In a segment of the travel industry where shiny new ships and stiff competition have become the norm, what to do with aging inventory is not an easy issue for river cruise lines to address.
For Avalon Waterways, prioritizing new and better hardware meant sacrificing capacity in 2019, when the company will launch a new 166-passenger Suite Ship-class vessel, the Avalon Envision, but retire three of its older vessels: the Avalon Affinity, Avalon Felicity and Avalon Luminary.
Consequently, Avalon's Europe fleet will number 13 vessels in 2019, down from 15 this year.
"We definitely didn't want capacity reduction," said Pam Hoffee, managing director of Avalon. "That was a challenge with this decision. We're in a growth phase."
Hoffee said that the priority for Avalon was to have an all Suite Ships fleet. The three ships it is retiring are the line's last non-Suite Ship class vessels, making 2019 the first year that Avalon will sail only Suite Ships. Avalon first introduced the concept for it newest generation of river cruise ships in 2010, and launched its first Suite Ship, the Avalon Panorama, in 2011.
The defining feature of Suite Ships are the 200-square-foot Panorama Suites on the two upper decks of the vessels that feature wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that when open convert the entire stateroom into an open-air balcony setting. The Panorama Suites also have beds that face outwards towards the large sliding glass doors, a feature that not all river cruise lines employ, and one that Avalon touts loud and proud in its marketing material.
"The reality is that [the] Panorama Suite is such a successful cabin, that we wanted to have a fleet that consistently [features] that," said Hoffee.
While acknowledging that in order to do that, Avalon had to make the less-than-ideal decision to reduce capacity for 2019, she said the actual capacity reduction isn't as large as it seems.
Going from 15 ships to 13 may mean 13% less bed capacity, but the line is moving ships that were on 14-day or longer itineraries to the increasingly popular seven-day itineraries.
"So in reality we're really only losing 4% capacity," she said.
And Hoffee also hinted that for 2020, Avalon is planning to continue growing its fleet. Stay tuned.