Riviera Travel: a British tour operator, and ships that belong to somebody else
The fleet brings together European river vessels and a few small Mediterranean boats run by third parties. The number of Riviera Travel cruises currently on sale is shown at the top of this page. MS Riviera Resplendence, MS Emily Bronte and MS Jane Austen are among the most heavily scheduled. Several vessels carry no dates with us, and most of those are small Mediterranean boats run by third parties, not European river ships.
The seller is not the carrier
Riviera Travel is a British tour operator founded in 1984, based in Burton upon Trent. It is not a shipowner, and its own contract of carriage says so: it names Scylla AG, of Basel, as the company that owns, charters and operates the vessels — the same Swiss owner that runs Tauck's European fleet. The document goes further: it describes the seller as an independent travel agency with no connection to the company. If something goes wrong on board, liability for carriage therefore rests with the Swiss owner, under Swiss law, not with the British brand whose brochure you read. The same contract also covers ships sold under other European brands: exclusivity is on the charter, not on the ownership.
Under which contract a Quebec client books
Not the British one. A North American client contracts with a Florida company, in US dollars, under Florida law, with exclusive jurisdiction in the courts of Fort Lauderdale. There is no Canadian entity. The exchange rate is therefore part of the price, and a dispute would be argued in Florida. Those are two sentences the brochure does not contain and your advisor should say.
No wheelchair-accessible cabin
The line writes it in plain words: there is no wheelchair-accessible cabin on any of its ships. Not one. If mobility is at stake, look instead at a line subject to the American disability act, such as American Cruise Lines. This is not a comfort nuance, it is the deciding factor. And the North American conditions accept no child under twelve on board, on any ship.
Low water: the clearest guarantee of the group
On this precise point the line does better than its neighbours. Its published guarantee provides for repatriation at its cost if the cruise cannot continue, and a pro-rata refund for each full twenty-four hours lost. It has also gone further in practice: in the summer of 2026 it suspended the sale of Rhine and Danube departures because of low water, rather than sell them and replace the river with a coach. That is a costly commercial decision, and it deserves to be reported as frankly as the rest.
A contradiction on its own site
The marketing page on inclusions says nothing about gratuities; the contractual conditions exclude them explicitly from the fare. Both texts coexist. Ask for the written list for your exact departure, and read the contract's rather than the brochure's.
