Riverside Luxury Cruises, Europe's newest river cruise brand, is launching this spring after having acquired the five river vessels formerly operated by Crystal Cruises. While cruising the Danube on the line's debut sailing on the Riverside Mozart, Travel Weekly's Nicole Edenedo spoke with Gregor Gerlach, co-owner of Seaside Collection, an international luxury hotel group and parent company of Riverside Luxury Cruises, about how the company is carving out its identity in the river cruise market.
Gregor Gerlach
Q: What prompted Seaside Collection to take a chance on starting a river cruise line in Europe?
A: It was almost by accident. It was more or less the same time Crystal started in river cruising, and we had exactly the same idea: Get ships built for the luxury market and create a luxury product on the river. We weren't able to get any ships at the time in 2018; we thought about building ships, but the shipyards were full, and if we had ordered in 2018, it would have been delivered this year. So we forgot about it. We bought Finolhu, our resort in the Maldives, and spent a lot of time on that. Then, suddenly, I read that Crystal went bankrupt and thought, "Maybe the ships are a good opportunity."
Q: What were your first impressions upon seeing Crystal's former fleet?
A: We really liked what we saw. The style is perfect; it's not too modern, not old-fashioned. It's really timeless luxury. Crystal did a great job. Obviously, they didn't fail because of the river cruise business; they failed because of their ocean projects and the big ocean liners they had under construction when Covid came. And so, I think on the river they did everything right. These are beautiful ships, and we're very happy that we had the chance to get them.
Q: The ships were not the only thing you got from Crystal Cruises. What was behind the decision to also hire much of its former staff?
A: There are many reasons. When you put together a new team, it takes quite some time to train them and get them working as a team. So having the majority of the crew onboard be ex-Crystal staff, they already know what to do. The less we change, the more they already know what they're supposed to do. The second thing is, again, Crystal did a great job; if you look at guest comments, guest satisfaction -- I've rarely seen a company that has done a better job making guests happy than Crystal. We're not going to reinvent the wheel. We're trying to keep as much as possible.
Q: How is Riverside setting itself apart from what Crystal offered on the rivers?
A: Food is the most important thing for us. ... Riverside aims to provide the best cuisine and wine cellar on the water and will place an emphasis on the freshness and quality of all ingredients onboard.
Shorter itineraries; that comes from our hotel background. Why shouldn't people be able to get on in Vienna instead of Passau, Germany, or only do the stretch from Passau to Vienna? Or if someone wants to do a long weekend, and they want to combine it with whatever else on land. People can do three days, four days, seven days or a total of 14 days. It just gives so much more flexibility.
We are trying to offer different excursion categories. We offer the traditional culture excursions, museums and so on. But we also offer a category that we call experience, where you're more involved in seeing and learning, for example, how shoes are made in Budapest. We also have active excursions, guided bike tours or hiking. We're trying to be more interactive.