Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection will launch two newbuilds in Europe in 2014, the Alexandra and the Catherine.
The Alexandra will be a sister ship to the 164-passenger Antoinette and will sail the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers. The Catherine will be fashioned after the 132-passenger River Royale and will sail in France.
The newbuilds will mark Uniworld's first expansion of its Europe fleet since the Antoinette launched last year. The ships are scheduled to set sail in spring 2014.
Beatrice Tollman, president and founder of Uniworld's sister company Red Carnation Hotels, and her daughter Antoinette Tollman, the lead designer of the Antoinette, will oversee the design of the new ships. Uniworld said the ships will be designed with "the same elegant flair" as its previous vessels. Uniworld's vessels are known for their elaborate interior design details.
A defining feature of the Antoinette is that the staterooms and suites on the third deck have full, open-air balconies that can be converted into enclosed balconies. The Antoinette also features a heated swimming pool and 20-person movie theatre, which are both rare on European river cruise ships. Uniworld has not revealed whether any of these features will be mimicked on either the Alexandra or the Catherine.
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