Emerald Waterways

We just received a brochure from Emerald Waterways, "presented by Scenic Tours." Is this a new line or just Scenic Tours river cruises re-named? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you!

There was a mention in some other thread that this is a new, budget line that Scenic is starting.

There was a mention in some other thread that this is a new, budget line that Scenic is starting.

You are correct my friend. This is but one of two subsidiaries of Scenic. You may recall how a poster last year was very upset with Scenics budget lines.

He was in the process of joining a class action suit against them. Other than that I have no other information about them.

Thanks for both of your replies. I knew there were issues with Scenic. I think it best to go with some far better options.

Emerald Waterways is "part of" Scenic indeed, yet in this article it is called the "first new river cruise line in six years". I think we need yet to find out from travellers how independend the two lines are of each other and how they will fare (and rate) with cruisers. This should give you some idea of what the cruise line offers:

http://www.fodors.com/news/new-river-cruise-line-emerald-waterways-launches-this-spring-10303.html

Its two ships will be christened by Twiggy in the Netherlands in April.

notamermaid

There is an Emerald website with all the information on it. It would seem that they are aiming for a younger market, it is not all inclusive and the after end of the ship has an area that converts from a pool during the day to a cinema in the evening that's as far as I can remember without looking again. As far as I have discovered this will be a different set up with different ships Scenic are building at least 2 other new ships for Scenic. If you look at the Australian Scenic website it has more info about their new ships.

Scenic considers itself 5 star service (competing with Tauck, Uniworld etc...).

As a budget line, they had founded a cruise line named Evergreen Tours. Evergreen chartered its ships from austrian cruise line Lüftner (the green / white Amadeus ... class). In August 2014 Scenic has founded another subsiduary company: Emerald Waterways, which owns two ships: The Emerald Star and Emerald Sky.

Besides just having its own fleet (instead of chartering), they try to advertise shorter cruises and get a foot on the US market as well. By comparision, as far as I know (when I did tours for them), Evergreen had mainly offered 14days + cruises (AMS - BUD).

For this seasons, Evergreen still advertises cruises, but if you have a look at their website, the fleet shows the deckplan of their new Emerald ships

http://www.evergreentours.com.au/destinations/europe-river-cruising/

A bit confusing, I know :)

It was also confusing trying to follow Marty156's posts about the flooding last year. If I understood it correctly, he was on Evergreen but focused his anger at Scenic because they are the parent company. That made it hard to figure out whether passengers on Scenic were treated well or poorly last year.

[i wouldn't expect service at a Chevy dealership to be at the same level as a Cadillac dealership, but if GM allowed Chevy to operate unethically that would raise concerns about Cadillac too. Oh wait, Chevy did do that!]

It was also confusing trying to follow Marty156's posts about the flooding last year. If I understood it correctly, he was on Evergreen but focused his anger at Scenic because they are the parent company. That made it hard to figure out whether passengers on Scenic were treated well or poorly last year.

 

[i wouldn't expect service at a Chevy dealership to be at the same level as a Cadillac dealership, but if GM allowed Chevy to operate unethically that would raise concerns about Cadillac too. Oh wait, Chevy did do that!]

I too was confused about this.Made me very concerned about my Scenic cruise(as I have posted on a few threads).

I also got the new Emerald brochure and looked nice,but would hold off and any bookings till I read some reviews.

Can t believe how popular river cruises are now.Fear the ships will be REALLY stacked up next to ea.other in popular ports now.NOT FUN>and sure don t show you that fact in brochures!D!:rolleyes:

Can t believe how popular river cruises are now.Fear the ships will be REALLY stacked up next to ea.other in popular ports now.NOT FUN>and sure don t show you that fact in brochures!D!:rolleyes:

Look on the bright side: you'll be able to get off on either bank, once there are enough ships lashed together!!!

With narrow boats on the English canals it's referred to as breasting up. Each time in Europe that we have breasted up it has only been for very short period of time and then only once or twice. Some cruise companies seem to have there own moorings such as Viking so maybe they would be more likely to breast up than other companies, you never know.

been on,but for varying lengths of times and more often in larger ports.

A few have been overnite,which was uncomfortable because your right up against the balcony of another ship.No privacy.and DARK.

Worst was Vienna where we had to walk thru 3 ships to get off.

Just something you have to expect,I guess.But NOT LIKE,that s for sure:(

Hello alexandra cruiser,

been on,but for varying lengths of times and more often in larger ports.

A few have been overnite,which was uncomfortable because your right up against the balcony of another ship.No privacy.and DARK.

Worst was Vienna where we had to walk thru 3 ships to get off.

Just something you have to expect,I guess.But NOT LIKE,that s for sure:(

Vienna was the worst on my cruise as well. Three ships next to one another. Sort of: up the stairs, along the deck, down a plank, through the ship and so on...

Tried to see the positive side: compare cruise passengers and ship interiors. That was interesting. ;)

Yes, rivers seem to be getting ever busier. Two more ships from Emerald, quite a few more from Viking, two more from AmaWaterways...

notamermaid

It seems that Scenic is using different names to market these new riverboats. In today's local newspaper (Brisbane, Australia) there is a two page advert from Evergreen promoting it's two new Emerald riverboats.

After Franonards post I did a little chasing round the internet. I found that Evergreen has no UK website but Emerald has and is being launched as the first new river cruise line for a few years so this is most probably a marketing tool for other parts of the world other than Australia. There has been some chatter about The Scenic boss starting or purchasing a company named Riva and that two new ships are being built. Another interesting point is that on the Emerald website it states that they are exclusively chartering A-ROSA ships for French cruises. Oh the joys of the internet, we would not be here without it!

have Emerald listed.

Wonder how that is determined and if the company is reviewed in some way prior?

Do like the heated pool,and even French balcony that has windows that fully open(not half).

Will be interested in seeing future reviews.;)

see then above thread