As a 40th anniversary trip. We made our own arrangements to get to Budapest and to return home from Amsterdam. We were told by Scenic UK to phone the Jade (which should have been our ship) to find her dock on the Monday. While out walking in Budapest on Sunday we saw the Scenic Jasper to ask if they knew where Jade was docking? The lady at reception looked bemused and said Jade is not due but made a phone call to check and said she was not due....she then asked for our name, then said we were due to board her ship Jasper the following day!! The ship had changed due to low water levels but we had not been notified. We complained via our travel agent about the lack of communication and eventually had a phone call from Scenic UK, the gist being that we had sorted ourselves out so what was the problem! Not exactly 5* customer service, especially as it cost us £14k+. Similar responses after the cruise...no real apology just excuses that HQ in Australia had the information but UK did not! Also our cabin was being changed so UK were waiting for detail....as far as I could tell, we had the same grade of cabin we had booked? They probably knew a week earlier of the ship change as that was probably the location where the ship change probably took place but they do not like to publish that!! We heard the return cruise from Amsterdam was likely to have 3 ship changes!

Having said all that, we were on the Jasper for 1 week from Monday 23 July then met up with the Jade on Sunday 29 July. Both ships were excellent and the Cruise Director Cathy (Kathy) and the rest of the crew were all hardworking and friendly with great service. Ship change was so slick although all the suitcases had to be repacked and they were taken from our cabin and were waiting for us on the Jade!! We just went on our tour for the day and were taken back to the Jade! Excursions were well-organised and included more than usually described. Would happily recommend the cruise and ships but not the back-up organisation in UK, etc. Will not be using them again, life is too short!