The Emerald Dawn is a beautiful river cruise ship. Public spaces are open and full of light and the crew was superb, including our cabin attendant, front desk staff, and our cruise director "Michael".

Unfortunately, all of these positive qualities were diminished by our poor experiences in the Reflection (main) dining room. Breakfast and lunch were fine, especially during staggered meals when people arrived at different times. However, dinner service was very regimented with late servings and dirty dishes removed just before the new (late) dishes arrived. Servers weren't familiar with chilling red wine and had difficulty *at every meal*, when I had to explain the definition of chilled - and even had to remind them with every refill. The restaurant manager advised to sit in the same situation; however, this was not a reasonable option. Soups were thin and the entrees textures of frozen meats and with little taste. The topper was during the farewell dinner, the hotel manager talked so long that the baked Alaskan dessert was served TOTALLY MELTED!!! This dish should never have been served but we returned it and opted for the cheese plate. Some servers appeared to have no cruise line experience whereas others were helping out from Cunard and other lines. Some servers acknowledged that they were several people short so I never blamed them.

Emerald gives low priority to their dinner food service, which is why the otherwise superb product and services rank an overall 3 rating. My apologies to the hardworking staff and hopefully a strong message to the accounting and management staff at Emerald.