Christened in Paris on 29 March 2026
The ms Serene is new. Hull assembled at the Vahali yard in Sremska
Mitrovica, Serbia, completed at the Swiss shipowner's Dutch yard, christened in
Paris on 29 March 2026 at a private ceremony. Her godmother is the vice-chair
of the operator's board.
One hundred and twenty-five metres, four decks, 62 cabins, 124 travellers at
maximum and fifty crew. Twenty suites of twenty-eight square metres, thirty
cabins of twenty-one square metres and twelve of seventeen. More than four
cabins in five reach twenty-one square metres or more.
Why she is shorter than her Rhone cousin
Ten metres less, and it is not a saving. The locks of the Seine impose
different dimensions from those of the Rhone. A river hull is drawn around the
locks she will have to pass, not around a commercial brief.
The twelve first-category cabins are booked with no single-occupancy
supplement. The balconies are French: sliding windows with a railing, with no
floor surface. No ship in this fleet has a step-out balcony.
Our inventory counts fifty-nine departures, seventeen in 2026 and forty-two
in 2027. It is the best-filled calendar of the French series.
The other ships in the fleet
The ms Lumière is her Rhone cousin, ten metres longer. The ms Reverie, her sister ship,
enters service on the Seine in 2027. The ms Sapphire also holds the Seine, on an older
hull. The ms Esprit covers five waterways.
Who owns this ship
Not the tour operator. Tauck owns no hull in Europe: the fourteen ships we
sell under its colours belong to Scylla AG, a Swiss shipowner based in Basel,
and are chartered to it exclusively.
This is not an accounting detail. In 2026 the shipowner took one of these
hulls back for its own cruise brand. The ship changed name and company, and
the operator could do nothing about it. A charter is renewed; it is not
owned.
What is included and what is not
This operator goes further than most. Gratuities to the ship's staff, to
local guides and to the cruise director are included in the fare. So are the
shore excursions, all of them, and none is sold as an option aboard.
Transfers and luggage handling follow.
On board the ship, house wine, beer and standard spirits are included all
day. Ashore, in a hotel or an outside restaurant, the rule does not
necessarily follow.
The international flight to the starting point is not included, nor the air
taxes that go with it. Internet access is provided in a basic form, where
available: that is the operator's own wording and it deserves to be read as
written.
Accessibility: read this before booking
The operator writes in plain terms that its European river itineraries
cannot accommodate wheelchairs or mobility scooters. Narrow hallways,
unavoidable stairs, difficult ground on excursions. This is not a stylistic
caution, it is a refusal.
It adds that it provides no walking assistance and no help at meals, and
that anyone needing such help must travel with an able companion. It also
reserves the right to require a doctor's certificate of fitness. Mobility
scooters are barred from every one of its trips, river or not.
No number of adapted cabins is published, for any ship of this fleet,
neither by the operator nor by the shipowner. We can therefore promise
nothing, and we will not.
Booking this trip from Quebec
This operator's contract designates the law of the State of Connecticut and
the courts of that state. It provides for no arbitration, but it has you waive
class action and punitive damages. The only registration it publishes is
Californian. Nothing establishes that it holds a Quebec licence.
Your protection therefore comes from here. Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence
from Quebec's Office de la protection du consommateur, your payments move
through a trust account, and the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel
Agents covers your file as the law provides.
