Emerald Waterways Information?

[ValinBaddeck]

We just booked our first cruise on Emerald Waterway's Rhine-Main Discovery Tour. Have any of you sailed with them? Could you share some information about your experience, and especially about what their stops are like? We stop in Cologne, Rudesheim, Miltenberg, Wurzburg, Bamberg, and Nuremberg. Thanks in advance!

[notamermaid]

Hello ValinBaddeck,

 

welcome to cruisecritic. The stops on your cruise are the same as on most cruises doing the Rhine-Main. You will find some info in quite a few threads and probably some info in the river cruise section. More info will be sent to you in the booklet you will receive closer to your cruise. A booklet is standard, but of course the contents will vary with each cruise operator.

 

Not many people here on CC have sailed Emerald yet but I am sure those who have will be happy to help.

 

Using the search option on the right hand side (at the top) you can look for other threads mentioning Emerald, etc.

 

If you feel like it you could change your details to include the place you live, i.e. the States or Canada for example. For some questions it helps to better relate. Just a suggestion. :)

 

At least some of the towns you have mentioned have English tourism websites. Or you could follow the route on google maps pictures.

 

Happy browsing.

 

notamermaid

[ValinBaddeck]

Hi Notamermaid - Thanks for your advice! I'm starting to see that you've helped a lot of people.:) I will take your advice on all counts. I see a couple of references to Emerald in new posts today too, so maybe over the next month or so there will be more reports. Thanks again!

[franski]

We just booked our first cruise on Emerald Waterway's Rhine-Main Discovery Tour. Have any of you sailed with them? Could you share some information about your experience, and especially about what their stops are like? We stop in Cologne, Rudesheim, Miltenberg, Wurzburg, Bamberg, and Nuremberg. Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!! When are you sailing?

 

We are doing the Rhine (Amsterdam to Basel) with Emerald in September of this year - so can comment after that. We have not traveled with Emerald before, but have traveled with Scenic (the "big sister") - as well as most of the other lines.

 

We did stops in Cologne & Rudesheim when we did the Rhine before - but it was in December (Christmas market cruise) and was very cold & snowy.

 

Are you extending on either end? Or, just doing the cruise? We have added extra days on past cruises --> in Amsterdam (Tulip Time Cruise) and also in Nuremberg at the end of a Danube cruise. Extra days this time will be spent on a driving holiday in Germany.

 

Fran

Edited April 1, 2016 by franski

[ValinBaddeck]

Hi Fran! We sail the middle of May. We have two days in Amsterdam before the crise and we're flying to Paris for twomdays after - that's as much vacation we could take from work. I guess we'll be able to tell you what Emerald is like. :)

[Cruise Critic Chris]

We have a few stories in the works about Emerald...I'll let you know when they are up!

[CharlieDog4]

We have a few stories in the works about Emerald...I'll let you know when they are up!

 

Hi, I am also researching Emerald, and may have to make a decision in a day or two if I want to keep a good price quote. Your mention about upcoming stories is intriguing. Do you mean positive stories or negative ones?

 

Thanks!

[Cruise Critic Chris]

Nothing to worry about. We are doing a series of "versus" stories where we compare amenities and such on different River lines. The stories I'm referring to will be Emerald vs Vantage and Emerald vs Viking. Our writers who have been on Emerald like them quite a bit!

[CharlieDog4]

Thanks for the quick reply! :-)

[dabear]

Nothing to worry about. We are doing a series of "versus" stories where we compare amenities and such on different River lines. The stories I'm referring to will be Emerald vs Vantage and Emerald vs Viking. Our writers who have been on Emerald like them quite a bit!

 

We're on the Emerald Sun next July and look forward to reading your reviews.

[ValinBaddeck]

That's great Cruise Critic Chris, I'll be watching for it, thanks!

[AAAMomOfOne]

We'll be doing the Rhine-Main in October. We were supposed to be going in June, but due to the fire on the Belle, Emerald was able to get us on the October cruise.

Edited April 3, 2016 by AAAMomOfOne
added instant email

[Andona]

Nothing to worry about. We are doing a series of "versus" stories where we compare amenities and such on different River lines. The stories I'm referring to will be Emerald vs Vantage and Emerald vs Viking. Our writers who have been on Emerald like them quite a bit!

 

My first post :)

I'll be very interested to read these too. We are booked on our first river Cruise on the Emerald Sun ( Amsterdam to Budapest) in May 2017.

 

Andona

[ValinBaddeck]

Did you get any information on optional excursions AAAMomofOne?

[AAAMomOfOne]

No, we haven't received info on optional cruises, but we have extended an overnight on each end.

[AAAMomOfOne]

Now I'm wondering when should we have info on optional tours? Do we need to contact Emerald?

[ValinBaddeck]

I'm wondering the same thing - I thought maybe it was a step at booking that we had missed. We leave in a month and haven't gotten any info, and an email I sent the middle of last week hasn't been replied to. Maybe I'm too antsy (I am pretty excited!) but I thought I'd have gotten something by now.

[ShannonSC2]

Nothing to worry about. We are doing a series of "versus" stories where we compare amenities and such on different River lines. The stories I'm referring to will be Emerald vs Vantage and Emerald vs Viking. Our writers who have been on Emerald like them quite a bit!

 

This is good to know because we are doing our first Emerald river cruise in June. I am actually looking forward to it. We are doing the Danube Delights from Budapest to Nuremberg.

[ValinBaddeck]

I called my travel agent yesterday - she called Emerald and now we're booked on the excursion we wanted. Getting more excited every day!

[AAAMomOfOne]

ValinBaddeck

So glad you got your excursions! Any idea how far ahead they have them for booking?

[ValinBaddeck]

Thanks! No I'm not sure, but I know they were mentioned when we first booked (by our travel agent) but I assumed we'd be able to access more information later when we had had a chance to look more at our route, and I didn't take her up on it then. We booked at the end of February and we sail May 12th, so that was more than two months ahead that they were available.

[AAAMomOfOne]

Thanks! No I'm not sure, but I know they were mentioned when we first booked (by our travel agent) but I assumed we'd be able to access more information later when we had had a chance to look more at our route, and I didn't take her up on it then. We booked at the end of February and we sail May 12th, so that was more than two months ahead that they were available.

 

Thank you! I will call Emerald (we booked directly with them).

[Pywacket15]

My husband I took our first European river cruise with Emerald Waterways, on the Emerald Sun May-June 2015. Ship had just been launched 2 months prior to our departure date. We were on the 15 day Splendors of Europe Amsterdam to Budapest tour which provided a wonderful introduction to Europe.

 

While we cannot compare to other cruise lines, this cruise exceeded our expectations. Food, Customer Service, Boat, Amenities, and Cruise Itinerary were top notch. We were glad to have traveled from north to south as weather got warmer, and each port seemed to build beautifully to the final destination - Budapest. Based on the many posts on Cruise Critic, it seems that all the cruise companies offer wonderful experiences. We chose Emerald because of the dates and the itinerary, the newness of the company and ship, size of the rooms, number of passengers on board. As many have stated, Emerald is associated with Scenic which already had a good reputation.

 

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are going on our second river cruise in June 2016 traveling with Avalon - northbound Burgandy and Provence. We would have booked with Emerald again except they did not offer the French River cruise in June 2016 however we note that they are opening up more dates for 2017. Again, we did not hesitate to go with Avalon based on reviews we got from several friends, and because Avalon offered the dates and itinerary we wanted, plus we liked the size of the ship and number of passengers.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Pywacket15

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thanks for your review. Emerald is still somewhat new, so its especially good to get reviews of their service.

[dabear]

We're sailing on the Emerald Sun in July, 2016 Classic Prague and Danube Delights & booked through a ta. Will I be notified of booking optional tours in advance of the cruise, must I request the choice with my ta or do I just wait & book the tours when we are on the ship? Thanks