Do Not Book Another Ocean Cruise Before Reading This!!

The last seven days have had me reveling in shock and awe thanks to a phenomenal cruise experience! Want to know why? Read on……..

As my regular readers and customers will know, I have been lucky enough this last week to sail aboard one of the finest ships afloat, through an itinerary that is so culturally wonderful, it left me amazed.

But this cruise was not what I am used to, for it was a River Cruise, down the Danube!

The Ship: The Emerald Sun (part of the Emerald Waterways brand)

Now this is not the sort of cruise you may associate with talking to me about, because for the last 10 years or so, I have predominantly sold and advised on Ocean Cruising, however now after this experience I am able to advise you fully on the amazing aspects within the diverse world of River Cruising – my new favourite thing!

Of course I am no expert yet having just done the one cruise, but the way I feel after this experience, I hope to do many more.

Up until now, Ocean Cruising has been my life and passion, but I have to say, River Cruising has quickly caught up, after just one spin of the wheel!

So why was it so good, and why did I like it so much?

Well, pre departure I must admit I was a little apprehensive. Travelling on a ship so small in Winter with less facilities than I was used to kind of concerned me somewhat. I figured I was probably going to be a bit bored to be honest.

How wrong I was……….

I am not going to discuss the itinerary just yet because it’s too much to cram into one blog, instead I am going to give you a run down of the ship itself and where the main differences in Ocean and River cruises stand out.

Of course the main and noticeable difference is the size and space. The ship is only a relative minnow in terms of capacity, holding about 140 guests, which is tiny compared to some of the behemoths out there nowadays. But this is nothing but a positive for me. It enabled the staff to get to know you within 24 hours of boarding, and vice versa, you remember them very quickly. To be honest Emerald Sun set’s the bar exceptionally high with their staff, some of the most exemplary crew I have ever had the pleasure of being around. Little things like turning the shower head away from you after cleaning the room so you are not blasted in the face by water, or asking which part of the meal you liked rather than just asking if you enjoyed the meal, genuine interest and genuine thought & care, so refreshing and appreciated. Well done Emerald Waterways.

Now you may think the lack of facilities on board may cause you to run out of things to do, and to be fair, I think a little better use of the deck space above, and the addition of a casino table or two is almost essential nowadays. But your time is made up seeing some of the most stunning places in Europe, with a really different and much more personal approach to touring, giving you a totally unique experience, sorry I’m sounding like a brochure now, but it really is that good! And in fairness despite the lack of space they still managed to have some kind of local entertainment every evening, such as singers, dancers and even the crew put a show on!

A couple of quick examples on the unique touring with this cruise would be a private orchestral recital in Vienna, and a house visit to a local Bratislavan family. Very unique indeed and very interesting. There were many tours included in addition, which I will cover in the next few blogs.

A big plus on the Emerald Sun was the consistency of the dining, excellent choice for breakfast and lunch in the morning, but where she really excelled is the 4 or 5 course meal in the evening, not the biggest portions in the world, but I was certainly never hungry. But I use the word consistant because throughout the cruise the food was always of an excellent standard; perfectly cooked – every night, stunning presentation – every night, perfectly timed and hot – every night………..you get the idea. I feel this is a huge plus point as I have been on many a cruise where you get the odd bad night, be it service, or be it food repetition, perhaps a cold dish etc – not on this ship you don’t – it was genuinely spot on the whole cruise. Only downside for me personally for me is that there was no black pudding or mushrooms with breakfast, and it was the usual American style streaky bacon rather than back bacon – but I admit I am nit picking here – it is part of my job after all!

Another huge benefit of this particular river cruise was that we had our drinks included – however this was a promotion we were given, normally you pay for drinks at the bar, but I did note that the drinks package was only about £15pp per day for everything – which is unbelievable value! Also all of the tours are included as standard, as are gratuities.

One more very important point I will make is that Wi-Fi is totally free on board, so you can use the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook to message your friends and fmaily whilst you are away, for nothing – very impressed with this since I consider my smart phone to be another limb!

What has impressed me the most about the whole trip, apart from everything, was the cultural interest you get waking up in these stunning countries.

The 6th day of the tour was Budapest in Hungary, a city most of us Med & Caribbean sun worshipers know nothing about.

Let me tell you, this place is an absolute gem, and to emphazise how incredible it is – check out this photo taken literally from our french balcony in the evening:

This is the Parliament Building at the rivers edge in Budapest as I mentioned. Waking up with this view is something that brings a tear to your eye. Unfortunately my photographs do not do it justice, it must be seen to be believed.

It is sights like this, among many others, that have made this cruise truly spectacular for me.

There are various pictures of the ship online so in my next couple of blogs I will be showing you the pictures I personally took on my Danube river cruise. So please log on and have a read.

Trust me as your cruise agent when I say that River Cruising with Emerald Sun is a game changing event. I am in sheer awe with the quality of the entire experience. So much so that my wife and I are looking into our very own River cruise for 2017.

Plenty more photos to come – once my laptop has finished downloading them all!

So thanks for reading and as always, until next time……….