need another backpack, luggage tags -( you are to put them on after you get to France not before (if flying there), when we get to the dock they can make a tag for my luggage, and I have my own earphones for the scenic tailormade app~ since we use or our own  phones instead of them giving us a VOX for the tours .   Here's the bottom line

YOU need to print out your vouchers if you have transfer and/or hotel vouchers, and you need to print out the Health Questionaires , so you can fill them out before you get on the boat. 

Also they say to download the Scenic Tailormade app before you leave home-

Hope this helps rather than overwhelms !See you on the ship!

 

 

Do download the Tailormade app as that is how you listen to your tour guide, on your smart phone. They only have a few machines on board for you to borrow as most people have a smart phone. It works well. I wish I would have brought ear phones as you have to hold your phone up to your ear but that’s not a big deal. 

[Cisterna]

1 hour ago, San999 said:

We are on the scenic Diamond right now. We didn’t get our paperwork until just before we left the US..and some didn’t even arrive until after we left the US. But don’t worry, they were clearly prepared for people arriving without the usual paperwork. I am doing a separate posting about our trip…just started the post today. Weather has been fantastic 

Hello - Thank you for any information you can give! Sounds like everything is going smoothly! We will be getting on Diamond as you disembark!  I would really appreciate a birds eye view of the evening attire ` specifically do most of the men war a coat and/or tie in the evening for the "dressy" dinners. My husband is really fighting me on this issue. (Very tall man whose clothes get ruined in suitcases~ and ships ironing is always substandard for suit type jackets).  Also have you noticed any couples with more than 2 large suitcases?!

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 hours ago, San999 said:

Do download the Tailormade app as that is how you listen to your tour guide, on your smart phone. They only have a few machines on board for you to borrow as most people have a smart phone. It works well. I wish I would have brought ear phones as you have to hold your phone up to your ear but that’s not a big deal. 

Actually it was a big deal on our cruise:  the few people who didn't use earphones caused feedback through the tour guide's microphone.  Scenic provides earbuds if you need them, and you really should use them!

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, Cisterna said:

Hello - Thank you for any information you can give! Sounds like everything is going smoothly! We will be getting on Diamond as you disembark!  I would really appreciate a birds eye view of the evening attire ` specifically do most of the men war a coat and/or tie in the evening for the "dressy" dinners. My husband is really fighting me on this issue. (Very tall man whose clothes get ruined in suitcases~ and ships ironing is always substandard for suit type jackets).  Also have you noticed any couples with more than 2 large suitcases?!

Not much dressing up on Scenic Gem on the Seine.  We formed a group of six for dinner on the first night, and one of the husbands never dressed up.  I was shocked to see him in a dress shirt one day!  I wore only golf shirts [long sleeve for the cool weather] and added a sport coat for the first 'dressy' dinner but didn't use it again because hardly anybody else did.

[Host Jazzbeau]

On 5/7/2022 at 3:54 PM, Linconian said:

We leave home next Saturday for cruise on Scenic Diamond Sunday 15th.  Still not received Backpacks, luggage tags, tickets etc.,  Is this the norm?

Our TA forwarded the electronic documents a week and two days before our Scenic Gem cruise.  When we left home the next day we had not received the box.  We found it when we returned home – nice backpacks that we probably won't ever use [only 1 person on our cruise was using one], nice document folder that we wouldn't have used [and which didn't contain any personalized documents], and luggage tags that we didn't need [you never need luggage tags for a river cruise].  The electronic docs provided everything we needed, both for reassurance and last-minute planning.