Another new river cruise line is on the way.
Australia-based Scenic Tours today announced plans for a new subsidiary to be called Emerald Waterways that will offer cruises on Europe’s most popular rivers.
Billed as the first new Europe river cruise company in more than six years and aimed at English-speaking travelers, the line will debut in early 2014 with two 182-passenger ships, the Emerald Star and Emerald Sky
Emerald Waterways will be a less-expensive alternative to Scenic Cruises, an upscale, seven-ship river line that Scenic Tours launched several years ago. It’ll compete against such fast-growing lines as Viking River Cruises and Avalon Waterways.?Read about Viking River’s big expansion plans.
The Emerald Waterways vessels will sail seven- to 14-night voyages on European rivers such as the Danube and the Rhine that start at $2,230 per person, based on double occupancy.
Scenic Tours says amenities on the Emerald Waterways ships will include a heated swimming pool with retractable roof, a relative rarity on river vessels. In the evening, the space will transform into a movie theater.
More than 70 of 92 cabins on each of the new ships will be suites, and they’ll have an innovative new balcony design. Instead of the French balcony that is common on river ships, cabins will feature an interior deck area that transforms into an open-air balcony when passengers push a button that makes the upper half of a floor-to-ceiling panoramic window drop down.
In top suites, the balcony will be separated from the cabin with sliding doors.
Initial itineraries at the line will include eight-day trips between Nuremberg, Germany and Budapest, Hungary and 12-day “Magical Rhine & Moselle” trips between Switzerland’s Basel and the canal city of Amsterdam.