Scenic River Scenic Jewel River Cruises Reviews

We were situated in a cabin towards the back of the ship subject to noise and vibration whilst sailing during the night. Scenic staff were reluctant to address the issue with any urgency (the passenger in the cabin opposite spent 3 nights sleeping in the lounge before being moved, we were moved after 4 nights - why have to wait?). Same story at reception "There are no free cabins", which was ...

We have been on 2 other Scenic river cruises and they were above expectations. We do not know whether Scenic is now cutting corners or whether it was just this boat, but it was a real come down from our previous experiences with Scenic. It was not just the food, service and entertainment aboard the ship but also the tours. We had read other reviews about the food quality and variety ...

Scenic (at least in Australia) actively market the Scenic experience as a five star world quality product. In reality our cruise was really mass tourism and more focused on drinking. The bad: The food is woefully bad. It is not hard to realise that the braised beef one night is the Swedish style meat balls the next lunch. Whilst the Italian concept and French table were actually ...

Really regimented agenda so didn't allow for much "downtime". For example, no time to sit up top and have a cocktail at the end of the day, as the excursions returned at 5 or later, and port talk was at 6 and dinner at 7. Hard to shower, dress for dinner and have some downtime in the space of an hour. Food was ok, not great. Worst part was that the Danube is so busy that 5 nights out of 7 we ...

Every day since we left, our ship docks next to at least one other. Sometimes there are 3 abreast - this, in the low season. As a result, our view from our balcony (which we paid extra for ~silly us!) is into the window of the cabin of the other ship. So, no view. One night, we were apparently near the exhaust vent of another ship and so for days after, our room and all others on this side smelled ...

We were told Scenic was top of the range with excellent food. Not true. Food was poor to mediocre - dry chicken, leathery veal, limited fruit selection, uninspiring lunch buffets, watery wines. Also evening meals took 2 to 2.5 hours as everyone had to be served at the same pace. The crew were as helpful as they could be, given they had to serve 165 people with drinks and food ...

As a preface, we are a couple of active, still working adults somewhat on the low end of the age range of typical river cruisers. I cancelled a back to back Celebrity cruise touring Iceland and the Baltic after reading about river cruising. Our experience has been mostly with the Royal Caribbean/Celebrity product. I considered Tauck, Uniworld and a few other lines when booking this trip last ...