NotStressedAnymore

Notamermaid - all great points! I wish I had known about this forum before our Elbe cruise! We had been so lucky before that with a wonderful Grand European from Amsterdam to Budapest, without water issues.

We have not given up on cruising - we're taking the Tauck Belle Epoch 3 week trip later this month with two cruises - one on the Seine, one on the Rhone/Saone rivers. Enjoy the summer - we certainly hope to!!

Hi Crusin' Princess!

We booked Viking's Elegant Elbe cruise in July 2015. It was a nightmare - the water was so low that you could literally walk across the river at some points. Neither the Astrilde or Beyla sailed, so they bussed us every day up to 1.75 hours in each direction, to and from our ship. And, midweek we had to change ships, which required packing and unpacking, and yes, another long bus ride. As a an example of the ridiculousness of the required itinerary changes, we ended up visiting a brewery at 10 o'clock in the AM in LItomerice.

Now - here is the thing....Viking sent an email 2 or 3 days before the trip was to start. We got it when we were literally at the airport, about to board the second leg of our Viking arranged flight, to be in Berlin for our 'add on' 2 day pre-cruise tour. The email was not entirely clear that the boat would not sail - just that the itinerary might be impacted. So, we got on the plane, figuring we would do Berlin and sort out the cruise situation with the Viking people there. BIG MISTAKE. Viking told us that because our cruise package started with the air trip, we had no recourse. They offered us an insulting $1,000 per traveler credit on a future cruise. (This barely scratched the surface of our $13,000+ trip cost.). The part that made this so infuriating - they blamed the low water levels on the lack of snow melt (which would have been known in April) and that they cancelled the prior weeks' cruises, but did not inform us that this risk was present. Also adding insult to injury, the boat was docked alongside a construction site....where The view from our suite was the port-a-potty and construction dumpster. Awful. We made several attempts to resolve, they were intractable, and we finally gave up. We will never travel with Viking again. The moral of the story is this - if you suspect low water, call Viking, cancel and reschedule before you start your trip. Others on our trip did this and apparently received full credit and another sail date. I strongly believe that Viking is financially overextended with their foray into Ocean cruising. Their treatment of repeat customers - especially in the high $ suites, was deplorable.

All that said, I truly hope it works out for you and that you have a good experience.....crossing fingers.

We are on The Elbe River Cruise from Prague to Berlin near the end of July. Viking has Cruise updates for current sailings that indicate low water levels on the Elbe River may affect these sailings. Viking will offer no explanation of what effect the low river may have since it is not our sailing.

 

Does anyone know the situation on the Elbe River and how Viking changes for low River conditions on Elbe?

 

When we were on The Grand Mediterranean Tour Amsterdam to Budapest two years ago, we were on the ship 7 days before they told us the night before to pack our bags for a ship swap. The cruise director was asked repeatedly and said they didn't know yet but that is hard to believe because they knew the conditions already and weather forecasts. Disheartening to be treated like children who didn't need to be aware of Cruise changes.

 

 

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