River with least flooding/low level issues

We have cruised the Nile and the Rhine, both many years ago (25+) don't remember this being such an issue as I hear now. We are looking at another River cruise after several ocean ones, prefer the longer in port, cultural aspects of the river cruises, at least as we remember them. However I would like to minimize the risk of ending up on a bus tour due to water level issues. Are some rivers more prone to these issues? I assume April and May are more flood prone, with Sept and Oct more prone to low levels? Any advice or reference sources would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello,

generally you are right about the seasonal water levels. Worst is sometimes beginning of January on the Rhine.

Another thing is statistics: as there are more cruise ships that expand their itinerary to 8 days and more, and they now travel troughout the year except January and February (and early March) more and more will be affected. Several cruise companies are still expanding!

Also the newly built ships are big, this possibly causing additional problems (locks and bridges).

This is the information page I use:

http://www.hochwasser-rlp.de/

None of the "emergency staff" are in operation at the moment, as there is no flooding, just seasonal high water levels.

Annual trends are probably available, but I do not know any english websites that provide adequate information.

Have you looked at the South of France? With the seasons there being somewhat different, water levels are affected differently.

It might be worthwhile to look at CroisiEurope as they are a French cruise operator.

notamermaid

The best source of European river cruise information that I have found is http://rivercruiseinfo.com/. It is a site maintained by a guide from Nuremburg, Germany, named Ingo Eigen. It is also available as an app for both Apple and Android tablets and phones. It is a collection of information on cruises and rivers, as well as current conditions and news.

The 2 cruise itineraries that seem to have the least river level problems are the Seine, from Paris to Normandy and the Russian River system from Moscow to St. Petersburg, both of which we have done. The Russian rivers are not included in the above web site.

The Seine has problems with the low bridges in Paris, which can be avoided by choice of docking location in Paris and has only 5 locks and few low bridges between Paris and Rouen, the major trouble spots on any river during extreme water conditions. From Rouen to Honfleur the river becomes tidal and there are no locks, except to enter the inner harbor at Honfleur. For a blog/trip report on our Seine cruise with Grand Circle see http://jackthetravelingman-seine.blogspot.com/.

Hello,

 

generally you are right about the seasonal water levels. Worst is sometimes beginning of January on the Rhine.

 

Another thing is statistics: as there are more cruise ships that expand their itinerary to 8 days and more, and they now travel troughout the year except January and February (and early March) more and more will be affected. Several cruise companies are still expanding!

 

Also the newly built ships are big, this possibly causing additional problems (locks and bridges).

 

This is the information page I use:

 

http://www.hochwasser-rlp.de/

 

None of the "emergency staff" are in operation at the moment, as there is no flooding, just seasonal high water levels.

 

Annual trends are probably available, but I do not know any english websites that provide adequate information.

 

Have you looked at the South of France? With the seasons there being somewhat different, water levels are affected differently.

 

It might be worthwhile to look at CroisiEurope as they are a French cruise operator.

 

notamermaid

Since we traveled on a CroisiEurope cruise in May, 2013 from Paris to Normandy I would like to mention a few considerations about CroisiEurope that don't deal with high or low water. But since CroisIEurope isn't mentioned much here on Cruise Critic, I felt I needed to provide this information. Since I booked the cruise with a neighborhood group, I did not ask about meals and seating. Both lunch and dinner are sit down meals at set times. At these two meals, there was only one entre so no choice in what you are eating. The lunch meal was as drawn out as dinner. At dinner, you have a table assignment so each evening you are with the same people and the same table. We did not like this since we like to meet and visit with others. I have to tell you I am not interested in eating venison which we had one night.