By
Elizabeth Robinson |
Guided cruise and river tour operator Tauck has officially welcomed Treasures and Esprit back into its European riverboat fleet with larger cabins and other onboard enhancements following an interior renovation project.
The most significant change took place on the middle decks of both vessels, which originally had 30 cabins measuring 150 square feet. These have now been replaced with 20 larger cabins measuring 225 square feet, reducing the total number of guest staterooms from 59 to 49. This means that each ship’s overall capacity has decreased 17% from 118 passengers to 98 per vessel.
Another significant enhancement can be found on Treasures’ and Esprit’s upper decks, where The Bistro dining venue has been upgraded to have its own dedicated kitchen and chef. Renamed Arthur’s in tribute to company chairman Arthur Tauck Jr., the dining venue also offers an expanded menu that provides casual alternatives to the fine dining selections offered in the ships’ main Compass Rose restaurants.
Treasures and Esprit will sail cruises along the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers, and will also offer Tauck’s ‘Amsterdam to Budapest by Riverboat’ itinerary from the Netherlands to Hungary.
Treasures and Esprit are the last of Tauck’s four 110-metre ships to undergo a significant transformation. Tauck’s two other 110-metre ships, Sapphire and Emerald, were reconfigured last year, and returned to service in time for the 2017 sailing season.
“With this year’s reconfiguration of Treasures and Esprit, and with identical transformations last year of Sapphire and Emerald, we’ve reimagined and enhanced half of our riverboat fleet,” said Dan Mahar, CEO of Tauck. “Now more than ever, we believe that we have the finest, most elegant riverboats on Europe’s rivers. Yet with that being said, we continue to maintain that what truly distinguishes Tauck river cruises is our 93 years of destination expertise, and our unmatched ability to tell the cultural and historical stories of the places we visit. The onboard experience we deliver is the perfect complement to those signature Tauck experiences our guests enjoy onshore.”