The ever increasing popularity of river cruising

[notamermaid]

Riviera Travel will be offering itineraries on a new ship on the Douro next year:

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/riviera-travel-deploys-new-ship-on-douro

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Special itineraries for D-Day commemoration:

https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Insights/River-lines-will-mark-D-Day-anniversary-with-cruises

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Nicko Cruises are still under the radar on the English-speaking market but have increased their presence in the UK. The 2024 catalogue has just been released and features an additional vessel: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/nicko-cruises-releases-2024-brochure-featuring-additional-vessel

 

Nicko Cruises is a German line and may be put in the mid to lower range of luxury compared to North-American lines but is certainly above what one may call "budget" . If you enjoy a more European ship and passenger range with a German feel and can do without huge perks, do have a look at it.

 

notamermaid

 

[CruiseIreland]

Here's a video of a cabin on a Nicko cruise. Only discovered this line as a result of this YouTuber.

 

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, CruiseIreland said:

Only discovered this line as a result of this YouTuber.

Thanks for the video. Have found the gentleman recently. He has amazingly been on three German lines, they are Plantours, Viva Cruises and Nicko Cruises. What makes it easier for him is the fact that he lives in Hamburg. I also like his cost comparison video.

 

notamermaid

 

[UDChE89]

On 8/11/2023 at 4:46 PM, notamermaid said:

Thanks for the video. Have found the gentleman recently. He has amazingly been on three German lines, they are Plantours, Viva Cruises and Nicko Cruises. What makes it easier for him is the fact that he lives in Hamburg. I also like his cost comparison video.

 

notamermaid

 

Morgan’s video on his Viva cruise is what made me look and take my Viva cruise last year.

[notamermaid]

AmaWaterways in 2025:

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-starts-2025-sales-with-up-to-20-discount

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 hours ago, notamermaid said:

AmaWaterways in 2025:

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-starts-2025-sales-with-up-to-20-discount

 

notamermaid

"up to" 20%.  On my 2025 cruise, it's only 5%.

[notamermaid]

The folk on Binnenschifferforum have of course also taken photos of the AmaMagna and one man has recently spotted something new on the ship. A tennis court! Not sure how long it has been there, but it sounds as if it is a recent addition:

https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?83701-Amamagna-KFGS-02329183&p=461555#post461555

 

With her extra width she is a good ship for this.

 

Height restrictions (bridges) make it difficult to add amenities to the top deck of course. A tennis court is easily disassembled.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Now is it Tennis or Badminton? We did consider trying skittles on the top of a Narrowboat once but thought better of it and discarded the idea.

[RobInMN]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

The folk on Binnenschifferforum have of course also taken photos of the AmaMagna and one man has recently spotted something new on the ship. A tennis court! Not sure how long it has been there, but it sounds as if it is a recent addition:

https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?83701-Amamagna-KFGS-02329183&p=461555#post461555

 

With her extra width she is a good ship for this.

 

Height restrictions (bridges) make it difficult to add amenities to the top deck of course. A tennis court is easily disassembled.

 

notamermaid

 

 

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Now is it Tennis or Badminton? We did consider trying skittles on the top of a Narrowboat once but thought better of it and discarded the idea.

 

It's a Pickleball court.

I Googled for a some sort of media announcement, but first result was actually a full web page devoted to it on Ama's site:

https://www.amawaterways.com/explore/wellness/pickleball

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by RobInMN

[notamermaid]

2 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

 

 

It's a Pickleball court.

 

Thank you. That makes more sense. I was wondering how you play tennis on a small court as the tennis ball is a bit fast.

 

I vaguely remember reading about this.

 

I think I would prefer a skittles alley. Or a darts board. Although that may be bit more difficult as you need a collapsible wall mount.

 

Beer and darts - hmm, another idea for a "more male" river cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Canal archive]

Of course it is, silly me!

[notamermaid]

We all know how busy the rivers are again and how popular river cruising is. But all is not at its best yet according to IG River Cruise. This is the article from the international pages of fvw which is a behind the paywall: https://www.fvw.de/international/data-analysis/study-by-ig-river-cruises-river-cruises-still-need-longer-to-recover-236656

If you are interested you can subscribe.

I cannot find another English version, so here is the German article as published on binnenschifffahrt-online.de

https://binnenschifffahrt-online.de/2023/08/featured/30743/flusskreuzfahrt/

There are still not nearly as many passengers on river cruise ships as there were 2019.

 

notamermaid

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

On 8/18/2023 at 12:35 PM, RobInMN said:

 

 

It's a Pickleball court.

I Googled for a some sort of media announcement, but first result was actually a full web page devoted to it on Ama's site:

https://www.amawaterways.com/explore/wellness/pickleball

 

That makes the AmaMagna a vessel for me to avoid in future (and also to not recommend to clients). The sound of pickle ball is absolutely an annoyance. I feel for the residents along the river having to hear this sound, let alone unsuspecting passengers wishing to enjoy the scenery of the Danube in relative peace. 

[notamermaid]

On 11/15/2022 at 10:38 PM, notamermaid said:

This is the brochure where they explain what the new ship is about: https://www.vanloonshipping.nl/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Gentleman-Brochure.pdf

See post #466. Now it is clear what is happening to the ship. It has been chartered by the German river cruise company 1AVista Reisen. After her christening in May 2024 she will sail the Rhine and the tributaries.

 

https://www.1avista.de/schiffe/ms-gentleman/

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Two (old) new ships for A-Rosa

 

Unexpected news comes from the German company A-Rosa. The have issued a press release saying that two 110m ships built in 2009 will join the fleet in 2024 - apparently due to high demand mostly for the Rhine. Well, it sound to me as if A-Rosa found a couple of ships standing idle and to be had for a bargain   It was all a bit at short notice.

 

The ships will be called A-Rosa Alea and A-Rosa Clea and operate the Rhine during that season. They are according to German sources the Avalon Creativity and the Avalon Affinity which are indeed not sailing now. They were last operating in 2019.

 

The press release of A-Rosa: https://www.arosa-*****/fileadmin/media/presse/PM/2023/KW38/PR_A-ROSA_New-Ships_21.09.2023.pdf

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

New longer itineraries by Amawaterways (combined cruises) in 2025:

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-creates-new-14-night-european-river-cruises

 

It states that "The Grand Seine & Bordeaux, Grand Seine & Rhone and Grand Rhine & Dutch Canals sailings include transfers between rivers where applicable." This means of course that the topography of France is such that you need a coach to get from the Seine to Bordeaux or the Rhone whereas you can sail straight into the Dutch canals from the Rhine. I wonder how many days will be devoted to the Rhine up to the Nijmegen and how many will be spent on the canals.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

12 hours ago, notamermaid said:

New longer itineraries by Amawaterways (combined cruises) in 2025:

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/amawaterways-creates-new-14-night-european-river-cruises

 

It states that "The Grand Seine & Bordeaux, Grand Seine & Rhone and Grand Rhine & Dutch Canals sailings include transfers between rivers where applicable." This means of course that the topography of France is such that you need a coach to get from the Seine to Bordeaux or the Rhone whereas you can sail straight into the Dutch canals from the Rhine. I wonder how many days will be devoted to the Rhine up to the Nijmegen and how many will be spent on the canals.

 

notamermaid

According to this article [or rather, edited version of the press release...] on Porthole, the transfers will be via train:

AMAWATERWAYS COMBINES RIVER CRUISES WITH GRAND EUROPEAN ITINERARIES

 

These Grand cruises are really two existing cruises with a train transfer between ports.  It is helpful, because when I have tried to plan such a link-up on my own it was hard to get the dates to line up.  Also AMA is giving a discount for the combination, much like ocean cruise lines give a discount for B2B bookings.

[notamermaid]

Ah yes, train of course. Thank you.

 

notamermaid

 

[UDChE89]

The S.S. Victoria will join the Uniworld fleet in 2024 while the S.S. Elisabeth will join in 2025.  They’re the former Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler.

 

Uniworld Announces Two New Ships Coming To Its Fleet

[Canal archive]

If I remember correctly Scenic used to do a train swap cruise a few years ago, will have to get the old research brain cells working. 
Interesting that Uniworld will be using the ex Crystal vessels is this all of them accounted for now? At least it means not more vessel’s on Europes rivers but more utilisation of available equipment.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Interesting that Uniworld will be using the ex Crystal vessels is this all of them accounted for now?

Good question. I think this may be all but we should check.

 

notamermaid

 

[UDChE89]

Looks like Riverside bought them all according to the article below.  They mention itineraries for all but the Bach and Mahler so Riverside must have already started looking for a buyer at the time of the article.

 

Riverside Cruises Acquires Former Crystal River Fleet

[rove312]

NY Times article on the Rhone cruise on Uniworld's S.S. Catherine: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/travel/france-rhone-river-cruise.html .  I'm not a subscriber, but got to it in a private browser and a Google search like nytimes.com rhone river cruise.  The title is "'You Couldn’t Plan It All if You Tried’: Cruising the Rhone River in High Style." It appears to be in the print paper today, Oct. 14.