Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Amsterdam

 ‘Romantic Rhine & Moselle’ - Scenic Jasper - Amsterdam>Basel 5-19 August 2024

This was our 17th river cruise, and the third with Scenic. Our previous cruise ended in July 2024 and was with Scenic in the Douro. The previous two Scenic boats were shorter ones designed for particular rivers. This was the first full-sized ‘Scenic Spaceship’ but Scenic’s fleet isn’t all one design. Scenic Jasper is, with Opal & Amber, one of three in that class. But even so, it appears that there are technical differences.

This was the most chaotic and disorganised trip – so much so that Joan is refusing to go on any more Scenic cruises. How much is the fault of Scenic and how much was the fault of the local team, I don’t know.

It was a 15 day cruise so we got to know the staff, and they knew our likes. Joan chose the cruise because it was two weeks, and it was heavily discounted. We've cruised twice from Basel to Amsterdam, so chose to do it the other way around. We also had fond memories of the Moselle, which we cruised Basel to Trier in 2022 with Viking

We had a balcony cabin in the middle desk on the port side and made full use of the balcony, as the air-con in the public areas was very cold, and loud recorded music didn’t stop.

There were 104 passengers. The capacity is 163, so there were 59 people fewer than there could have been. Our previous Scenic cruise was 75% full, this was 63.8%. Nationality breakdown by passport was:-

1 Indonesia (but lives in Australia)

4 Germany (3.8%)

8 USA (7.7%)

18 Canada (17.3%)

32 UK (30.8%)

41 Australia (40.4% - includes Indonesian)

Trip Review

The cruise covered 1148 kilometres passing through 35 locks.

Mooring locations are identified by a What3Words square. What3Words have divided the world into 3 metre squares and given each square a unique combination of three words. To see the location click the what3words link. You can switch between map and satellite view.

 Daily Schedules at end

Day 1 – Monday 5 August 2024

We arrived early at Amsterdam at 14:00 after a 40 minute flight from London and I had hope of getting to the ship before the embarkation buffet closed at 15:00. After speedily passing immigration the baggage carousel sign showed a 30 minute wait for bags from our flight. When we finally had our bags and exited via customs we were faced with reps from Viking, Ama and Avalon.  But not Scenic.

A Viking rep suggested going to the Meeting Point which is on the railway station concourse, but although we could see Ama and Avalon reps in distinctive clothing surrounded by passengers we could not find a Scenic rep. We went back to the arrivals exit where another couple were also looking for Scenic. They phoned the Scenic emergency number and after being shunted around a while were told the rep should be at the Meeting Point.

We agreed that we’d stay at arrivals and they would go to the Meeting Point and if they didn’t return we’d assume they’d found the rep and we would again go the Meeting Point. They didn’t return so was went again to the Meeting Point. We couldn’t see the rep but we did see them and then we saw the rep next to a pillar. The rep was wearing a black polo shirt with the word Scenic on the left breast, hidden below her arm holding a mobile phone to her ear. She had her back to arrivals. Next to her was a luggage trolley with her shoulder bag and perched on that was a small black rectangle with Scenic written in white, also pointing away from Arrivals.

 

After our names were ticked off she phoned the taxi driver who’d wandered off.

All the passengers for Ama, Avalon and Viking had gone, leaving just us. Forty minutes later the taxi driver appeared and we got in a people carrier which left the airport at 15:50.

Centraal Station, seen from our cabin

Two ocean cruisers were moored by the Movenpick hotel where river cruisers moored in April and we were moored closed to the Centraal Station.

We took a much shorter walk than last time to have another dinner at Gaucho’s in Spuistraat. https://www.gauchosgrill.nl/en

Overnight Location: Amsterdam - https://what3words.com/small.ends.parting