The busiest calendar in the fleet, on the smallest hull
The MS Douro Elegance dates from 2017. Eighty metres, 62 cabins, 124
travellers. The hull belongs to a Portuguese shipowner, not to the British
operator selling the voyage.
One hundred and thirty-eight departure dates with us: the fullest calendar
of the twenty ships in the catalogue, and it sits on the fleet's smallest river
hull. The figure says something simple. The Douro is run as a short loop, Porto
to Barca d'Alva and back, which allows rotations to follow one another from
April to October without repositioning the ship. A Rhine ship that changes
basin loses days to each transfer; here there are none.
What this river asks
The Douro is crossed by five dams, including Carrapatelo, whose chamber is
among the deepest in Europe. Descending into the lock is an event of the voyage
in its own right, and the sun deck fills for every passage.
The calls, for their part, climb. Quintas are visited on hillsides, villages
have steep cobbled streets, and Porto is covered by stairway more than by
stroll. It is a physically more demanding trip than the Rhine, and nobody says
so enough.
Neighbouring ships
The MS Riviera Rose is newer and slightly less dense. The MS Douro Splendour is her near twin. The MS Emily Bronte and
the MS William Wordsworth cover the great northern rivers with one-hundred-and-thirty-five-metre
hulls.
Charter
This ship is chartered. The operator owns none of the twenty ships it
markets: the river hulls are run by a Swiss family firm or by a Portuguese
shipowner, the coastal hulls by Croatian families.
That takes nothing away from the product, which can be very good. It
changes two concrete things. First, the chain of responsibility: the trip
answers to the operator, the ship answers to her owner. Second, the
reliability of the figures: we found gaps of up to thirty-six travellers
between the owner's sheet and the operator's on one and the same hull.
We take the time to say it because nothing on the commercial pages lets you
guess it.
What is included, and what is not
The fare covers life aboard: the cabin, all meals, tea and coffee, wine and
beer at dinner on the river ships, the programme's excursions, port taxes and
the cruise director's work.
On the North American market it does not cover air travel, transfers, hotel
nights before or after, insurance or gratuities. That list is longer than the
one on the same operator's British market, where flight and transfers are
traditionally included. Since the British site redirects to the North American
one from Quebec, the confusion really does happen and we see it with
clients.
On gratuities there is no ambiguity: they are included on no ship and the
operator leaves the amount to your judgement. Budget for them rather than
discovering them the night before disembarkation.
Aboard a Douro ship
One lounge, one dining room, a sun deck, sometimes a small pool. The hull is
eighty metres, the limit imposed by the river's locks and dams, and traveller
numbers follow that constraint. The result is a more familial atmosphere than
on the large Rhine units.
On cabins: a real balcony stays rare on European river ships. The French
balcony, a sliding glass wall with a railing and no outdoor floor, is the norm
on the upper decks, and the lower deck has a fixed window. The word balcony
therefore covers two different realities depending on the category chosen.
No wheelchair-accessible cabin is documented on this fleet. The quintas and
villages visited are often reached by steep cobbled streets, and that is where
physical condition counts.
Arranging this trip from Montreal
What is sold here is a cruise fare: flight, transfers and hotel nights are
booked separately. Plan at least one night on site before embarkation. Keep
the return day free as well, because an early disembarkation and a late flight
sit badly with a tight connection.
Nothing establishes that this operator holds a Quebec travel agent's
licence. Its North American entity is registered in Florida, with Florida law
in the contract. Quebec protection therefore does not come from it.
It comes from us. Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from Quebec's Office de
la protection du consommateur: your payments pass through a trust account and
the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents covers your file as the
law provides. We verify the real dates before anything is booked.
