River cruise news to watch

River cruise news to watch

Bohemia Rhapsody New Year's Eve Cruise | Prague's Eve Cruise | Prague

Last year was a challenging one for river cruising, so as we round the bend into 2017, it's worth pointing out some buzz-worthy stories on the horizon that could help the industry get its groove back.

When it comes to buzz, we can certainly count on Crystal Cruises, which will unveil two of its first four "river yachts" this summer - the Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler (the Crystal Ravel and Crystal Debussy will follow in spring 2018). The company promises some pretty over-the-top features on its first set of river new builds, such as multiple, sleek-looking dining venues with open-seating, and all staterooms built above the waterline - something that hasn't been done before on a river cruise ship. The renderings released of the yachts last summer evoked chic and contemporary interiors, and river cruise insiders are surely champing at the bit to see how Crystal delivers on its lofty river cruising promises.

Speaking of buzz, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection is bound to help reignite some much-needed hype for river cruising in France, which took a big hit following the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris. The company remains committed to launching the latest in its Super Ship class of vessels, the 128-passenger S.S. Joie de Vivre, on France's Seine River.

In true Uniworld style, the company didn't hold back with the Joie de Vivre, which will be christened in March. Features include a collection of fine art and antiques acquired from both auction houses and private collections, and a pool area with a hydraulic floor that by night can turn into Le Club l'Esprit, a dance floor or outdoor cinema. Travel Weekly will be there to report on the unveiling of the Joie de Vivre firsthand.

It will also be Adventures by Disney's second year offering river cruises in partnership with AmaWaterways, and we'll be watching to see how that product continues to grow and evolve. Disney has already made some tweaks including raising the minimum age from 4 to 6 and adding an adults-only sailing.

CroisiEurope's ongoing and arguably aggressive expansion will continue in 2017 with four new ships: a 132-passenger vessel on Portugal's Douro River; the 106-passenger Symphonie II on the Rhine; the 135-passegner Douce France II on the Danube; and the 60-passenger Indochine II on the Mekong. The French company is coming on strong and it definitely has our attention.

In fact, Portugal's Douro River has been experiencing growing interest of late, with Emerald Waterways also launching a new ship there this year: the 112-passenger Emerald Radiance (the Scenic-owned company is also launching the 138-guest Emerald Liberte on France's Rhone and Saone rivers this year, hopefully also sparking renewed interest in France).

Closer to home, the American Queen Steamboat Company will be adding the 166-passenger American Duchess on the Mississippi River in June, a former gaming vessel that is being converted into an all-suite paddlewheeler with unique loft suites.

Lastly, we'll have our eyes on developments on exotic rivers. Momentum seems to have quieted a bit on rivers such as Southeast Asia's Mekong and on China's Yangtze, so we'll be watching to see how much and whether river cruise lines invest beyond Europe, including in places such as India where it's rumored that AmaWaterways may be eyeing the possibility of a new ship in 2018.

2016 River cruise Outlook

by industry sector

In 2016, after several years of inexhaustible growth in the river cruise sector, some of the bigger players are taking a bit of a breather (and by breather, we mean not building as many new ships as in past years), while several newcomers and new products take a fresh stab at the market.

Most notable among the river cruise rookies is Crystal Cruises, which this year announced that it would be entering the river-cruise market with a fleet of five luxury yacht-style river vessels. The first of those will be the Crystal Mozart, formerly a Peter Deilmann vessel known as the Mozart, originally built in 1987. Crystal has four newbuild vessels on order for 2017.

Following an extensive renovation, the Crystal Mozart will set sail on July 13, offering passengers their first glimpse of Crystal’s vision of river cruising. That will mean fewer, larger suites after the company transforms the 203-passenger Mozart to a 160-passenger capacity.

The updated Crystal Mozart will feature suites ranging in size from 203 square feet to the 860-square-foot, two-bedroom Crystal Suites, the largest on any river.

Crystal also is designing its itineraries so that much of the sailing takes place during the day, giving guests the opportunity to explore destinations in the evening, with ships docked in port overnight.

It will be interesting to see how this nighttime-focused river cruise experience will resonate with river cruisers. According to Crystal, one big advantage will be fewer crowds in port, something that has become a bit of a challenge in Europe. Crystal has said it also plans to  get passengers off ship as much as possible while docked, with onshore culinary experiences at Michelin-starred restaurants, evening events and entertainment.

Bring the kiddies

While Crystal will be making a run to convert the high-end, ocean-cruise customer to rivers, another new entrant into the river-cruise market, Adventures by Disney, will be attempting to get more families to sail the Danube.
Adventures by Disney announced a partnership with AmaWaterways to develop a series of family-friendly cruises aboard the 158-passenger AmaStella in 2016.

To better accommodate families, the AmaStella will usher in several new hardware concepts for AmaWaterways, including 12 staterooms that can accommodate up to three family members each; six sets of adjoining cabins connected via an internal doorway, accommodating families of up to five; and four suites with convertible sofa beds that can accommodate families of up to four.

While courting families isn’t entirely new for river cruising (companies like Tauck and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection have been doing it for years), actually designing a ship around the needs of families is new. And Disney will be taking the family-friendly concept a step further, for example, by having eight Adventures by Disney guides on each of its sailings in addition to the existing AmaWaterways crew.

The Adventures by Disney sailings will also feature movies, karaoke and daily biking trips for younger passengers, as well as family-friendly excursions such as a horse show at the Lazar Equestrian Park in Hungary and a private marionette performance and strudel-making demonstration at the Schonbrunn Palace in Austria.

Other river-cruise newbies are looking to introduce demographics into the arena as well, including Canadian tour operator G Adventures, which is hoping to get millennials onboard. G Adventures is introducing river cruises on the Mekong and Ganges rivers and on the canals of France’s Burgundy region in 2016, in addition to its existing Peruvian Amazon cruises. The line’s goal is to make what has traditionally been a higher-end travel product more accessible to younger, less- affluent clients.

Exotic river lust

Uniworld’s much-anticipated Ganges River program in India officially sets sail in January, when the company begins chartering Haimark’s new luxury cruiser, the 56-passenger Ganges Voyager II. Uniworld’s new Ganges program promises to bring luxury amenities and services to India’s most notorious inland water route, which is quickly becoming the next river- cruising hot spot.

Exotic river buffs will be happy to note that next year will also see continued development in Southeast Asia, where Pandaw River Expeditions is launching new and uncharted river routes, the latest being a 2016 sailing that travels the length of the Mekong River all the way from Thailand through Myanmar and Laos and into China, the first time the company will be offering a sailing that goes into China.

Scenic and Emerald Waterways also are adding capacity on the popular Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia next year.

Ongoing growth in Europe, U.S.

It wouldn’t be river cruising if there were not a continued influx of ships on next year’s agenda, namely on the always-popular European streams. The world’s largest river-cruise line, Viking River Cruises, will add six newbuilds, for a total of 52 ships in five years. Amawaterways, Avalon Waterways, Tauck and Scenic are each christening two new vessels in Europe next year, and four-star tenderfoot Emerald Waterways is adding a fifth ship in Europe.

French river-cruise line CroisiEurope is celebrating 40 years in business next year as it continues to make more noise in the U.S. market with updated ships meant to meet U.S. standards, and the company will unveil its second European paddlewheeler (a unique concept for sailing shallower waters) on the Elbe River in spring.

Another paddlewheeler, American Cruise Lines’ newest U.S.-based vessel, will launch in early 2016, marking the third Mississippi paddlewheeler that the line has built from the ground up. It joins the American Eagle, which launched in April, and the Queen of the Mississippi, which set sail in 2012.

A challenging start to a promising year

By Michelle Baran 
As European river cruise vessels file into winter dry-dock this week, closing up the 2015 season, there is bound to be some nervousness for an industry waiting to see how the 2016 season will play out once it gets underway in the spring.

The dormant winter season offers an opportunity to spruce up older vessels and make final arrangements for the launch of new ones, investments that will hopefully pay off throughout the season. And this coming year has a lot to offer; Both Crystal Cruises and Adventures by Disney (through a partnership with AmaWaterways) will introduce new river cruise products in Europe, and all the major river cruise lines are adding new vessels to their fleets.

Michelle Baran

There’s a lot to look forward to, and yet 2015 ended with a bit of a question mark in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks in terms of how much the attacks will impact travel in Europe (and consequently river cruising) this year. Surely the hope is that a quiet couple months  - fingers crossed - prior to the start of the 2016 season will help keep pre-existing bookings on the books and reinvigorate the flow of new ones to get 2016 back on track to being as robust as it promised before the attacks.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of exciting developments elsewhere in the world to distract from the situation in Europe. Uniworld is starting its first cruises on India’s Ganges River this month, a new product the company has said has exceeded its expectations in terms of how successful the bookings have been.

And back in the US, it will be interesting to see if we hear anything more from Viking about its plans to launch modern-style Mississippi River vessels in 2017 and from the Delta Queen Steamboat Company about whether the fabled 89-year-old Delta Queen will receive the Congressional exemption it needs to sail again.

Indeed, despite some uncertainty as we start off the year, 2016 still promises to be an exciting and interesting one in river cruising, both in terms of the announcements we already know about and in terms of the surprises we’re always counting on the industry to provide us.

Uniworld to launch new Super Ship, add itineraries in 2015

By Michelle Baran

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection is introducing the 155-passenger S.S. Maria Theresa in spring 2015, a vessel that will sail the Danube River.

A sister ship to the S.S. Catherine, which launched earlier this year, and the S.S. Antoinette, the S.S. Maria Theresa will sail along Rhine, Main and Danube rivers in 2015.

It will feature a main lounge, an additional Bar du Leopard lounge, a restaurant, terrace, sun deck with chess and shuffleboard, heated swimming pool, fitness center, a spa, boutique, elevator, 24-hour specialty coffee and tea bar, free WiFi access and a cinema.

It will have 11 staterooms at 162 square feet each, 61 staterooms at 194 square feet each, 10 suites at 305 square feet and one royal suite at 410 square feet.

The main and upper deck staterooms and suites will have French balconies, and all staterooms will be outfitted with Savoir of England beds, individual thermostats, flatscreen TVs with infotainment center, and marble bathrooms with L’Occitane en Provence products and towel warmers.

All suites will include butler services and a complimentary in-suite wellness treatment for each suite guest.

The S.S. Maria Theresa will sail four Uniworld cruises in 2015: Tulips & Windmills, Danube Holiday Markets, Enchanting Christmas & New Year's Cruise and European Jewels.

Additionally, Uniworld is introducing six new itineraries in 2015, including: the eight-day Holland & Belgium at Tulip Time; the 10-day Delightful Danube & Prague; the 10-day Eastern Europe Explorer; the 13-day Jewels of Spain, Portugal & the Douro River; and the 22-day Ultimate France.

Uniworld will offer 33 European itineraries in 2015, including 45 more departures on the Rhine and Danube rivers than in 2014 in order to meet demand on those waterways, according to Uniworld President Guy Young.

Which new river vessels are you most excited about?

By Michelle Baran

It just sunk in: A ton of brand new river cruise vessels are about to launch in March and April (my Outlook calendar is blowing up). I’ve been writing about the upcoming christenings all year, but now that the  are upon us, I’m finally thinking about the actual new hardware we’re about to see and some of the developments to be on the lookout for.

Here are some points of interest:

On March 26, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection will inaugurate the 159-passenger S.S. Catherine in Lyon, France, marking Uniworld's first expansion of its European fleet since 2011, when the vessel’s sister ship the S.S. Antoinette set sail.

Uniworld has a history of going all-out on its interiors — and judging by the early photos and renderings of the Catherine, this vessel will be no exception. A Leopard Lounge with safari-themed details? A mosaic-tiled pool and spa area? Have you seen those black-and-white stateroom interiors on their website? Needless to say, the vessel promises to be a feast for the senses.

Totally switching gears, on March 31 the 220-passenger paddlewheeler American Empress (formerly the Empress of the North) will be reincarnated by the American Queen Steamboat Co., bringing back a vessel to the Pacific Northwest that was built in 2003 and that has been laid up since the end of Majestic America Line in 2008. Steamboat enthusiasts and historians will surely be curious as to how well the company pulls off its resuscitation effort.

And let’s not forget that an entirely new river cruise line is launching in April: Emerald Waterways, Scenic Tours’ four-star European river cruising project.
I’m intrigued by the heated swimming pool with retractable roof and movie theater that are slated to be features of the 182-passenger Emerald Star and the 182-passenger Emerald Sky, which will set sail on April 15. I’m envisioning Starwood’s Aloft brand in river cruising form.

Speaking of mass brands, we can’t leave out Viking’s 14-ship-strong launch taking place in France in March. Will the new batch of Longships really be identical to their sister ship predecessors? Or will there be some new little personality and amenity tweaks to the 2014 flock?

And also, I’m curious how Viking will pull off a 14-vessel simul-christening. My best guess is live broadcasts from multiple launch sites. But Viking is good at surprises. They’ve been awfully quiet about the launches, and that could mean a lot of different things. It’s a nail-biter to be sure.

Pandaw river ship sinks

By Michelle Baran

Pandaw River Expeditions’ Saigon Pandaw sank last week while being towed, a representative of Pandaw confirmed.

The 60-passenger Saigon Pandaw launched in 2012 and was sailing the Mekong River in  and Cambodia. It was being repositioned to Myanmar when it sank.

Pandaw said that the company is still investigating the cause, but that early reports indicate that strong winds were to blame. There were no deaths or injuries, as the vessel was being towed as cargo without any crew onboard.

For the remainder of the season, Pandaw is going to deploy the 10-passenger Kalay Pandaw in Myanmar, a vessel that launched in 2013.

Pandaw has two additional 40-passenger river cruise vessels launching in Myanmar in July, the Kindat Pandaw and the Kalaw Pandaw, on which the company plans to accommodate passengers affected by the loss of the Saigon Pandaw.

“Our reservation and sales team is working to shift all bookings and if necessary to offer alternatives,” the company said.

Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection had previously chartered the Saigon Pandaw as the River Saigon, but the company now exclusively sells the 60-passenger River Orchid for Mekong cruises. The River Orchid launched last January.

Twitter chat at CruiseWorld touches on dream trips, 'travel addiction'

By Rebecca Tobin

FORT LAUDERDALE — The #TWchats on Twitter held in conjunction with CruiseWorld was one of the biggest TWchats to date, with 227 active contributors and a reach of more than 16 million impressions.

The chat played off of a concurrent session at CruiseWorld titled "Travel: An Addictive Industry," and the chat asked tweeters when they had been bitten by the travel bug — and common warning signs that they were "addicted to travel."

Ken Muskat of MSC Cruises and one of the participants on the CruiseWorld panel tweeted that you might be addicted to travel if "a half-packed suitcase lives permanently in your bedroom."

"You've exhausted the pages of your passport with dozens of stamps," tweeted @AtlasTrav_Molly. "Striving to get every page in your passport fully stamped," Seabourn tweeted (the line later tweeted another sign: "booking a future cruise while you're on a cruise!")

Azamara Club Cruises CEO Larry Pimentel, one of the co-hosts of the chat, said he'd been bitten by the travel bug when his grandmother introduced him to National Geographic. "It wasn't about going distances, but turning pages," he tweeted.

@TravelMaestro tweeted that she inherited the travel gene from her mother, @ICoachTravel. "She opened [a travel agency] when I was in college, and I was hooked for life."
Participants were asked to pick one ship for a ship inspection. Some participants found it hard to choose: "With so many new, exciting and innovative new ships debuting, who can choose just one?" tweeted Cruise Planners. And @avidcruiser wrote, "I've been on more than 100 ships. Maybe I'd opt to see more river cruise vessels."

From the river cruise segment, both Guy Young, the CEO of Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, and Viking Cruiseswere active on the chat.

When participants were asked to name their dream job in the travel industry, @uniworld_guy tweeted, "I already have my dream job working at @uniworldcruises."

Many, if not most, of the participants seemed satisfied with their career path, another of the CruiseWorld panel discussion topics. "Like everyone else — living my dream job — except wish all my flights were first class — dreaming!" joked @JeanNewmanGlock.

The chat referenced the #FoodieChats community during a tweet that asked participants to name their favorite bar or restaurant at sea: @foodiechats retweeted @CruiseNorwegian's comment that "Ocean Blue by @GZchef on #NorwegianBreakaway is pretty spectacular."

Sometimes the chat was serious, as when tweeters were debating locations for a dream cruise, land vacation or river voyage. ("Cruising through the South Pacific for months stopping at tons of tropical islands, then ending with New Zealand & Australia," suggested @kidtravel.)

Or why booking through a travel agent was a smart idea. "Travel planning keeps getting more complicated, which is why the advice of an expert agent can make all the difference," said Travel and Leisure. "Because of the added value and personalized service," said @AvoyaTravel.

"We care," @travellori tweeted. "That's why."

But often the chat took a lighthearted turn, such as a conversation between @AtlasTrav_Molly and @PrincessCruises, where the cruise line sought to convince the agent: "Haven't you heard that calories don't count on cruises?" "Gamechanger," she tweeted back.

And in response to the question about a "dream cruise," Holland America Line retweeted a comment from @VikingRiver: "Isn't every cruise a dream cruise?"

"We agree!" @HALcruises said.

River cruise sustainability guide launched

A guide offering best practices to river cruise operators on how to operate with as little environmental impact as possible has been developed by the Travel Foundation.

The ‘Environmental Sustainability for River Cruising’ is designed to support the river cruise tourism industry in working towards a sustainable future by identifying ways to reduce water and energy use, and waste generation on river cruise ships.

The best practices offered in the guide come from audits done on ships in Egypt, along the Nile, and in Europe, along the Danube, Rhine, and Rhône rivers.

Twelve Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection ships were audited. The recommendations made from the findings were used to form the basis of the guide, which provides training material for the river cruise industry at large in managing their own environmental performance.

The guidance will mark a breakthrough in reducing the environmental impact of river cruising tourism worldwide, charity the Travel Foundation claims.

Uniworld president Guy Young said: “With the growth of the river cruise sector, it is essential that we all do our part to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for our waterways, which is why we are so proud to be part of such an important first-of-its-kind project in the river cruise sector.

“All river cruise companies should seek to better understand and adopt environmental performance measures in an effort to prevent serious environmental impact in the destinations where we travel and operate.

“To this end, we hope this Environmental Sustainability for River Cruising guide will provide them with best practice examples, tools, and sources of further information, as well as a self-assessment checklist in their own efforts of continuous improvements towards a more sustainable future.”

Salli Felton, acting chief executive of the Travel Foundation, added: “It’s important that the river cruising sector addresses the environmental impact of its day-to-day operation, so that it can grow sustainably.

“We’ve broken the guide down into small manageable chunks so that companies can take a step-by-step approach to minimising the negative effect they may be having on the environment.”

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises are sold through Titan Travel in the UK.