We sailed with Emerald twice before, done in fact the entire Amsterdam to Bucharest trip. We choose Emerald because of the excellent food and wine, the ever friendly staff and most of all, the swimming pool which we use almost daily. By now there are always members of staff we know, which is quite pleasant and gives that welcome home tinge. The cabins are spacious enough and comfortable, we had less than this quality on some sea-going trips. We tend to choose our excursions carefully, like many other seasoned river-trippers, as we find that staying on board and sail whilst the rest is put on coaches for an excursion often provides the best part of the trip. All the amenities to yourself on a very spacious, comfortable and quiet ship. As far as entertainment is concerned: we do not massively care about that but enjoyed what was on offer. Main disappointment:like every other tour operator the museums visited invariably are those overrun by masses of people as they are the great treasure-troves of Europe. I like the specialities, notably those museums that deal with any form of transport. In Varna, due to the excellent weather, we declined to visit the local museum of antiquities, but no one told us about the outdoor naval museum just round the corner. Discovered that from the coach on the way back to the ship. Similarly, Strasbourg visited from the landing at Schoenau is nice, but equally close is Mulhouse with a massive railway museum, a road transport museum, a museum of printed textiles and a very pleasant zoo. Same applies to Nuremberg, Belgrade and Bucharest. Can we please do a bit of research on these extra's?
Very good. Apart from through the night we don't spend a lot of time there anyway, preferring the fore-deck terrace and other public facilities.