My son won this cruise in a competition and was kind enough to give it to me. I took a female friend with me. Because we didn't have to pay for the cruise we decided to pay for the three extra excursions. This was my first cruise experience but my friend was amazed at the number of free activities. On the ocean cruises she has been on, anything that was not actually on board the ship she had to pay extra for.

We arrived in Nuremberg the day before and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, as it was a five minute walk from the Old Town, and we had time to look around. We only saw half but enjoyed what we saw. it gave us a taste of what was to come.

We caught a taxi to the point of departure but there was a bit of a mix up as the ship wasn't there, having been held up in a lock, we were told. We went into the lounge area of the Emerald Sky, where another couple was already sitting, for a while, then a large coach took just the four of us to Roth, where the Emerald Dawn was tied up. Others were surprised we'd been given that service, as they'd had to catch a taxi there. Read more