Viva Cruises starting with 4 ships in 2021

[steamboats]

Viva Cruises (Viva Riverside - Scylla) announced some changes in their fleet. The new built Viva One will be delayed to 2022. The Viva One will be replaced by the Robert Burns (which should travel for Riviera Travel). The Robert Burns changes its name to Viva Moments. The second ship is the Viva Tiara. The MS Treasures and MS Inspire (both Tauck) will also stay with Viva Cruises and get new names - Viva Treasures and Viva Inspire.

 

Keep in mind that all those ships are built for the Swiss company Scylla and only longtime chartered out to other operators (as in this case Riviera Travel and Tauck). Scylla is still the owner of these ships and now operates them under his own new brand Viva Cruises.

 

Scylla also bought the MS Bremen - a small expedition cruise ship of Hapag-Lloyed Cruises. The ship has been renamed Seaventure and is currently in a ship yard for some refurbishment. Scylla did plan the newbuilt Viva One exclusively for Viva Cruises but due to the current situation the Viva One will be delayed by a year and they are using other river cruise ships which are currently "out of business". Last year Scylla did use the new Geoffrey Chauser (also Riviera Travel) for Viva Cruises too.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Thank you for that info. I had actually just finished sifting through the several German articles on that topic! Viva Cruises has been able to successfully use the opportunities presented to the German operators by non-sailing of "UK" and "North-American" ships (they are actually normally Swiss or Dutch or German mostly as you partly mentioned) in 2020. Good for them and Scylla but I am sad to see the Robert Burns loosing her name. Well, now the beautiful Inspire and Treasures are within my budget. Perhaps this year finally a river cruise of four nights for me?

 

Interesting to note is also the new strategy of many inner-German routes and short sailings of four nights. Makes sense as for most Germans a river cruise port is within a four hour car drive radius and who knows which borders will be open when.

 

Also new with Viva Cruises is the port Koblenz for embarkation for a trip along the Moselle. Very few lines use Koblenz, bike+barge tours are an exception.

 

I read in this article that Viva Cruises will be using the MS Joy on the Danube: https://www.travelnews.ch/cruise/18093-viva-cruises-setzt-2021-auf-innerdeutsche-routen.html

 

notamermaid

 

[steamboats]

Yes, I remember the press release from last week about the Joy and Treasures. Todays press release doesn´t mention the Joy anymore... The Joy is also a Tauck ship.

 

The prices are pretty moderate for this type of ships which are all more on the luxury side. But this way they do generate money. Scylla has a lot more ships lying idle - especially those which are running for Tauck and Riviera Travel. All of them are pretty new.

 

Seems like they don´t expect any customers especially from Down Under and less from the UK for 2021.

 

steamboats

Edited January 26, 2021 by steamboats

[notamermaid]

11 minutes ago, steamboats said:

Seems like they don´t expect any customers especially from Down Under and less from the UK for 2021.

They may very well be right, mightn't they? I read that Australia may not fully open their borders this year and although the UK is doing well with the vaccine it does not mean they will automatically be allowed in. The EU will be very cautious and wait with lifting restrictions and quarantine. If the lock down measures in Germany are lifted in time for the season to begin when it should in around the third week of March, I can see "us" being alone on the rivers - again. I hope April will be a happier month on the rivers and in the tourism sector as a whole.

 

notamermaid