Among the enhancements will be a new focus on serving local and regional ingredients on all ships. Additionally, Avalon will add a cheese option to its restaurant service.

Avalon also plans on offering cruisers more healthy options including low calorie, low sodium and glucose-free items. There will be a new night fare service at 10:30 p.m., when guests can grab one last treat before bed.

New at the breakfast buffet will be complimentary sparkling wine and a made-to-order egg station. Guests will also have the option to order continental breakfast in their cabin and have drinks delivered to their cabin throughout the day. Complimentary cappuccino, espresso, latte and Lavazza coffee will be available to Avalon passengers throughout the day.

In 2010, Avalon introduced alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink packages that can be pre-purchased. In 2011, the company is introducing celebration packages, giving cruisers the chance to commemorate a birthday or anniversary in their room with several celebratory cuisine selections.

Avalon Waterways Panorama Suite

When Avalon Waterways unveiled plans in late May to launch what it called a “Suite Ship” — the Avalon Panorama with 64 suites (pictured) at 200 square feet each — the very definition of what constitutes a river cruise suite was put into question.

“We took a page from the hotel and big ship areas. From the hotel area, they define a suite as having a separate living area, sofa, chairs, some kind of area that can accommodate space beyond the bed,” said Steve Born, vice president of marketing for the Globus Family of Brands, which owns Avalon Waterways.

“For Avalon, anything 200 square feet and above is a suite, and the reason is we use that extra space for a living area … Size does matter, but it’s not just size but how you use it. It’s how you manipulate that space to have the extra living area.”

Indeed, river cruising takes its notes from the hotel and cruise industries, where the lines are also becoming increasingly blurred between what defines a suite, compared to a regular room or cabin.

But some feel that the term “suite” should really be reserved for cabins with two separate rooms, while others feel the term suite is about a certain level of comfort and luxury.

“In an ideal situation, a suite should be a two-room situation,” said Ron Santangelo, who served as president of Deilmann’s North America operations for 13 years, and is now vice president of business development at AMAWATERWAYS. “The word has been used and abused.” If a cabin just has a sitting area, said Santangelo, it should be called a “junior suite.”

“If you wanted to be a purist, that’s the game,” he added. “That said, no one’s a purist anymore.”

Part of what’s at play is that there is no single definition of a suite in river cruising, so river cruise lines define the word themselves based on how they want to market and sell certain cabins.

“In river cruising there is no governing body that defines what a suite is,” said Guy Young, president of Uniworld River Cruises. “This does leave the door open for different interpretation. In the case of Uniworld there is a clear difference between our standard staterooms and suites.”

According to Young, suites on Uniworld ships are typically 50% larger than regular staterooms and include a separate seating area. Suites are also defined with additional amenities such as free laundry service, shoe shine, bottle of wine on arrival, daily fruit and cookie plate, continental breakfast delivered to the room (er, suite) upon request and DVD players.

On Uniworld’s River Beatrice, launched last year, and the River Antoinette, launching next year, Uniworld offers butler service in the suites as well.

Looking at size, there will be eight suites on Uniworld’s newest ship, Antoinette, at 294 square feet each and one owner’s suite at 391 square feet.

As for whether the wide-ranging definitions in the river cruise marketplace could water down the implication of luxury, the word suite is meant to imply, or create confusion, Santangelo didn’t seem to think so.

“The word suite implies luxury without boundaries. The fact that everyone uses it in different ways, is really not a liability,” said Santangelo, adding that on AMAWATERWAYS’ new Amabella ship the suites are 350 square feet, and are called suites despite not having two separate rooms.

The bottom line, said Santangelo, is that “on the newer ships there are a lot more of them” — regardless of what you want to call them.

The 2010 results, released on July 8, ranked river cruise lines as follows:

1. Abercrombie & Kent, Score: 91.72
2. Avalon Waterways, Score: 90.09
3. Tauck World Discovery: 89.83
4. Viking River Cruises: 85.33
5. Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection: 85.14

Readers were asked to rank river cruise lines based on these six characteristics: cabins, food, service, itineraries/destinations, activities and value, with an optional category for families.

The art-themed cruise will set sail on the 140-passenger Avalon Creativity in November 2011.

The Art & Impressionist river cruise through Northern France, will include a visit to the  Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Claude Monet’s Giverny home, and the Musée des Beaux‐Arts André Malraux in Le Havre.

“Our cruise directors and special guest lectures offer a vast onboard education experience, giving cruisers the chance to soak in the history, culture and in this case, the art of a region as they drift from village to village,” said Patrick Clark, managing director of Avalon Waterways.

Avalon’s 8‐day Art & Impressionist cruise is priced from $2,349. For more information about Avalon Waterways’ 2011 themed vacations, please visit www.avalonwaterways.com.

All ships will feature Comfort Collection by Avalon bedding, which will provide travelers with a choice of pillows as well as orthopedic mattresses, mattress covers, European-style duvets, Egyptian cotton linens, extra blankets and bed configuration options.

Avalon will also be adding L’Occitane toiletries, robes and slippers in each room, fleetwide.

“In 2011, our ships will entice all five senses,” said Patrick Clark, managing director of Avalon.

Additional enhancements include improved woven carpeting and fresh flowers in each cabin, flat-screen televisions with more news and entertainment options, and 3G high-speed Internet service.

Avalon Panorama to feature wall-to-wall panoramic windows.

Avalon Waterways is introducing a new river cruise ship in May 2011, the Avalon Panorama, that will feature 64 newly designed, 200-square-foot suites on the top two decks.

That will be in addition to 17 staterooms, measuring 172 square feet each, on the lower deck.

The suites will have a seating area adjacent to an 11-foot wide, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall panoramic window. “The whole suite becomes an open-air balcony,” says Patrick Clark, managing director at Avalon. This is a “new look at how the space on the ships is used.”

Avalon employed a new interior design team to tackle the Panorama’s design features, which will include marble bathrooms, new Avalon-branded bedding called Comfort Collection by Avalon, and a love seat-enhanced sitting area in the suites. Additionally, there will be fresh flowers in each stateroom and premium L’Occitane body products.

The Panorama will also feature a lounge, dining room, hair salon, sky deck fun pool and open-air bistro for outdoor, grilled lunches. In addition, the Panorama’s fitness room will be more expansive, with additional equipment.

There will be flat-screen televisions, fully stocked mini-bars and safes in all staterooms and suites as well as laundry/ironing services.

The Panorama will sail Avalon’s 14-night Magnificent Europe itinerary from Amsterdam to Budapest for most of 2011. It will also sail Avalon’s Christmas markets itinerary during the holidays.

Avalon will be retiring the 178-passenger Avalon Artistry, which was built in 2004, and the 176-passenger Avalon Poetry, built in 2005, at the end of this year.

Dear Editor:

Last month, we had 57 people booked on a 14-night Viking River cruise from Antwerp to Basil departing on April 18. Our group was to fly on April 17, but the flights were cancelled due to the volcanic ash.

On Monday, April 19, we contacted Viking River Cruises personnel and were told that our group would not be able to catch up with the cruise, as flights were still uncertain, and that the group members would need to go to their insurance companies for claims. What was striking about this was that other companies did the “right thing” and rebooked passengers for future cruises (Avalon, Uniworld, AMA Waterways, Collette Vacations to name a few).

We worked our way up the ladder and ended up talking with Milton Hugh, Sr. VP of Sales. He said they couldn’t get us out and wouldn’t reaccommodate us. He told us that the ship sailed and that it was not Viking’s fault that our group couldn’t get there, even though we purchased air through Viking’s air department.

We appealed, and Mr. Hugh told us that we would have an answer on Friday, April 23, a week after the flight cancellations. Of course, April 23 came and went with no answer, so I called and e-mailed on Monday April 26.

Mr. Hugh returned the call and left a message telling us that our clients were going to get their airfare back (actually coming from the airline) and a voucher for 50 percent off what they paid that could be used for a future 2010 cruise only. Not 2011, as some of our people were willing to do the same trip in 2011 that they missed in 2010.

I sent a letter and e-mails to the President (Tor Hagen ) and never had the courtesy of a return call or e-mail. I find the approach of Viking to be extremely poor. They have lost my company as a customer for the future. I would not recommend them for any future trips. If our clients choose to rebook them with the voucher, that is their decision.

Now for a completely different response: we had excellent communication and response from Travelex Insurance. Mike Ambrose was very responsive and worked with his people to do the “right thing.”

We will continue to use Travelex as a preferred partner. Also, to assist us with our group, AMAWATERWAYS and Kristin Karst stepped up to take care of our clients. AMA offered some great values on three future cruises as an option for our clients.

The point was not the fact that there was a problem with flying that made people miss their trip, but how a vendor handle the situation afterward. In that regard, I give thumbs up to Travelex and AMAWATERWAYS. I give thumbs down to Viking River Cruises.

Paul Seiferth

Terra Travel

The 138-passenger newbuild will be christened in Volendam, a Netherlands fishing village, on March 27.

The Felicity is being built in the Den Breejen shipyard in Holland and its delivery will bring Avalon’s total fleet count in Europe to 10.

Following the christening, the ship will sail Avalon’s 9-day Romantic Rhine itinerary through the end of 2010. The itinerary runs in two directions — from Amsterdam to Basel, or from Zurich to Amsterdam.

The Avalon Felicity will feature 65 staterooms (at 172 square feet each) and four junior suites (at 258 square feet each), all of which will have flat screen televisions, flexible bed designs (beds may be configured as two twins or one queen), Egyptian cotton linens, a mini-bar and safe.

Laundry and ironing services will be available for passengers. The ship will also have a fitness room, library, hair salon, gift shop, club lounge and whirlpool on the sky deck. Open-air lunches will also be available at the sky deck grill.

Over the past couple of years, river cruise companies have begun to put greater emphasis on their culinary programs, introducing new dining areas, hiring new chefs and even creating entire itineraries around food and wine, such as with Uniworld River Cruises’ Epicurean Adventures program, which includes cooking demonstrations (like the one pictured above).

“Food is an absolutely integral part of the entire river cruise experience,” said Joost Ouendag, vice president of product marketing for Viking River Cruises. “We don’t see it as detached from the rest of the cruise. It is connected with the landscape, the traditions and the people along the rivers.”

At the end of January, Viking invested $48,000 to bring its European food and beverage team to Southern California for nine days of wining and dining to get a better sense of the evolving American culinary experience.

“The most important thing we came away with is that the American palate is not a monolithic thing, there are many American palates,” said Ouendag. “It was a good refresher to see just how diverse the offerings are in a city like Los Angeles … it offers a great opportunity to introduce people to Europe’s diverse cuisine in a playful, educational way.”

For instance, Ouendag noted Americans’ evolved taste and knowledge of wines, as well as the growing culinary trend of fresh and locally grown produce.

Consequently, some enhancements for 2010 that emerged following the trip, is that for 2010 Viking is introducing organic choices for breakfast and organic wines. It will also be increasing the number of cooking demonstrations on board. Depending on where guests sail, they can learn how to make Alsatian flammkuchen (a flat bread that looks somewhat like a pizza topped with ham and onions), French fondant au chocolat, or Austrian apple strudel.

And something Viking started in 2009 that it will increase in 2010 is chef visits to local markets with passengers in tow.

More dining options onboard

At this point, almost all new and refurbished river cruise ships have at least one, if not two, alternative dining areas to the main restaurant, including dining in the bar and lounge area, or increasingly in a smaller aft lounge that many new ships are having built in. There is also a new trend toward offering and marketing a more casual lunch grill on the outdoor sun deck when weather permits.

Avalon Waterways was one of the company’s to embrace the sky deck grill, available on four of it ships — the Avalon Scenery, Creativity, Affinity and Luminary — and will be available on the Avalon Felicity when it launches this month. At the grill, up to 40 diners can enjoy an open-air lunch.

Also, Avalon’s Royal Deck passengers can order a continental breakfast for their room (room service is not traditionally available on river cruises yet).

Fresh talent

This past fall, Uniworld River Cruises too decided to put greater emphasis on its food and beverage program by hiring a new culinary director, Bernhard Zorn, who has worked on Crystal Cruises and Silverseas Cruises, and has been tasked with enhancing the on board culinary experience.

The move comes on the tail of Uniworld having introduced a new Epicurean Adventurer program last year, which is available on 11 of its Europe itineraries, and includes wine pairings with dinner and cooking demonstrations. And this year Uniworld also added a Travelling Lite program, food options for calorie-conscious guests.

Uniworld also hosts an extensive annual cooking summit for senior kitchen and restaurant staff, which includes visiting local markets, cooking demonstrations and workshops, menu engineering and planning, baking and pastry classes.

New Italian-theme restaurants

Yet another dining alternative is being introduced on at least two river cruise lines: an additional Italian-theme restaurant. Already, the Australian-based company Scenic Tours, which has four river cruise ships — the Scenic Emerald, Sapphire, Diamond and Ruby — has in addition to its main dining room (which has a capacity of between 182 and 184 passengers, depending on the ship), an alternative Italian-theme restaurant called Portobello’s (pictured), which can sit up to 28 passengers on a reservation basis.

AMAWATERWAYS, too, is planning on introducing an Italian-theme restaurant on its two newbuilds, the Amabella and Amaverde, slated for 2010 and 2011 delivery, respectively. Both ships will be devoted entirely to the Australian market, so AMAWATERWAYS isn’t marketing the developments too heavily in the U.S.

On the Amabella and Amaverda,AMAWATERWAYS’ President Rudi Schreiner said the restaurant will be divided into two sides — on one side will be a regular restaurant, and on the other an Italian-theme restaurant.

And the alternative dining restaurant at the aft of the ships “is going to be a special experience restaurant,” said Schreiner. “It’s something that people might do once or twice doing the cruise. It’s not like in the front, where you have a choice of three or four entrees. The chef will be cooking something different [every night].”

“Absolutely, there are always doubts when you look at what you were looking at 12 months ago,” said Patrick Clark, president of Avalon Waterways, one of the more aggressive ship-ordering companies of late. Avalon introduced two newbuilds in 2009 and has two more coming on in 2010, ships that were contracted well before the economic crisis.

“With the two that we’re launching in 2010, that adds 30% in terms of berths,” said Clark. Avalon’s total fleet size will be 10 after the two ships launch this year. And while a year ago, that additional capacity coming on would have made any river cruise operator nervous, demand is returning just in time to fill the extra ships.

“Right now, if you look at the U.S. volume, we have literally doubled the number of passengers that we have on the books for 2010 compared to a year ago,” Clark said. Consequently, now “the commitment [to building new ships] is really being rewarded.”

Not that 2009 was all that bad — operators reported load factors up into the 90% range for the year, stimulated by aggressive discounts — but you can hear a virtual sigh of relief sweeping across the river cruise industry as demand starts to return.

“Currently, until July 1, we are 92% full,” said Rudi Schreiner, president of AMAWATERWAYS. “Until November, we are currently 84% full. We are really expecting to fill the ships close to capacity.” AMA added two ships in 2009 and is adding another ship in 2010, which will be devoted primarily to the Australian market and will bring the company’s fleet size to 11.

The bottom line, Schreiner said, is that despite the challenges and the added capacity, “Last year, we had an increase of 37% actual passengers over 2008.”

Bookings might be trending stronger now, but no one had that kind of foresight 12 months ago.

“We could see from the fall of ’08 and the financial crisis that things were going to be tough, so we reduced capacity,” said Mark Frevert, executive vice president and chief architect of Grand Circle Travel, which sold three of its vessels at the start of 2009: the River Symphony, the Debussy and the Ravel.

The 140-passenger River Symphony, built in 1998, was the oldest vessel in Grand Circle’s fleet, and the two other ships were smaller, 120-passenger vessels. The sales reduced Grand Circle’s fleet size to 12.

Then in June, news that Peter Deilmann Cruises would be shuttering its river cruise business at the end of the ’09 season not only cast a shadow of doubt on the health of the European river cruise market but also reduced the market’s capacity by the eight river cruise ships Deilmann took out of service in the fall.

Additionally, Viking River Cruises scaled back some of its operations in 2009. Viking did not renew the long-term charters on either of its France vessels, the Viking Burgundy and Viking Seine, which are being replaced by the Viking Spirit and Viking Neptune for 2010.

On the flip side, four ships — the Viking Legend, Viking Fontane, Viking Danube and Viking Lomonosov — are sailing a full season this year compared with a partial season in ’09, either because the ship was new, as was the case with the Viking Legend, or was dry-docked for part of the 2009 season. And two ships (Viking Peterhof and Viking Helvetia) are being switched over to the U.S. market from the European market. Consequently, Viking estimates it has an additional 10,000-passenger capacity for the U.S. market in 2010 compared with 2009, according to Richard Marnell, senior vice president of marketing at Viking.

And it might need it. With river cruise capacity cut in 2009 and the building pace slowing in 2010 just as demand starts to grow again, it is possible capacity won’t keep pace with demand.

“I’d prefer to be one ship short than have one ship too many,” said Frevert.

But while river cruise operators are optimistic about 2010, no one is quite ready to go so far as to predict a capacity shortfall just yet.

“I think there will be adequate capacity among the operators that will take care of the capacity over the next 24 months,” said Avalon’s Clark. “Then you might see something beyond that in 2012 … there will be more ships coming online for 2012.”