A charter that ended, not a sale
The Queen Isabel carried this brand's Douro programme for several seasons.
She no longer does. The distinction to draw is this: the ship never belonged to
the company that sold her. She belongs to a Portuguese shipowner who chartered
her out and then took his hull back at the end of the contract. She still
appears in his published fleet.
That is why no announcement was ever made. Nothing changed hands, no bill of
sale exists, no release was called for. A contract reached its term, and the
name left the catalogue the way it had entered. Writing that this ship was sold
would be false.
The ship, and the river that shaped her
Seventy-nine metres, 59 cabins, 118 travellers, in service since 2013. The
Douro has five locks, among them Carrapatelo, one of the deepest in Europe: the
descent into the chamber takes a good fifteen minutes and is worth the time on
deck by itself. Those locks fix the admissible length, and every hull on the
river conforms to them.
One point we leave open: the building yard is given as Dutch by a specialist
database and as Portuguese by the owner himself. We publish neither. The Douro
programme is now carried by the S.S. Sao Gabriel under the brand's own
colours.
Where to book the Douro and southern Europe
The S.S. Sao Gabriel took over this river. The S.S. Bon Voyage works Bordeaux, the S.S. Catherine the Rhone and the
Saone, the S.S. La Venezia the Venice lagoon.
Renting a ship, owning a ship
The line does both. Some hulls belong to it, others are operated by a third
party that leases them by the season. The line has itself belonged since 2004
to a large travel group, under sale to American investment funds since July
2024.
Keep the mechanism in mind, because it comes back on almost every page in
this batch: when a ship leaves the catalogue, you need to know whether it was
sold, transferred to a sister brand, or simply handed back to its owner. The
three do not carry the same consequences for a traveller trying to find it
again.
What the fare covers, and where it stops
It covers onboard gratuities, which removes the daily service charge posted
to the account. It covers drinks at meals and the itinerary excursions. It
covers internet access, whose speed and continuity nobody guarantees.
It stops at the air, which is not included. It stops as well at gratuities
to coach drivers ashore, which are not included either. The airport transfer is
offered only if the flight was booked through the line; otherwise it is paid
separately.
Accessibility, as it reads
The line publishes no inventory of adapted cabins. Its accessibility
statement concerns its website, not its ships. So each question has to be asked
one at a time, before booking rather than after.
The known rules are firm: able companion required, folding wheelchair only,
mobility scooter refused, disembarkation possible with no refund if the crew
judges the traveller can no longer follow. Grab bars are fitted in the
bathrooms, which does not make those bathrooms accessible.
The legal frame, without dodging it
Transport falls to a Swiss company established at Rheinfelden, and the venue
named varies with the document you read: the stated head office and the named
court do not always agree. The Canadian entity litigates in Ontario, the
American one in California.
The deadlines are short and easily lost: injury notice within six months,
suit filed within one year, absolute bar at three. Nothing establishes a Quebec
licence for this line. Voyages AquaTerra holds one, with a trust account and
the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents, and someone who answers
when a connection collapses the night before departure.
