My wife and I chose a river cruise from Amsterdam to basle with emerald a first river cruise for us and I would highly recommend it guests were a mixture of people from uk Australia and Canada in the main and everybody we talked to were really friendly we found the excursions great with very good guides , the ship itself was very clean and well presented with excellent meals throughout the week and you were never short of something to eat, the staff were excellent and really helpful with our cruise director Patrica very efficient and always made every effort to assist and make your holiday stress free only exception being the evening entertainer who gave the impression he would rather be somewhere else, so I would highly recommend a river cruise with emerald as a way to explore Europe and visit places you may not get a chance to see otherwise and meet some great and interesting fellow passengers into the bargain