Five itineraries, the fullest of the six Croatian ships
The MS il Mare is a forty-eight-metre Dalmatian coastal vessel, launched in
2017. Twenty cabins, forty travellers, a local crew, a season from May to
October out of Split.
She is the one of the six Croatian ships in the catalogue carrying the most
itineraries: central Dalmatia, the northern Adriatic, the Kvarner islands and
two combined loops. Put another way, if only one of these six ships deserves a
close look at its calendar, it is this one.
What we cannot establish
The registered owner of the hull is named nowhere. Only the Split maritime
agency that charters her is established. That is not unusual for a small
Dalmatian vessel held by a family company, but we would rather write it than
imply information we do not have.
No lift, no wheelchair-accessible cabin, steep stairs. The minimum age is
twelve.
River ships from the same house
The MS Thomas Hardy and the MS Jane Austen cover the Rhone and the Seine. The MS Lord Byron shares Provence. The
MS Douro Elegance holds the Douro with the fleet's busiest calendar.
Who owns this ship
The tour operator owns no hull. None, out of the twenty ships it sells. The
river ships belong to a Swiss family shipowner or to a Portuguese one, the
coastal ships to Dalmatian families. The operator designs the trip, fills the
ship and sells the package; the owner runs the hull, hires the crew and
maintains her.
The most direct proof is published by the operator itself: its own site
hosts the owner's conditions of carriage, where the carrier is named and where
it is written that the cruise was booked through an independent agency with no
link to the shipping company.
This is not a fault in itself; it is the dominant model in European river
cruising. But it says who answers for what the day something goes wrong
aboard.
What the fare covers, and the two-market trap
Included aboard: the cabin, all meals, tea and coffee, the excursions listed
in the itinerary, the services of a cruise director and port taxes. Wine and
beer accompany dinner on the river ships.
Here is the trap. This operator sells two different products under one name.
In the United Kingdom the package traditionally includes the flight and
transfers. In North America the fare is a cruise fare: flight, pre-cruise
hotel and transfers are sold separately. Yet the British site redirects to the
North American one from here. A reader who has seen a page found online may
arrive with the other market's inclusions in mind.
Crew gratuities are included on no ship in the fleet. Several river
competitors in the same market build them into the fare: a gap worth knowing
before you compare two quotes.
What it really is, and what it is not
This is not a sea cruise in the usual sense. It is a small Dalmatian
coastal vessel, thirty to forty travellers, sailing from May to October among
the islands and returning to port most evenings. No theatre, no casino, no
cabin service. One dining room, a sun deck, a bathing platform aft, and the sea
ten metres away.
There is no lift aboard and no wheelchair-accessible cabin. Decks are
reached by steep stairs, boarding is by a narrow gangway, and the operator
formally advises against this product for travellers with reduced mobility.
The minimum age is twelve.
One last point, on our side: no departure for this ship appears in our
online inventory. The product sells as a package rather than a standard
cruise. Go through an advisor for the season's dates.
From Quebec
Air travel is not part of the North American product. From Montreal, expect
a direct flight or one connection depending on the embarkation city, and plan
to arrive at least the day before: a river ship leaves on time and does not
come back for a delayed traveller.
A word on protection, because the confusion is common. Nothing establishes
that this operator holds a Quebec travel agent's licence: its North American
entity is a Florida corporation, and its contract provides for Florida law and
the courts of Fort Lauderdale. Your protection comes from elsewhere: from the
Quebec agency you buy through.
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.
