THE SCENIC RUBY - FROM AMSTERDAM TO NUREMBERG WITH SCENIC TOURS

As mentioned in the previous section, low summer rainfall can cause parts of the Rhine-Main-Danube river system to become unnavigable by river boats. When this happens, it may be necessary for passengers to disembark and travel by bus to the next navigable stretch of river where they should be able to resume their cruise on a different river boat. In our case, we were required to leave our Scenic Tours boat Scenic Ruby at Nuremberg on the Main River, and travel by bus to Vilshofen on the Danube. At Vilshofen, we embarked on Scenic Emerald to complete the cruise to Budapest. Accordingly, this review of travel by river boat with Scenic Tours from Amsterdam to Budapest necessarily mentions two boats - Scenic Ruby and Scenic Emerald.

As a result of changing river boats, we by-passed the famous medieval city of Regensburg and missed travelling over the extraordinary elevated Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. Scenic Tours provided no warning that passengers might have to change boats half way through their river cruise. The change of boats might have been less of a shock if the two Scenic boats had been of comparable quality. Many aspects of travel on the Scenic Emerald were inferior to the Scenic Ruby, and I will mention those aspects in the following sections of this review.

Our first impression of the Scenic Ruby

We boarded the Scenic Ruby in Amsterdam late on the afternoon of 24 August. The boat was the newest in the Scenic Tours fleet and looked magnificent.

The Scenic Ruby

We were greeted warmly by the crew when we boarded, and were escorted to our Royal Suite with the cabin number R316. We were startled to find upon entering our suite that it was much smaller than the Royal Suite had appeared in the artist's illustration (below left) in the Scenic Tours brochure that had persuaded us to pay for a Royal Suite. The floor plan in the brochure had shown a two-seater lounge and an additional single lounge chair in the Royal Suite. We found no two-seater lounge in our Royal Suite, but only the two small armchairs shown in the photograph below on the right.

We later discovered that our Royal Suite was significantly smaller than the Royal Suite next door to ours. This Royal Suite, number R314, had the two-seater lounge and extra armchair shown in the Scenic Tours brochure. It was also a larger suite with greater floor space. Needless to say, I was angry. I was convinced that Scenic Tours had palmed us off with a third-rate hotel room in Paris at what I considered to be an extortionate rate and had now allocated us a Royal Suite that fell well short of the floor size and furnishings promised in their brochure. I felt that an ethical tour company should have made it clear that Royal Suites came in different sizes and with different furnishings albeit with identical prices. If we had known this truth we would never have accepted the smaller Royal Suite. The next shock came when we viewed the narrow balcony outside our Royal Suite. The balcony on Scenic Ruby was so narrow that we found it impossible to place a chair so that it faced squarely towards the river. So you must sit facing the bow or stern, and turn your head sideways to view the passing river scenery. That is not a comfortable way to view magnificent scenery when one is over sixty and possesses a neck restricted by arthritis. It is necessary to mention this because the total inadequacy of our balcony caused me to downgrade Scenic Ruby from an overall five to four star rating.

For those who read this review of our experience with Scenic Tours, it may be useful to pose the specific question:

Q. Did your Royal Suite meet the advertised claims made for it by Scenic Tours?

A. No

Our overall impression of the Scenic Ruby

Although feeling a strong sense of betrayal by Scenic Tours over our accommodation in Paris and the diminished size and furnishings of our Royal Suite, we could find no fault with the public facilities and staff services on the Scenic Ruby. Our butler and maid were both attentive and helpful. Our cabin was very clean and there were no stained or torn curtains such as we would later find on the Scenic Emerald. Sound dampening in the dining room was excellent and made conversation easy. We would find later in the Scenic Emerald that inadequate sound dampening in that boat's dining room made conversation difficult in the centre tables. The dining room service in Scenic Ruby was excellent. Petra, the Maitre d', kept an eagle eye on the tables to ensure that guests were being served attentively. Unfortunately, we would not find that high quality of dining room service on the Scenic Emerald. The staff at reception on Scenic Ruby were friendly and very helpful, and our welcome by crew on return from outings was always warm. The captain and hotel manager of the Scenic Ruby deserved to be commended for the very high standards of service provided to passengers. I rate passenger service on the Scenic Ruby at:

Noise and vibration can be a problem for those in cabins close to the motors on river boats but we found no problem with noise or vibration on Scenic Ruby. Our shower leaked water on to the bathroom floor and this could not be fixed. Our maid provided extra towels each day to soak up the leaked shower water. Scenic Tours brochures speak of "climate control" on their river boats rather than air conditioning which may explain why there was no means of adjusting temperature levels in a our cabin. In our too short time on Scenic Ruby, we experienced no problems with the temperatures in our cabin but it faced the east and the ambient temperature was mild for late summer.

The only sour note about our time on Scenic Ruby related not to any crew member but to the Dutch Cruise Director Marianne. Her first briefing for passengers began with a warning that some of the walking tours would be very strenous and that elderly passengers might be wise to avoid them. It appeared to me that such a warning should have been explicitly stated in the Scenic Tours brochure rather than delivered after passengers had paid their money and boarded the Scenic Ruby. I gained the impression that her geniality was forced and perhaps designed to encourage bar sales in the lounge where she entertained passengers by singing after dinner. When one elderly passenger asked her a question during one of her daily briefings, she snapped back: "I've already answered that". At Rüdesheim, I asked her if it would be possible for me to visit the magnificent castle Rheinstein on the other side of the Rhine river. I knew that the owner of Burg Rheinstein welcomes visitors, including tour parties, and still having some command of university-level German, I didn't think it would be very difficult to make the visit if a ferry service across the river was available . Marianne looked at me coldly and said that a visit to the castle was not part of the scheduled tour of Rüdesheim and that she could not help me. I would not have raised the possibility of visiting the castle if Scenic Tours staff at the Newcastle main office had not suggested that our Cruise Director would be happy to help me make such a visit provided that I could be back before the Scenic Ruby resumed its cruise.

Because of the failure of our Royal Suite to meet the description in the Scenic Tours brochure, I felt obliged to rate the Scenic Ruby overall at:

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