The day before the Brussels attacks, Travel Weekly published a story I had reported the week before about how the river cruise industry looked like it was poised for recovery in the aftermath of the November terror attacks in Paris.
Rudi Schreiner, the president and co-owner of AmaWaterways, had said to me prior to last week’s Brussels terror attacks, “I think that 2016 could be slightly better than 2015. I still believe in that.” And then he paused and added, “Unless something happens in the future.”
Well, something happened.
AmaWaterways immediately responded by allowing its passengers who wanted to cancel their Tulip Time cruises — springtime cruises that take place in Belgium and the Netherlands — to switch to another AmaWaterways cruise in 2016, without penalty. AmaWaterways’ first Tulip Time cruise departed from Amsterdam this past weekend and is scheduled to be in Belgium on March 30.
“It is our goal to continue with business as usual, while ensuring the safety and security of all of our guests. This sailing, and all others in the area, will continue as planned, with enhanced security measures implemented onboard,” said Kristin Karst, executive vice president and co-owner of AmaWaterways.
Tauck is scheduled to christen its newest river vessel, the 130-passenger Grace, in Belgium this coming weekend, after which it too will sail Tulip Time cruises. Other river cruise lines are also untying their ships and revving up their motors for the start of the spring season. And what can they do? There is too much inventory and too much exposure for them to pull back now. The show must go on.
Instead, we’ll likely see generous rebooking offers like AmaWaterways’ — Avalon Waterways has also offered its guests scheduled to travel through April 22, 2016 on any river cruise that includes Brussels the option to rebook to any future 2016 departure date, or 2017 date if their 2016 itinerary is not available.
The good news is that thus far, AmaWaterways said that cancellations have been minimal.
And yes, we’ll also likely see some more of those deals we saw at the start of the year that were then meant to help customers overcome any post-Paris jitters. On Tuesday, Viking River Cruises rolled out an aggressive promotion for its 15-day Grand European Tour itinerary, which sails from Budapest to Amsterdam, including free airfare from select U.S. airports and starting from $3,999 per person for lower category cabins.
River cruising was able to get back up after Paris, we will see whether it can do the same after Brussels.