Delimann Cruises continues to win accolades as best river cruise line

In the January 2007 issue of Condé Nast Traveler, Peter Deilmann  Cruises received the second highest score of all cruise lines, large and small, for service. 

The magazine’s two-page report on the 12 best cruise lines on the publication’s “Gold List”, listed Deilmann as second in service only to Seabourn in the magazine’s annual readers’ survey. 

Deilmann Cruises, primarily a European river cruise line, scored 97.3 for service; Seabourn scored 98.5.

Deilmann Cruises was once again on the magazine’s Gold List of the top 12 cruise lines, large or small, published in the January issue.  Readers of the magazine have voted Peter Deilmann River and Ocean Cruises one of the 10 best small-ship cruise lines since 1999.  This distinction was also awarded to Deilmann Cruises from the readers of Travel+Leisure in that magazine’s annual “World’s Best” survey in 2006.  

Other accolades for this privately owned and operated river cruise line include its selection again as the “Best River Cruise” in the Readers’ Choice awards of Porthole Cruise magazine.  And in Great Britain, the prestigious Helmsman’s Award naming Peter Deilmann Cruises “Best River Cruise Company” was announced in December 2006 by the UK’s Daily Cruise News. 

The Condé Nast Traveler cruise line award winners in all categories first appeared in the magazine’s November 2006 issue, whileTravel+Leisure’s “World’s Best Awards” were published in August 2006.  The Porthole “Best” award winners were announced in their December 2006 issue.

Peter Deilmann Cruises, represented in Australia by Classic Voyages, will have nine river ships sailing in Europe this year on the Danube, Rhine, Rhône, Seine, Saône. Moselle, Elbe, Neckar, Oder, Havel and Vltava rivers, the Main-Danube Canal and Dutch and Belgian canals.  The line’s ocean-going MS Deutschland sails to destinations throughout Europe and the world. In 2007, the ship’s ports of call include South America, Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Baltic and North seas, the Near East, India, Singapore, China and Hong Kong.

Deilmann’s river ships are known for their elegant style, exceptional cruise itineraries and for having the best crew-to-passenger ratios with each vessel having only 2.5 guests for each crew member. The company is a pioneer in deluxe seven-night European river cruising and now also in river theme cruises offering music, golf, gardens, cycling, equestrian and hiking cruise programs. Best sellers are the classical music cruises on the five-star river ship MV Mozart and the liner MS Deutschland.

This year, music cruises on the MV Mozart from Passau to Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava are April 15-22 and Oct. 7-14, with performances both onboard and ashore, while the onboard gala classical music cruise on the MS Deutschland is April 21-May 14 on a Mediterranean and Atlantic sailing from Venice to Bordeaux.

The river ship fleet includes the 203-passenger MV Mozart, which sails the Danube and the five-star 110-passenger MV Heidelberg, which cruises the Rhine.  Deilmann ships in France are the five-star 100-passenger MV Cezanne, which sails the Seine from Paris, and the four-star 140-passenger MV Princesse de Provence, which sails the Rhône and Saône rivers between Lyon and Avignon.  The other five-star vessels include the 96-passenger MV Casanova, the 79-passenger MV Frederic Chopin and MV Katharina von Bora and the 106-passenger MV Dresden.  The final vessel in the fleet is the four-star 58-passenger MV Konigstein that is sold mainly for full ship charters on the Rhine and Dutch Canals.

A pioneer in the river cruise industry in the 1980s, founder Peter Deilmann was the first to design and build deluxe river vessels that reflected the style and amenities of ocean-going cruise ships, but focused on the unique specifications of river ship requirements

Full details of the 2007 ‘Great Rivers of Europe’ program can be obtained from the Australian GSA, Classic Voyages or by visiting the website at www.classicvoyages.com.au

Report by The Mole