Best Of

I thought I could find more about about the new boats on the Scylla website but couldn't find anything. The Tauck site has the most info including the cabin categories and layouts at least for the as yet, un-named(?) new Seine and new Rhône boats (could actually be named "New Seine" and "New Rhône) which should be ready sometime in 2026: https://www.tauck.com/ships/ms-new-seine? Among the differences Claudia mentioned, they don't have any loft cabins and I didn't see any mention of "Arthurs"

Elsewhere I found these statements,

"Scylla plans to launch a total of 12 new riverboats by the end of 2028."

"We have big growth plans for river cruises and are very proud to be launching a total of 12 newbuild ships by the end of 2028. PORTO MIRANTE, Scylla’s brand-new ship for the Douro River, is the first of these newbuilds – and will be followed by VIVA ENJOY in November. This development underlines our positive direction and our commitment to river cruising”, says Scylla CEO, Arno Reitsma."

(Note the VIVA boats are operated by Scylla under their own VIVA Travel brand.)

Scylla also continues to refurbish and modernize their fleet.

"MS Swiss Pearl: A 135-meter long ship that was refurbished in 2023/2024 and has space for 133 guests"

"MS Swiss Splendor: A 135-meter long ship that was built in 2013 and will be renovated in 2024"

p.s. the Scylla website has a short video that shows what is done during a total refurb- everything is ripped out and they start building the interior from scratch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0TVDFdtAg

I made a reservation yesterday for the Seine Xmas markets Dec. 2026. The cat 1 cabins have been redesigned and are listed at 180 sq. ft.

Thanks for the update. Nothing wrong with being a nerd

I was checking the Tauck website today for the new Seine holiday cruise and whether the 2026 dates were available yet. In the process I discovered they are having 2 new ships built for the Seine and the Rhone for 2026. The data on the website is a bit garbled but it looks like both will only have 5 cabin categories - mostly 300 sqft suites on the Diamond deck plus a couple of 225 sqfts, all 225 sqft cabins on the Ruby deck and mostly 150 sqft cabins on the Emerald.

As I said, the info on the website is a bit confused so I sense the final design hasn't been locked down yet. Interesting that they look to be getting rid of the triangular cabins at the front of each deck. It kind of feels like the way they went with the Douro's Andorinha's cabins. As a bit of a nerd wrt river cruises, I'm looking forward to seeing how these ships are going to be designed.