RIVER
VIKING
The Scandi line goes stateside in June as its first Mississippi cruises cast off with new custom-built vessel Viking Mississippi, accommodating 386 guests. Summer also marks the launch of 80-passenger Viking Saigon, which has been built to cruise the Mekong River, while a third new river ship, Viking Osiris, sets sail on the Nile in September. In Europe, a new Holland and Belgium itinerary between Amsterdam and Antwerp visits the famous flower-filled Keukenhof Gardens, and a number of Danube itineraries include the Oberammergau Passion Play, staged once every 10 years by the Bavarian village of the same name.
0800 319 6660; vikingrivercruises.co.uk
AMERICAN QUEEN VOYAGES
This is the new name for American Queen Steamboat Company and Victory Cruise Lines after AQSC acquired Victory last September. It covers cruises across America’s heartlands, with evocative paddle steamer trips that splash along the Mississippi River in the Deep South and on the Snake and Columbia rivers through the pioneering lands of the Pacific Northwest. There are also cruises on America’s Great Lakes and along the Eastern Seaboard to Canada and New, which joins the fleet in May, and, which follows in 2023.
