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Tauck doubles family river cruise options in 2017

Tauck doubles family river cruise options in 2017
Tauck will be adding a fourth river cruise designed for families to its collection of Tauck Bridges family journeys in 2017, as the company boosts its family river cruise departures from 10 next year to 20 in 2017 and doubles its total family river cruising capacity.

Tauck ceo Dan Mahar made the announcement on Monday at Virtuoso Travel Week in Las Vegas. Although he didn't provide specifics, Mahar said the new river cruise will be on a popular European waterway and aboard a Tauck riverboat not already included in the company's collection of three family river cruises.

This growing niche is getting a higher profile as Adventures by Disney branches into river cruising in 2016 with family-oriented Danube sailings aboard AmaWaterways' new AmaViola in 2016.

Tauck tested family-focused cruises on the Danube in 2009 and formally launched its first Tauck Bridges river cruise, ‘Blue Danube: Family Riverboat Adventure,’ in 2010. Since then the company has expanded to include Tauck Bridges river cruises on the Rhone and the Rhine.

'By adding another itinerary and doubling our capacity in 2017, we’ll ensure our continued leadership in the category,' Mahar said Monday.

Tauck’s 2016 family river cruises include the eight-day 'Blue Danube: Family Riverboat Adventure' from Budapest to Regensburg and the 10-day 'Bon Voyage! France Family River Cruise' that starts with a two-night hotel stay and sightseeing in Paris before a high-speed train transfer to Lyon for a seven-night Rhone cruise.

New this year, Tauck's eight-day 'Castles on the Rhine: Family Riverboat Adventure' begins with a ride on the world’s steepest cogwheel train to the 7,000-foot summit of Mount Pilatus in the Swiss Alps, then sails from Basel to Amsterdam.