Riviera Travel
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Black Sea Delta Cruise So Disappointing
If reaching the Black Sea delta is important to you, then be warned – it isn’t important to Riviera. Riviera’s Budapest to the Black Sea river cruise utterly failed to deliver the trip they’d offered and we’d expected and paid for. Due to low water levels in the Danube, the cruise failed to achieve about 25% of its planned distance. Everyone on the trip was automatically given a 5% refund but this was wholly inadequate given the failure of the trip to achieve it’s basic objective. The whole point of booking this particular cruise was to reach the Black Sea delta and its unique wildlife location. We did not reach Tulcea or the legendary city of Constanta and the Black Water industrial area that we were also anticipating. The alternative trips organised did not remotely compensate for the loss of these destinations. The Kopacki Rit nature reserve trip was a farce. My group only had a 40 min rush along the boardwalks before we were back on the coach for a 50 min boat ride. The 9 hour round coach trip to the Black Sea at Varna was equally farcical with only 2 hours at this seaside town before we had to return. These felt like 'tick-box' exercises rather than the real experiences that Riviera had offered and I'd expected and paid for. Looking at water level data for the Danube after out return, it was obvious that levels were falling rapidly and the ship was never going to reach it’s destination. But at no point were we alerted to this and offered the opportunity to rearrange. Riviera must have known in advance before we ever left Budapest that they were not going to be able to deliver the trip we’d booked. I cannot see any warning anywhere in their brochure advertising the trip where it says that the cruise may not reach the Black Sea due to river conditions. I have joined other trips in the past which are subject to natural variations, like wildlife behaviour or the aurora, and these have always given a % success rate and a clear warning that there might not be sightings. The Riviera description for this trip gives no such warning. If it had, we would not have booked it. And if climate change means that the likelihood of reaching the Black Sea is growing ever-more unlikely then maybe Riviera should stop offering a trip it cannot deliver. To add insult to injury, Riviera have offered us a 20% discount on a future river cruise in a similar top-deck cabin to the one we booked for the Danube. But they have rejected my request for additional compensation for the cruise they’ve already failed to deliver and have limited the refund to a paltry 5%. This was our 6th trip with Riviera and until now I would have considered myself a satisfied and loyal customer but feel devastated about the failure of this trip to deliver and the inadequate compensation we have been given. Riviera clearly give no weight to our lifetime value to the company and we will never use them again.