Amsterdam to Budapest on Scenic Jewel.

[Kristelle]

Have spent 3 nights in London, 2 nights in Paris, boarded Scenic Jewel this afternoon ( was originally going to be Scenic Jade but received email few days ago advising of change to Scenic Jewel) 

Butler came to our room and did introduction and explanation of services, how air con works etc. 

Safety briefing, captains talk, cruise directors talk, chef's talk, maitre de talk ( whole thing of all of them went on bit long really) followed by really nice dinner

 

We have balcony cabin on Sapphire deck, room seems reasonable size, bathroom not as pokey as I was expecting, shower size generous.

One odd thing - bed is 2 single beds joined together, ridge in middle and each bed made up with single quilt 

Not sure how well that will work. 

 

Was at Moulin Rouge last night, not in bed till 2 am and up at 7 to catch train. Going to bed early now after dinner. 

 

Report further tomorrow. 

[Canal archive]

Personally have never had that experience with a bed on board but just ask your Butler or Cabin Steward to change it. Seems like they squeezed everything into the port talk in one go, still no more safety briefings so shorter sessions. Enjoy.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks for the Live From!

 

Jewel and Jade are sister ships, so you shouldn't experience any difference.

 

The beds are what they are, but then they push them together you should able to get a single large duvet.  [I have read that doing it with separate duvets is the 'European style.'  Might actually be better if one of you tends to hog the covers!]

[Ritabob]

Have a great cruise.

[Kristelle]

Day 2. 

Choice of Amsterdam excursions -1.  canal boat ride, 2. walking tour of Amsterdam, 3. cycling tour  4. bus trip to villages, go inside traditional windmill /walking tour of historical village.

We did 4.  very interesting.

But voice guide devices glitchy, guide was very good but we missed some of what she was saying 

 

Breakfast and lunch both buffets although there is a menu you can order from as well. 

Sailing after lunch, string quartet came on board and played for about an hour. Enjoyable. 

Then mandatory safety drill, mock evacuation to sundeck, put on life jackets. 

Captain has a light humoured touch and makes things like that fun

( maybe not for people who have done many cruises and done that umpteen times but for newbies  like us) 

Captains welcome dinner tonight, am dressing up a bit  Quite hot here, 30 deg, so I doubt anyone will wear anything too formal. 

 

[Kristelle]

Day 3.

Sailed in morning and excursions after lunch.

Short bus ride from docking place into Cologne , maybe 10 minutes 

4 excursion choices -  we did walking tour and cathedral at Cologne. 

Guide was good and voice devices worked better for me today.

Fun quiz after dinner. 

 

[Kristelle]

Day 4

Cruised  in morning along 'Romantic Rhine' stunning scenery and then afternoon in Rudesheim, went on little mini train and to musical museum, really interesting and then on cablecars to monument at top of hill.

Rudesheim very crowded, some sort of fireworks festival on, some people missed going on cable cars which was very disappointing for them, director apologised but I guess that not much consolation if it something you really wanted to do.

 

Had a Zither player on board before dinner, interesting to listen to and learn about.

 

And another quiz game after dinner, I enjoy things like that. 

[Kristelle]

Glass blowing  demo in lounge this morning

Several afternoon options , we went on walking tour of Miltenberg followed by visit to monastery. Very good. 

Weather still quite hot, in the 30's Celsius

 

We had our Portobellos dinner this evening, very fancy. 

Lady sitting next to me recognised me as Kristelle from something I said - oops, outed 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Kristelle
Addition

[Kristelle]

Continuing on in same pattern- either sailing in morning and excursion in afternoon or vice versa. 

Often something small on board and quiz or games type entertainment after dinner.

 

No river level issues and no side by side docking with other ships yet.

 

Once or twice docked length to length ie all ships had direct access to land, obviously no issue in that. 

 

Weather over 30 every day until cooler today and expected to stay in low 20s from here on. 

[Kristelle]

Very long full day trip into Salzburg today while the ship sailed and met up with us in Linz.

 

Lunch and music show  - if you do the general tour of Salzburg and not the Sound of Music focused one, then the day is not overkill of S of M.

Concert was music of Austria, Mozart and S of M. 

 

I was anticipating it not really being my thing but was actually most enjoyable. 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Kristelle
Photo

[Ritabob]

Kristelle, could you please post a copy of the laundry prices? Thanks

[Kristelle]

Which cruise are you going on Ritabob?

 

On our 14 night cruise we got one free bag of laundry per cabin. Can squash quite a bit into it.

You also get obc of €50 per person.

Nothing much to use obc for - a very small shop on board, massages, or a few non included drinks at back of drinks menu. 

We are spending it on laundry. Am washing underwear and it does dry if hung up on curtain rail on inside of cabin if sundeck window down and glass doors open  ( can't be seen from outside) and I hang thin  nylon shirts outside on sundeck and they dry.

Can finish off with hairdryer if neccesary. 

With doing that and using obc for rest I won't have any out of pocket expense for laundry.

Admittedly our cruise has had all fine weather, in mid 20's and above Celsius so of course that helps things dry.

 

Sorry if that is all TMI and you just wanted only a photo of  list

[Ritabob]

Thanks .  We will be going 14 days AMS to BUD over Christmas/New Year's.  First time with Scenic.  We are used to one bag per person per week with Uniworld , so only one bag instead of 4 .  When traveling with carry on only, getting laundry done is essential.  The obc should cover it.

[Kristelle]

Visited Abbey at Melk , fascinating place, guide was very good and then walked back to ship, about 1.5km. Some people took bus back.

Sailed thru to Durnstein, no tour there but we got off ourselves and did walk of town.

 

Had BBQ lunch on sundeck which was nice change of format.

[Kristelle]

Docked in Vienna for 2 nights. Must be about 10 ships here, some docked side to side but we are not.

Just outside of Vienna actually - We have excursions in morning and then several shuttle buses back and forth between town and ship for anyone who wants to go back in.

We are going to do so today and take a 20 minute ride on the Fiakers, the horse and carriages.

€55 per carriage but they take 4 people, so sharing with another couple.

 

Also last night went to classical music concert at Palace Licenstein, really good experience. Only about 45 mins so not too long for those who don't know anything about classical music ( like me) 

Kept it lively and interesting. 

[Kristelle]

We were docked 3 deep with other ships last night, we were on bank side so had people climbing over and thru our ship. Today we are docked on outside of Emerald so we will be walking thru them. 

 

Did coffee and cake tour in Vienna- bit disappointing.

 

I was expecting a 'Cafe crawl' where you get samples of coffee, cake, anecdotes from different places  - but was just another general city walking tour with one stop for coffee and one cake slice at the end. 

 

 

[Canal archive]

In Vienna it really depends on the coffee/cake establishment you stopped at.

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Canal archive

[Kristelle]

No that's not what I meant - the coffee and cake establishment at the end was fine, but it was one stop at the end of a usual sort of city walking tour  rather than a series of stops and little samples and talks at each, the way foodie tours usually are. 

[Kristelle]

In Budapest.

The excursion we picked went to Hospital in the Rocks, fascinating place, re-created with many wax models of when it was used as underground cave hospital during  WW2 and beyond.

Fascinating tour, well worth doing. 

Huge market across from where we were docked, well worth a visit in afternoon. 

And night cruise of Budapest illuminated at night was lovely. 

 

Some rain in morning which was only rain all trip. Very lucky with weather - ranged from low 20's to low 30's and fine all trip and no issues with water levels, ship sailed whole length, no interruptions to schedule. 

 

Survey of cruise distributed by internal email, didn't get to do it as despite giving my email address to reception as requested, they didn't save it so no survey link sent to me. Survey has to be done electronically  on board, no paper alternative and  cannot do after disembarking. 

Not a good system IMO.

 

Overall conclusions

 

Food- excellent.

Breakfast and lunch are extensive buffets in main dining room, ( except one day BBQ on sundeck and one day out at Salzburg)  with lighter alternatives available in Cafe. Also cooked meal available on request. 

Dinner- table service in main dining room, several choices plus ' always available' alternatives

All food and drinks included, except some very few high end wines or whiskeys ( of which we had none, not sure if anyone does) 

 

Service - excellent.

Housekeeping no issues at all.

Any request eg had an issue with TV - attended to very promptly 

DH had room service for dinner one night when he didn't feel well. Only time we used room service or butler. 

 

Excursions - mostly very good. 

Very focussed on churches, castles, architecture, history

Although very interesting, was good to enjoy different focus tours sometimes and more of these options would be good. 

That is probably partly a reflection on length of cruise (14 nights) and wouldn't be an issue on shorter ones. Of course coming from Australia you don't come for a 7 night holiday. We did 5 days before the cruise ( not with Scenic) and then 14 nights on board. 

 

On board entertainment.

Several on board groups, mainly musical or dancing, and one glass blowing during non excursion times of the day. 

Quizes, party games some nights- we went to some of  these. Lightweight but quite enjoyable. 

 

Passenger demographic - 157 in total

70 Australians, 50 Canadians, remainder from New Zealand, USA, UK. 

 

 

So, cruise has come to an end, thanks for reading my ( mostly) daily postings. 

 

Photo of us at Golden Carriage in Palace Lichenstein, Vienna - just to show this review written by a real person, not a bot. 

 

 

[Canal archive]

Kristelle thank you so much you brought back so many memories, we’ve done this cruise twice okay sounds weird but Scenic change and add excursion’s so it’s possible to do the same cruise, as it were completely differently. Our first Scenic cruise was a short one DH decided this was not enough so yours was our second we’ve just finished our ninth or was it tenth and three were copies of others, I hope to do more as we haven’t been towards the Black Sea yet. 
Thank you for your reports really interesting. 👌 👍

[Ritabob]

Kristelle,  thank you for taking the time to report in real time, it is not as easy as some might think.

What were some of your personal favourite moments or surprises? Was there a tour you didn't go on, but heard others rave about it?

Safe travels homeward bound.

RB 

[Kristelle]

Ritabob I find it so hard to single out one highlight.

 

A lot of cathedrals, abbey's, palaces - got a bit over the Hapsburgs and baroque architecture by the end, magnificent though it was.

 

The one absolutely not to miss IMO is Melk Abbey. 

 

Also the mini train, music museum and cable car excursion - that was really good. 

 

My advice would be to try to take some tours of other things and in hindsight one of the earlier days, in Miltenberg, ,  I would of taken the farming tour, which people said they enjoyed, rather than the tour to the Abbey 

Abbey tour was good - but we saw many similar later in trip and so a farm visit would be nice variety and avoid  being Abbey-ed out later in trip. 

 

I was surprised how much I enjoyed the lunch and show at Salzburg and the classic music concert in Vienna - classical music and Sound of Music movie not being my interests - but it was tailored to broad appeal. 

 

Am on last leg of flying home now. Budapest to Frankfurt to Changi to Adelaide.

 

Incidentally little tip for anyone transitting through Singapore - there are free guided tours, 2 or 3 hours,  if you have long enough. Very enjoyable and way better than twiddling your thumbs in airport lounge for hours and hours. 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Kristelle
Addition

[mosaic35]

Hi Kristelle, 

You trip sounds fantastic. Just wondering what,  if any, covid restrictions there were on the cruise. Were people wearing masks, did you have to do any RAT's did anyone test positive to covid on the cruise and what happened - were they removed from the cruise or isolated in their room. 

Thanks in advance 

 

 

[Kristelle]

17 hours ago, mosaic35 said:

Hi Kristelle, 

You trip sounds fantastic. Just wondering what,  if any, covid restrictions there were on the cruise. Were people wearing masks, did you have to do any RAT's did anyone test positive to covid on the cruise and what happened - were they removed from the cruise or isolated in their room. 

Thanks in advance 

 

 

 

 

I don't recall any vaccination requirements - perhaps there were, we booked our trip a while ago and am fully vaccinated anyway, can't remember if I had to show that to TA when booking.

Or, if I did, whether it is still a requirement now.

Nobody on the ship wore masks. And only saw a few of the European public doing so, less than I see in Australia (which isnt many in general settings either)

There were hand sanitisers when entering public areas, I used them and saw many others also but was not policed. (should do this anyway of course, not just for Covid)

I did not have to do any RATS

I think people were asked to test if symptomatic and it is 5 days isolation in cabin if positive,  I remember cruise director saying that.

I dont know if this happened to anyone.

[mosaic35]

Thanks for getting back to me, much appreciated. That all sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I couldn’t find anything about needing to be vaccinated however both of us are.

thanks again 

Elaine