Scenic Sapphire Spectacular south of France departing Lyon, June 14 2022

[English Tim]

Very hot today, June 17, with many opting out of tours.

 

wifi can be very slow, so don’t expect much.

[Fouremco]

A question that I never thought to ask previously: Do the cabins on Scenic have air conditioning? I doubt that they'd be needed very often, but in the weather you are experiencing now, they'd be nice to have.

[Canal archive]

Yes and you can individually control it.

[English Tim]

18 hours ago, Fouremco said:

A question that I never thought to ask previously: Do the cabins on Scenic have air conditioning? I doubt that they'd be needed very often, but in the weather you are experiencing now, they'd be nice to have.

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.

[Canal archive]

We had something similar once watch out if they send the divers down so interesting.

[English Tim]

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

[English Tim]

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.

 

[Canal archive]

Remember it well especially the wine!

[caseyspack]

English Tim - Thank you so much for posting about your trip! I am eagerly following along as my husband and I are booked on the same cruise in October. Could you kindly address the quality of service (waitstaff, butlers, housekeeping) and the quality of the food/drink? Our balance for our cruise is due very soon and we are trying to decide whether to go ahead with Scenic or just tour the South of France on our own. Our previous river cruise experience was with Crystal and we really only do the cruises because we appreciate luxurious service and dining. Sounds like Scenic (and many other cruise lines) is having a difficult time with staffing due to the Pandemic and we are wondering if we would be happier just traveling on our own. 

Thanks in advance for your reply! Hope the remainder of your trip is wonderful!

[Canal archive]

Difficult decision, having just returned from France it’s not only the river cruise companies who have staffing challenges. The larger towns don’t seem to bad but places like St Omar and Auxaire fairly large places, talking to locals they have their worries. quite a few smaller shops, bistro’s, bars etc haven’t reopened and some of the villages are in a bad way no boulongera or local bars. It was noticeable but hopefully it will start improving. 

[English Tim]

7 hours ago, caseyspack said:

English Tim - Thank you so much for posting about your trip! I am eagerly following along as my husband and I are booked on the same cruise in October. Could you kindly address the quality of service (waitstaff, butlers, housekeeping) and the quality of the food/drink? Our balance for our cruise is due very soon and we are trying to decide whether to go ahead with Scenic or just tour the South of France on our own. Our previous river cruise experience was with Crystal and we really only do the cruises because we appreciate luxurious service and dining. Sounds like Scenic (and many other cruise lines) is having a difficult time with staffing due to the Pandemic and we are wondering if we would be happier just traveling on our own. 

Thanks in advance for your reply! Hope the remainder of your trip is wonderful!

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

[Mrs Miggins]

Thanks for the updates Tim.  Hope the propellers are now functioning  Looking forward to our trip starting on July 4th.   So glad you are enjoying and the crew is good.  Keep everybody happy and leave us some good wine !

[English Tim]

7 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Thanks for the updates Tim.  Hope the propellers are now functioning  Looking forward to our trip starting on July 4th.   So glad you are enjoying and the crew is good.  Keep everybody happy and leave us some good wine !

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

[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.

[Mrs Miggins]

Thanks for the update.  Are there many from the UK onboard ?  Will remember to pack an umbrella !

[Canal archive]

Mrs Miggins remember Australian company, in your suite tucked up safely in one of the wardrobes an umbrella and two walking poles so luggage weight saved already. An American marketeer well he/she could have been British, once said ‘take care of the little things and so called big things don’t usually happen. On one of our cruises a morning training session by the on board physio was with walking poles many of us had never heard of such a thing so 6 in the class and at 7.30 - 8.00 in the morning loads of us watching from on board.

[Canal archive]

English Tim thank you, ahh memories!

[Mrs Miggins]

Hi Canal Archive,

Thanks,  We have done two previous Scenic cruises - one not so good - mainly due to Rhine water levels and being bussed between ships - several other things went wrong as a result and I think the CD had had enough and was at the end of her tether -  Anyway we booked again and had a wonderful cruise from Bordeaux - really splendid in all respects including a group of Tasmanian's who added greatly to our enjoyment.  It was a good mix of nationalities - so hope to find the same again.

Only problem at the moment is lack of information from Scenic - no idea yet about tickets etc for our Eurostar outward journey.  I picked up on the fact that our BA return flight on the 14th did not actually exist and our TA said Scenic were a bit surprised and we are now booked home on KLM via Amsterdam.  No locator numbers or anything on that flight yet.  TA says (in common with other cruise companies) it takes hours to get them to answer the phone - so we will wait and hope all OK.

 

Sorry Tim,  Didnt mean to barge in on your thread - but as you have mentioned the River Cruise boards much less reactive than the Ocean ones - naturally I suppose due to the smaller numbers.

[Canal archive]

Mrs Miggins I must admit to never using a TA I’ve always booked direct and never had a CD who’s given up! Had a couple of useless CDs who have been covered by excellent other staff. Hopefully this is what English Tim is experiencing. The Australians/Tasmania’s/Canadians/New Zealander’s have saved the day many times!

Ive sat at the front of the boat with a few beverages several times and put the world to rights and come to the decision that a lot more could be achieved with the Commonwealth. Sorry a bit political but hey ho  not.

[English Tim]

7 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Thanks for the update.  Are there many from the UK onboard ?  Will remember to pack an umbrella !

Of 91 passengers there are about 60 from the UK. There is an umbrella in the wardrobe.

 

We disembark tomorrow and they are allowing us to stay on board until 3.15, prior to our 6.30pm departure.

[Canal archive]

Crickey that went quickly!

[English Tim]

Below is a picture of our bikes, which we used a lot during the cruise. Apart from the cycling tour, I think we were the only passengers who use the bikes. We cycled all over the place and had a great time.

 

The departure arrangements seemed to be very well organised by Darrin, the cruise director. The group travelling to London for the 6.30pm flight, were the last to leave and were picked up in a fleet of taxis at 3:15, so we had a fairly tedious day sitting on board watching the rain pour down. The last day is always very surreal with the crew looking forward to the new guests. We were ejected  from our rooms at 8:30 and refused a room to shower in, so it was a challenging day, but had it been very hot it would’ve been far more challenging.

 

The airport was chaotic, with no obvious place to check in and we had to wait around in a big group for half an hour, until the correct place was announced, by which time it was completely chaotic. Civilised behaviour had disappeared and people were diving under the barrier ropes, trying to get near to the front of the line. We have been at the front of what we thought was the correct line and were told it wasn’t, so we retreated, then found we would’ve been alright there, but now we were near the back of the line. Anyway somehow we managed to get to the lounge before anyone else. Although the flight was ready to leave on time, air traffic control decided we would be almost half an hour late arriving. Our driver was nowhere to be seen and many others suffered a similar fate.

 

Eventually, we arrived home about an hour later than we expected, but we had a tremendous holiday, meeting some very nice people and the crew did everything they could to enhance our experience.

 

in conclusion, we would do all we could to avoid a late flight home and given the option would take Eurostar. Those who did, expected to arrive in London about six hours before us.

 

from an editing point of view, the word at the beginning of the line often starts with a little letter, rather than a capital, which drives me mad.

 

We look forward to our next scenic experience, but will try to use better travelling arrangements.

[Canal archive]

English Tim thank you so much I’ve been living vicariously through you. My husbands an electric bike rider but has always been wary of the Scenic ones for some reason. If we can we have always gone Eurostar even to the South of France although coming back the Lille stop is a pain. Our Boudreaux cruise was the biking by the most we’ve ever seen to the extent that on one day they had to hire so many extra bikes a couple of other cruise companies complained most bitterly.

I must admit travelling with Scenic is a learning experience but dealing directly with the office does seem to work better.

[Mrs Miggins]

We opted to fly home - that was when we were given a lovely BA 11 am flight.  Doesn't exist now so Scenic have rebooked us on KLM via Amsterdam.  Wish we had gone for the train option home.   

[Fouremco]

Thanks for the thread, I enjoyed following along. 👍