Well planned holiday with good trips
Well planned holiday with good trips. Excellent food and staff service
4.1
Great
407 reviews
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Review summary
Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours - UK receives consistently positive reviews. Customers particularly appreciate service and quality, though some mention concerns about customer service and expensive.
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Based on reviews, created with AISee what reviewers are saying
Best holiday
Great in every department. Will do it again. Amazingly good organised.
A great holiday company.
All inclusive holiday very good. No hidden costs. The variety of tours was excellent and the quality too of a high standard. We have no hesitation in recommending Scenic.
We found the cruise disappointing and misleading
We found the cruise disappointing. The staff were all lovely, polite and helpful, the room was kept clean and tidy and it was well organized. The food was good. The guides were all excellent. However pictures in the brochure were misleading. We only "cruised" for one afternoon where we could see the scenery we mostly travelled at night. Our cabin was also above the engine room and the bed actually shook at night. We thought we were booking an up market luxury cruise but it honestly felt more like a holiday camp. The photo in the brochure shows a couple at a table with space all around being served by a waiter. We were all crammed into the dining area with so little space you could hardly walk between the tables.
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Website
www.scenic.co.uk
All reviews
407 total • Write a review
Showing 331 - 340 of 403 reviews
RW
Barcelona to Rome cruise…first rate
We went on the Barcelona to Rome cruise on the new Eclipse 2 and it was all but faultless. Check in was almost a delight! We liked the light airy public areas, the great crew from serving staff to the guys on the tenders. The cabins were of high calibre but fairly standard in design. Food was great, we liked the Asian fusion the best and the "posh" Elements was over-hyped and the sommeliere over-bearing. The "entertainments" were not too great but the organisation of the excursions were very good. A most enjoyable experience.Would go again like a shot!
Date of experience: July 6, 2023
J
Juliana
US
Once in a life time trip….
Unfortunately, it wasn't this time around. We booked this Scenic Grand Indochina and Luxury Mekong cruise months in advance, expecting a month-long of oriental charm and culture. It turned out a bureaucratic script, too rushed and with several unplanned and unpleasant situations. It started with a total lack of information and interactivity on the Scenic site. We didn't get the booking details and summary a week before the cruise started, and they changed the final flight schedule, which means our post-cruise private arrangement had to be adjusted as well. Stress!! During the arrangement, we had another huge delay, waiting hours in the airport of Hanoi, due to a mistake made by the Scenic main office, which just forgot to inform the tour director of the changed airline schedule. And, a third change of route this time, when we had to end up in Vientiane for a night instead of flying directly to Luang Prabang in Laos. This last change in the airline company triggered several unpleasant situations and confusions, like less allowed luggage, which nobody knew to inform in advance and the tour director did not have the expertise to deal with. We experienced this confusion on the way from Cambodia to Laos, as well as from Laos to Thailand. Propeller planes instead of jets, less allowed weight and no previous information. The local guide asked us not to worry because "he knew the guys at the airport" (!!!) and the tour director again looked with “no expertise” to solve the situation. Of the seven hotels we stayed in during this trip three were what we expected and what the company was selling us. The other three were beyond our expectations, and one was beyond any expectation or common sense possible. This last one was in Vientiane, Laos, which was not on our schedule; we just got there by a last-minute change of route. And last, but not least, the Halong Bay boat was far from a five-star experience. Closer to a 2-3 star, not very clean, poor quality food and drinks. Unbelievable choice of accommodation and some of the restaurants considering what we paid for the arrangement. The Scenic Spirit is a nice and comfortable boat, one of the pleasant experiences of this rather “adventurous” trip. Well-sized cabins, nicely decorated interiors and professionally managed by the Hungarian cruise director. The scenery around is not really wow, nor pulsating life and energy. After 25 days of traveling around old Indochina, we remember an interesting traditional dinner in Hue, the old imperial capital of Vietnam, and the gala dinner at the ruins of Prasat Kravan temple in Angkor Wat. Of course the Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi and the Killing Fields in Cambodia are very interesting sights. The rest faded away amid (many, very) early wake-up calls to start the activities, lots of them rather uninteresting, repetitive, or accompanied by less prepared guides. Heard lots of political nonsense chat about the region’s actual situation from most of the guides and the tour director; and very little historical art, political, and religious erudite knowledge. We did not have the energy anymore at the end of the trip, neither physical nor mental, to participate in the dawn ritual of the local monks in Luang Prabang to collect their daily alms. And this was one of the main highlights of this trip. Everybody was exhausted, nobody else from the group volunteered to participate and we gave up as well. Pathetic end of a long-awaited trip, with no goodbyes and a bitter aftertaste. Scenic never again, no cost benefit, no client value.
Date of experience: June 8, 2023
T
Excellent ship experience (Eclipse) - dreadful trip quality
So, Scenic UK… We’re currently on the Scenic Eclipse, Central American Cruise. It’s a lovely ship, the cabins are excellent (I’m on floor 8 & have no problem with brown water - unlike guests lower down); the food is superb (I have heard a few complaints but I’m not sure why, & the overwhelming majority love the food); staff are excellent (particularly in the restaurants) and there is service for drinks in almost every public space. Unlike some reviewers, I thought the entertainment was quite good (a young lady and man with excellent voices and a fabulous pianist) & with quizzes and simple games at other times of the day. Where this cruise is let down is the quality of the trips. And the cost of the submersible (795 dollars US per person) compared to the dreadful water quality & lack of interesting things (I have photos); the experience of diving in such a vessel was fabulous, but it was simply not worth that amount of money. The first day it was used, only the first people had much to see - subsequent passengers found that the sea had been too “whipped up” & visibility was abysmal. As for the trips, They weren’t badly organised, just very poor quality and didn’t match up to anyone’s expectations. Costa Rica - a short trip through part of a rainforest to an underwhelming cascade & the only wildlife to be seen were 2 brown birds & millions of leaf cutter ants (that was actually pretty cool). El Salvador was slightly better, with a few deer and 2 other small mammals added to the list. Guatemala- well, those who went to the volcano had an understandably strenuous hike, and thought it was great; those who went to Antigua were extremely disappointed to spend little time actually looking round the city, but were told we couldn’t leave the hotel we’d been taken into for lunch (why lunch, for the vast majority of the limited time?). We revolted, complaining to 2 Scenic staff and were allowed 25 mins outside (but were too far from the centre of the city to see busy streets). Nicaragua was cancelled, as was the final stop of Isla mujeres (we went to Puerta Vallarta instead). To sum up - Scenic’s offering is good, especially on the ship - but destinations need to be looked at seriously to improve the quality of customer experience, and I am seriously put off travelling with them again.
Date of experience: April 14, 2023
J
Jan
US
3 years and still no refund
I've been awaiting a refund for three years. YEARS. We had a trip booked for May 2020, and of course that was cancelled due to covid in March 2020. We had already paid thousands of dollars toward our trip, and as of March 2023 we are STILL awaiting our reimbursement. I've tried at least a dozen times to get in touch with their customer service and am always tossed around from office to office, auto response to auto response. It has been such a headache. We had really been looking forward to our trip but will unfortunately never book with them again.
Date of experience: March 16, 2023
K
Katie
US
Where is my refund- 3 months late! Do not travel with Scenic
I had a lovely cruise with my wife and our friends, and we were about to book another one for next year. However on our cruise there was an issue with water levels and we were unable to dock at one place. We got home and Scenic offered us a refund, £110 per couple. It has now been three months since you said the finance team were releasing the funds. This is an absolute joke, why offer something if you aren’t going to fulfil it? These are the numbers for you to find me and my friend on your system: TVL/22/4709 and TVL/22/5166. We had a lovely time but this has ruined it and put us off ever travelling Scenic again.
Date of experience: January 25, 2023
SJ
Wish I hadn’t booked with them
Scenic group is Australian and also owns emerald cruises and evergreen tours operations They are very quick to take your money upfront and offer a 10% discount as incentive. If you want a trip they want payment up front for that too. They push hard to support their cash flow. Some advisors can be very nice and some abrupt bordering on rude. We later noted we were booked on an inconvenient flight yet much better options existed (without going to a budget airline), the flights were less than £50 in fact but to change we were to be charged with a transfer admin fee which was double the flight cost. The flight timings were not discussed with us before just booking them Later on the cruise was cancelled and we were not offered a refund as an option but we dug our heels in and did get a refund in full after a few weeks. Once the initial booking had been made it was not a comfortable experience , in fact it was stressful and I would not book with them again.
Date of experience: January 23, 2023
DS
Scenic first timers and definately the last
It’s interesting to read the reviews here. They are all too familiar. We were on Scenic Crystal, Rhine and Moselle 26th July 2022. It was very clear, even at the start that we were likely to experience problems with water levels. You only had to read the news!! Travel to Amsterdam by Eurostar was excellent and short trip to ship. Food onboard- disappointing. Constant unpleasant smell in the cabin. Had to be put up in hotels for last three nights. Very comfortable but no inclusive drinks. Coaches everywhere. Trip home by TGV to Paris was great but then had to pull our suitcases over Paris streets for approx 1 mile in 30c temps to reach the minibus transport. Just made connection at Gare du Nord. Offered small amount of compensation shortly after return. This figure then increased and confirmation received that payment had been input to finance dept on 5th October. Despite many emails, we are still waiting and receiving a variety of lame excuses. Am interested in comments about small claims court.
Date of experience: January 18, 2023
Kd
Not to be Trusted
After a problematic Rhine cruise, Scenic offered compensation thro a third party they use to handle complaints. A partial refund was agreed and all went smoothly until until it came to Scenic actually making payment. Three months later they are still making excuses about non payment. Suspect they are trying to wear me down - unfortunately for them I about to recover through the small claims court. Its a shame they are so difficult to deal with.
Date of experience: January 9, 2023
JF
EMERALD AZZURRA - (part of Scenic Group) - AVOID
A cruise line not to be trusted I have pushed the boat out, if you will pardon the pun, and booked a luxury cruise aboard the Emerald Azzurra around the Middle East. Five weeks prior to our upcoming departure the cruise line has cut one of the ports of call ( out of a total of six). No apology, no compensation and no right to cancel because they can hide behind their terms and conditions. It is perhaps no coincidence that the cancelled port is the most outlying so will save them a considerable amount in boat hours and fuel. The reason they give for the cancellation, the port that they booked has insufficient infrastructure and limited tourist opportunities. This is completely at odds with the glowing brochure description and did no one investigate the port prior to putting it onto the itinerary? What an absolute scam or total incompetence advertising something five weeks before departure they pull. Their attitude towards customers ( who have already paid) is dismissive and disgraceful verging on rude. Typical big company against unimportant individuals. This is not the type of company I would want to trust again. Date of experience: 22 December 2022
Date of experience: December 23, 2022
RL
R Levan
US
Where's our refund, 8 weeks late?
We were offered a refund for a missed trip during our Cruise, which we thought was generous, however we are still waiting 8 weeks later and 8 weeks of emails chasing. It doesn't take 8 weeks for an electronic transfer, when they have confirmed all of our Bank details. Apparently they are receiving a lot of emails in Finance, causing a delay, but how can that be when there was only 160 people on the boat? Mostly couples, so 80 emails in 8 weeks? It is seriously reducing their chances of us re-booking with Scenic.
Date of experience: December 12, 2022
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