CRITICAL REVIEW OF SCENIC TOURS EUROPE RIVER CRUISING
FROM:
martre2014
Sydney, Australia
485. Re: Scenic Tours European River Cruise
Apr 02, 2014, 10:24 PM
We along with many other passengers experienced major problems on 19 day Switzerland Rhine and Moselle River Cruise on Scenic Jewel 26 August 2013. We were originally booked to travel on Scenic Crystal but it was unavailable due to the floods. We had previously travelled with Scenic on Jewels of Europe in 2008 without any incident.
The problems we experienced were related to the change of ship which has a slightly different fit-out to the Crystal and to the fact that the crew mainly travelled on the Jewels of Europe route. The cruise director Sylvia was unfamiliar with the the route, off ship excursions, support staff employed as tour guides or bus drivers, restaurants and tourist attractions and other facilities required by passengers. The way she dealt with complaints from passengers was appalling and it was obvious that she did not communicate with the crew unless required to. The Hotel Manager Igor and The Captain both declined to intervene. We have briefed our travel agent who has carefully documented our complaints and we have sent a formal complaint to Scenic. After much delay we have received a reply, Scenic acknowledges our complaints as genuine and the difficulty encountered with the cruise director, but from what we understand she is still employed and Scenic have declined to refund $23,780.00 for the cruise expenses which we requested as the cruise for us was spoilt from beginning to end by the ongoing problems we and others passengers experienced. We are aware a number of other passengers have also made complaints which include reference to the treatment we received but Scenic has denied receiving these. It is necessary to advise that on the night the appraisals were given out to passengers Szylvia advised that if they gave her any score less than 8 she would consider that an insult.
As a warning to others, if things go wrong due to Scenic operations, Scenic are not prepared to remedy the situation, you will find yourself in Europe or other destination without any help. Our request to be taken off the ship and flown back home when we felt we could no longer cope with this was ignored. Our emails to Melanie Koch Scenics European Director were mysteriously blocked and when she came on board on the day before disembarkation our request to speak with her was ignored.
After this experience, if you are elderly, disabled or unable to advocate in a strong manner for yourself, or are concerned that poorly planned off shore excursions or disembarking through three boats up and down stairs or as some of our fellow passengers experienced being abandoned by the tour guide in an isolated spot in the dark, is going to compromise your health, consider carefully travelling with Scenic as their customer service is appalling.