The only ship of the series outside Europe
The Emerald Harmony left a Ho Chi Minh City yard, in Vietnam, in 2019.
Seventy-three metres, five decks of which four carry travellers, 42 cabins and
84 travellers. She was drawn to berth in central Ho Chi Minh City, which most
Mekong ships cannot do.
She sails between Vietnam and Cambodia, from Saigon to Siem Reap and from
Hanoi to Saigon, with combined programmes reaching Laos, Thailand and Japan. Our
inventory counts five hundred and ninety-six departures, one hundred and
twenty-seven in 2026 and three hundred and one in 2027.
What to know before booking
The most frequently raised drawback is the air conditioning, which struggles
against the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia. It is not a breakdown, it is a
sizing limit, and it is said before the sale to a client who copes badly with
heat.
The standard lower deck cabins have no balcony at all: a large fixed
panoramic window, and nothing that opens. The upper categories have the
motorised window whose top half lowers at the push of a button, with no floor
surface. The owner's suite has a terrace with a whirlpool.
Two pieces of information are missing and we do not invent them: the beam of
the hull is published nowhere, and nothing indicates whether there is a lift on
board. Across five decks, the question is not theoretical. As for the pool, one
source calls it convertible into a cinema, another describes only a retractable
sunshade. We do not settle it.
The other ships in the fleet
The Emerald Liberté holds the Rhone. The Emerald Radiance holds the Douro. The Emerald Kaia and the Emerald Azzurra are ocean
yachts.
Who owns these ships
The group that sells them. That is uncommon enough in this trade to be worth
saying: the brand belongs to a private Australian group that owns its hulls
and, since 2020, its own shipbuilder. The river ships come from Dutch and
Romanian yards; the yachts come from a Vietnamese yard the group calls its
own.
The reason the group gives is plain: a contract yard would rather reproduce
its own models than build to order. Owning the tool means controlling the
finish. That sets this fleet clearly apart from those that charter their hulls
from a third-party shipowner who can take them back.
What is included, and the British catalogue trap
Included: gratuities to the onboard crew, to guides and to drivers; beer,
wine and soft drinks at lunch and dinner; at least one excursion per touring
day; internet access, with no performance guarantee; and electric bicycles
aboard the river ships.
Here is the trap. This brand's British catalogue includes the international
flight and the transfers. The product sold here does not. The two offers carry
the same name and not the same content: never transpose an inclusion read on a
European site. Your advisor builds the air portion with you.
Accessibility: what is published and what is not
The line requires anyone needing help to travel with a physically able
companion. It accepts folding wheelchairs only and considers mobility scooters
unsuitable. It warns that cabin and bathroom doors may not admit a standard
wheelchair.
On the number of adapted cabins, nothing is published for the river ships.
On the yachts, two independent sources establish that there are none. A
physical constraint adds to this: when two or three ships moor abreast,
passengers on the outer ship cross narrow gangways and take stairs, with no
notice.
Booking this trip from Quebec
The entity signing the travel contract is established in Australia, and
nothing establishes that it holds a Quebec licence. Your protection therefore
comes from here: Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from Quebec's Office de la
protection du consommateur, your payments move through a trust account, and the
Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents covers your file as the law
provides.
