This has been the most disappointing holiday that we have participated in. This was our first river cruise where we travelled from Amsterdam to Budapest. We wanted to try something different. Despite that we got to briefly visit some incredible places however the longer the cruise went on the more disappointed we became with the overall process. I guess most of the disappointment results from the perception created by marketing versus the reality that is delivered. River cruising is as close as you get to a coach tour through Europe. To that end have chosen to write a list of what they don’t tell you in the brochure/online’:

1. The cruise company claims to offer a ‘choice of airlines’. Our experience was that our first leg of our trip was on the airline of our choice and then the second and third on Swiss Airlines. The explanation was that Scenic has a relationship with Swiss Air. Swiss Air are not as bad as American Airlines but they are not to the standard that we enjoy in our part of the world. While our trip up was fine, our trip home was nothing short of traumatising on Swiss Air instead of our chosen airline (see below)

2. The entire travel experience is a cookie cutter, pressure cooker, production line trip which means if you move outside the programme the production line stops working. We opted to spend two extra nights up front in Amsterdam and two after in Budapest. Because of this, Scenic were not interested in airport transfers or transfers to/from the boat despite using their recommended hotels and despite what they say in their advertising. Read more