Home > Compare River Cruise Companies > APT River Cruises vs Scenic River Cruises
APT River Cruises vs Scenic River Cruises
Compare the travel styles, pricing, destinations and popularity of APT River Cruises and Scenic River Cruises.The Low Down
Initially providing coach touring around Australia and NZ to the local market, APT have grown exponentially over the last decade to now offer trips around the world, and are well known for their European river cruises. Over the last few years APT have introduced small ship expeditions that cruise the waters through Asia, Europe, Canada and off the coast of Kimberley. Catering primarily for the retired market, their trips aren't cheap, but in APT's case - you get what you pay for. Look out for their great Fly Free offers, and Earlybird Savings. The team here at Global Journeys have travelled multiple times by coach, cruise & river with APT, and we definitely recommend them as a quality, consistent, reliable Operator, and our past client reviews back that up.
Scenic's 5 star luxury river cruises are well known and popular in Australia (not so much in NZ). Scenic were the first to introduce balconies on their Scenic Space-Ships, which many clients love, but this comes at a cost to interior cabin space. Like many of the other premium river cruise Operators, look out for their great Fly Free offers, and Earlybird Savings. All inclusive, with Freechoice activities that allow you to choose what you want to do in each port, Scenic also offer a range of luxury additions (like your own Butler) depending on the cabin type select. Stats
No. of Trips
70
No. of Departures
1,262
Avg. Trip Length
13 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$545
Fleet Size
10 Ships
Known For
Aussie Specialist
Ship Styles River Cruises
No. of Trips
177
No. of Departures
1,172
Avg. Trip Length
14 Days
Avg. Price Per Day
$639
Fleet Size
14 Ships
Known For
Luxury Cruising
Ship Styles River Cruises
In Their Own Words We asked the travel companies themselves why you should travel with them
Life-enriching, relaxing and unique – an APT river cruise is the ultimate holiday experience. Discover unforgettable destinations as you travel in total comfort and style. From Europe to Africa and the mighty Mekong River, APT has a diverse range of river cruises, and you’ll wake up most mornings in a new location, ready to explore fresh and exciting sights. Timeless luxury, exclusive experiences, life enriching moments and true personalisation. APT offers all-inclusive holidays so everything is taken care of. We invite you to join us; you won’t be disappointed.
With Scenic, it’s more than a 5-star river cruise...it’s a seamless journey from start to finish that places you, our guest, at the heart of everything we do. It’s taking you to extraordinary regions and immersing you in meaningful and enriching experiences. It’s exquisite cuisine, indulgent wellness, and a world-class team who will anticipate your every need. You'll find the difference is in the details with Scenic: the innovative ship design, expertly trained crew, immersive journey, and an unrivalled focus on health and safety protocols.
Recent Reviews
4.8
So many wonderful things about this cruise. Everything is organised for you. The meals are great and the drinks are free flowing. The staff are so helpful and nothing is too much trouble for them. Some fantastic sights that you stop and see along the way. Highly recommend this to anyone young or old.
We have done this trip previously, although in April. This time we went in November. Although the autumn colours were beautiful it was very cold most days (around 5 degrees during the day). As this was the last trip of the season we found many of the freedom of choice activities were limited and in many cases were only limited to a city walk. We were ...read more really looking forward to riding the e-bikes on a couple of occasions but were told once we boarded that they stop that by the end of October. Very disappointed! We did find we were sitting around a lot on the ship and once we did stop at each port we were time limited. Maybe more day-time activities whilst on board too would have been better. On the whole we enjoyed our time away and couldn't fault the food and staff and their attention to detail.
Paris was very disappointing, the river cruise & Prague were excellent and met all expectations. Very knowledgeable & well organized tour guides. Perhaps this trip isn't geared to solo travelers. Accommodation on the cruise & Prague of high quality but were disappointing in Paris.
Recommendations:- (Paris) Perhaps the APT tour guide could have attended ...read more earlier to ease the tension/frustration/anger felt by the early arrival of clients. It was noticeable, that both Avalon & Viking guides where in attendance. Hotel personnel were quite rude/short/ with clients as they where very busy! Perhaps this could be looked into by Global Journeys. (GJ Team: We'll certainly pass on your comments to APT. Thanks for your feedback.)
Recommendations:- (Paris) Perhaps the APT tour guide could have attended ...read more earlier to ease the tension/frustration/anger felt by the early arrival of clients. It was noticeable, that both Avalon & Viking guides where in attendance. Hotel personnel were quite rude/short/ with clients as they where very busy! Perhaps this could be looked into by Global Journeys. (GJ Team: We'll certainly pass on your comments to APT. Thanks for your feedback.)
On the whole a great trip. The one let-down was the food, which would not pass muster in a Melbourne bistro. Restaurant staff were largely under-trained, which may be a hang-over from COVID.
A very enjoyable trip dispite the low river levels and the need to change ships. The scenery and Signature experiences were wonderful and well organised. Great mix of fellow passengers and everyone looked out for each other. Found the food choices a little disappointing. Presented lovely, but found it largely very bland and not a lot of variety. ...read more Fellow passengers who had done the trip before expressed the view that it was not up to the standard of their original trip and I think there was a general view that standards had slipped. Perhaps that was a result of COVID affecting the staffing levels or general cost cutting. Would like to see a wider range of wines and food selections, but overall we had a great time. Hannah at Global Journeys was as always, helpful, timely and obliging.
Georgie from Global Journeys has supported us to book our past three adventures and I hope will continue to support us into the future. Georgie has efficiently and effectively managed a large range of silly questions from me, without batting an eyelid (at least not that I can see) and has always been very helpful. She responds quickly to my enquiries ...read more and has negotiated many situations with tour providers or has clearly and quickly advised that what I was requesting was not doable.
We are and have always been happy to have Georgie there and look forward to working with Georgie and the Global Journeys team on future bookings.
We are and have always been happy to have Georgie there and look forward to working with Georgie and the Global Journeys team on future bookings.
4.5
We recently returned from the Scenic Christmas Markets River cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. The cruise was excellent with visits to many Christmas markets along the route. The markets usually opened around 11.00am until later that evening. Due to the short daylight hours the markets were twinkling with Christmas lights and many stalls to buy your ...read more Christmas decorations. The excursions were also educational and entertaining. Scenic also provided entertainment locally sourced, these were themed on what we had seen or visited that day.
If you are willing to endure the cold temperatures, the highest temperature was a maximum of 7 degrees while the coldest day was maximum 1 degree, this is a cruise that is well worth while especially if you would like to experience how Christmas is celebrated in Europe.
We would like also to send many thanks to Hannah at Global Journeys for her detail to attention, help and support as this trip was booked pre-COVID and Hannah was able to keep us up to date and repeatedly rebooked for us when the cruise between 2019 to 2021 were cancelled. Thanks Hannah and your fellow colleagues. We will definitely book with Global again as we used them for our overseas trips before onset of COVID too.
If you are willing to endure the cold temperatures, the highest temperature was a maximum of 7 degrees while the coldest day was maximum 1 degree, this is a cruise that is well worth while especially if you would like to experience how Christmas is celebrated in Europe.
We would like also to send many thanks to Hannah at Global Journeys for her detail to attention, help and support as this trip was booked pre-COVID and Hannah was able to keep us up to date and repeatedly rebooked for us when the cruise between 2019 to 2021 were cancelled. Thanks Hannah and your fellow colleagues. We will definitely book with Global again as we used them for our overseas trips before onset of COVID too.
We have cruised with Scenic twice before (pre COVID) and they were very good. The same cannot be said for Scenic post COVID. On the positive side, the cruise is very good, particularly the Moselle. The room was good and well serviced. The ship (Scenic Jewel) is in good condition but the lounge furniture is showing signs of wear and could do with an ...read more upgrade. The tour director was excellent and the staff were all very friendly and worked hard. Overall the cruise went off very well.
On the negative side, it is apparent that Scenic has cut the budget for food. Breakfast and lunch were OK but dinners are no longer gourmet and 5 star. Dinner is reduced to 3 courses and portion sizes are small. Bread rolls (strictly 1 per person) were the size and shape of my index finger and could barely be cut and buttered. The service was slow and confused on most nights and they appeared to be under staffed. The Chef must have got some feedback from the end of cruise reviews as he went table to table on the last night apologising for the food. A bit of a cringe moment.
As for Scenic's COVID protocols, other than having to prove that we were vaccinated when we boarded, the word COVID was never mentioned for the entire cruise. The staff do not wear masks and there is no requirement for passengers to wear masks but some did. The piano player has been sacked and replaced by an Enrichment Manager who is basically an assistant Tour Director and ran some quiz nights which were actually pretty good. Onboard evening entertainment was mostly not to our taste and we only stayed up for one. We enjoyed the cruise and the destinations we visited but many past Scenic customers were very disgruntled. Scenic has definitely lost its gloss.
On the negative side, it is apparent that Scenic has cut the budget for food. Breakfast and lunch were OK but dinners are no longer gourmet and 5 star. Dinner is reduced to 3 courses and portion sizes are small. Bread rolls (strictly 1 per person) were the size and shape of my index finger and could barely be cut and buttered. The service was slow and confused on most nights and they appeared to be under staffed. The Chef must have got some feedback from the end of cruise reviews as he went table to table on the last night apologising for the food. A bit of a cringe moment.
As for Scenic's COVID protocols, other than having to prove that we were vaccinated when we boarded, the word COVID was never mentioned for the entire cruise. The staff do not wear masks and there is no requirement for passengers to wear masks but some did. The piano player has been sacked and replaced by an Enrichment Manager who is basically an assistant Tour Director and ran some quiz nights which were actually pretty good. Onboard evening entertainment was mostly not to our taste and we only stayed up for one. We enjoyed the cruise and the destinations we visited but many past Scenic customers were very disgruntled. Scenic has definitely lost its gloss.
We totally enjoyed our River Cruise. Booking through Global Journeys was sooo easy. Communication was great and nothing was to much trouble. We found communication with Global Journeys much easier than communicating directly with river cruise company. The cruise was great - we were a bit concerned that the age demographics would be older than us ...read more but that was not the case. There was a great mix of ages on the ship and we have formed some strong friendships. There was a late change of ship which we were disappointed in but Scenic went out of their way to ensure they made up for any disappointment. We would definitely do another river cruise and we certainly will be booking that through Global Journeys. Very happy customers.
The scenery was brilliant. The service in the restaurant was just below perfect. The reason for this qualification was due to all the smorgasbords. There was an additional specials menu - twice we ordered from this but the meals didn't turn up. Free beverages were excellent. Another thing mentioned and rectified was all the 'double beds' on the ship ...read more were in reality single beds put together. Put my leg through the centre and could have broken a leg or ankle. Fell out of bed with the mattress. Hello, passenger in danger. They did bind this one up and then I was okay. The Palais Liechtenstein Mozart and Strauss concert was perfect. All transfers were very good and prompt.
The river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest was an excellent way to travel. It was fully catered and the food selection was varied to provide dishes from the country you travel through. It gave us an opportunity to taste food that we may not have ordered from a restaurant elsewhere. We enjoyed the ability to integrate cycling with our sight seeing. ...read more The Scenic river cruise was indeed scenic and the onboard app provided great insights to the various castles, churches and towns as we passed by.
The staff on this Scenic river cruise were friendly and very pleasant to deal with. Our cruise director was the best we have ever had compared to our travels. He was always around to help people with their queries and had a great dry sense of humour. We really enjoyed this cruise and would recommend it to others. Our booking through Global Journeys was simple, easy and without any problems. Anything that was promised was delivered on time and without any need for us to chase. This gave us the opportunity to start our trip in relaxed frame of mind and to enjoy the experience.
The staff on this Scenic river cruise were friendly and very pleasant to deal with. Our cruise director was the best we have ever had compared to our travels. He was always around to help people with their queries and had a great dry sense of humour. We really enjoyed this cruise and would recommend it to others. Our booking through Global Journeys was simple, easy and without any problems. Anything that was promised was delivered on time and without any need for us to chase. This gave us the opportunity to start our trip in relaxed frame of mind and to enjoy the experience.
Firstly, I have nothing but praise for Jemma Rosen and Global Journeys in how our trip was organised. Jemma was always helpful, efficient and considerate in replying to any queries we had. This trip included two river cruises, the first in Bordeaux and the second on the Douro River in Portugal. Compared to other river cruises we have done, the Bordeaux ...read more trip was a little disappointing - the scenery is not as picturesque and the rivers are very muddy.
The cabin on Scenic Diamond was very cramped and smaller than those we have experienced on APT river cruises. Staff on board and meals were excellent. Most excursions were very good but some hot weather at the time spoilt several excursions. We enjoyed the cruise on the Douro River very much and would recommend it. Scenery was beautiful and excursions were excellent. The cabin on Scenic Azure was a better size. At least there was room for a chair but there was still a problem with very limited room between the sides of the bed and the walls.
The cabin on Scenic Diamond was very cramped and smaller than those we have experienced on APT river cruises. Staff on board and meals were excellent. Most excursions were very good but some hot weather at the time spoilt several excursions. We enjoyed the cruise on the Douro River very much and would recommend it. Scenery was beautiful and excursions were excellent. The cabin on Scenic Azure was a better size. At least there was room for a chair but there was still a problem with very limited room between the sides of the bed and the walls.
Popular Trips
15 Days Budapest to Amsterdam
Operator: APT
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