Chris_Texas

Thank you all for the great feedback.  Based on advice here, I will definitely engage the services of a travel agent that specializes in cruises.

Good evening all-

We did our first river cruise back in 2022 (Emerald Waterways on the Rhine).  We are contemplating our second - a Christmas markets cruise along the Danube in December 2025.  We have been planting the seed with our extended friend group and, while it's early, I can easily envision that we could get 12-15 couple interested in going.  My questions are 1) how many couples would it likely take for us to begin to negotiate any discounts 2) any general ideas of how much those discounts might be and 3) are there any river cruise lines that are more (or less) likely to give discounts?

Not that the discount will be the deciding factor by any means, but it would certainly factor it.

Thanks!

Chris

On 4/29/2022 at 10:06 PM, DougK said:

 

 

Yeah, I have to wonder whether that's the real reason my cruise got cancelled, rather than the "supply challenges" and "crew shortages." It's a shame that I can't really trust anything Scenic says...

 

 

It's odd that Scenic offered different options to different passengers. When I pointed this out to my TA, who asked Scenic, the answer was that of course all options are available to all passengers, including other cruises, and even cruises on Emerald. So why the heck didn't Scenic actually say that in their letter? And we were also assured a full refund was available, to be sent as a check. That's the option we went for, as we can't rearrange vacation dates and/or locations on such short notice.

 

Very disappointed, but we'll enjoy a land vacation in Europe instead.

When Emerald initially canceled our Danube cruise, they simply mentioned that it had been "postponed" with no details on exactly what that meant, whether another date had been identified, or any other details. Since this was our first cruise, I didn't know enough to know which questions to ask. Once we spoke to our travel partners, we (head-slap moment) realized we should just call up and ask specifically what our options are. Once we did so, we got a lot of helpful info and found a Rhine cruise for the same dates that worked for us.

It would seem like the Scenic/Emerald customer service staff are not trained sufficiently to transition the trip-canceled conversation to discussions about options. One would think that would be Customer Service 101, but I'm sensitive to the fact that everybody is having trouble filling jobs and that some of the training and experience are probably lacking as a result.

2 hours ago, ebseckar said:

Thanks for the information from a recent Emerald Dawn cruiser. I hope you had a wonderful cruise.

It's been so hard to find out information about Emerald with all of the website/customer service issues the last few months. May I ask if you would provide any more information about Covid-related policies on the cruise? For instance, when and where were masks required? Did you need to show a physical vaccination card or was a digital photo of the card accepted? Were you permitted to sit with different people at dinner? 

Other random questions -- Due to the website issues, we've been unable to sign-up for excursions. Do most people sign-up in advance? Is the indoor pool completely indoors and heated? Do you recall approximate laundry pricing on board and turn-around time?

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer!

Happy to help.  We were VERY put off by the difficulty contacting Emerald ahead of time, but once we got there the cruise was fantastic.  Great cruise, beautiful ship, and the weather turned out fantastic.  

Masks were required anytime you were moving around, including when up at the buffet line. Once seated at dinner or in the lounge, you were allowed to remove your mask. It was a minor annoyance at worst - it really was no big deal. Compliance was probably 95% (the other 5% likely falling in the "I forgot my mask and am just going out to fill my water bottle" types of scenarios). I don't think there was anybody on board who just flat-out refused to wear one. We also had to mask up on bus rides and when entering castles/museums/cathedrals.

You can sit with whomever you like.  There was a lot of intermingling (too much, perhaps, since 3 of the 4 of our group tested positive for covid upon our return to the states - thankfully we were negative for the return-flight test). 

I don't know what form of documentation they accept. I had hardcopies, as did my wife - those were fine. I can't say beyond that because we were the first to board the ship.

We signed up for excursions in advance by calling Emerald (painful, I know). I don't know if anybody was blocked out of ExploreMORE excursions due to them being full, but I'd suggest taking the time to call them.  I had to call them after I returned home and I think the wait was only about 20 minutes.

The pool is heated (I never saw anybody in it) and enclosed. It gets quite warm in the pool room (comfortably warm, not stifling).  We had 2 pieces of laundry included so I didn't get prices on them - but the turnaround was same-day - leave it in the morning when you leave, it shows up sometime in the afternoon.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

I was on the Emerald Dawn that cruised the Rhine between April 10 and 17.  They tested everyone around lunchtime on Apr 16 and results were available after dinner.

On 4/11/2022 at 11:01 AM, tempehman said:

Chris_Texas -- we are having very similar isssues/problems with Emerald -- I can't reach anyone, no way!! Can you tell me what tel. number you called successfully?

Main number and leave a message.  Unfortunately, they only seem to call back about 50% of the time, so you have to be willing to be persistent and and wait on hold for quite a while.

Early morning seems to be the best time to get them.

Good luck.  For what it's worth, we just got back yesterday and the cruise was AWESOME.

I thought people might be interested in the resolution to my issue.

A good night's sleep and a phone call that actually got through - to a helpful customer service person - have helped the situation immensely.  

Our cruise was not consolidated into another cruise - it's just been canceled.  The reason, so they say, is that there were too few people on the excursions - which sounds odd to me, since we were booked on this cruise and we had never gotten to the point where we were asked about which excursions we wanted to do.  

Regardless of confusion over the reason, I spoke to the CS rep and asked about options for a different cruise at the same time or the same cruise at a different date.  I was given both options.  We opted for the Jewel of the Rhine cruise from Basel to Amsterdam on the same dates.  The other couple we're traveling with were able to make the same change.  We're very excited about the trip, my wife is happy to be a little further away from the center of conflict in Europe at the moment, and things are good. 

Yesterday I was thinking we would have to postpone the trip and thinking of ways to get our money back.  Today we were able to salvage everything - it was a good day 😉

4 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

If your trip insurance is 'third party' our experience has been that as long as you haven't made a claim you can roll the premium over to a new trip (there are some time limitations).  If it was through Emerald the rules may be different – but a 'full refund' should (IMO) include all monies paid.

That's good to know.  Thank you.  I'll contact them tomorrow.

53 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Making a claim under that insurance should be your last resort.  If the cruise is cancelled, you should get a full refund from Emerald or via credit card chargeback – and get a refund of the insurance premium as well.

Help me understand that.  I do understand that I want to use the insurance as a last resort.  Why would I get the premium back as well?

This is getting complicated a bit by verbiage.  I don't know that Emerald is calling this a cancellation; they are saying our trip was rescheduled. They initially said that we were eligible only for credit towards a future cruise.  When I pressed, he put me on hold for several minutes then came back and said WE could cancel for a full refund.  He also said that would take up to 180 days, which is utterly absurd. 

Not only am I now a dissatisfied customer, I'm also nervous about their financial position. There are various options available to us, but the one I'm not comfortable with is delaying the trip - I feel like that just keeps us on the hook with a potentially unstable company.  So I'm thinking best-choice is if I can rebook a different trip during the same time frame, or disputing the charges with my credit card - which would presumably return the funds to me in a more timely manner.

I'd be grateful for any thoughts people have about the best approach here.  I'm not terribly comfortable with any of my options at the moment.

As I've mentioned before, we're scheduled to cruise on Emerald from Passau on Apr 10. We're traveling with another couple, and they called Emerald this morning. He was told our cruise has been canceled.  The reservation agent didn't seem fully informed to him, but he was told: this has nothing to do with Ukraine nor with the website outage. In fact, he was told this decision was made due to "consolidation" (no other details about exactly what that means) and that that decision was made before their website outage.  

When asked why we weren't notified, the customer service person said something about the subsequent outage and communication priorities since then.  I'm stumped as to which communication priorities could be higher than letting people know who are leaving within the next month that their cruise has been canceled.  He asked when we'll get written notification and was not provided with a firm answer.  Our scheduled cruise is no longer on their brochure on the website.

I've been trying to contact Emerald and alternate between getting a tone that indicates the call can't go through and getting a ringtone for a couple of rings that then disconnects.  I can't even leave a message for a callback.  I even tried calling Scenic and left a callback number - to no avail.

I'm considering contacting my credit card company and asking what options I have - whether I can dispute the charge since I can't even get in contact with the company.  I doubt it, but I'll call to find out.

I do have CFAR trip insurance -  but that only pays 75% and I'd like to get it all back, if possible.  Our contract says that we get a full refund if they cancel the cruise prior to embarkation, but I'm feeling like the entire organization is dodgy at this point. I'd like to get my money and have the opportunity to book something else in its place, whether it's another cruise or just a vacation to somewhere else.

Chris

Does anybody else have imminent cruises on the Danube that go as far east as Budapest?  It feels a little heart=breaking to be thinking about vacation impact while the Ukrainians are going through what they are, but we do need to make decisions.  Our tour leaves Apr 10th, my wife and I plus another couple, and we haven't seriously entertained any thoughts about whether we would cancel...yet.  We still have 7 weeks, and a lot can happen in that time. I'm just curious how others who are traveling in the next couple of months to eastern Europe are thinking about this situation.

What I know so far for Emerald:  They apparently canceled some of their Christmas market cruises in December. There's a notice on their website that says Euro river cruises have been canceled through the end of February. I called them last week and they said that it's not that they've been canceled (aside from Christmas market) but that Jan/Feb don't typically have sailings. I don't know if that's true or not (perhaps someone here knows?). The rep said that the first scheduled cruise is the 3rd week of March. Since we're scheduled to sail Apr 10th, I'll be paying a lot of attention to what happens in late March.

On 4/20/2021 at 1:02 PM, Daisi said:

Normally, I would suggest waiting to book flights, as they tend to drop in price about 6 months in.....however, with all that's gone on in the past 2 years, you never know.  Could they offer great deals to get people flying again? Or will you get better deals if they have to add on more flights to cover the demand.  

 

Either way, it's a gamble.  I wish you luck and really hope you manage to make the cruise.  They are well worth it.

Thank you.  

My working premise is that there's a LOT of pent-up travel demand from people not being able to travel over the last year - and that once the vaccines take root that people are going to start booking/spending at a brisk pace.  I presume that would push prices up, but you're right that it could instead play out with airlines adding more flights.  

I rarely see flights get cheaper as we get closer, although I've never booked a flight this far in advance - so this is new ground for me.

On 4/19/2021 at 10:41 AM, Canal archive said:

Chris_Texas sounds like a good compromise, which cruise are you going to do? CA

We're doing the Danube Explorer with Emerald.  Very excited - my wife and I have been talking about a Danube river cruise for quite a few years.  Hopefully Covid doesn't delay our plans.

I thought people might be interested in where I came out on this.

I ended up passing on the 10% discount.  As a result, we have "only" our $500 (for two people) deposit at-risk.  I bought trip insurance, including 75% CAFR.  We're just about exactly one year out from our trip at this point, so I'll probably go ahead and book our flights on that assumption that they're more likely to go up in price in the coming months than come down in price.

This isn't specific to river cruising, but I would assume (with all the associated dangers) that river cruising is experiencing the same type of resurgence.  Now that vaccines are ramping up, people are eager to begin to book cruises.  Royal Caribbean's stock is up 30% over the last week (thankfully, as I'm a shareholder) amidst news that bookings are up significantly - and many other publicly-traded cruise operators are surging in the same manner. 

Certainly all of this is very early, but I think it bodes well for those of us hoping for both vacations and the financial health of the cruise industry.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. rose to its highest in nearly a year in New York after the company said bookings continue to improve, lifting the shares of competitors as well.

Since the beginning of the year, reservations are running 30% higher than in November and December, Chief Financial Officer Jason Liberty said Monday on a quarterly conference call with investors.

Shares of Royal Caribbean, the second-largest cruise operator, rose as much as 13% to $88.75, their highest since Feb. 26, 2020. Carnival Corp. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. also jumped.

The vaccinations of millions of Americans against coronavirus has been a significant help, Liberty said in a phone interview, along with the accompanying decline in Covid-19 cases across the country.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-22/royal-caribbean-leads-cruise-stocks-higher-with-gain-in-bookings

5 hours ago, djh1959 said:

I am literally currently listening the radio here in Australia and they have travel "experts" discussing the future of overseas travel in light of the vaccine rollout.

 

This gentleman said he fully expected that it would be early 2024 before overseas air travel is back to the 2019 levels!!  I have heard that from other sources too.  He means that we can simply decide where to go and book a ticket, without being concerned about quarantine and so on.

 

If this is actually the case, I would wonder how many river cruise companies could survive another three years, particularly Scenic as it is an Australian company, and Aussies are by far their largest customer base. 

I guess the real question is: what does it look like between now and 2024.  Is he (or others) thinking that quarantine will be required for the next 3 years? Or just that we might be required to wear masks?  Or just that people are slow to adopt a mindset that it's safe to travel and so it takes time for travel to return to pre-pandemic levels?

It seems to me that we face a fork in the road here in 2021 and nobody can really know which direction things go.  The good path is that vaccines become more widely available and used, cases and deaths go down, and life starts to get closer to normal - although I think it will be a new normal.  The bad path is that vaccines aren't as effective as we hoped, vaccine-resistant strains begin to develop and grow, and safe/healthy travel simply isn't possible.  Under that scenario, I could see that 2024 forecast being realistic.  Boy, I sure hope not though.

4 hours ago, Roz said:

@Chris_Texas, based on your posts, you seem to have a lot of anxiety about booking a river cruise and seem unsure of what you're doing and if it's a good idea.  Maybe wait until things settle out?  As I recall you were interested in booking something for 2023, so you have plenty of time.

Not at all - you're projecting that onto me.  I think it would be more accurate to say that I hadn't given supplier default any thought but, based on concerns voiced on this forum, I've decided to explore it a bit.  I'm still booked (for April 2022) but I want to consider whether I make full payment in April 2021 and avail myself of the discount, or wait until January 2022 and pay the normal fare.

Yeah, I was worried about that.  I tried looking for information on Scenic (the owner of Emerald, with whom I've booked a trip) and all I could find is some nonrated debt they issued in 2018 - but no details that would say anything about creditworthiness.

I'm new here, so if this is out of bounds, please forgive me, chastise me, and moderate my post as needed 😉

My first post yesterday dealt with paying for my cruise well in advance (1 year) in order to get a discount.  Several folks expressed reservations about that.  I was appreciative of that perspective/advice and I'm currently thinking (I have until early April) about whether I want to pay early and get that early-pay discount or not.  In addition, I saw a post in another thread that speculated upon whether a certain cruise operator would remain a going concern over the next year or so.

I'm hoping we can walk a responsible tightrope here.  I would personally find it interesting to hear people's concerns about various cruise operators (I don't think that's out of bounds, since people have posted these opinions in other threads) - but would find it MORE helpful if people posted why the feel that way and, even better, point us to articles if they exist about what gives them pause about certain cruise providers.  Is there an article you've read that gives concern?  Something you've heard?  In the case of my previous thread, a comment from a TA?

I'm not trying to start a trash-talking thread here by any means.  But I also thought it might be useful to have a thread that provides some information (even if that blends a bit too readily into gossip) about why people might be concerned about certain cruise providers.

6 hours ago, Roz said:

@Chris_Texas, welcome.

 

Even before Covid, I was reluctant to pay any cruise line more than 90 - 120 days in advance.  Moreover, most of the time they want the advance payment a year or more out in the form of an e-check in return for a discount off the fare.  Not worth it to me.  Once the money is out of your checking acct., you have no protection, unlike a credit card.

With Emerald, I've already confirmed that I can pay via credit card so I have no issue in that regard.  The sole issue at this point seems to be whether my cc provider will cover a default by the provider and how long that look-back is.

5 hours ago, Coral said:

He is a great resource.

Yes he is, and a super nice guy.  We spoke for a full hour today and he helped me sort through a ton of information and options.  I have a few more pieces to figure out (such as my credit card coverage, for whom I'm on hold now), but I'll certainly be using Steve's services to buy a policy.  

Thank you, Coral.  I've reached out (to Steve, a sponsor on this forum) about Supplier Default coverage - we've exchanged emails and are scheduled to speak by phone today.  This issue is my new #1 priority and I very much appreciate everybody highlighting it for me.  As it is now, all we have down is the relatively small $500 deposit for the two of us.  

Thank you for the comments and for a few other things to consider.  I hadn't thought of the risk that a company goes under.  I think the first thing to do would be to contact my credit card provider that I'll be using to pay for the cruise - they might provide protection.  Jazzbeau - does your TA have those concerns about all cruises, or just Scenic/Emerald in particular? 

I'm a little less worried about the Covid thing.  Even if we find we're uncomfortable in April 2022, we can cancel 90+ days ahead and use what we've paid towards a trip anytime in the following 24 months.  Since this is a trip we KNOW we want to take, I feel comfortable that sometime in the next 3 years we'll be able to do it.  

But I appreciate the food for thought from both of you.

Chris

Hello everyone-

First time poster, and looking forward to our first river cruise.  My wife and I will be celebrating our 35th anniversary in 2022 and we've been talking about a European river cruise for years.  With some big incentive pricing from Emerald (Super Earlybird pricing) we finally decided to go ahead and book.  We put our deposit down and intend to pay in advance to save the additional 10%.

One item that I asked about specifically is the guarantee mentioned in the article on this site:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2256

In 2017, Emerald Waterways also introduced a guarantee that provides a refund of up to $475 per day for up to seven days, or $3,325 per person, for issues that include the ship being unable to sail due to high or low water levels, mechanical breakdowns or industrial action affecting the sailing. The guarantee is valid, regardless of what country you book in.

I noticed there was no mention of this in our Terms and Conditions so I called to inquire - and was told that that must be an outdated policy at this point.  So this is just a heads-up to others who might be thinking of booking on Emerald that the information in that article is dated.

I've asked some detailed questions and will provide information about what, to my cruising-newbie status, seems to be an outstanding value of the Super Earlybird pricing for 2022 sailings.

• You can essentially choose from one of two deals: 1) $1000 per person off the cruise fare or 2) $295 airfare.  Note, however, that their airfare is capped at $1200 (if it's more than that, you pay the difference) so that airfare benefit is capped at $905.  We grabbed the $1000 per person and figured we would book our own airfare.
• An additional 10% off if paid in full more than 12 months before you sail.  We opted for a more luxurious cabin so this was a pretty good chunk of money.
• Free Deposit Protection Plan ($125 per person value).  It took me quite a few questions to get to the point where I understood the Deposit Protection Plan and the Flexible Booking program and how they work together.  I wanted to make sure I understood everything in detail because that will let me know my "gaps" that need to be covered by trip insurance.  I haven't yet decided whether I'll just play it safe and get CFAR insurance or whether I'll rely on the pretty good benefits embedded in the combination of Deposit Protection Plan and Flexible Booking.  Since I just booked two days ago, I still have a few days to decide.  But with Covid and the fact that I'd still have risk inside 60 days even with the above plans, I think I'm likely to do CFAR.