The travel company brand Tauck (tauck.co.uk) officially welcomed the Scylla-owned vessels ms Esprit and ms Treasures back into its riverboat charter fleet in Amsterdam Holland, following a refit and reconfiguration of the ships’ interior spaces which resulted in reduced passenger count and enlarged cabins.
The Esprit and Treasures are the last of the line’s four 110-meter vessels to undergo radical transformations. Tauck’s other 110-meter boats, ms Emerald and ms Sapphire, were similarly refitted a year ago and returned to service just in time for their 2017 season.
Via the reconfigurations, Tauck cruise line continues to prioritize creating roomier public areas and bigger cabins for its passengers, rather than taking the conventional approach of maximizing guest count. The Esprit and Treasures were fully gutted in “down-to-the-studs” refit, with the most dramatic change on their Ruby (middle) Decks, where thirty 150ft2 cabins in each vessel’s original configuration were replaced by twenty larger cabins measuring 225ft2.
With the total number of staterooms reduced from 59 to 49, the overall capacity of each ship has been reduced from 118 to 98 passengers per vessel, which is a 17% reduction.
In addition to the twenty new 225ft2 cabins, each of the 110-meter ships already has 14 300ft2 suites. As a result, staterooms measuring 225ft2 or larger already account for nearly 70% of all accommodations, which is the highest percentage of these cabins on any 110-meter riverboat in Europe.
Another significant enhancement is now found on Esprit’s and Treasures’ Diamond (upper) Decks, where the second dining venue, The Bistro, was upgraded with its dedicated kitchen and chef. Onboard each of the ships, The Bistro was renamed Arthur’s in tribute to chairman Arthur Tauck Jr.
MS Esprit and ms Treasures will sail on Tauck’s itineraries along the Main, Rhine and Danube rivers, including the popular “Amsterdam to Budapest by Riverboat”.