Our friends chose this cruise and asked us to join them. We did this exact same cruise with Scenic 2 years ago. The cruise is amazing starting on the Danube and finishing on the Rhine. The scenery is spectacular. It's all inclusive. All excursions are exceptional. Most of the buses are owned by Scenic are very clean with professional drivers. We thought the groups on the free choice tours were rather large and could be smaller. The Scenic app loaded on your phone was used by all of the guides. The system needs some serious fine tuning as it was problematic on most of the tours. Several choices were available at each stop with three Scenic Exclusive Enrich experiences that were exceptional. One at Vienna Palais Liechtenstein, one at Passau/Salzburg Sound of Music and one at Marksburg Castle. Breakfast and lunch are buffets.

Dinners are fine dining or room service is available. Service is excellent and the food is very good. Red or white wine was served with every lunch and dinner. Daily wine selections are just okay, nothing exceptional. Most passengers were okay with the wine that was offered. The cruise director was excellent with a great sense of humour. The complimentary Wi-Fi was not very good even when there was apparently strong signal strength. It was so bad that the Scenic cruise surveys could not be completed on board at Amsterdam. Scenic blames the bad Wi-Fi on Europe.

Here are the negatives. We started on the Jade and had to switch to the Jasper at Regensburg. The river was too low due to dry conditions. It's the nature of the beast so take it in stride. When you book a year in advance it is impossible to forecast river water levels. On our first cruise we were fortunate and stayed on the same boat from beginning to end. On this occasion it was an 8 hour bus ride from Passau to Regensberg. There was a minimal effect on our schedule. Here is the biggest concern. Passenger illness on the ship. There will always be ill passengers on every cruise typically passing some type of flu virus on to most of the passengers. Five days in to the cruise I became very ill. I did everything to prevent contamination of other passengers. All passengers are in confined spaces therefore good hygiene practices especially by sick passengers are imperative. Controls are never enforced by the ship and are ineffective resulting in most of the passengers getting sick near the end of the cruise as many are coughing out of control. Some our bedridden. On the last same cruise many people were bedridden for days. My wife and I were both very sick on the last cruise and I was very sick on this cruise. Let's just say there is little enjoyment when you are sick on your long awaited lifetime cruise experience. We are of the opinion that the germs are transferred during the buffets and by passengers coughing openly all over the ship. It's really sad to be on a trip of your lifetime and get sick once but twice is too much especially on the same Cruise Line! You need to decide is the risk of illness worth booking the cruise. For my wife and I we are done with cruising. I can stay home and get sick for free. I suggest that passenger illness will eventually bring the cruise industry down as most cruise lines seem oblivious to finding solutions. The ball is now squarely in their court!