River Cruising up the Rhine
River cruising and a trip to Europe have been on my bucket list for a long time but every time I try to plan for one of the trips, life gets in the way and money is redirected. A couple of years ago, I attended a few River Cruise information nights. Afterwards, I was determined to make it happen. They all offered some kind of booking incentive and booking early is definitely the cheapest way to book and offers the best selection of cabins. I did some research on various cruise lines and settled on Emerald, an Australian company. Their parent company, Scenic, was also in the running. In the end it came down to finances. Emerald is cheaper and the differences not as important for a first time cruiser. I like the no-nonsense all-inclusiveness of Emerald. They include gratuities, port tours and beer and wine with meals. Not many lines offer this. Scenic offers a few upgrades to that, drinks all day long, free mini bar, upgraded port tours and electric bikes.
Next problem was to pick an itinerary. I wanted to keep it to 7 days so this limited my choices. Ten years ago, I had visited the Netherlands and fell in love with it. It is a beautiful country with wonderful, friendly people. For 10 years I have been promising to take my husband there. This helped narrow down my decision a little more and I finally settled on the Jewels of the Rhine cruise from Basel near Zurich, Switzerland, up the Rhine through Germany with a final destination of Amsterdam. A week later, it was all booked for 18 months down the road. As we know, time does not stand still and the day finally arrived!
We flew into Zurich and had hoped to spend a few hours walking around downtown but our Emerald representative was waiting for us and although we had the option to wait for a later bus, the overnight flight had left us drained and we eagerly boarded the bus for the hour trip to Basel. It is not a very scenic drive which allowed for a quick and much needed nap.
Upon our arrival at the ship, our bags were promptly taken on board for us and we were warmly welcomed and invited to lunch. After lunch, we explored the ship. This did not take long, River ships are small. There is the top deck containing various seating areas, lounge chairs, tables, deck chairs as well as some gaming areas containing a large Xs and Os game. There is also a running track around the entire top deck. One deck down is the one and only bar/lounge. The opposite end of that deck are balcony rooms. One deck lower will bring you to the one and only restaurant on board. You will also find more balcony rooms on this deck level. At the back end of the ship is the very small pool which converts to a movie theatre at night and also a very tiny exercise room, a seriously small exercise room. The lower decks contain the other port hole staterooms. That about covers the entire ship. So with that done and a few hours until sailing, we took off for a walkabout around Basel.
Basel is on the borders of Germany and France and dates back to the 11th century. It has a medieval market square where you can find the 16th century red sandstone townhall. Switzerland’s oldest University, dated back to 1460, can be found in Basel. it is also a huge pharmaceutical centre dominated by Novartis, Bayer and Johnson and Johnson. We actually took a right instead of a left off the boat and ended up in the working man’s section of Basel rather than old town. I sometimes felt like I was in a University town with the pharmaceutical companies all around us. We saw old mixed with new, industrial mixed with residential and all around were normal people going about their business.
Upon our return to the ship, we attended an orientation. We were anxious to get sailing and start this trip. During our first dinner, we finally set sail. This was totally unlike any Caribbean cruise ship sailing. There was no big party or announcement, we simply started sailing without drama. I was concerned about sea sickness since I don’t typically do well on small boats but on the river, you barely feel any movement. Occasionally ,if several boats are passing, you may feel a little movement but for the most part, nothing.
In other posts I will discuss our port stops but here I will discuss my overall impression of the river cruise . In general it was positive, however, we felt a little claustrophobic when not in port. There really is nowhere to go on the Dawn. We got tired of the dining offerings real fast. There is one seating for dinner, don’t miss it. The menu is limited: one meat, one fish and one vegetarian selection. After 3 or 4 days, it all seems to taste the same. They serve everybody at the same time so dinner always stretches for 2 hours. There are no private dining tables and even if you snag a table for 2, the table of 4 is 6 inches away. This made for some interesting conversations and we always enjoyed our companions. Breakfast and lunch is very repetitive. Buffet selections with an egg station for breakfast and a hot rotating selection for lunch. A limited lunch salad buffet is available in the bar. We were happy to eat on land when the opportunity arose. I had hoped the menu selection would reflect more of a European flavour and was also disappointed that the table wine was not indicative of the region we were sailing. Evening entertainment varied but the lounge is small and crowded.
The best thing about this cruise were the ports and the included ship tours. These were amazing. Emerald teams up with local guides to provide an interesting visit of the town/city. Some tours included a bus ride into the city centre or up into the Black Forest, while others could be done directly from the docking location. We also went on the only paid excursion to Moselle and Cochern Castle. It was well worth the money. Emerald, like many cruise lines, have gone to a radio system with personal ear buds so you never have to miss what the tour guide is saying. The tours were all outstanding.
One thing that surprised me was how industrial the Rhine is. I was expecting beautiful countryside, castles dotted on the horizon and small fishing villages on the river bank. What we got, was a lot of open space and a lot of coal ships passing by. This is probably the reason we did most of our sailing at night. There is one area along the Rhine between Manheim and Koblenz that has many castles. This is the area of the Middle Rhine. We went up on the cool, breezy deck to watch as Nina, our Cruise Director pointed them out and gave us a little history lesson on each one.
Nina, was amazing. Always a smile on her face and always a can-do attitude. The Activities Director, Adam, was also awesome and has a fabulous singing voice. The staff on Emerald Dawn were all wonderful. They work long, hard hours for months at a time and maintain their happy disposition. They are better people than I am.
A useful piece of information is that on our first night, they provided a coupon for laundry. Everything you can fit in your laundry bag will be washed and ironed for about 25 Euros. We managed to cram a lot into the bag towards the end of the week so we were all set for part 2 of our vacation.
I had hoped to see us go through one of the many locks but we tended to pass through them at night. We watched one through the livecam and we could see the lock wall sliding down our window. Pretty cool.
One thing that puzzled me was what I had heard about ships docking next to each other. I wondered how you navigated through the ships. Well, they have a bridge connecting the ships and you simply walk through the other ship. No security as you see on the Caribbean Ocean liners. There was often some jostling throughout the day as the ships were on different time schedules. Sometimes you had to wait 30 minutes to get off or back on the ship while the ships changed order. Because of this stacked ship docking, it was often not possible to sit in your room looking out the window, you would be looking into somebody else’s room.
It would have been nice to have a small store on board. A couple of times I saw a table in the lobby with purses and jewelry but it would be nice to have a little snack shop with some small gift items, postcards, snacks and drinks.
View the slide show below for views from our boat. Click on a photo to expand.
In summary, a river cruise is a great way to see foreign lands. Everything is organized for you and you only need to unpack once. You get a brief introduction to the towns and can decide whether to travel back on another trip for a longer exploration. We really enjoyed it but both my husband and I love to drive and would like to see more of Europe by car or rail.
I absolutely recommend Emerald Waterways and if we ever river cruise again, I would likely choose them. I hear Scenic has better dining options but if you stick to Emerald, take advantage of late port departures and stay in town for dinner.
My future cruising will likely be limited to Caribbean cruising. I love the huge ships with their dozens of bars and restaurants and endless evening entertainment. I also love tropical weather and relaxed island life. My husband is not a fan so it is something I do with other family and friends.
Read other blog posts on the actual ports as I share my views of the amazing ancient, history filled German towns. Watch the video of our cruise on the main Cruising page. Click on “Back to Cruising” to navigate there.
