Emerald Cruise Reviews

Our cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam in early November was above all our expectations. The Emerald Destiny and all its facilities were very good but the hospitality was outstanding. The attention and kindness of all staff members was amazing. The gourmet food was delicious and the food and wine reflected the area we were cruising through. The excursions ...read more were all interesting and very accessible. There were more active options for the fitter cruisers but also special guides for the slower among us. The onboard entertainment was also varied and delightful and we were lucky enough to find ourselves with a wonderful group of fellow travellers with which to share our journey. I would not hesitate to recommend Emerald Cruises.

Our river cruise was excellent thanks to Rachel McSorley's information and guidance she gave us. The food and drinks were excellent and our sight seeing tours were well informed. We met up with some lovely people including a few Australians. The entertainment that the two young ladies was very funny and enjoyable. We would recommend it to our friends ...read more and my sister was on the cruise coming up from Basel when we departed our cruise with Scenic. Thank you very much.

We had a wonderful time on our 8 day Danube Delights River cruise with Emerald. The scenery was brilliant; the food incredible and we made plenty of friends to boot! Whilst we experienced some very hot weather during our trip, we really enjoyed cooling off in the on-board pool of an afternoon. Most of the local tours guides were very good. Thanks ...read more to Hannah from Global Journeys for making the books so easy.

So glad we have done this river cruise! Beautiful river, excellent customer service, food was great! Recommend to all. Happy customers.

We have done several small boat cruises eg Douro, Rhine, Mekong, Great Lakes and Eerie Canal and several bike and boat or hotel tours in France, Italy and on the Danube and this was the worst, by far. That said, it gets two stars for the restaurant and room staff, who were excellent and the food which was really good particularly if you want to eat ...read more a healthy diet (there are lots of non-healthy options too and many on board were both overweight and gluttons). Breakfast is a buffet with omelette/fried egg station, lunch is a buffet with menu for protein(choice of meat, fish and vegetarian). Dinner is sit down meal with good choices and option of grilled fish, steak or chicken. Beer and wine are included with lunch and dinner, but wines were not regional and were lower end - included one from winery in Australia which we had never heard of.

Cabins were adequate, with a reasonable ensuite and over the top room service (2x daily) - sign said to reuse towels unless on floor, but this was ignored and wet towels changed every day. The bad points far outdated the good. Number one is the noise in the dining room, which was unbearable - we left one night and skipped dinner on two occasions because of the noise. Lounge was too small to hold all guests and was noisy, either from loud music or too many people, so we avoided all entertainment, except the Zittar player, who was very good. Other entertainment was quizzes of various sorts, golf putting, singing, etc -very unsophisticated. Seats in lounge were mostly uncomfortable. Lounge also had cold water on tap (still and sparkling) and basic coffee machine (using UHT milk and OK if you add a double espresso to anything). Drinks were bar prices and packages from about $20 per day per person.

Front deck was poorly furnished with old seats and not very comfortable. Pool was OK, but small (converted to cinema at night, with mostly uninteresting movies). Sun deck was closed for nearly half the cruise due to low bridges/high water levels.

Guided tours were in big groups (30 plus), so like cats being hearded around. They have gentle walking group, but no faster walking group, so saw much more walking around independently. Little time is spent at most locations (full day only in Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest), and a lot of time is spent on the boat. No day tours by bus included, unlike on other cruises. Some day trips available at extra cost, but very expensive. Active program is aimed at those who don’t exercise very often and are slow. Bike tour guides were good, but too slow eg 5 hours to do 35km. Passengers were mainly native English speakers, with most from Australia.

Information about bus returns to boat was hard to obtain unless you went on the guided tour (always told “tour guide will tell you”) and sometimes plainly wrong. People were left in Budapest for two hours on a hot day, when they had expected to be taken back to the boat after the bus tour around town. Best the tour guide could say was “get a taxi” when there was public bus that dropped you opposite the boat and was free for over 65s. No maps provided for towns (allegedly for environmental reasons, but they had paper cups in lounge), but you could get them at information centres (but not told where they were). Would definitely not do another river cruise like this.

Excellent River Cruise with boat location 7 min walk from Porto. Excellent staff and food. Room was ok but a little tight on space. If you sat on the balcony with window open join was just at eye level. Bathroom hard to access as not even 1 meter to walk from other side of bed to bathroom.

This was our first time with Emerald Azzuarra having previously travelled on the Scenic Eclipse. We loved the relaxed and non crowded feel of Azzurra. Being a smaller ship it was able to go to ports the bigger cruise lines cannot reach which was fabulous. We realized how great this was when we visited places like Debrovnick and Split that had 3-4 ...read more other big cruise lines in port and the places were PACKED! This itinerary was fabulous. We travelled mostly overnight and woke up each morning to a postcard view of a new town. The Croatian coastline and towns were stunning. Montenegro was just as beautiful, and whilst Albania was interesting , one day was perfect. Coming through the Corinth Cananl with only centimetres to spare on either side was a highlight.

The Emerald Azzurra crew were also amazing. Friendly, personable and attentive. Nothing was a problem for them. There are a few things Emerald need to work on such as food choices and consistency of quality though. We were told they are bringing people from Scenic Eclipse to elevate the experience. Emerald Azzurra is not in the class of Scenic Eclipse yet but has all the elements to be just as impressive with a bit more work. Overall we loved the trip and would travel with Emerald again.

Trip was really good, though wasn't aware that there was a pick up from train station if arrived at start city via train. As a result we had to stay a night at start city unnecessarily.

The Danube was flooded and the ship couldn't travel as planned but Emerald kept us well informed and provided excursions that were just as exciting as the cancelled ones. We had a great time, saw amazing things and met some lovely people. We did not feel we missed out on anything with the changes. Well done Emerald.

My wife and I have just returned from our cruise on board the Azzurra. For my wife it was her first time on the open seas, and for me, an opportunity to experience small ship cruising with one of our long term cruise line partners. I'm the CEO of of Global Journeys, so I thought I should put in some extra effort and provide you with a thorough review ...read more of our experience on board and on shore. Our rating gives it away a bit...but it's not all smooth sailing! Read my full review here if you're interested, but if not, then suffice to say, small ship cruising with Emerald will be a new experience for many and we'd both recomend this cruise and the ship to our friends and family.

Having already done two cruises with Emerald, we knew we would be in for a treat and invited our whole family to join us for a special celebration. The youngest two were 29 and they had as much fun with the active tours, the quizzes, the dancing and the fabulous food and wine as we did. Eastern Europe was little known to us and it's not all pretty, ...read more but we loved hearing the history and seeing the very obvious differences in architecture between the different periods. Bucharest and Belgrade were surprisingly beautiful and we loved returning to Budapest at the end of the cruise having been there five years ago. We also enjoyed a tour of Transylvania before the cruise started. We particularly appreciated the extras like a meal in a home of a local, the various rock and archaeological features along the way and the happy atmosphere on board. This was a very special family time, made even more so by the staff and facilities onboard Emerald Destiny!

Relaxing river cruise with wonderful staff. Fantastic food and service. Information from cruise director very informative. They take care of people with walking disabilities in making sure we weren't left behind.

This was our second river cruise with Emerald and we had high hopes! In spite of the email a couple of days before we were to leave Paris, that said the cruise might not be able to go ahead because of high water, we barely noticed a glitch in the itinerary. We enjoyed the pre-cruise tour of Paris and then were taken to the ship at a different location ...read more and were bussed to the scenic spots. Once again, we could not fault the service of the wonderful staff on the Emerald. The attention to detail by the housekeeping staff, the kitchen and dining room staff and the activity staff was commendable. Of course, French foods and wine were fabulous and we also enjoyed being given 30 euro to spend on lunch in Lyon. Canoeing at Avignon, the Pont du Gard and the hospital at Beaune were also highlights! C'est la vie!

Have just returned from an European river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest with Emerald booked with Hannah. Communication was fast and efficient. Flights, transfers, hotel accommodation and cruise all ran smoothly. The cruise itself was amazing! We will definitely book our next holiday will Global Journeys…..thank you.

Wonderful experience on the Emerald Harmony . Lovely crew and delicious food on board, plenty to do or as little as you want. Highlight was experiencing Siem Reap and Angkor, much changed after 20 years since last here, as was Phnom Penh and Bustling Saigon, made more colourful by being there in Chinese NY and TET.

We booked this cruise mid year, our first ever river cruise, to see parts of Europe we hadn't previously been to. Also for the xmas markets. The first part of our expectations was absolutely met, but for the first few days, Xmas markets were few and far between. It was a little too early it seems. I'm not sure how much information the cruise company ...read more gets about the markets, but I know there were a lot of disappointed people.

The crew were fantastic, I couldn't fault them, they gave 110% but there was still a feeling that we should have had more information before leaving and maybe a couple of the locations for tours might have been better, particularly the Cathedral at Krems. This tour was a bit of a non event as much of the building was closed. The Vienna concert evening was expensive for what it was and not particularly well organised, there was a lot of standing around before people were shown to their seats, not good for over passengers. The concert was also very short. We did another one in Vienna a week later, half the cost and lasted another 40 minutes.

All the tour guides were great though. Very informative and often funny. Great history lessons to be had. The food was excellent, varied and plentiful for a first time cruiser, there were some old hands who had done multiple cruises that didn't agree, so maybe that needs looking at. The entertainment was fun and well done, Dressen was always on the go making sure everyone was happy.

Janina worked really hard to ensure everyone was informed and catered for. Her port talks were excellent. I would have liked to have seen more scenery as we sailed along , most of our movements were done at night, possibly partly because of the shorter days too. All in all it was great , we both enjoyed it very much.

Firstly I would like to thank Tracey, my travel consultant at Global Journeys, for all the help she gave to me in booking and processing this tour. This Emerald Cruises tour was the best trip I have been on for a long time. From day 1 arriving in Ho Chi Minh City to the end in Siem Reap the Tour Directors and their support staff along with the staff ...read more and crew on the Emerald Harmony were absolute professionals and the service provided by all was excellent.

The Emerald Harmony was a beautiful and comfortable ship and the food provided was beyond amazing, a great chef and his staff provided some of the most enjoyable meals I have experienced. The tours were short but interesting, taking into account the humidity still rather high in November. I had an amazing look into Vietnamese and Cambodian life and culture. The hotels in Ho chi Ming City and Siem Reap were excellent and very comfortable. I applaud Emerald for the support they give to various organisations, the dancing troupe, Satcha Cambodian handicrafts etc. I am highly recommending Emerald cruises and this tour and hopefully will be able to return to Vietnam and Cambodia in the future.

We have just returned from an amazing cruise on board the Emerald Harmony. Our only other river cruise was in Europe in the winter (Emerald also) so we were not sure what to expect on hot steamy days in South East Asia. From the Cruise director, AB, to the cabin staff and all in-between we were treated like VIPs and always knew what, where and why things ...read more were happening.
Sampan rides, tuktuk rides, rickshaws - all safely navigated.

The cultural events on board were worth attending and were given with passion by the people of the culture. Our new cruise friends were great fun but we also were able to find a quiet place if needed. The transfer and hotel service provided by Emerald made everything so easy so I really could relax for the whole journey. The cabins were all that was needed and were super clean and comfy.

Overall a great trip with Emerald. Had good rapport with all staff and the chef catered for me being a Coeliac to the extent of a special cake for my birthday. Weather was great in July, needed a light jacket despite reports of heatwave in Europe. Group was a mixture mainly of Australians and Canadians with a few UK and USA travellers. All friendly. ...read more Overall apart from the long haul flight enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks Tracey for your help. The photo is of Durnstein. A lovely small town, try the apricot ice cream!

Fabulous river cruise down the Danube organised through Global Journeys. We weren't sure what to expect for our first river cruise but it was sensational! We travelled with teenagers and they loved it also. Emerald organises lots of active tours for those that prefer that, as well as having the traditional activities as well. This cruise catered for ...read more everybody and we loved every part. The food, the suites, the onboard facilities and the wonderful wonderful staff. Thank you to Global Journeys for making the booking process so easy and for their great portal which was able to be accessed when we were overseas. Provided peace of mind and ease of access to all necessary information and documents.