My review relates to the Travelsphere's JustYou The Classic Danube Experience holiday taken 18th -28th July 2018.
The ‘Just You’ brochure completely misrepresented the entire holiday
The brochure rated the ship as four stars This is I believe is a wildly inaccurate statement. The ship was shabby in appearance compared to others on the river with dirty and scratched windows and a general air of poor maintenance and care. The facilities described in the brochure as café, library and boutique were, in reality, a drinks machine shelf and cupboard. There was no access to the sun deck for 3 days due to low bridges, however, there was no warning prior to the booking of this holiday and the other outside space at the front of the ship was extremely limited and occupied by smokers. Consequently, I felt compelled to stay in my cabin or sit in the lounge area.
The ship always seems to moor away from the central moorings used by the likes of Viking always leaving us with a considerable walk to reach locations. In the case of the starting point in Vienna the ship moored in a location that allowed no opportunity to quote ‘step ashore to take in some of the sites etc as promised in theJustYou travel documents.
The food served aboard the ship was poor and often served tepid. Menus lacked imagination or variety. Most of the main courses were deep fried, the soup that was served with every lunch and dinner was at best packet soup standard but frequently found to be inedible. There were no attempts to reflect local dishes and as we had NO opportunity to dine ashore there was no opportunity to sample any local cuisine. The wine by the glass list was limited to the ‘house’ red, white or rose of unknown origin. In the restaurant, one could purchase full bottles of other wines, however, although any wine not consumed was returned at the next sitting you were not allowed to take this to the lounge area or your cabin. Although the dining room staff worked extremely hard and were very customer focused they lacked direction with one half of the table served promptly while the other half of the table waited for a long period for their food. Consequently, meals often took over 2 hours to complete. On one occasion due to another change in the itinerary, we were provided with a ‘packed lunch’. This consisted of, two bread rolls filled with a small amount of lettuce, a sliver of tomato and one slice of ham from the breakfast buffet, a bar of confectionary, a small piece of brownie, a small tetra juice, water and an apple. This not the standard of food I expect to consume on my ‘4-star’ holiday. I consigned mine to the bin.
JustYou promised us diverse, colourful and educational entertainment. Excepting the Crew Cruise show one evening the entertainment consisted of a keyboard player who had a limited repertoire and who made NO attempt to engage or interact with the audience. At times this and the general ambience of the lounge area made me feel as though I had been transported to a poor care home. As the lounge was the only available communal area, to ‘escape’ the only option was an early return to the cabin. There were no visits to the Captain's bridge and the promised musical quiz did not take place (the explanation being too many languages on board). Additionally, there was only one-afternoon tea( promised every day), and this was on our arrival. The advertised Captains cocktail event offered no cocktails but just one glass of what I believe was Prosecco.
The Cruise Director (in name only} had no interaction with the passengers and was completely disinterested in our problems. His principal activity was to count people on and off buses and on one occasion having satisfied himself that someone was missing, insisted that we drive off without them.
The Management of the ship were aware of the operational problems faced in advance of the start of the holiday ( low water levels on the Danube) but had made no contingency plans to remedy or mediate the impact of these issues. To those on board, it seemed that the primary purpose of the revised itinerary, which changed on a regular basis, was to arrive at Mainz on time to the detriment of our holiday experience. Excursions were rushed with little time to see or appreciate the places visited. On one occasion the returning buses were unable to locate the ship which had moved. When the ship was ‘found’ and we had left the buses it was discovered that the gangway gate was locked and that no one on board had a key. The buses by now had departed so we sweltered in the 34-degree sun for some 25 minutes until a key was located.
This was without a doubt the worst holiday experience I have ever had. What though has made the whole thing much worse is Travelspheres total failure to accept that it bore any responsibility for what was delivered or to compensate me adequately ( £200 has been offered). Their customer service is dreadful falling back on terms and conditions to defend their position and displaying arrogance and total lack of empathy for what we experienced. This was for me an expensive holiday( £1800+) and following some serious health problems in the preceding year one that I was really looking forward too. I conclude by advising strongly that this company and its holidays are avoided.