Before we start talking about our cruise experience, it is worth mentioning the pre-cruise experience. Emerald and its parent company, Scenic, were hacked in early 2022, and suffered major IT issues as a result. Combined with staffing shortages and likely Covid infection challenges, many folks reported having issues with last minute cancellations and poor customer service response in the first half of 2022. While I heard about these issues on our Facebook river cruise group, I did not experience any of these issues personally. When I called to make our final payment 90 days before our cruise, I expected a lengthy wait on the phone, but was surprised to reach a customer service rep after only 10 minutes or so in queue. Then about three weeks before our cruise, our backpacks and travel wallet showed up (note: as of early 2023 they are no longer sending these out), and we were off to Europe!
Being somewhat experienced river cruisers, we knew what to expect, and for the most part, Emerald was not much different. As with almost all of our other cruises, we did our own pre-cruise excursion (
8 nights in Croatia), so we had to get to the ship on our own in Budapest. A quick check on cruisemapper.com showed that the Emerald Dawn, the ship we were supposed to be sailing on, was rafted together with the Emerald Star, on the the Buda side of the river (most ships dock on the Pest side). This took a bit more time for us to reach the ship from our Airbnb, as instead of walking, we had to grab a tram to the other side of the river, but not an issue for us.
When we boarded the Emerald Star, we were greeted with fresh towels and cold drink, but we waved them off, and said we were heading to the Dawn. It was only upon arriving at the front desk there, that we found out our ship had been changed to the Star, and so we went back to the Star and dropped our bags at the front desk. Apparently the notification email from Emerald that our ship had changed got marked by Gmail as spam, so we didn't find out until we showed up. Since it was only about 1 pm, we could not check in yet, but were directed up to the lounge where a light lunch waited for us. We were just about to grab one of the shuttle buses back to Pest to walk around some more, when we were informed that we could check into our rooms. We were taken down the hall to our room by the cabin housekeeper, Hanna, who also brought our bags along later. After, we grabbed a couple of bikes and took off along the Buda riverside cycle path (note: Emerald has now upgraded to e-bikes).
For those familiar with the Uniworld decor, Emerald is the exact opposite of that. Smooth surfaces, clean lines and bright spaces are the design elements of all Emerald ships, and we liked it. Our room was the typical size for a "French balcony" room at 173 ft
2, and it was fine for us; by comparison the Viking French balcony is 135 ft
2, but the Avalon Panorama Suite is over 200! There was more than enough storage for the two of us, only using two of the six drawers and the closet to unpack. I slid my backpack under the bed, but she put hers in one of the unused drawers. All the typical amenities were in the room including a pair of reusable water bottles, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a Danube river map and guidebook on the table by the window.
The bathroom was slightly larger than the ones on our Uniworld and Gate 1 ships, but still dwarfed by the one on the Gate 1 Monarch Queen, where there was room for two in front of the vanity! The Emerald shower was spacious and square-shaped, unlike the Uniworld and Gate 1 ones, which were triangular, which made for slightly cramped bathing. The sink is pretty small, again similar to Uniworld and Gate 1, but the faucet swivelled to the side for more room. The stopper did not seal the sink completely, which I found out the hard way when I was doing some light laundry for the first time. If you like to use bar soap in the shower, you'll need to bring your own or buy some in town.
The unique feature of these staterooms, is the way the "balcony" window opens, by sliding down versus sideways, like most other ships. It is always nice to have a balcony, but as I have commented numerous times, a rarely used benefit. As with other river itineraries, we only sailed during the day once; all other times sailing occurred at night, most of the time while we slept. I would say that about half of the time that we were docked, we had a ship rafted up next to us, so the balcony doesn't get used then. If we were on the ship during that time, we went up to the sun deck or lounge. On one afternoon, after returning to our room, it was a little too breezy to be up on top, so we slid the window down and spent a bit of time soaking up some late afternoon sun. One small gripe however, is that when sitting upright in the chairs, the railing is right at eye level; I found that if I slouched down a bit, I could take in the view under the wooden rail.
The lounge and dining room were both spacious, and with only about 100 passengers, there was ample room for everyone to find a place to sit or eat. Meals were the same structure as other cruises we've been on; buffet breakfast, option for buffet or à la carte lunch, and served 3-4 course meals for dinner. Food quality was good to great, depending on what you ordered, and a regional dish was always offered as an option for supper. One night, the menu options didn't speak to me, so I ordered the striploin and fries instead; it was very tasty and well prepared. Wine was good to very good (the Bordeaux), and we only had one that we rejected (a very light Pinot Noir that was more like a Beaujolais Nouveau). One strange omission each evening, was the lack of a coffee service with dessert. I found the attentiveness to service somewhat lacking, and I surmised that this is due to the fact that tips are included with Emerald. i.e. on Gate 1, it seemed that the servers were bending over backwards to keep us happy, vs. Emerald's wait staff were just getting things done. Seating was ad hoc, which was fine for us, as we were able to meet a number of the guests over the course of our 7-night cruise.
Speaking of that, one difference that was obvious on Emerald versus the other three cruises we have done, is the makeup of the guests on board; our ship was approximately 50% Canadian, 30% Brits and Aussies, and only about 20% American. We sat with a couple from Santa Fe a few times who had said that they specifically selected Emerald because they wouldn't be surrounded by Americans on their European cruise. We ran into one snooty couple who were disappointed that dinner was not a white tablecloth affair, and probably would have been more comfortable on Tauck; they were not typical Emerald clientele, thankfully. We met many lovely folks on board, and only had a few that we avoided; the most obnoxious couple we encountered on our ship was actually Canadian, so it goes to show that we're not all easy-going. Average age was probably in the low-70s, with only a handful or so of folks in their 60s, and about as many in their 80s; my wife was unsurprisingly, the youngest on the cruise.
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| Bus tour of Bucharest |
When it came to our daily tours, we were disappointed that they did not separate the slow walkers from the rest of the group, which made for some slow paced walking and unduly long waits. We both liked the Gate 1 approach to loading coaches, where as soon as they had reached a quorum for one bus, off it went. There were also a few times where Emerald had planned a stop or visit somewhere, but it was obvious that guests stayed as long as they wanted, but the coaches waited for 30-45 minutes more before loading and departing for the next destination.
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| The Puszta horse show was just ok |
With respect to excursions, this itinerary has a much different flavour than the other river cruises we have done. I was expecting this part of Europe to be a significant change, but didn't realize just
how much different it would be. Eastern Europe is not as populated as the rest of Europe and was slower to recover from communism, and as such, the attractions and tour options were just that much less impressive. In order to reach sites and attractions that guests would find interesting, a bus trip was almost always required at every port. There were also issues encountered in this area you won't find on the Rhine or upper Danube with crossing country boundaries and passport control. e.g. Leaving Budapest and the Schengen zone, there is a very long passport control going into Croatia that I am assuming is the reason for the Puszta horse show in the morning. i.e. there is not much else to do between Budapest and Croatia having to account for a 3-4 hour stop for border control in the afternoon/evening.
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| We didn't see Osijek cathedral |
Then there was the Osijek/Aljmas day. We had a sleepy walk in the morning through the fortress and old town area, and then headed to a strange, truck stop-style place where a local gave us a somewhat humorous talk, followed by a small sampling of charcuterie and an opportunity to buy local craft and food items. We then headed to our in-home lunch with a local in Aljmas; we heard that others had a decent meal; ours was not, and even though there was an interpreter accompanying us, I don't think we received the same historical flavour that others did. The Osijek cathedral is apparently amazing; it would have been much better if we had the opportunity to see that instead of the roadside tourist stop. It's a pretty quiet area of Croatia, so not sure what else they could have offered us instead of the home-hosted lunch, but almost anything would have been better.
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| Golubac Fortress was not in the cards |
One morning, we woke up to open our blinds to this sight. But instead of a 1.5 hour tour of Golubac Fortress, we were carted off to the (recreated) archaeological ruins at Lepenski Vir. The visit was interesting, but too long; we milled around by the coaches for over a half hour doing nothing. When we met back up with the ship at Donji Milanovac, we had a nice BBQ lunch on the top deck, but then waited for well over an hour or more before departing for the Iron Gates. We could have easily toured
both Golubac Fortress
and Lepenski Vir on that day.
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| We went on the monastery tour |
Another example of where Emerald let us down, was the included Bulgarian tour to Veliko Tarnovo, which was supposed to be one of the highlights. This required a 1 hour and 45 minute bus ride each way, which would have given less than two hours to explore the town. For some reason, they kept wanting to get us back to the ship for lunch; on trips with Uniworld, Gate 1 and Vantage, when the bus ride was relatively long, they gave us a meal allowance to have lunch in the town, so that we weren't rushing the day (e.g. Salzburg tour). As you can imagine, the Veliko Tarnovo tour was not popular for this reason, and most of the guests opted for the nearby monastery and cliff chapel tour instead.
Edit: apparently they listened to our feedback, as a subsequent guest has said that they now do lunch in town rather than rushing back to the ship.
