AmaWaterways Scraps 2015 Russia River Cruises Despite what their printed 2015 River Cruise brochure says, popular river cruise line AmaWaterways has quietly scrapped their Russian river cruises for 2015 aboard AmaKatarina. Few details are available at this time, but the destination and itinerary pages have been removed from the AmaWaterways website, as has the vessel profile for the AmaKatarina. AmaWaterways’ AmaKatarina. Photo courtesy of AmaWaterways. AmaWaterways has long been a strong supporter of Russian river cruising. Their 13-day Russian Waterways itinerary aboard the AmaKatarina operated from Moscow to St. Petersburg and included stops in Uglich, Yaroslavl, Goritsy, Kizhi, and Sivorstroy. Initially, AmaWaterways had scheduled departure dates for 2015 that ranged from May 10 to September 30. The change was likely made due to increasing tensions in the region as of late, but could also be attributed to passenger reluctance to travel to Russia. At the moment, there is no indication whether Russia and the AmaKatarina will return to the river cruise line’s lineup for 2016 – but the 2015 season is definitely off. Again, AmaWaterways has been a strong supporter of Russian river cruising, and recently injected a substantial amount of money into refurbishing and heavily refitting the 210-guest AmaKatarina. Viking River Cruises was forced to pull out of the Ukraine earlier this year due to the concerns and logistics of operating their highly-popular voyages in the region, but – so far – their 2015 Russian voyages are scheduled to go ahead as planned. Other operators, including Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection and Scenic Tours still have Russia on the books for next year as well. Only time will tell whether they follow AmaWaterways lead. Sadly, Russia appears on the brink of joining Egypt and the Ukraine in the ‘former river cruise destination’ category. We’ll continue to update readers on the situation in Russia as it becomes available. The post AmaWaterways Scraps 2015 Russia River Cruises appeared first on River Cruise Advisor.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 07:25:50 +0000