Scenic -- Rhine with Alpine Highlights and Oberammergau -- Semi-live

[Canal archive]

I’ve experienced many a relaxed dinner with new acquaintances on Scenic. I’ve tried to upload a picture from our Douro cruise but it won’t play ball. It’s a picture of a table absolutely full of every different type of drinking glass. We weren’t tipsy but it was a Sunday and one of our lovely waiting staff had a raging toothache to get this lad to the only dentist along the Douro who was open and was in Porto was a logistical nightmare. The staff managed it we had a most enjoyable but maybe not up to your standard evening. He had returned by the Monday evening to be embarrassed by most of the cruisers asking after his well-being.

 

 

 

 

 

[loriva]

Some miscellaneous:  

—By way of context, we’ve done only one previous river cruise, with Crystal on the Danube in October 2021.  So no pre-COVID experience to compare, only the current state.
—The last bus when a tour uses more than one gathers stragglers.  So you end up late to the site and lose some time.

 

—We are using the same buses and drivers as in Rastatt today.

 

—There is no Wi-Fi on the locally used buses but CD and assistant have hot spots on cell phones.

 

—No masks are required on buses, but should wear seat belts.

 

—The Scenic VoiceGuide app largely works.  Initial problem with my ear buds, but turned off iPhone and then back on and it seemed to reset the app so it worked.  Learned that trick from Reception when the river guide froze.  They have devices if you don’t have a smart phone and adapters if you didn’t bring ear buds, but they ran out of the latter for iPhones so best to bring your own.

 

Some other things about the cabin.  Again, for context, I have a background in interior design so care about form and function.

   —The light switches by the door operate the overheads and balcony lights.  We ended up turning on the latter by accident returning to the room after dinner.  It did show, however, that the blackout curtains work really well!

   —Two sets of switches outside the bathroom operates those lights—overhead and under vanity—plus those for the open shelves over desk/vanity.  The under-vanity lights are a nice touch to those sensitive to overhead lights.

 

     —The TV has a lot of functions and offers information on the journey and ship as well as TV and movies.  It glows, however, even after you use the remote to turn it off (a two-step process.  There is a switch on back, lower right that turns it off fully.

 

     —Staff delivered a plate with four truffles last night.  No fruit skewers or petit fours (as advertised) have appeared in afternoon; one probably needs to request them specifically from the butler (a good idea—reduces waste).

 

     —There are separate hang tags for breakfast and early-morning coffee or tea.  Former starts at 0700 hours and latter at 0630.  Prior to that may need to fetch on own from lounge.  Called earlier than that first morning, but stopped when learned service started only at 0630 hours.

[loriva]

The room service early coffee and breakfast order cards:

[loriva]

Daily program:

[Canal archive]

Wearing seat belts on coaches is mandatory across Europe and I’m not to sure if it’s still the same but it was the driver who was fined not the errant passenger. 
Remembering to release the belt when leaving gained the expression ‘doing the Scenic dance’.

We put in a standing order for 7 each morning one tea and one coffee, adding or subtracting as we go.

Who knew what a learning curve a river cruise was!

[loriva]

25 June, Mannheim for Heidelberg:

 

We tried making an order for breakfast this morning in the dining room instead of off the buffet.  Order did not arrive correctly, despite trying twice.  Likely a rough morning for the wait staff.  We estimate between the late dinner service (an hour later than usual due to the concert) and set-up for breakfast, the waiters got four hours of sleep at best.  Also, many of the waiters are brand new.  Many of the new staff are from Belorussia and are not strong English speakers.  One told us Scenic could not bring back its experienced waiters from Russia and Ukraine due to the war.

 

A 0900-hours start for Heidelberg, which is a 40-minute drive from Mannheim.  We opted for the castle tour followed by time in town.  The tour guide was interesting, but Scenic’s program gave us 25 minutes of free time after the castle tour at the castle, which was probably too much.  Scenic should consider cutting it to 10 minutes and give more tour and free time in town.  Currently, the “tour” is only the walk from the bus to the point you meet after the 45 minutes of free time.  It was enough to walk to the Old Bridge and poke into a couple of shops.

 

Back onboard at 1330 for lunch, then we sailed at 1400 hours.  We opted to eat on the sundeck as it was an absolutely gorgeous day.  Surprisingly we were the only ones although people appeared after lunch.  It was easy to bring a plate of food up from the Crystal (main) dining room buffet or the River Cafe portion of the bar in the lounge.  Once they figured out passengers were on the sundeck, waiters started coming through about once every 30 minutes to take drink orders and bus tables.

 

A lovely afternoon sailing down the Rhine.  The CD gave a 30-minute talk on the Rhine and navigation on it.  Tadej will do the daily port talks at 1845 hours followed by dinner at 1900.

 

The Internet on the Jade has been largely good.  Like all ships, it can be spotty.  I’ve had issues uploading the photos on this thread, sometimes having to try several times over time.  Posts have also failed to post.  (Learning to compose offline and then try to paste into a post.  Should have known to do this from the start.)

[pully8]

Love reading all the details of the current state of cruising. Looking at travel and cruising again. Viewing huge delays and missed luggage at airports but it might be related to school holidays and lack of staff. 

Great to see things are slowly returning to the joy of travel. 

Sounds as if maintaining a sense of humour and patience will be of assistance. 

[English Tim]

Thanks for your review, which we are following with great interest.

 

with so many people awaiting documents, it is very reassuring to read of others experiences.

 

We have just returned from Scenic Sapphire on the river Rhône  and had a wonderful cruise and are now looking forward to Scenic Jade on the Danube in August.

[Canal archive]

pully8 keep that outlook. Looking back you’ll see the humour!

[pully8]

17 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

pully8 keep that outlook. Looking back you’ll see the humour!

Life is too short to waste energy on negativity. 

[loriva]

A lovely dinner at La Table de Rive last night accompanied by a French Champagne, white, and red.  

[loriva]

[notamermaid]

Screenshot of Koblenz 2.15pm:

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Ohhh just what’s needed a bit of the wet stuff from the skies.

[loriva]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Screenshot of Koblenz 2.15pm:

 

notamermaid

 

Yep, here we are along the Deutsches Eck.  We were initially rafted on the outside of the Emerald ship, but it left while we were out on our walking tour.  Also had a local beer (albeit not in the Alde Brauhaus since we didn’t have the details on time and one needs to book ahead) and took the cable car over for a walk around the Ehrenbreitstein fortress.  The rain was much less than it looked on the camera.

[notamermaid]

2 minutes ago, loriva said:

The rain was much less than it looked on the camera.

I expected as much (or as little in this case). The feratel webcam is normally very clear with high resolution but a couple of raindrops must have hit it "full force".

 

Pity you missed the Altes Brauhaus but Ehrenbreitstein Fortress is certainly a great place to be at.

 

notamermaid

 

[loriva]

 

Sunday, 25 June — Koblenz

 

A great sail through the Rhine Gorge.  Conditions before reaching Koblenz were amazing.  The Tailormade app would not work on the sundeck for commentary but the ship had recorded commentary they played as we passed key sights.  After we passed the Lorelei Rock, a waitress brought out trays of Rudesheimer coffee.

 

Scenic coordinates lunch times with tours—late when morning tours and early for afternoon ones.  Today’s buffet featured traditional German cuisine including sausages,  pork roast, dumplings, and pretzels.

[loriva]

Wi-Fi a bit spotty the past couple of days, making posting problematic.  Very understandable in the Rhine Gorge.

 

Yesterday afternoon, the CD sent around forms for those who did not have pre-planned transfers via Scenic-booked flights or post-cruise hotel (Doubletree Amsterdam).  Here it is:

 

[loriva]

Here’s the program for today.  Weather looks iffy for corn hole, but we planned to pack during that time to maximize our time tomorrow in Amsterdam.

[Canal archive]

Loriva from what you’ve written you are in either a Royal or Junior Suite am I correct?

[notamermaid]

I see Scenic offers Schloss Drachenfels for this morning. A bit of a distance from Cologne, but nice.

 

notamermaid

 

[loriva]

Busy schedule the last couple of days and Wi-Fi spotty.

 

Interestingly, at breakfast before the Rhine Gorge sailing two Canadian couples who were on the Oberammergau pre-cruise trip started comparing notes—on their own, without any prompting by me—about their experience with Scenic cruises prior to the pandemic and now.  Both have done multiple river cruises with Scenic, with one couple having over ten sailings.  One couple are booked on a follow-on cruise with Scenic when they will be joined by four couples to whom they have recommended Scenic.  She is now worried about whether her friends will have a good time.   She said she could no longer recommend Scenic as they are not up to the same standards of service and professional as before the pandemic.  Scenic was something special, but no longer.  The other couple noted issues of inconsistency of service.  The cabin stewards have been great, the butlers okay (although they now had to ask for delivery of the daily news summary), and the wait staff not so great.

 

There was another example of the latter at dinner yesterday and lunch today in the main dining room.  Two at our table last night ordered salads as starters, one ordered soup, and one ordered the hot appetizer of the day.  The salads were delivered quickly, but the other two did not arrive until the two diners had finished their salads.  At lunch, one person ordered a Caesar salad and grilled chicken breast with fries.  After about 15 minutes he had to ask for them again, this time when our server and the assistant restaurant manager were walking by.  Over the next 15 minutes a Caesar salad arrived, followed by a Caesar salad with chicken on top, another Caesar salad, and finally his chicken with fries.  In the interim the rest of the tables received their orders and were largely finished.  We know we need to be patient and kind at this time, but it really seems like some of the waiters have had no to little training.

 

 

[loriva]

Here is today’s program:

[loriva]

A few quick notes about tour options.  People who have taken wine tours found the areas interesting, but did not think the wines at the places visited were very good.  The CD either did not know or forgot to tell passengers that masks were required to visit the castles in Germany, so some were almost left sitting on the bus for the first one visited (in Koblenz for Reischburg).  He did make a note for those visiting Drachensburg from Cologne); people enjoyed that tour, particularly the cog railway to reach it.  Finally, at the departure briefing after the Cologne visit the CD noted Scenic had to source new guides as well as bus companies as so many of the former left the travel industry during COVID and many of the latter went out of business.  We had noted the same—one guide told us it was the first time she’d been to a location, while others were very experienced.  Guides always run the gamut, but COVID has added a new wrinkle.

 

 

[loriva]

 

More miscellaneous:

 

Scenic no longer uses L’Occitane products as in their website.  Now there are bottles of ESPA hand wash and lotion attached to the wall by the sinks and body wash, shampoo, and conditioner attached to the wall in the shower.

 

Afternoon snacks started appearing in the cabin a couple of days into the cruise.  So far, they have alternated between sweet (truffles—which Scenic calls petit fours based on the menu for the Gala Dinner last night—and macaroons (wonderful!) and savory (a soft cheese wrapped in a cucumber slice one time and another on a small bread round.)  I’m not sure If everyone gets these or just the Junior Balcony suites and above.