TUI Cruises
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Terrible Experience on TUI ISLA
ICONS OF EUROPE- TUI RIVER CRUISES - ISLA 28th APRIL – 13th MAY 2024 Before booking, we searched many review sites and found nothing to suggest that we would experience any of the problems below. We have travelled extensively and have never complained about a cruise before or posted a review like this. We wish we had found an honest review like this of TUI River Cruises before we booked. We would never trust TUI River Cruises, as a company, with a holiday booking ever again. The positives were members of the crew, particularly the entertainment team and restaurant waiting staff, who were always friendly and welcoming. The cities we visited were beautiful and very interesting. However, the negatives of TUI ISLA were: • No air con in cabins for the whole two weeks, public areas were very hot or freezing cold (6’C!) – this is not a new issue, it has carried over from 2023 – it is poor maintenance • The toilet in our cabin was faulty for over a week (vacuum flushing continuously, not flushing at all and even overflowing onto the floor) culminating in it being switched off completely one night without telling us – again ongoing maintenance issues – one of the two public ladies’ toilets was out of order for the first week on board, again this had been an issue for months • No hot water on 2 days. This impacted the whole boat • Shower temperature fluctuation was downright dangerous. Other passengers were injured • Wait of over a week for a replacement battery for the remote control to turn off a ceiling light in our cabin – they do not have spares. Repeatedly had to borrow a battery to turn it off • The corridors and starboard rooms often smell of sewage from the black water tank vent – crew even put out air fresheners in the corridors, to mask the smell! • The food was dreadful – we are not fussy eaters at all, but we struggled with inedible meat, huge quantities of bones in fish, repetitive menus, and poor planning. As a result, we ate out when we could. • Beware if you have a special dietary need as some other passengers had – coeliac, they just took away anything with gluten and did not replace it. Vegetarian food, again poor nutritional planning – meals with little imagination, tasteless vegetable curry of root vegetables by itself (no rice etc). Vegetarian meals lacked correct protein levels and were nutritionally, very poor. Forget it if you are vegan! • Kitchen ran out of basics such as orange juice and cheese biscuits very early on, we docked every day, but these were not restocked until the middle of the second week. Passengers were regularly bringing their own foods to the restaurants! • Many docks were a long way out of town. We know that Viking has the priority docks, but we often needed a courtesy bus to get us to towns – although sometimes free, these did only a couple of trips per day and often were reserved for those less able. One location (Passau) depended on public busses for a 8km (each way) journey to the town, but these were on a very limited schedule due to a public holiday. • The top deck was closed totally for a 6 day period (Rudesheim to Regensburg). TUI were not open about this in its brochure – the facts are buried in the small print. We were under the impression that it would be closed for a few hours at a time, not for a third of our holiday. • Safety issues – the muster station was the top deck – nothing was said about where we gather whilst the top deck was shut. The barriers were not fastened correctly around the edges of the top deck – bolts and fixing pegs were totally missing. In the atrium the emergency call buttons were obscured by mugs. Life belts were obstructed by chairs put out by the crew. • One trip to Rudesheim was on a national holiday – our trip was nothing as described when we booked it, be warned - TUI refused to refund all of this trip cost as in its eyes an alternative was provided, but this was a totally different and unsuitable alternative. • Boat had an engine issue and broke down near Passua. TUI laid on a free coach to take us to Linz – unfortunately only giving us 30 minutes notice to get ready for an early morning departure. A lot of fellow passengers did not make this tight time schedule and missed out. We did have discussions with visiting senior management whilst on board and with Customer Services on our return, but we do not feel that we were being listened to, or confident that anything will be addressed fully to prevent future passengers having the same problems. If you need more information, we would suggest joining TUI RIVER CRUISES COMMUNTITY ON FACEBOOK