In general, river cruises will start the season late, but with most of their ships in operation, except for North American companies, which depend on their customers wanting to travel to Europe this year.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 57 – June 2021
CroisiEurope,
the French shipping company, resumed operations on June 14th and will serve all its usual destinations, including the Douro, Gironde, Seine, Rhône, Elbe, Danube, Rhine, Guadalquivir, and Po rivers, as well as numerous canals in France, with its two ocean-going vessels.
Passengers will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test or vaccination certificate before boarding.
Crucemundo
offers Rhine River cruises starting at the end of May. Danube cruises will begin on August 9th, and for the Volga River, they have only one 14-day departure on September 28th.
Panavisión Tours
The Spanish tour operator, after a long collaboration with the German shipping company Arosa, this year offers river cruises with ships from Amadeus, an Austrian family company with a modern fleet of luxury ships.
Cruises on the Danube depart from July 18th, while those on the Rhine are available from July 27th. Departures for the Rhône and Seine are offered in September and October.
Volga cruises begin on July 8th, but as is typical in Russia, the ships are from a local company and are 3- and 5-star vessels.
AmaWaterways,
the North American company, will begin operations on the Douro River from Porto on July 3rd with the AmaDouro and on the Danube River with its large AmaMagna on July 21st. These two will be followed by five more ships on the Danube, Rhône, Seine, Rhine, and in the Bordeaux region, entering service between July 22nd and 29th.
Uniworld
began sailing on June 18th on the Po River between Milan and Venice and on June 27th on the Douro River from Porto. On July 4th, it will launch its first cruises in the Bordeaux region of France, on the Seine and the Rhône. On July 18th, three more ships will begin sailing on the Danube, and on July 25th, another three on the Rhine. On
September 1st, it will resume sailing on the Amazon from Lima with the Aria Amazon, and starting September 3rd, the two ships of its youth brand, U by Uniworld, will sail on the Danube. On September 25th, it will also return to Egypt.
Crystal Cruises
' luxury river cruises will begin operating on August 29th and will require both passengers and crew to have completed vaccination 14 days prior to embarkation. This does not exempt them from taking a COVID-19 test before boarding.
The first ships to operate will be the Crystal Ravel on the Danube and the Crystal Debussy on the Rhine. The Crystal Bach and Crystal Mahler will begin operating before the winter break, around Christmas.
