This is our second cruise on Scenic. We cruised on the Scenic Amber last year down the Danube and it was wonderful. This years cruise on the Jasper down the Rhine was very good BUT......... not as good as last year. Last year Scenic used their own buses for the entire cruise. This year the contracted out to local bus companies. The service was spotty. Some were very good and right on time, some were just ok and ran late. The transfer service from Zurich to the ship was poor. Scenic told us to arrive in Zurich no later than 1:00 PM. Most international flights arrive early morning. When we got our final paperwork 3 weeks before the start of the cruise we were told airport pickup would not be until 2:00PM. This ment we would have to sit in the baggage area in the airport for 5 hours (after an 8 hour flight). After several emails and phone calls, Scenic provided a van for us and 3 other couples. It was an extremely uncomfortable 2 hour ride. The rest of the passengers all arrived at the same time on 3 buses. Not well planned.

The service seemed to be out of sinc. Not as smooth as our previous cruise. The food was definitely not 5 star gourmet. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style. The food was no better than good. Dinners were better but not “5 star”.

An 8 day - 7 night cruise is actually a 6 day cruise since days 1 & 8 are travel days. Unless you see 2 days in the first port, don’t expect to see much of that stop unless you plan on a pre or post cruise stay..