Swan Hellenic has announced a return to river cruising with a new program for 2009 in partnership with the German river cruise line A-ROSA. It will offer six 10-night cruises on the Danube aboard the 200-berth, 2004-built A-ROSA Riva in May, September and October 2009 and four 7-night cruises on the Rhone and Saone in June and September 2009 on the 172-berth, 2005-built A-ROSA Stella. There is also a special 13-night Danube Christmas cruise aboard A-ROSA Riva in December 2009.
As with Swan’s ocean cruises aboard the 12,449 GT, 350-berth Minerva, built for the company in 1996, the river cruises will include all shore excursions and all tips aboard and ashore. There will be a Swan Hellenic cruise director and guest lecturer on each cruise as well.
Swan Hellenic chairman Lord Sterling points out that, “Being well acquainted with A-ROSA from earlier years when they were part of the P&O Group, we are confident of delivering a memorable Swan Hellenic travel experience.” A-ROSA was founded by P&O Princess Cruises in 2002, when Lord Sterling was its chairman; it was originally intended as a more upscale counterpart to P&O’s successful AIDA brand and also operated the A-ROSA Blu (ex-Crown Princess, later AIDAblu and now Ocean Village Two) on ocean cruises. Shortly after P&O Princess merged with Carnival in 2003, the A-ROSA river cruise business was sold to Arkona AG. Carnival sold Swan Hellenic to Lord Sterling in 2007 and it is now part of All Leisure Group plc.
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