High water levels

I'm on Avalon Expression just now, on a short christening cruise (the christening, with godmother Patricia Shultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die) and am hearing some about high river levels on the Seine that have held boats in Paris for three days, and now here on the Rhine. We were meant to leave Koblenz last night to go to Cochem and stayed here instead because the late snow melt is making rivers challenging just now.

We've reached out to river cruise lines to see what impacts they're seeing. If you're cruising in the next week or so (or are just home from a Rhine/Danube/Rhone/Seine trip) please let us know if you're experiencing any changes as a result.

This is happening rather late in the spring because a., it was a tough, cold, snowy and long winter in the mountains, and b., because it's been a cold spring and Europe's only just now warming up.

Let us know if you hear anything (especially if conditions are subsiding, which would be good news for all). Thanks.

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Carolyn - hope you have a great trip. I know you're not on the Seine but what a great placxe to be stuck in for 3 days - PARIS!

Laughing, Jacksonnh. Good point!

Carolyn

Carolyn - hope you have a great trip. I know you're not on the Seine but what a great placxe to be stuck in for 3 days - PARIS!

Well, you can easily see for yourself (click unfold all & select 30 days):

Seine: http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=9#tabs-3

The Seine had reached it's peak yesterday about 300km (Nod-sur-Seine) upstream of Paris and started to drop again. The graph displays the stations inbetween still rising, as it is just daily. I had a look at my database, real time data says (2013-05-07 10am CET) even at Paris the level has reached it's peak a few hours ago and is dropping slightly now.

Rhine: http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=1#tabs-3

Similar at the Rhine: The levels are high, but stable, the peak should be in the Rhine Gorge area now. Levels at Mannheim and further upstream are dropping. The Main tributary ( http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=2#tabs-3 )has high water but stable, the Moselle ( http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=3#tabs-3 ) had reached it's peak yesterday and levels are slightly dropping over the whole length of the river now.

If you want to have these data with you on your mobile device, get my app for iphone - android is coming this week, just found another nasty bug to be fixed... ;)

This is very cool, ingo_e; will check it out.

Carolyn

Well, you can easily see for yourself (click unfold all & select 30 days):

 

Seine: http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=9#tabs-3

 

The Seine had reached it's peak yesterday about 300km (Nod-sur-Seine) upstream of Paris and started to drop again. The graph displays the stations inbetween still rising, as it is just daily. I had a look at my database, real time data says (2013-05-07 10am CET) even at Paris the level has reached it's peak a few hours ago and is dropping slightly now.

 

Rhine: http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=1#tabs-3

 

Similar at the Rhine: The levels are high, but stable, the peak should be in the Rhine Gorge area now. Levels at Mannheim and further upstream are dropping. The Main tributary ( http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=2#tabs-3 )has high water but stable, the Moselle ( http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/rivers?ri_id=3#tabs-3 ) had reached it's peak yesterday and levels are slightly dropping over the whole length of the river now.

 

If you want to have these data with you on your mobile device, get my app for iphone - android is coming this week, just found another nasty bug to be fixed... ;)

Here's what we're hearing from lines like Viking River, Scenic, Avalon and Uniworld: The rivers have been cresting high over the past two weeks and there have been some deviations. I'll tackle those below. Beyond that, the word is that cresting is happening now (or has already happened) so that's good news for folks heading out next week and beyond. Hopefully. It's mother nature, no promises. By the way, just debarked today from Avalon Expression in Cologne and the Rhine was running high and fast but there were no problems with our ship heading off next to Dusseldorf and then Amsterdam (I had to leave early).

*Viking River reports: "The Rhine, Seine and Rhone rivers are currently experiencing higher-than-usual water levels; in some instances, we have had to make adjustments to the cruise itineraries. We have been able to leave intact all scheduled visits - as of yet, sightseeing has not been impacted.

"On the Rhine, we have had a (dis)embarkation that took place just north of Basel, in Breisach. While the transfer to the airport is longer from Breisach than from Basel, the overall impact is modest. On the Seine, we have just experienced a similar issue, where (dis)embarkation took place in Conflans rather than in Paris. The airport transfers themselves were barely impacted (Conflans being as far from Charles de Gaulle airport as our dock on the Seine), and shuttles were used to allow passengers to go into town on their day of embarkation if they so desired, right after their transatlantic flight. Finally, in southern France (Avignon) we have a similar issue where we have had to use hotel nights in two situations right before disembarkation/ right after arrival, before embarkation. We expect our passengers to board the ship on Tuesday now, but it is too early to assess the overall impact of high water on the cruise in this particular situation. None of our sailings on the Danube has been impacted in any way.

"Our passengers are safe and well; we are proceeding with sightseeing as planned; and because thus far, we have not dealt with very long distances, any bussing has been limited. That said, we have extended shipboard credits to all impacted passengers as a goodwill gesture to enjoy during the rest of their cruise, and we will contact them upon their return home and present further compensation once we have been able to assess the overall impact the water levels have had on our guests' cruise experience. Additionally, we're preparing a communication plan for the upcoming cruises, to ensure that where needed, our guests will be aware of the higher water levels and possible minor itinerary adjustments that may be necessary."

*Scenic told us that it's having similar issues with the Rhone. More: "Currently we're troubled by high waters on the Rhone and Saone and the Scenic Emerald was not able to sail to the embarkation point. We will operate the cruise in reverse transferring our guests to Avignon so that they will not miss out any of the tours." Rhine itineraries so far not impacted.

*On Avalon, we were told that some Seine river cruises were held up in Paris for a couple of extra days but that's now back to normal.

*Uniworld has had few problems so far, aside from a Rhone cruise the week of the April 28 that had high water issues. Otherwise, business as usual on the Rhine, Seine, Danube, Moselle...and Rhone. As well, "the Douro River season began with high water but the situation has stabilized and cruises are now operating normally."

If you're heading out shortly for your cruise you may just want to check in with your cruise line (and let us know if you hear of any issues).

Thanks.

Carolyn

Thanks for the update. Hopefully everything will be business as usual when we sail on the Seine May 24th. If not, I am sure we will make the best of it. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by ingo_e

Well, you can easily see for yourself (click unfold all & select 30 days):

Seine: http://rivercruiseinfo.com/content/r...ri_id=9#tabs-3

Carolyn

The link gets you to an amazing website with info on every aspect of the rivers in Germany and France. I cannot imagine how many hundreds of hours it took to put it together and keep it updated.

Do you have any idea who this guy is and what he gets out of it if anything besides the satsfaction of being so helpful to so many people?

cb

Abredt: Well first I appreciate your comment on my site ;)

Do you have any idea who this guy is and what he gets out of it if anything besides the satsfaction of being so helpful to so many people?

I have a long answer in the "about" section. However, here is a summary: I am working as a guide for cruise lines for 6 years now. During the winter, I got bored and started to research the web myself. Figured out there were plenty of sites around, but everything was scattered all across the web.

For example: A lot of TA#s just wanted to sell cruises, did not give details on cities. Solution: I wrote a search engine which outrules everyone else (sorry CC ;) ): I have the only cruise search around where you can combine ship elements (like elevators and balconys) with ports of call. However I do not care where anyone books, just wanted to show this is possible ;)

When I read and started to participate on this board, I saw a lot of questions (on river levels) popped up again and again. I needed these level myself, as low or high water affects me (at regular work) as well. Frankly, hungarian or kyrillic websites are not a comfortable place to start research, google translate helps a bit, but still.... Solution: I provide them centralized, that you can get the whole Danube without reading like 10 different websites. I am sure this will also raise the quality of debates in this wonderful cc river cruise community.

Last but not least I knew from experience that travellers often had two issues when they where in a town (or on a transfer): "Where am I" and "What is the exchange rate". So I started the app as a swiss army knife for your cruise: Get the water levels everywhere (remember, had them already), plus 460 high resolution city maps (not the rather vague a4 sheets) with GPS positioning. And of course a currency calculator (especially handy for Eastern Europe). Actually I would like to give it away for free, but I hired an external company (great guys btw), but it costed some money. Maybe I gonna give it away for free in a year or two. On the other hand, how much is $1.99 extra when the cruise costs a few grands, right?

Basically you are right, my biggest motivation was to centralize information on river cruises (and once I started I got probably a bit pedantic / german accuracy). Hundreds of hours? Well, add a zero :) In general I just wanted to have a website which actually helps people - like the internet was 10 years ago :)

Carolyn: Thanks for the cruise line statements!

ingo

wow, ingo, I checked out your website and am very impressed. All the info is right there to access and well organized. Good work!

Hi ingo,

Thanks for your reply. We are cruising the Rhine and Moselle on Uniworld in Sept. so I will spend some time looking at all the tags on your website.

cb

Leaving from Amsterdam today on AMA Prima to Budapest. The Captain has informed us that there will be stretches where we can not go up to the sun deck due to the high water but we should have no problems other than that.

KLRDUKS,

But I assume that the Captain was talking about the Canal. There are low bridges and sun decks are usually closed there. But that has nothing to do with the river levels as the Canal has no changing level.

steamboats

We are on the Viking Pride right now and are docked in Conflans, France. We were supposed to embark from Paris, but due to high water on the Seine we were bused to Conflans where we will continue our cruise to Normandy tonight. We understand that they think river levels will peak in Paris tomorrow and we have about a 50-50 chance of cruising back into Paris next week. Viking did well in holding the ship in Conflans and not getting trapped by the bridges in Paris.

Thanks for the update, Warm. We will be on the May 19th trip on the Viking Spirit and we are hoping that the river goes down before then. But since we're going to Paris a few days earlier and Viking didn't arrange our transfers, I called them to make sure they had our cell phone number to reach us in case we had a change and the Viking people had no idea what I was talking about.

Did everyone meet at the dock as normal to get on the bus?

Thanks, and hope you have a great trip!

Warm,

Please keep us posted, if possible, on the water levels on the Seine. Have a great trip!

He indicated that the trouble was on the Main through Frankfurt. Obviously, things can change but he wanted to give us a heads up in advance.

Ingo, I love your work- and those amazing watercolors - you've got to tell us who did them! I ve downloaded your app since I figure it's only a matter of time before you "monetize" and we can never speak you name again;)

Wow, thanks for the update! Best of luck to you....

Carolyn

We are on the Viking Pride right now and are docked in Conflans, France. We were supposed to embark from Paris, but due to high water on the Seine we were bused to Conflans where we will continue our cruise to Normandy tonight. We understand that they think river levels will peak in Paris tomorrow and we have about a 50-50 chance of cruising back into Paris next week. Viking did well in holding the ship in Conflans and not getting trapped by the bridges in Paris.

Now in Rouen, France. Water levels are still VERY high. Will have a better idea of the levels on the Seine in the Paris area next Tuesday. Will post an update then.

He indicated that the trouble was on the Main through Frankfurt. Obviously, things can change but he wanted to give us a heads up in advance.

The Main river is way below flood stage (between 1.5 to 3 m, depending on the location) and I never heard of any low bridges there. Anyway I doubt that the captain can tell you of any problems on the Main river when you are in Amsterdam - days away from the Main river. Sorry, river levels do change pretty quickly and noone would make a "forecast" for more than hours.

The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal does have low bridges and sundecks are always closed.

steamboats

My sister in law and her husband are currently on a Tauck cruise, scheduled to depart Lyon a few days ago. They have reported that due to high water levels, they will be in Lyon for 3 days, and are hoping to be able to resume their itinerary soon. They say Tauck has been excellent in their handling of the situation, even though it is very disappointing.

Much appreciated. We arrive in Paris next Tuesday and sail Friday. Hope you are having a great trip.

I'm new to River Cruising and am not quite sure what happens to your sailing if the waters levels are too high. Do you stay on the boat anyway as a "hotel", and then they bus you to the various ports if possible? Does the high water recede after a time?

Just was informed that we will be able to complete our trip upriver on the Seine all the way to Paris on Tuesday evening. Water levels should be low enough to get under the bridges to just south of the Eiffel Tower. From the Viking Pride.