We booked this cruise because we got a good deal. But right from the beginning there was trouble. We put down our deposit, but then the deadline was approaching to pay the balance we could not get in touch. Our messages went unanswered and could not reach any person. We were getting nervous. Finally, a few weeks before the travel date we finally, after numerous calls, reached someone to pay. At no point did anyone reach out to us. We finally received our flight itinerary and luggage tags about a week or so before travel. We were supposed to receive our back packs before the trip, but, to this day, 2 months after our trip, we still have not received them. We called after we arrived home and they said they ran out and we would receive them soon. NOPE!

As for the trip itself, unfortunately the river was low and we could not enjoy part of the trip. We were not told of this until after we boarded. We were supposed to sail north from Mainz to Rudesheim and Koblenz but we had to take buses meaning we could not see the castles on the river. It was strange because other ships seems to have made the sail (we saw several Viking ships and others). We booked a balcony suite but we really could not see anything interesting on the river part that we did sail. We were able to sail south from Frankfurt down to Basel. The food choices were not very varied and there was no late buffet. I had few choices. You had to eat at the required time. Excursions all left at 8:30am and were back at 1pm except one later optional excursion. There was really no entertainment except for a games. Only once did we have an entertainer from off the ship, a violinist, put on a show. There was no preview or talk about the destination that we were going to see the following day except a brief 5 to 10 minute overview. I was generally unimpressed and woould not use this river cruise company again.

I previously reviewed this cruse we took in September last year. It is now 4 months after the cruise and we still have not received the backpacks we were supposed top receive b efore the cruise. I have now called a third time and spoke to someone, yet again, who told us they would be shipping our backpacks now. This is the second time we have been told this. Never mind that no one has ever contacted us. As I said previously, the crew was nice and our room was nice and specious. The fact that the river was low and prevented us from actually cruising part of the river (in spite of the fact we saw other river cruise ships doing so) is not Emerald's fault. But it would have been nice to know in advance that part of our "river" criuise was going to be by bus, preventing us from seeing the sights. I guess they did not want anybody to cancel.