Low levels on the Danube July 2015

Two days ago we received a warning about possible low water issues on the Danube between Passau and Regensburg. Yesterday we had some tours at Nuremberg where the PAX had to disembark at Vilshofen for their city tour.

Weather is hot and sunny, thunderstorms expected this weekend (no rain until then), we will see how the situation develops. Try to keep you up to date later, gotta go to work.

Thank you for the info, Ingo. Touch and go in some places, then, depending on the level of rainfall.

To everyone: remember the decision about sailing or not sailing at low river levels lies with the captain ultimately. One can never know days in advance in such a situation. Only guess...

One company will be sailing still at ten in the morning while another will stop sailing at nine-thirty in the morning. That is perfectly normal depending on ship and current river position.

I should post an update on the Rhine...

notamermaid

Following this thread for my daughter, who travels on the River Beatrice from Budapest to Passau next week. Thanks for any up-to-date info!

http://www.wetteronline.de/?gid=BAY&iid=Donau&pcid=pc_pegel_data&sid=River

allows monitoring water levels ....

right click on text to transate . . .

Thank you, Captain!

Following this thread for my daughter, who travels on the River Beatrice from Budapest to Passau next week. Thanks for any up-to-date info!

We did the same cruise on Uniworld in 2012, except we started in Prague... then sailed from Passau and ended in Budapest. It was a wonderful cruise. I hope your daughter enjoys her cruise and there are no water issues. :)

We just received a message from Viking regrading the low water levels on the Danube. They are informing us that because of the water levels it is possible we will have a ship change at some point during our crusie. We are sailing on the Eistla from Amsterdam to Budapest July 19th. Just wanted to pass on the others sailing this coming week.

Just back this week from the Danube(weds) and the levels are low..We had 35c everyday for a week so I guess that didn't help..

Best of luck and hope you don't have to change ship..

Thank you janecambridge. Hoping we do not change ships either, but plan on having a wonderful time no matter what comes our way!

We are sailing on Bestla from Budapest on 19 .May have to switch halfway with Estila. Hope you have a nice crew and hope we do too.

We're scheduled to sail from Budapest to Nuremberg starting 24 August on Scenic Jasper. I hope it rains some in the next month to keep the river levels from getting too low.

I've been tracking the ship and so far it's keeping to its schedule, at Melk on its way to Nuremberg. I think Avalon Affinity was canceled because of low water between Regensburg and Nuremberg. I'll be watching with interest to see how the Jasper deals with that section this weekend.

We've decided that we will have a good time no matter what, although we really hope that if low water disrupts the schedule we at least won't have to move off the boat. If the bus rides get too long then we can just lounge on the boat or explore locally.

Currently on the Danube. Left Budapest last night, final destination Bonn. At our Port Talk last night the Cruise Director said there are some low water levels ahead, currently (yes, it's been brutally hot here), but not "serious", whatever that may mean.

Hope we don't have to pack up and move to bus travel, but that's a chance you take traveling in July. So we won't be making "I want my money back" noises ;)

Currently on the Danube. Left Budapest last night, final destination Bonn. At our Port Talk last night the Cruise Director said there are some low water levels ahead, currently (yes, it's been brutally hot here), but not "serious", whatever that may mean.

 

Hope we don't have to pack up and move to bus travel, but that's a chance you take traveling in July. So we won't be making "I want my money back" noises ;)

Please let us know how it goes. What ship are you on? I haven't come across any itineraries ending in Bonn.

Hmm, I would regard it as "serious" when the level is down so far that a river cruise ship can´t pass... :rolleyes:

steamboats

Currently on the Danube. Left Budapest last night, final destination Bonn. At our Port Talk last night the Cruise Director said there are some low water levels ahead, currently (yes, it's been brutally hot here), but not "serious", whatever that may mean.

 

Hope we don't have to pack up and move to bus travel, but that's a chance you take traveling in July. So we won't be making "I want my money back" noises ;)

We are scheduled to board the ship in Bonn on Monday. I hope it's not serious, but we'll deal with whatever happens.

Jeb Bud, we're also on the Aug 24th cruise. I've been using "Marine Traffic" to follow Scenic Jasper. The ship has been "out of range" for 17 hours. What are you using to track the ship?

Also, when are you expecting to get your documentation? My travel agent has proven to be useless and we can't trust anything she tells us. I'd like to know when I should start hounding her for the paperwork and backpack.

Jeb Bud, we're also on the Aug 24th cruise. I've been using "Marine Traffic" to follow Scenic Jasper. The ship has been "out of range" for 17 hours. What are you using to track the ship?

Also, when are you expecting to get your documentation? My travel agent has proven to be useless and we can't trust anything she tells us. I'd like to know when I should start hounding her for the paperwork and backpack.

Hi, Nancy. MarineTraffic has the ship near Krems an der Donau 13hrs, 53min ago (or around 23 hours, depending on how you approach it). Vesselfinder has it near Wallsee about an hour ago. If the ship is at Wallsee I think that puts it pretty much on schedule.

The Jasper went dark on Marinetraffic for a couple of days during its last trip from Budapest to Amsterdam too. While I'm waiting for Marinetraffic to reconnect I'll keep an eye on Vesselfinder to see if the ship moves tomorrow.

My documentation arrived about an hour ago. The back packs are pretty nice. I did not use a travel agent so I have been dealing direct with Scenic. I was getting antsy and called them today (855-517-1200). The wait time was pretty long so I set up a call back, which happened pretty quick. The agent let me know the documentation was in the mail and gave me the USPS Priority Mail tracking number. The package arrived before I got around to tracking it.

Are you supposed to receive your docs from your TA or direct from Scenic? If direct from Scenic I would just skip the TA and call Scenic.

For what it's worth the agent I talked to told me there is plenty of water in the Danube and all is well:cool:.

You're the first fellow passenger I have heard about. I hope you are looking forward to the cruise as much as we are.

Sorry to hear about the low water problems. We sailed the Viking Eistla (Amsterdam to Budapest), the last week of May and the first week of June, this year. At Passau Germany, they showed us the high water flood marks that had occurred at the same times in 2013 & 2014.

Apparently the rivers can have a very wide range of conditions.

Our trip was great. Hope everything works out for the best for all of you.

Jeb Bud, how wished we'd booked directly! I did speak to Scenic yesterday and was told that our documentation will go to the travel agent. I'll call her office on Monday. She's not in the office that day but, fortunately, other staff there is very helpful and knowledgeable.. This woman has provided no value at all and has only created confusion.

Both my friend and I have traveled a lot and have always made our own arrangements. We only used a TA this time since neither of us had been on a river cruise before. I actually got this TA's name from Scenic!

Hi Sahara1,

I will take good care of the Eistla for you in case we have to trade ships! Hoping it doesn't come to that but we plan on having a fantastic time no matter what the outcome. We see there is quite a bit of rain in the forecast this coming week and maybe that will help with the low levels. Time will tell. Travel safe.

Even the lower Danube is affected by lower than normal water levels.

Viking Aegir was not able to reach Rousse and Giurgiu, instead stopping in Nikopol (for Rousse) and Turnu Magurele (for Giurgiu). This led to longer than normal bus rides to Veliko Tarnovo and Bucharest (maybe 15-30 minutes longer each way), but we didn't miss any sights. Overall the 'disruption' was seamless and well handled by Viking.

We are in Budapest now,boarding Viking Ingvi in the next hour or so.We have had notification from Viking about the possibility of a ship change.We'll just take it as it comes.Very hot here and predictions are it will be hotter tomorrow.I wonder if we can jump in the Danube!

I posted this on another thread but it probably more relevant here.........

My sister is currently on the Scenic Pearl that left Amsterdam for Budapest on Thursday 16th. She tries to keep us all updated on her trip on a daily basis and when she last contacted me (overnight our time down here) Scenic had not mentioned any possible problems with water levels (but do they ever?). They are currently still on the Rhine and are not scheduled to reach the Danube for a couple more days.

I've got my fingers crossed that the waterways remain passable as she and her husband saved for many years to take this trip and an expensive bus holiday was certainly not on her agenda.

We are in Budapest now,boarding Viking Ingvi in the next hour or so.We have had notification from Viking about the possibility of a ship change.We'll just take it as it comes.Very hot here and predictions are it will be hotter tomorrow.I wonder if we can jump in the Danube!

We returned last weekend after a week of over 35c.Nuremberg to Budapest.

We certainly did jump in the river.three times we wandered off the ship and did 'our own thing' and swam.Look for places where the locals are..a great experience and a tick off my bucket list...Enjoy and keep sun protected..

Our canopy on Emerald on the sundeck was not at all UVA protective.

Please let us know how it goes. What ship are you on? I haven't come across any itineraries ending in Bonn.

Did you look at Vantage?