Scenic - Luxury Cruises & Tours - Sydney, New South Wales

Daniela Scalcon

NOTE: This review pertains solely to CUSTOMER SERVICE as we haven’t yet set foot on the ship.

It’s maddening, frustrating and makes you want to throw your phone at the wall. What is the point of all that marketing on “Getaway” when you can’t get through to a representative? I cannot tell you the number of times I have hung up after 20, 30 and even 40 minutes.

Emails are responded to reasonably quickly but there is often to-ing and fro-ing that wouldn’t have been necessary had someone just answered the phone. There are complaints all over the place about this issue but obviously management doesn’t mind infuriating its customers.

And I’d like to add, a complete reversal of the impeccable service we received from Silversea. Scenic bandies around the word “luxury” quite a bit but so far, our pre-cruise experience has been very pedestrian.

Peter Baulderstone

We booked a Beautiful Bordeaux River Cruise and was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, on our first day on board, just as we were about to go on our first tour my wife fell down the steps and broke her leg and dislocated her ankle. The Cruise Director, Captain and other staff were fantastic, nothing was too difficult. It cost a bit more than some of the other cruises, but it was all inclusive from what we found. They helped in getting an ambulance to the ship, with dealing with the hospital and understanding the doctors, as we do not speak French, to arranging medication, transfers to and from the hospital afterwards, to acquire crutches for my wife (which we paid for) etc. Including but not limited to arranging last minute transfer to the airport because the Insurance company claimed they could not, but only notified us of our return flights at the last minute. The only let down, has been their insistence in determining what we should be able to claim back from the travel insurance company. I personally believe it should have been up to me to discuss with the insurance company, rather than the insurance company saying this is what Scenic have recommended as a refund. End of story.

Terry Smart

The overall cruise, Jewels of Europe Cruise was fantastic, however, there were a few lowlights. We boarded the Ruby ship 28 August 2023 in a Junior Suite on the Sapphire Deck. The suite, bathroom was to our liking as was the rest of the ship. Once we reach our first destination, Vienna the Danube experienced high water levels and we were bused 5 hours to Struabing due to water over the lock, where we boarded a sister ship the Scenic Crystal. This ship was built some years after the Ruby, however, our suite was smaller, marginally, than Ruby but the bathroom was some meters smaller. The major issue is because we were in the middle level which we chose to be near the restaurants & entry points, during the night we waken by passengers on the upper deck flushing their marine toilet.
Soundproofing was non existent.
What caught my immediate eye was a bath. When the passengers were mid 60+ why a bath included with sides approx 1 meter high reduced space the overall space in the bathroom.
I guess because of the ship was in the middle of nowhere at Struabing we endured a 2 hour bus to our "Sound of Music" excursion which was fantastic then a 3 hour bus trip to meet the Crystal further up stream.
I think the lack of communication regarding the time to bus to each selected excursion was an issue.
The crew, guides, food and service I couldn't fault. The cruise director Sacha was knowledgeable and very helpful.

Rose Doldo

Couldn't fault the service and food on our River Cruise. We travelled from Basel to Amsterdam along the Rhine and Moselle and docked right in the towns. Plenty of free time to walk in and explore after the morning tours. Not like our previous Budapest to Amsterdam that felt rushed.
Definitely would recommend and travel again. Most passengers on board were 2nd and 3rd time travellers.

Mervyn Collins

We did the 16 day Alaskan cruise from Vancouver to Nome this May. Couldn't fault the food, service,ship or staff but for the enormous cost, the on shore activities were very disappointing and disorganised. In 16 days we had the zodiacs out once and kayaks 3 times.
No point in going on to remote locations if you don't have well planned things for guests to do.
Save your money and do a traditional inside passage cruise with a small cruise company as Scenic don't offer value for money unless you're happy to sit on a ship and just eat good food and enjoy great onboard service. Beyond this you may be disappointed.

Vee Greenwood

DISGUSTED. you held our money for over 3 years once our trip was cancelled due to COVID. I appreciate that you couldn't refund everyone once our tours were cancelled but the customer service with the refund was a disgrace. i was either told to go away or it'll be paid, eventually. next month, the month after, then month after that. 3 years later. WE WILL NEVER TRAVEL WITH YOU AGAIN. not only have i but my family have invested years of travel and hundreds of thousands of dollars with you and experienced great trips and have great memories but this has ruined it all.

Maryke Harris

I had planned 60th on the scenic cruise because I didn't want to be home. I planned 18 months ahead of time. I understand covid-19 was at fault. I was to go late august September. It's been gone. My 60th birthday was home alone as I am single. Had to drive to get Chinese no delivery available. And did video with son daughter and grand kids where there was 3 cakes lit. That would of been the best of it. I had tried through travel agent to get refund from scenic. My option pick another cruise none here all grounded. Or re book there. No flights. I have to wait another year to claim. This such a bad look for company. It was a pandemic that haulted people. I totally believe that it should be refunded. There could be high chance they fold and we left with nothing. I am a pensioner so 1000.00 to us is a very lot of money. It was my final holiday wanting to see my dad in Amsterdam. He is now 85. The thing is I am so unlucky with my life events. Been through so much it was a holiday I really counted on. The refund for 1000.00 would be so nice.
Please help me.

Kerrie Zabaks

We did a Scenic River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. I really cannot fault the whole trip too much, but perhaps travellers should be aware of the following:

From all of their advertising and discussions we had with them at an expo, we got the impression that you would step off the boat into a magical historical town at your fingertips, and you could spend the day wandering around soaking up the sights. Unfortunately this was the furthest thing from the truth. At each of our destinations we had to hop off the boat, onto a bus, and in some cases travel 2 hours to get to the towns that were our excursions for the day. Then we would only have a couple of hours there to enjoy these beautiful and historical towns, then back on the bus for another 2 hours to return to the boat. Don't get me wrong, the towns themselves were amazing and I could not fault the wonderful experiences we had when we eventually got there. But I thought this was very misleading of them to advertise in such a way that you thought everything was one step off the boat.

We experienced low waters when we travelled which has been a discussion with passengers in the past. We were one of the lucky ones, whereby we transferred from our boat to another Scenic boat and were able to continue our journey. However, I have to be honest and say that the crew on the second boat seemed so disinterested in us, that it sort of spoilt the cruise a little bit. The first crew were amazing and we enjoyed our week with them, but the second crew were flat and everything seemed a bit too much trouble for them.

Would I travel again with Scenic? No.....probably not. They are very expensive at the end of the day, but the food was excellent, the itinerary was enjoyed by all, but the travel once you got off the boat was tiring and rushed. We could have spent many more hours wandering through the streets of these towns, but our time was limited. We barely had time for a cup of coffee!

They certainly have the market and are spreading themselves even further around the world. But I think a savvy traveller can find other ways to explore the same areas on different vessels which would be just as good as Scenic.