A distressing outward journey to reach this cruise is still colouring our view of the trip. Our verdict on whether Scenic goes on to a "never, ever again" list awaits a ruling from their Customer Service Department on whether we will be refunded for additional tickets we were forced to by en route to be able to reach Bordeaux.

This was our first cruise with Scenic. We were interested in the wine area covered and wanted to avoid packing and unpacking as we went around the area. We thought we would also get time to relax and the chance to get there by rail rather than flying was particularly attractive.

Unfortunately things started going wrong before we left. We booked, at a saving, thorough the ROL organisation. About a month before departure we learned that our train from London would leave at 7am! Our documents arrived about seven days before departure but with no explanation of how we were to transfer in Paris from Eurostar at the Gare du Nord to the TGV at Gare Montparnasse. Read more