Thanks for answering. I'm not sure that the pool will be a big draw for an October sailing. I think that the demographic is younger on the Emerald, but honestly not too fussed about the ages of our fellow passengers. The Emerald is 500$ pp lower than the Viking ( 1000$ lower if I compare it with the Viking Oct 5th sailing) , plus it includes gratuities. However, my TA had a client who had a bad experience on an Emerald sailing, and is now hesitant to recommend them. Apparently the river level was low, as it sometimes is, but there was mishandling of the passengers were transferred to the next leg of their journey. Based on that, she is recommending Viking (or Avalon, but price is even higher). Part of me thinks I am using a TA to avoid problems but another part of me thinks one incident isn't enough to write Emerald off as a possibility. Both companies seems to have both good and bad(ish) reviews.