Viking and river cruises are one and the same to many Americans, but AmaWaterways is the brand you may not have heard about but should know. Viking Owns The Brand. AmaWaterways Owns The Product. Viking became a household name by sponsoring Masterpiece Theater, Downton Abbey, and various educational programs both on PBS and cable. The brand association is so total that for most American travelers, “river cruise” and “Viking” have become functionally the same word. “River cruise” became Viking the way “Kleenex” became tissue. That’s a marketing accomplishment, one of the most successful in modern travel. Viking built it deliberately, with hundreds of millions in PBS sponsorships, glossy print, and an aspirational aesthetic that made river cruising feel like the grown-up alternative to Carnival. It worked. Viking is now pushing aggressively into ocean, expedition, and a new Mississippi product, and the brand carries all of it.…