Tossing up between Scenic or Emerald Waterways. Need advice!!

Hello

We really like Scenic but not the price. Emerald is similar and alot cheaper.

Would like to hear anything and everything, good or bad from people who have travelled on one or both.

Thanks

For our first cruise and our upcoming 2nd cruise we were looking for luxury and perks, and were willing to spend Scenic's price. For the full deal get a Royal or a Junior suite (e.g. unlimited laundry; room service meals). Especially for the longer cruises.

After that we would certainly consider Emerald to save a few bucks. We don't need all the perks all the time, and they are less impactful on a shorter cruise.

Have you looked at APT? They use AMA ships/staff and are an Australian company. This year with the low water issues, AMA had a much better record than Scenic [based on reports on this forum]

Second the APT recommendation they were fabulous and on our Myanmar cruise fully inclusive like Scenic.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Have you looked at APT? They use AMA ships/staff and are an Australian company. This year with the low water issues, AMA had a much better record than Scenic [based on reports on this forum]

APT were our choice as well after careful research.

We will be onboard in 5 weeks time for their 'Magnificent Europe' cruise, water level permitting of course :)

We have travelled with both - Scenic x 2, Emerald x 1 --> would happily travel with either of them again.

We do look at price, so Emerald has the slight edge now. We don't need an open bar all day - and travel lowest category so don't use the butler, room service etc. It does pay to look at the stops, and included excursions, as the price difference between Emerald and Scenic isn't always as big as you might expect.

When Emerald came into the market, the savings were significant. It doesn't seem as much of a "bargain" anymore. Not sure if it is because their popularity grew fairly quickly. Once they got into the US market - with the US dollar so strong against both the Canadian and Australian dollar - they seemed to get booked quickly, and the prices seemed to creep up.

Fran

I believe Scenic and Emerald are owned by the same company. Emerald was introduced as the "budget choice". I would expect that they are run similarly but that Scenic cruises are a bit more upscale.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app

We recently sailed with Travelmarvel, the “cheaper” version in the APT group. We were very happy with then, we had one ship swap Passau/Nuremberg which was handled well, even given €25 cash each for lunch expenses.

We travelled through the Rhine Gorge when the Scenic ship which had been travelling alongside us could not get through.

Marg

We did Emerald back in June and have no problem booking with them again.  It was our first river cruise.

Lot's of positives

• room size
• room comfort
• bathroom
• Employees (Service)
• Tours (absolutely awesome except for one which was just ok)
• Clientele (upper 50-65 on average)
• Drink package - very affordable compared to ocean cruise

Negatives

• Food (very subjective) but I can tell you the portion sizes were small (but you could have multiple services)
• Breakfast never changed
• Lunch could have had more options that changed
• Late night snack was left over desserts from dinner
• Internet was spotty while cruising

That being said, I would book with them in a heartbeat.  They fit my demographic and price.  If I had to do over again I would get a cabin on the lowest deck and use the money to fly business class (7 hour plus flight).  

I have a river on this board on the Emerald Sun. 

We have done five with APT and one with Scenic - have returned to APT, too many things went wrong with Scenic and when I wrote to them explaining why I wasn't happy, they weren't interested.  Also Scenic are more expensive, my husband and I aren't big drinkers so we don't want to be paying for all drinks to be included. APT provide drinks with lunch and dinner, which we find plenty. My friends have travelled with Travelmarvel and were very happy with them.

 I have just finished two back to back River cruises with Emerald one in Portugal and one in the south of France .

 When we were with Emerald going on the Douro river we met up with friends who were on the scenic Azure -  

 So we went aboard their boat and had a look around, and they came on to ours and had a look around ,apart  from their bedroom ,which was the same category as ours, Being slightly different in configurations  and a tiny bit bigger there really wasn’t that much difference. Certainly in my mind the difference in price was quite substantial and not enough to warrant the extra price .we are not huge drinkers , so did not require 24 seven included alcohol and were very happy with wine and beer with lunch and dinner . Both of our boats were brand-new and spotless, staffed with wonderful people who couldn’t do enough for you. We did fantastic excursions and our food was wonderful, the wine was free-flowing during the meals- ... so  we did so many interesting things whilst on the boat like cheese tasting, port tasting, tile painting ,making things with cork,  cooking demonstrations so on and so on .  Never a dull moment -  I believe every scenic Cabin  has a butler which they obviously share with other cabins, but my friend said they never really needed the butler so if you’re after a really good holiday at a slightly cheaper price but  a beautiful trip in a beautiful boat then Emerald is the way to go

I've been on two Scenic cruises (2015 and 2016) and one Emerald (2017).

Scenic includes the following not included by Emerald:

1. No charge for minibar items

2. Cocktails, alcohol includes whenever the bar is open

3. One bag of laundry per cabin

4. Evening sundowner (Beer, adult beverage at a scenic location)

5. All tours included.

Emerald:

1. Cabins are very similar in style to Scenic

2.  Has small poor which seemed to be used frequently.  The pool area is very nice.

3.  Beer, wine with meals

4.  Tour in each port but there are optional tours you pay extra for.

5.  Food on Emerald was good but not nearly as good as that on Scenic.

Our Emerald cruise director was the best of the three directors that we had.

IMO, look carefully at your itinerary and determine what Scenic includes that Emerald does not include and if the difference is worth it.

On my first Scenic cruise I mentioned that the included alcohol wasn't that important to me but one person stated that it was to them. Their bar bill on their last ocean cruise had been $500.

We got a great bargain and booked a Scenic Christmas Market cruise for 2019 but would happily cruise with Emerald again.

All good points about Scenic and Emerald. I’ve done two Emerald ( which shortly I’ll write reviews on) and visited a scenic with my friend who was onboard... the boats were moored next to each other so we had an explore!

we don’t drink much but enjoyed our wines and beers with lunch and dinner. Don’t need a mini bar or sunset drinks ( happy to pay for one if the desire took me)

very happy with emeralds interior, staff, food and in our case, plenty of included excursions and activities.. after years of travelling, I’m accustomed to doing my washing in the shower and I have a very tidy way to get things dry. 

Scenic looked lovely but I wouldn’t pay the thousands extra for it. 

Ive travelled 28 days with UNIWORLD ( 5 star) and I’d still save my money and go Evergreen. 

Just my opinion. You need to do your own research. 

Also... I would stick to the Mid level on river cruises. We had the drop down balcony , just lovely and dried my clothes beautifully... I need a big window or fresh air. Top level... apart from the suites, cabins are the same size as the mid level. But much pricier?? No idea why... because you can get the noise of the early morning joggers , and the clank of the crane as it lifts the gangplank.. save your money. 

On 10/23/2018 at 11:45 PM, Mrs Clooney said:

Also... I would stick to the Mid level on river cruises. We had the drop down balcony , just lovely and dried my clothes beautifully... I need a big window or fresh air. Top level... apart from the suites, cabins are the same size as the mid level. But much pricier?? No idea why... because you can get the noise of the early morning joggers , and the clank of the crane as it lifts the gangplank.. save your money. 

We did a Scenic cruise in 2015 and have another booked for next October. The first cruise we were on the top level in a standard suite. Being on that deck got us dinner at Table La Rive and some enhanced room service. It also got us closer to the sky when we were rafted next to another ship which made our room brighter, I suspect, than on a lower deck. We did not have any issues with noise from the sun deck. 

For our our cruise next year we are booked in a middle deck Junior suite. I’m a little concerned about how it will feel when we’re rafting but time will tell.  

Many river cruisers will will tell you that they use their room for sleeping and bathing and spend most of their time in the public areas or off the ship so too. Size and location don’t matter. We like a certain amount of time to ourselves so we want rooms that are comfortable to spend time in. To each his own. 

“To each his own .” is really true. On our second Scenic cruise we were a group of 8 , all in the lower level. We all enjoyed ourselves and asked the hotel manager if there was a cabin in an upper deck that we could see. He graciously offered to show us an unoccupied cabin. The five of us who saw all agreed that we were happy with the lower deck and didn’t think that the added expense of an upper cabin was worth it.

14 minutes ago, nancyevans said:

“To each his own .” is really true. On our second Scenic cruise we were a group of 8 , all in the lower level. We all enjoyed ourselves and asked the hotel manager if there was a cabin in an upper deck that we could see. He graciously offered to show us an unoccupied cabin. The five of us who saw all agreed that we were happy with the lower deck and didn’t think that the added expense of an upper cabin was worth it.

Nancy, I was actually thinking of you when I wrote my reply. I remember that you and Nancy were perfectly happy in Aquarium Class. I checked one of the Lower level rooms out on disembarkation day and saw that it just wasn’t for me. Too small and too dark(although I didn’t turn on the light so that might have made a difference). It’s too bad as I would be happy saving money.