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MS Sapphire & Emerald Redesign
Tauck announced last year that the older Jewel class ships would be redesigned starting with the Sapphire and Emerald this year. The main difference being conversion of the 150 sqft Ruby deck cabins to 225 sqft cabins reducing the number of passengers. Also converting the bistro into the Arthur's version - it's own kitchen and chef with a larger menu.
Finally this week photos of the staterooms are available. Sadly the photo of the new Class 6 cabins is fairly underwhelming. It only shows the bed - which has been rotated to face the french balcony window - an improvement over the previous sidewise layout. Beyond that ?????? My assumption when we booked this cabin for our upcoming Seine cruise was that it would be the same as the Class 6 cabins on the Inspire. If one looks at the Inspire deckplan/staterooms/description you clearly see that it has a much larger bathroom with rainfall shower, a seating area with table, another window (98" x 37.5") and tucked into the wall by the bathroom is a cabinet which on the Inspire contains a Nespresso coffee maker. We've cruised on the Inspire so I am familiar with it.
Right now I'm not sure we made the right decision picking the Class 6. We like the Ruby Deck, would not want an Emerald deck room unless it was a loft or the front/back 2 cabins because of noise, but didn't see the need to go with a Diamond Deck suite. However, when you look at the price delta between the Class 6 cabins and the Class 7 suites - only 5% more - it probably makes more sense to go with a suite. Assuming the Class 6 cabins on all Tauck ships are/will be the same, the suite also adds more room with a bigger seating area, a walk-in closet, an iron/ironing board and breakfast room service.
I've been watching the Pricing/Availability pages for our cruise and several others on the Seine/Rhone. The new cabins have clearly not be selling as well as less expensive staterooms or the suites. I suspect the price considerations are part of the reason. But this hasn't been helped by the lack of photos or descriptions that really sell the room. Just saying they're bigger really isn't sufficient.
Hopefully our Seine cruise stateroom will be at least as nice as those on the MS Inspire (with all the same features).
Thoughts from other river cruisers?
Finally this week photos of the staterooms are available. Sadly the photo of the new Class 6 cabins is fairly underwhelming. It only shows the bed - which has been rotated to face the french balcony window - an improvement over the previous sidewise layout. Beyond that ?????? My assumption when we booked this cabin for our upcoming Seine cruise was that it would be the same as the Class 6 cabins on the Inspire. If one looks at the Inspire deckplan/staterooms/description you clearly see that it has a much larger bathroom with rainfall shower, a seating area with table, another window (98" x 37.5") and tucked into the wall by the bathroom is a cabinet which on the Inspire contains a Nespresso coffee maker. We've cruised on the Inspire so I am familiar with it.
Right now I'm not sure we made the right decision picking the Class 6. We like the Ruby Deck, would not want an Emerald deck room unless it was a loft or the front/back 2 cabins because of noise, but didn't see the need to go with a Diamond Deck suite. However, when you look at the price delta between the Class 6 cabins and the Class 7 suites - only 5% more - it probably makes more sense to go with a suite. Assuming the Class 6 cabins on all Tauck ships are/will be the same, the suite also adds more room with a bigger seating area, a walk-in closet, an iron/ironing board and breakfast room service.
I've been watching the Pricing/Availability pages for our cruise and several others on the Seine/Rhone. The new cabins have clearly not be selling as well as less expensive staterooms or the suites. I suspect the price considerations are part of the reason. But this hasn't been helped by the lack of photos or descriptions that really sell the room. Just saying they're bigger really isn't sufficient.
Hopefully our Seine cruise stateroom will be at least as nice as those on the MS Inspire (with all the same features).
Thoughts from other river cruisers?
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Thank you
- Time spent in the room - you're right that it often isn't a lot but it depends on the particular cruise - how long it is, how nice the weather is, how busy is the daytime touring vs daylight sailing, are there interesting options for site seeing on your own, etc.
Our first cruise was the French Waterways in Jul. Its a fairly short cruise and we generally had nice weather and very little daylight sailing. The ports were almost all in areas you could easily walk/tour on your own. We had an 150 sqft cabin on the Ruby deck. Mostly fine, but a bit crowded when both of us were trying to dress, get in/out of the bathroom, etc. It only has 1 small rattan chair. If you did have an hour or so to put up your feet, check email, etc it was the bed or that chair. On that cruise we spent very little waking hours in the room.
On the Rhine in Oct it was a longer cruise, more daylight sailing, more bus time, and mostly chilly weather so almost no time on the sun deck. Except for Amsterdam, the Moselle portion and Boppard, the dockage was not in areas you particularly wanted to tour. There we opted for the Cat 4 - nice layout, plenty of room, conveniently located but prone to noise from the adjacent lobby. It was nice to have 2 chairs and the room to move around without running into one another.
- I believe the beds are all the same size - queen - 62 x 77. We normally sleep in a king but have never had a problem with the beds. Very comfortable. They are on an open framework that leaves space for 2 checked bags and at least 2 carryons.
- Storage - Except for the suites, the storage are built in cabinets. They have 3-4 narrow doors with space for both long and short hanging items, drawers, wooden hangers, as well as space for the safe and minibar. The exact configuration depends on the room. Some rooms like the loft on the Inspire class and the rooms above them also have separate drawer units. The smallest cabins have plenty of room for 2 people's gear.
- Bathrooms have gotten bigger and nicer with the Inspire class and these new cabins. The ones in the 150 sqft rooms remind me of a very nice RV, big enough for one person at a time only. The showers have ingenious glass doors that swing into the shower out of the way when not in use. Sufficient counter space and a shelf below. The bathrooms in the Inspire Loft, Cat 5, 6 and 7 are longer with enough room for 2, fancy lighted mirrors, and more storage.
- View out the window, totally luck of the draw. We've mostly been very lucky and had some very nice views of the river, the towns, the swans, etc. My issue with the windows isn't so much the view as the extra light and not feeling like I'm below the waterline/in a cave. The loft is the only Emerald deck room I'd consider.
- I do like to have a cup of coffee in my room before getting dressed. Especially if jet lag has my sleeping sked off. In the past we've taken cheap insulated plastic mugs with us and one of us headed down to the bistro for coffee and croissants.
The main reason I wrote the original post is I think Tauck is making a mistake with converting ALL the Ruby deck cabins to 225 sqft, charging almost as much as for a suite, but not providing the same level of space and amenities. It upped the cruise price considerably. That has been compounded by Scylla being slow to provide photos or even artist concept plans to help with marketing. Time will tell.
Here's hoping my Cat 6 on the Sapphire is the same as the Cat 6 on the Savor.
We did get the rainhead shower. The bathrooms have definitely been improved.
I get back to my original point that this has been a marketing failure.
We'll be on the Sapphire next month so I can report back to you. Anything else you're wondering about?
I haven't even gotten to the whole subject of the bistro conversion to the Arthur's concept. I like the idea of it having it's own kitchen & chef, but from our experience on the Inspire I don't think it adds much. We ate there once. The food and service was excellent. The menu, while larger than the older bistros, is basically the non-special standards available in the Compass Rose every night - steak, chicken breast, salmon, with sides. You have to reserve a set time to eat and the casual vibe has been lost. I think they're missing an opportunity.
More thoughts on cabins in general - their location on the ship.
Pretty much everything that happens on board occurs at the front half of the ship: coming and going on the ship through the lobby/reception area, going to the main dining room and the lounge. If you want to help burn off all the good food and drink, pick a room toward the aft end - you'll get a lot of walking.
If noise bothers you - especially when trying to sleep - then don't pick the very first rooms on the decks (101, 201/2, or 301/20) or the very last on the Ruby or Diamond deck (221,222,317,318). The front rooms are next to things like the lobby, the stairs, the gym,etc. The main engines are at the aft end of the ship. In steady state that wouldn't bother me, but if the ship is going through locks overnight then you'll get changes in sound plus the thrusters that move the ship side-wise. No room is totally insulated from ship board noise, but some are worse than others.
We like the Ruby deck as well and would have happily booked the older 150 sqft cabin again. Am so hoping to be wowed by our Cat 6 cabin in a couple of weeks. Taucks facebook post today from the Emerald with a new photo of a Cat 6 cabin and one of Arthur's. The later looks different from both the old bistro and the Inspire's Arthur's. I like it.
Positives:
- its a very light, bright stateroom with both a larger sliding glass doors and another narrower window next to the seating area
- the bed is turned with your feet toward the large window which makes for enjoyable viewing sitting up in bed
- there are both built in closets with hanging space as well as a large 3 drawer dresser with very roomy drawers and large countertop - plus there is storage in the nightstands and room for all luggage under the bed
- all hardware is soft close
- the bathroom is very large with plenty of counter space, storage, and extra large shower with both handheld and rainhead shower - the pull out laundry line in positioned at the back of the shower so you aren't hitting it with the doors
- there is a Nespresso coffee machine as well as the refrigerator - the crew filled up a small bottle with milk for me to use
- there is a shallow niche cabinet with mirror that makes a great place to charge electronics, blow dry my hair, do makeup, etc - seems a small thing but actually was a very useful addition
- lots of electric plugs - both us and European - as well as new USB plugs
- there are 2 arm chairs and a table - not a desk as listed in the website's description
- on demand TV system with ship info, news channels, and movies - many of which were appropriate to this tour e.g. Gigi, Saving Private Ryan, etc
Negatives:
- weird noises in the walls - these were not the occasional toilet flushing noises you get inevitably on these ships - but more of a creaking, snapping sound very noticeable when the ship was underway
- stateroom doors don't seem to close as quietly as they used to
- our TV for some mysterious reason would occasionally turn itself on in the middle of the night
Overall we were very happy with our cabin. However, I maintain the points I made before that Tauck is not marketing these cabins well (lousy photos and a description that isn't up to date) and that the price point is too close to that of the Cat 7 suites. In fact, I met another couple on our tour who had a suite and had chosen it instead of the Cat 6 because there was so little difference in price.
The rest of the ship was great. The bistro conversion to Arthurs was done well. We had an excellent lite lunch sitting outside one afternoon. The gym has also been slightly enlarged with room for more cardio machines.
As I'm sure you know and Sealord will confirm, it ain't nothin' like the sounds on a Navy ship, especially a carrier!