AmaWaterways will stick to what it knows best and not venture into open seas, remaining laser-focused on the rivers of the world, Co-Founder and Global Brand Ambassador, Kristin Karst has reiterated.Speaking with LATTE this week in Sydney, Karst confirmed the luxury river cruise specialist with its 23-year history won’t be drawn into ocean-capable vessels.Earlier this month in Las Vegas at Virtuoso Travel Week, AmaWaterways’ new CEO Catherine Powell flagged with LATTE that the brand — under the stewardship of Karst and Co-Founder, Rudi Schreiner — was constantly looking to expand its global footprint.“I’m actively looking at where we can go next,” Powell said.Karst, pressed if that expansion may take the form of growth beyond rivers to ocean-going ships, was adamant with AmaWaterways’ future direction, telling LATTE: “No. We will definitely expand when it comes to the rivers, but not to ocean, to expedition.”
“We want to focus on what we know the best. And we know the rivers, the very, very best.”
Subscribe to LATTE Cruise’s free eNewsletter to keep up to date with everything in the luxury cruise space.Karst tells LATTE that she was born in Dresden, Germany on the Elbe River, and Schreiner was born in Vienna, Austria on the Danube. Before launching AmaWaterways in 2002, alongside the late Jimmy Murphy, the duo worked for Viking river cruise, Schreiner on ship design and Karst on itinerary planning.
“With Rudi and I, when we founded AmaWaterways, and when you look at all the different river cruise lines, from ownership, from management…nobody was born on the rivers. I think that gives us a lot of credibility.”
“How we know the rivers, how we speak the language of the locals, how we can work with them…and how to ensure that our product is very sustainable. At least we can control it at our end.”“We want to work with the communities to approach them in a very careful way, so that our success is their success. And I believe that is key to the expansion of river cruises in the future.”
Meanwhile, Karst confirmed AmaWaterways’ double-width ‘brother ship’,AmaRudi, will be an almost replica of AmaMagna, which launched in 2019. Karst told LATTE there will be some subtle differences that Schreiner’s keen eye will tweak, but by and larger, AmaRudi will be almost identical.AmaMagna‘s average size stateroom is 33 square metres, comparable to the size of suites on river competitors. And the capacity of the ship is 190 guests – the same guest capacity that rivals offer on their narrower ships. While the Grand Suite is 44 square metres and the Owners Suite is around 66 square metres.The primary difference that Karst highlights will be the shallower draft of AmaRudi, compared to that of AmaMagna. “Draft becomes more and more important for the rivers. We cannot deny climate change.”“AmaMagna has been very successful. It has been selling out for 2025, 2026 is almost fully booked.” AmaRudi will begin operation in the Spring of 2027.Karst explains that the wider ship siblings will sail more Lower Danube departures in the first half of the season, due to the typical lower river levels in the second half of the year, a consequence of less rain in summer. At that time, the vessels will reposition on the Upper Danube.
On the subject of seasonality, Karst says it was AmaWaterways that pioneered sailing in Europe in February, being the first to bring its ships out of winter hibernation.“Two years ago, we started cruising with AmaMagna on the Danube and AmaLucia on the Rhine, in February. Nobody had done it before, but many have followed in our footsteps now.”Similarly, at the end of the calendar year, AmaWaterways was the first to push the season out to November and December, according to Karst.“All the European companies finished their seasons at the end of October. But we started it, and more and more Christmas markets began to open. And in November, which was this downtime, we introduced wine-themed cruises.”
“For many years, November was typically wet and foggy and there wasn’t much to do, and it was a month people wouldn’t cruise. But with climate change, and less rain, November can be extremely nice with sunny weather, temperatures of 10-15 degrees Celsius, the fall colours are spectacular, especially in the southern part of Europe.”
Karst says November is proving to be of more appeal to travellers because airfares are lower “and it’s more authentic, less crowds… and I believe that becomes an issue when we talk about peak season today. More and more people say they don’t want to travel in the crowded season.”“So February, March, April and late October, November will become, probably soon, the ‘peak’ season,” Karst predicted.
