Emerald Dawn Danube Delights 1st time river cruiser

Air Canada flight from Chicago to Toronto was fine: short flight & entertainment system. It is ROUGE that on the international flight that was Horrible. Even on an overnight flight where they assume you are going to sleep and turn off the lights, the seat was so uncomfortable I could not sleep. Not a good way to start vacation.

Thank you so much for your detailed account - the river cruise sounds amazing. We leave on the weekend for our Amsterdam to Budapest cruise on the Emerald Sun - cannot wait!!!!!!!!!

Air Canada is not the problem (at least not so much). It is their leisure airline Air Canada Rouge. Coming back from Seville last year (on points) I really needed to get home in one day, and my only option was TAP to Lisbon and Rouge home. It was not wonderful even in premium economy. (Since then TAP is now flying Lisbon to Toronto so it might be better.)

What was TAP like? We are flying from Budapest to Lisbon with them soon after our river cruise. How much was the luggage charge? Our travel agent has told us that we will need to pay extra for our luggage. What were their facilities like? Thanks.

What was TAP like? We are flying from Budapest to Lisbon with them soon after our river cruise. How much was the luggage charge? Our travel agent has told us that we will need to pay extra for our luggage. What were their facilities like? Thanks.

I only flew a one hour flight from Seville to Lisbon, so it tells you nothing about the service on the trans-Atlantic route. Try looking on seatguru.com or another site that rates airlines.

I was flying on points so I didn't pay for luggage. Lisbon airport was easy to change planes at, and it was small so no big issues. I think that for fare paying passengers there is one free bag on flights between North America and Europe, which is the same as virtually every other airline.

Thank you for this excellent review! I have several travelling friends (all women) and we are beginning to plan our first river cruise in 2019. We are all from Michigan so it is very helpful to hear from a fellow Midwesterner. We first looked at Viking but have become interested in Emerald. We range in age from mid 50 to mid 60, so again your comments are exactly what I was hoping to find.

Now, we need to decide on an itinerary! Much discussion going on among us on Rhine vs. Danube. However, your comments are making me think that we may have another opton here. I am not able to get away from work for two weeks, but many of my friends are retired. Now I'm thinking that they could possibly do the full trip, while I could do the shortened Nuremberg leg. Thanks again, you may have helped greatly in our planning!

Thank you for posting the details of your river cruise, and I'm glad you had a great first time experience. It brought back memories of my first river cruise back in 2015 on Uniworld. I did Budapest to Passau, and visited some of the same sites you and your sister did.

Where are you off to next?

Roz

I wish I could say I was off on another river cruise this year! If I find another great last minute deal and can get time off from work I would do it in a heart beat. Boyfriend & I are off to the WARM Caribbean in a few weeks. I am glad I had the chance to travel with my sister on our Danube cruise. Now that I have a little better knowledge of how a river cruise works I would enjoy it even more. My bucket list cruise is Paris to Prague.

I did a river cruise in 2015 and 2017, and didn't think I would be able to do another one until 2020 due to work schedule and finances. My TA was able to get me a good deal on a Basel to Amsterdam cruise in late fall of this year, so I decided to take advantage of it. Every 3 years is h*ll year where I work, so next year is absolutely out of the question unless I get totally fed up and decide to retire. :mad:

Roz