MS SANS SOUCI Hotelschiff GmbH

MS Sans Souci Hotelschiff GmbH was the shipping company operating the river cruise ship SANS SOUCI. The ship belonged to Peter Grunewald, who also captained it himself for a time. With the acquisition of the EUROPA, built in 2000, Grunewald moved from independently operating a tanker into passenger shipping in 2006. The GmbH was responsible for the ship’s operations, while Grunewald acted as its owner and Plantours marketed the cruises. In March 2023, Plantours and the Ligabue Group took full ownership of the ship and began operating it themselves.

From EUROPA to SANS SOUCI

The EUROPA was built at the Grave BV shipyard in Grave, the Netherlands, and initially sailed under the Dutch flag, with Rotterdam as its home port, for tour operator WT Cruises. After Grunewald bought it, the vessel was to sail on inland waterways under the German flag. On 4 March 2007, it was renamed SANS SOUCI; its home port from then on was Peißen in Saxony-Anhalt. The French name, meaning “without worries,” thus accompanied its transition from Dutch-oriented service to a German river cruise ship.

The ship underwent extensive modernization in the winter of 2007/2008. A second major refurbishment followed in 2018/2019: the cabin windows on the panoramic deck were replaced with French balconies, and the cabin interiors were updated. Its length of 82 meters and width of 9.5 meters shape the range of inland routes it can navigate. In 2023, Plantours particularly highlighted trips on the Peene and connections between Berlin and Bremerhaven, which are inaccessible to larger river vessels. Event cruises for Kiel Week and the Port Anniversary Festival in Hamburg were also among its itineraries. The ship thus combined classic multi-day cruises with select trips centered on maritime events.

Charter cruises on Germany’s waterways

Peter Grunewald was not only the owner but also personally involved at the helm and in planning the itineraries. A 2016 report described him as an independent shipowner who captained his own hotel ship. During the season, the SANS SOUCI usually traveled on German rivers from March to November. Grunewald held the required licenses for the Elbe, Oder, Havel, and Rhine; contemporary accounts of its voyages include routes connecting Prague and Kiel, as well as Wrocław and Hamburg. These routes illustrate the broad operating range of a compact river cruise ship. The Saale, meanwhile, showed that navigability on some rivers depends on tight meanders and changing water conditions.

From 2018, the ship sailed exclusively for Plantours. Around 30 cruises were planned for the 2018 season, including trips on the Elbe, Havel, Oder, and Vltava, as well as along sections of the Baltic Sea and northern canals. The 2017 program had previously included city cruises between Bremen and Amsterdam, Bremen and Berlin, Hamburg and Berlin, and Hamburg and Dresden. The shipping company thus made a single vessel available for a changing network of city, river, and event cruises. For a closer look at the ship, see the profile of the SANS SOUCI, while the company profile of Plantours Cruises describes its later role as tour operator. The Elbe town of Aken is one example of a place the SANS SOUCI called at on its river routes.