Emerald Sky Review

Telegraph cruise with war correspondents

Review for Europe River Cruise on Emerald Sky
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Phliptop
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Oct 2016
Vukovar water tower.
The scars of war are still to be seen throughout Vukovar

We were attracted to this cruise because of its content. We were not overly keen on just sight seeing. We wanted more and we certainly got more. Fellow passengers were clearly of a similar mind and it was very pleasant to visit fascinating places with intelligent and interesting people.

We did have a grumble about the nature of some of the visits. They were very well organised and Jana our Cruise Director scores twelve out of ten for her calm and good humoured way that she dealt with various crises. However, we were all crammed onto coaches and then herded around in a large group of forty people to places that could not accommodate all that number at once. In truth, the shore excursions were variable, ranging from pretty good to simply awful and at one stage, we became so fed up with the guide that we simply left the group and made our own way to the hotel in Bucharest. Detailed feedback has been given to Emerald about this.

Our cruise was narrated by the television war correspondents who actually covered the tragic events in the places that we visited. Martin Bell was on board for the entire journey and we are really grateful to him for his fascinating analysis and insights, his graphic descriptions of what it was actually like to be there in the midst of battle and for his wry and very clever observations as well as his generosity of spirit. Two other correspondents also spoke but their involvement was far less. One of our ports of call was Vukovar in Croatia, which was besieged and eventually taken by the Serbs in 1996. Martin Bell related the tragic sequence of events and my wife and I took a walk around the town and up to the water tower which is now like a Swiss cheese with all the artillery scars. Many other buildings still bear bullet and shell marks and even the metal handrails on the paths leading around the town are riddled with bullet holes. All very sobering and the worse thing is that the Serbs and Croats, despite sharing the same language, remain totally segregated. I came away with the feeling that the Serbo Croat war is not yet over.

Cabin Review

Cabin The bilges

Emerald market themselves on having cabins with interior balconies and huge electrically operated picture windows. We didn't go for one of these because we felt that we would not be spending very much time in our cabin. This proved to be the right choice. Our cabin was on the lowest deck and most of it was below the waterline. We had a window that was around 18 inches high and which you had to stand up to see out. It was strange seeing water at nearly eye level.

The cabin itself was comfortable and well equipped. It had a small en-suite bathroom with a nice large walk-in shower. My criticism was that you could not lock the loo door. There are times when one needs some privacy!

Although space was really limited, there were all sorts of niches, nooks and crannies where fiddly things like toiletries could be stored. It forced us into being tidy which is not entirely a bad thing.

Generally, space was not quite enough for us to both be able to use the wardrobe and chest of drawers at the same time.

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