Emerald Cruises UK Reviews

Evryfink - cabin, food, tours, entertainment, IGOR!

Easy telephone booking, wonderful staff on ship, highly recommend

The staff are very helpful and efficient and the facilities provided by the company are excellent

Great staff who go out of the way to make your cruise enjoyable. Good choice of cruises. Food is wonderful. I would recommend it.

Best holiday everything first class

Condition of the boat was excellent as was the food. Staff went out of their way to assist and be friendly

Fabulous crew. Fabulous food and drink. Excellent tours all included.

The sixth cruise with this company and although I have noticed some cut backs over the years it is still very good value and everything is included and taken care of.

Went on the Mekong cruise first and then the Danube and from booking to flying home the whole experience was wonderful and extremely well organised. A great company I would highly recommend

Emerald cruises are excellent. The boat, food, staff and excursions. Definitely five stars

Very disappointing cruise very much misdescribed. 1 cabins and adjacent corridors smelt of sewage a known problem mentioned in other reviews not fixed. 2 only two years old and deteriorating fast , rusty door frames , leaking shower, cracked tiles, cheap particle board fittings swelling in damp , chair ripped. Overall cabins sparsely appointed and cheaply fitted out. 3 in room tv and wifi poor 4 dinners were nice but not luxury breakfast dull and unvarying 5 ports of call were awful tourist traps, they advertise their smaller ships ability to get into off the beaten track ports yet we still followed the same route as the mega ships. 6 our trip was ruined by the presence of a group of friends of the owner which made up over 1/3 of the passenger who were rowdy noisy drunken and monopolised many of the facilities. When I and others complained we were told that they don’t usually allow large group bookings but in this case as they were mates of the owner the staff were powerless. On a positive note the staff were great especially our waiter Gibril (Jimmy) who looked after us wonderfully. Conclusion never again on Emerald, back to Uniworld, AMA and Silverseas for us !!!

Generally pretty good but very expensive and thus not great value for the product. Staff were excellent but food and wine were only mediocre with limited choice. The layout of the cabins could be better with tight access to the bathroom along the side of the bed. The drinks packages are ridiculously poor value and it was very irritating to be charged for drinks from the cabin minibar when it was a reasonable assumption, with no indication to the contrary, that they would be included in the package.

This was our first fully organised holiday and also our first cruise experience. Emerald proved to be the perfect introduction to this more structured way of travelling. Organisation was good, the itinerary was well planned and ensured a varied and fascinating introduction to the culture, sights, sounds and especially cuisine of Vietnam and Cambodia. Our cabin on Emerald Harmony was well designed and extremely comfortable. Meals and entertainment were first class. Of special note was the knowledge and friendliness of our guides with special mention for Quewen who helped our entire group to bond and enjoy every minute. We are already booked on a Caribbean cruise on Emerald Azzura next February!

Fantastic holiday from start to finish. From being met a Hanoi airport Vietnam, 22 days later ending up at Siem Reap Cambodia the whole experience was unforgettable for all the right reasons. The Hotels were all of 5 star quality but the Ship Emerald Harmony was to die for. All of the mainland tours were organized to the highest standard. Hanoi a city full of French influence and thousands of motor scooters. so many people despite their turbulent history are so friendly. A visit to Hanoi must include a visit to Railway Street for cheap food and drink. Our next excursion was to Ha Long Bay explanation is not good enough it has to be seen. We visited a water village where the people still lived as they would have for years. unfortunately the children are taken away the mainland to school. When they reach a certain age they are given one chance to return to the old way of life . No second chance. It's strange to go into a village that seems to be so cut off from the world we know but find every house has a Sky dish. We then went from Hanoi to Da Nang (NO TIME SPENT THERE WHICH WAS A PITY AND IT WAS AT NIGHT. ONE DAY LESS IN ANOTHER CITY WOULD HAVE GIVEN TIME) then onto Hoi An spectacular day and night markets and a riverside lit up with thousands of lanterns at dusk. From Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Hue City (the former imperial capital of Vietnam) lunch out and a rickshaw ride back to the hotel. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Visit the Cu Chi Tunnels and see all of the traps set for the american soldiers (scary down the tunnels if you are claustrophobic). For a few $ you can pick up an AK47 and shoot at some targets. A visit to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum at Ba Dinh Square (Resting place of Vietnamese leader Ho Che Minh known to the Vietnamese as Uncle Ho). The time spent on the Harmony sailing up the Mekong Delta was an experience never to be forgotten. There were so many tours included from the ship on the Mekong to various villages where we were treated to fantastic insights as to how the people lived and worked. Emerald do a lot of work with the local people and with reaching out projects helping NGOs to help people with disabilities integrate into society with meaningful work (THEY DO NOT BROADCAST THIS). Then onto Cambodia to visit Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. We visited the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center and the converted school now a prison camp called S21 (not a pretty sight) where we met one of only two to survive the torment Mr Bou Meng I have to admit to shedding a tear at his horrific story. ( I bought his book ($10) about his time in S21 but I have not been able to read all of it. it is bad). He is not looked after by the regime and has to fend for himself hence the $10. We also visited the Killing Fields it takes your breath away along with S21 to see how Pol Pot's regime killed so many people. On a lighter note we had a Tuk Tuk race with everyone through the streets of Phnom Penh (what a scream that was). We also went to Raffles and had a Phnom Penh Sling. (we gave the Tuk Tuk driver $10 to drop us off and pick us up and take us back to Harmony). On the way to Siem Reap we were offered the chance to eat their local delicacy roasted Tarantula I politely declined the offer. There are so many Temples in Cambodia and I think we visited most of them but the icing on the cake was the sun rise over Ankor Wat. If you are going to climb to the top wear good boots as the climb is very steep but well worth it. (they don't understand H&S and the climb is risky). We also visited Ankor Thom famously used in Tomb Raider. We ended the holiday with a Champagne gondola sunset ride on the Ankor Wat lake. Well it would have been rude not too. The itinerary is arduous with so much to fit in but if you are going that far find a way to do everything they plan for you. The hotels, food, tours and Harmony were all 5 star. We visited villages to sample their lives, we had local Lion dancers on the ship, we went to a circus we had a show by dancers all from the local community. It needs to be said that our tour guide Quyen was instrumental in bringing the tour group together without his input, vast knowledge and sense of humour the group would not have jelled.

Excellent cruise from Budapest on Emerald Destiny with wonderful helpful staff. My only gripe was with the description and cost of additional tours. The Viennese concert evening was described as exclusive and in one of Vienna’s most beautiful concert halls. It was in a small, acoustically unsuitable backroom with 8 musicians ! At a cost of 79 euros each it was an extortionate let down! I would never sign up for an optional outing again - the visit to Nuremberg was also costly and misrepresented.

I'm currently on an Emerald Dawn cruise, sailing from Amsterdam to Budapest. I was subjected to bullying and harassment from the "entertainment director", Noel, who appeared to think that directing jokes at me and publicly humiliating me was funny. He even performed a cabaret where one of the songs he sang was "The Lady is a Tramp", calling all ladies on board tramps, but saying it was just a joke. I was sitting a long way from him and had said nothing, but he then turned to me and said "although some ladies turn into tramps after a few drinks, isn't that right Liesel?". I still said nothing, and then he directed another shot at me, at which point I retaliated and told him to "f off" - his response was to tell me to put it in writing. When I walked out of his show with a few others shortly afterwards, there were more comments from him. Noel's actions also caused an argument between my husband and I and the cruise director offered me another (more expensive) room until that settled. I took Noel's advice and lodged a written complaint with the company. Their response was to try to shut me up with flowers, chocolates and a bottle of prosecco, none of which I touched. They also told me to move back to my original room with my husband. Apparently Noel's shows were always like that and no one had ever complained and 5 other passengers that they spoke to (out of about 140 with an average age of 70, who probably have no idea of proper social behavior in this year and age) thought his public humiliation of me was acceptable. What sort of company condones that sort of behavior? If the comments were about me being brown (which I am) or gay, would they also condone that? Telling me that it's part of his act and no one has complained to date, implying that me taking offense is my issue, is a disgusting response and I wouldn't recommend using them to anyone.

My experience on board Emerald Sky was everything I wanted and more. Exceptional staff to delicious food made my trip wonderful. The pool on board is an added bonus, as I could carry out a morning swim and then on one of the nights I enjoyed the area to watch a film as it converted into a cinema by night. I also want to mention that this ship had the best self-service coffee machines. Yes, it makes a difference to the cruise experience, especially if you love coffee like me.

Lovely holiday along the Rhine taking in several Christmas markets. The high water level meant that the start of the cruise had to be amended, but it was all dealt with in an efficient way and we didn’t lose out in any way. All the trips were well organised and really interesting. Equally time on the ship could be relaxing or entertaining -but we were always looked after. The food was all 5 star and very varied . Definitely looking to book another cruise asap.

Paid for an upgraded room to a Balcony Panoramic Suite. But had no view for the whole week. Either moored next to a boat (2 nights) or next to a street (5 nights) so had to have the blinds down for the whole trip. Totally ripped off.

Emerald Azzurra cruise exploring Croatian coast with exceptional attention to detail and very friendly and professional service.