Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours is a privately held Cruise Line and Touring Company, established by Australian businessman Glen Moroney in 1986. The company opened its first UK office in 2007, headquarters in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Scenic's inaugural European river cruise occurred in 2008 with the debut of its first river ship, "Scenic Sapphire". As of January 2024, Scenic operates 15 river cruise ships, providing services in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

, and previously including

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. On August 15, Scenic introduced its first purpose-built ocean

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

Scenic Eclipse ''Scenic Eclipse'' is a passenger ship operated by the Scenic Group. As of August 2020, she is the first ocean going vessel and flagship for the Scenic Group. The vessel was built at the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia. During the COVID-19 pan ...

, which operates in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, Europe,

the Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, and the Norwegian Fjords. In April 2023, Scenic launched Scenic Eclipse II, a nearly identical sister ship.

Company History

Scenic was established by Glen Moroney in 1986. The company first offered river cruises in Europe in 2008 with the launch of Scenic Sapphire, followed by Scenic Emerald, Scenic Diamond, and Scenic Ruby in 2009. In 2012, Scenic launched the Scenic Tsar, which operated on the Moscow-St Petersburg route. In 2013, Scenic established Emerald Waterways as a lower-cost river cruise line. In 2014, Scenic expanded its fleet with the addition of the 169-passenger Scenic Jade, operating on the River Danube, and the 126-passenger Scenic Gem, servicing the

River Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

. In 2016, Scenic launched several new ships: Scenic Azure for the River Douro in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

; Scenic Amber for Europe's major rivers, and Scenic Aura and Scenic Spirit for the

Irrawaddy Irrawaddy may refer to: *Irrawaddy River, the main river of Burma *Irrawaddy Delta, a rice growing region of the country *Ayeyarwady Region, an administrative division of Burma *''The Irrawaddy'', a Burmese news publication based in Chiang Mai, Tha ...

and

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...

rivers in Southeast Asia. In January 2016, Scenic announced plans to enter the ocean cruise market with the launch of Scenic Eclipse, a 228-passenger ocean liner, which began service in August 2019. As of 2019, Scenic is redesigning 10 ships, including Scenic Diamond, Scenic Sapphire, Scenic Ruby, Scenic Pearl, Scenic Jasper, Scenic Opal, Scenic Amber, Scenic Crystal, Scenic Jade, and Scenic Jewel. In March 2022, Scenic suspended all Russian operations following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Cruises and destinations

Scenic operates on nine rivers, covering major rivers in Europe and Southeast Asia, and formerly the Volga in Russia. With the introduction of their ocean cruise ships, Scenic now also operates in Antarctica, the Arctic, the Americas, the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

, the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, and the Norwegian Fjords.

Current Fleet

Expedition ship

References

{{reflist Cruise lines River cruise companies