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Scenic Jade offers the intellectually curious passenger a fine sampler of excursions. The Scenic philosophy is that, while life onboard the ship is relaxed, the passengers (169 maximum) book for the enrichment of shore excursions, either guided by able locals or a clever device that offers recorded, GPS-sensitive presentations. The device includes narrated tours for 18 port calls and hundreds more brief comments along the river route.
Additionally, each passenger receives an annotated route map, plus Scenic's own 430-page lavishly illustrated paperback guidebook about the itinerary.
Parent company Scenic terms voyages on its "space ships" as "luxury river cruising," and to that end, the vessel has some notable pluses:
About 85 percent of its cabins have balconies boasting a go-the-extra-mile innovation: floor-to-ceiling glass panels that can be manoeuvred to fold flat, opening the whole cabin to the balcony.
The vessel is uncommonly vibration free and quiet, largely because its twin engines are on rubber mounts. While we motored on the Danube, I couldn't hear the engine even when I could hear the conversation of two men fishing from a boat 30 yards away. There's a sliding scale of butler service to every cabin.
The vessel carries electric-power-assisted bicycles to encourage passengers to join guided shore tours or pedal off on their own. While there are other, smaller touches that live up to Scenic's luxury billing, there's also one significant shortcoming -- the food and its presentation.
But that's not a deterrent to Scenic loyalists; the company reports that nearly 50 percent of passengers book again with the company after a trip. And Scenic has also made a name for itself by offering one of river cruising's most inclusive products, with gratuities, airport transfers, shore tours and beverages built into its fares. That means not only will you learn something about Western Europe on this cruise, you won't be presented with a hefty bill at holiday's end.
Because much of the voyage takes place off the ship on walking or bike tours, passengers tend to wear comfortable clothing, such as shorts, polo shirts or sleeveless tops for women.
In the Panorama Lounge and Bar, the only indoor gathering place on Scenic Jade, slacks and collared shirts or blouses are the norm. Occasionally, men wear blue jeans, but T-shirts bearing messages are seldom seen anywhere on the ship.
The cruise line suggests the amorphous "resort casual" -- but no shorts -- at dinner, served in the only dining room. However, because older folks tend to favour a dressier look, some men do wear blazers (and even ties) to dinner, and some women can be found in cocktail dresses.
There are two occasions when everyone tends to dress up: the fixed-menu dinners in Portobello's and La Rive.
There's a single musician onboard who sings and plays the keyboard and trumpet before and after dinner. Occasionally local groups are brought on to perform regional music, dances or both, and one evening the crew held a variety show. One afternoon, a professor came onboard for a 40-minute presentation on the European Union, and there was also a towel animal-folding demonstration. Scenic Cruises does offer exclusive entertainment during some of its shore excursions. For example, on the Jewels of the Danube itinerary, passengers were bused from Vienna to the glorious Liechtenstein Garden Palace, where they were treated to an hourlong concert featuring an 11-piece contingent of the Vienna Imperial Orchestra, a soprano and a baritone, and two members of the Vienna Ballet Company.
Scenic Cruises also relies on Tailormade, an innovative GPS-initiated touring device. Smaller than a paperback book and equipped with a nicely padded neck strap and personal earpiece, the Tailormade serves not only as the receiver for the tour guide's on-the-spot comments during walkabouts, but it can also be used if you choose to walk or bike on your own. Each of the 38 tours in the itinerary's 18 cities has its own map, with sights numbered. A GPS locator within the Tailormade triggers the short and entertaining narratives, which are recited in your earpiece as you follow the themed route. Beyond the Tailormade, Scenic has put together 600 more brief commentaries that are triggered as the vessel cruises its route. Local tour guides are all English-speaking, and they easily entertain questions. They're careful to repeat time and location to return to the tour buses.
The vessel has four exercise machines in one small room with its own flat-screen TV. That's it for onboard fitness.
Scenic Jade carries 30 electric six-gear bicycles and stores another 20 nonmotorized bikes between the villages of Melk and Dürnstein, Austria. Keep in mind that some stamina is required to bike; for one 21-mile ride on our sailing, there was no "sag wagon" to collect those who tired, nor were they able to simply turn around and head back, as the ship had already left that port. There's a masseuse onboard; massages, hairstyling, facials, manicures and pedicures are available, too, for added fees.
The Panorama Lounge and Bar is the lone indoor gathering place. Sofas and occasional chairs are arranged in conversation groups, and the room is busiest during the afternoon cocktail hour, after which the cruise director gives a brief presentation on the next day's port and excursion options.
The top deck, or Sun Deck, is open and has plastic carpeting beneath numerous tables and chairs, most of which are covered by canopies or giant patio umbrellas. The carpeting is a rich green, except for the walking track. (Footsteps and furniture movement on the Sun Deck can be heard in the rooms immediately below, so running is discouraged.)
Scenic Jade has six dining venues.
There is a single main restaurant, the Crystal Dining Room, which seats 166. All three meals are available there, with breakfast and lunch served primarily as a buffet, offering a few menu items. There's no assigned seating for the tables, which seat two, four, six and eight.
Breakfast begins generally at 7 a.m., sometimes earlier depending on the day's port activities. There's an omelette station and menu items that include French toast (it was excellent, the taste of the eggs coming through), pancakes, waffles, a full English breakfast, minute steak and lamb chops.
The buffet includes the usual range of breakfast items: hot and cold cereals, muesli, three flavours of yogurt, eggs, fresh and canned fruits, hot and cold meats, pastries, cheeses, smoked salmon and mackerel, breads, rolls and muffins.
Lunch always offers meat sliced to order, various cooked potatoes, hot and cold pastas, salads, hot and cold vegetables and greens, luncheon meats, sliced cheeses, pastries and usually two flavours of ice cream, with bowls of serve-yourself syrups and toppings.
A Bavarian lunch one day featured a couple of waiters in lederhosen, serving steins of German lager, along with a variety of appreciably spicy sausages, roasted pork and other regional dishes.
Early, late and light breakfasts, as well as light lunches, are served in the River Café, which is a small section of the Panorama Lounge and Bar on the deck above the Crystal Dining Room.
The breakfast menu there includes cereal, special-order eggs and pancakes, pastries and fruit. Lunch items include green and pasta salads, soups, open-faced mini-sandwiches, burgers, two types of pizza and several pastries and sweets.
Weather permitting, there's also one barbecue lunch served on the open top deck. Just in front of the Panorama Lounge, in an open but covered section, the Panorama Deck seats about 20 for lunch. The menu of the River Café is available, though passengers may need to fetch one of the bar/café waiters to take an order.
The River Café does have its chilled items available after lunch, though there is no dinner service. Scenic Jade has a coffee machine with six varieties of coffee and two of hot chocolate. It also includes a hot water machine for those preferring tea, with a large variety of flavours. At the side of these two machines, in the Panorama Lounge, three or four kinds of fresh cookies are available.
Dinner generally begins at 7 p.m., with minor variations again depending on activities onshore. A typical menu includes appetizers of Black forest ham, mushroom-filled pasta squares and potato soup. Entrees might be filet of sole in dill with pasta and vegetables; pork tenderloin with an herb sauce, potatoes and glazed vanilla carrots; and celery medallions in hazelnut crust with lentils and a pumpkin sauce. Every dinner also includes a vegetarian option. Dessert on our sailing included Bavarian cream and elderflower jelly with forest berries, strawberry ice cream with caramelized walnuts, and German apple pie. Each night, dessert options include a fresh fruit platter and a rotating selection of three cheeses with crackers.
With your dinner, you have a choice of red or white wine, usually regional. But passengers may request other wines and Champagne. Again, alcoholic beverages are included in the fares, and Champagne is even placed in ice buckets by the breakfast and lunch buffet line.
Another dinner option is Portobello's, located forward of the River Café and separated from it by glass walls. It seats about 30 and has one service per night of its limited Italian menu. This dinner begins at the same time as that in the Crystal Dining Room (7 p.m.). There's no added fee to dine there, but reservations are necessary due to the limited seating.
Finally, Scenic Jade serves an elegant six-course wine-pairing dinner with a fixed menu in what it calls Table La Rive. This actually is a table for 10, located at the far-forward end of the Crystal Dining Room.
The Table La Rive dinner -- again, no added cost, but reservations are a must -- was far and away the best food served on our voyage. The menu included lemongrass crème brûlée, salmon carpaccio with radicchio and warm pine nuts, tiger prawns with mango and chili, porcini cappuccino with blue potato chips, beef a la "Scenic" with foie gras, vegetables, and potato gratin. Chocolate cake with balsamic cherries and bourbon vanilla ice cream was served for dessert.
Scenic Jade also offers 24-hour room service, though entrees are limited to smoked salmon on toast or pastrami on rye toast. The only room service appetizer is dried Pancetta ham with cheese, olives and breadsticks.
The room service breakfast is broader, boasting both hot and cold items, breads and pastries, juices and cereals.
Typical of the Scenic fleet, the one single and 84 double-occupancy cabins (all called "suites" by the line) are somewhat larger than riverboat standards. They range in size from 160 square feet to 325 square feet. The 160-square-foot "standard stateroom" is the only one in all six cabin categories that doesn't have a balcony.
All staterooms have superior queen beds and a three-option pillow menu. The amenities are standard through all cabins and include electronic safes, minibar (restocked daily with preferred beverages) and iPod docks. Every cabin has a stubby tub chair in front of a writing desk, but only the two largest cabin categories have any other seating.
Cabins décor is soothing and sand-coloured with wood-patterned veneer and off-white paper on walls. Matching veneer appears on the closet doors and nightstands. Behind the beds are varying styles of ash-coloured or gold and black patterned cushioned headboards. Carpeting in the cabins is a check of black, sand and beige.
The Samsung flat-screen TVs in each cabin offer several live news channels, 16 satellite specialty music channels and a separate choice of artists that runs from Sinatra and Gershwin to T. Rex.
Also provided in a closet for all passengers are walking sticks, large umbrellas and earplugs, though the ship's construction largely negates the common cabin-next-door sounds and hallway noises. The bathrooms are adequately large, and showers have three spray heads, including an overhead "rain sprinkler." The shower stall also has an overhead spotlight that changes colours at a variety of frequencies. All cabins come with hair dryers, bathrobes and slippers. Bathrooms each feature an illuminated makeup mirror and L'Occitane toiletries.
All cabins also have adequate closet space for a 14-night sailing, considering that the casual atmosphere means there's no need for dressy pieces. There are long and short shelves within the closets and two drawers in one of the two nightstands. Shelf space in the bathroom is at a minimum, but there's shelf real estate above the mini-desk counter in the main cabin. The bed is raised high enough to allow storage of suitcases beneath it.
The vessel's electricity is 220V, necessitating European (two-pin) socket adaptors and perhaps a power converter. The ship doesn't supply either. There are more than a half-dozen European sockets and one Australian socket in each cabin, plus a combo 120-220 socket in each bathroom.
Lighting is excellent -- six recessed spots overhead, a small lamp and pin reading spots on each side of the bed. (The largest staterooms have additional wall sconces.) In the bathroom, the large mirror is bordered with lights, and there are overhead spots. The makeup and shaving mirror is also illuminated.
There are minor differences between various suite categories. The Junior (250 square feet) and Royal (315 square feet) categories (totalling eight cabins) have full-size bath tubs, plus shower stalls. The largest staterooms, the two Royal Panorama suites (325 square feet), do not have tubs. The Royal and Royal Panorama suites also have seating areas that include loveseats and occasional chairs. These suites also have larger TVs and true desks, rather than a counter that sticks out about 10 inches. All balconies have two special touches. A floor-to-ceiling glass door and three glass panels separate the cabin from the balcony. After opening the door, you can slide the three sections in and then fold outward, opening the entire cabin to the balcony. Additionally, the balcony has a floor-to-ceiling, lightly tinted window. The push of a button lowers the top half of this window, providing a refreshing breeze, even if the ship is docked.
All balconies have room for two rattan padded chairs each and a tiny table (but no loungers). The Royal Panorama suites do have somewhat larger balconies than the ship's standard 11 by 2.75 feet (about 30 square feet).
All cabins have butler service, with minor variations. One of the four butlers will shine shoes, take care of having two items a day pressed at no charge, deliver drinks from the ship's only bar and deliver breakfast.
Additionally, the three largest cabin categories -- Junior, Royal and Royal Panorama suites -- get daily delivery of skewers of fruit, pre-dinner canapes and post-dinner petit fours. In the Royal and Royal Panorama suites, butler service includes Champagne on arrival, unpacking and packing of luggage, unlimited free laundry and pressing, and delivery of the newspaper digest. Occupants in these highest cabin categories also get a credit in the "wellness" area. There's a masseuse onboard.
Every cabin has a temperature-control dial and fan speed choices. Paralleling the sheer curtain across the glass wall to the balcony, there is an efficient blackout curtain.
There is a single accessible cabin, and the ship has a small lift that travels between the two higher passenger decks and the deck featuring the Crystal Dining Room and Panorama Lounge and Bar. It does not reach the top deck.
