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Danube water levels 2018 and similar topics - plus tips and info


notamermaid
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Something went wrong with the weather forecast here on the Rhine too. Actually rain that was forecast for the French-Swiss border regions did not come. Well, I did not expect it to have any impact anyway.

 

 

Judging by the wording of an article by SWR the weather forecasters and water experts are not expecting much rain soon.

 

 

I would go for the deck chair even in November - perhaps invest in a blanket though for the chilly mornings.

 

 

The Rhine is struggling, but just managing to keep the ships afloat. So we should concentrate on the Danube, I was thinking one could get some crowdfunding project together, i.e. find the crowds to haul the ships over land. This is what the real old Viking ships' crews did in the 9th century to raid Mainz on the Rhine and other nearby places. Upstream they virtually rolled or carried the ships over land, ransacked the place for goodies, seriously annoyed the locals and sailed downstream. I wonder if anyone has ever calculated how many logs it would take to get a modern ship moved, or if it is possible at all.

 

 

According to the river gauge graph at Pfelling the window of opportunity for sailing has closed, if my calculation based on the info of the Passauer Neue Presse is correct.

 

 

notamermaid

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We are just home from our 9/17 sailing with Viking. We did 4 extra days in Amsterdam after the cruise.

 

We boarded the Viking Modi in Budapest as scheduled, but left that night instead of the next night due to falling water levels. Seems to be a day to day situation at Budapest.

 

We got extra time in Vienna as a result. We didn’t miss the included Budapest excursion because they docked in Komárom and took us back by bus. I feel that I should mention that even during times of normal water levels, tours frequently involve bus rides. I’m not sure where first time river cruisers get the idea that bus rides are such a problem. Not all the cities on an itinerary are right on the river and some are actually quite far away.

 

We had normal water level conditions on our previous cruise and still spent time on a bus.

 

Anyway we made it to Passau - did get prime docking space right at the confluence of the 3 rivers. We stayed overnight. They moved the ship further north and we boarded buses for Regensburg there - cutting the length of the bus ride. The ship moved as far upstream as it could and we met the ship there when the tour ended. We stayed there overnight, and packed for the ship swap.

 

After breakfast we boarded buses for the 3 hour trip to Nuremberg. Viking made it as painless as possible and the trip felt shorter than it was. We did the Nuremberg tours on the new ship after lunch.

 

From there on everything else went according to schedule. We had no other issues.

 

 

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Kath,

 

 

Thank you for reporting back. It sounds as if Viking did this as seamless as possible. Really good. I hope you enjoyed all the ports as well as the cruising. The place Komarom appears to have proven itself as a good vantage point from where to get to Budapest by coach. It is so good to have a convenient alternative dock not too far away.

 

 

The coach rides, well that is an issue. But the real problem are the marketing brochures. Ships docked in front of the Parliament building in Budapest, ships docked in front of Deutsches Eck on the Rhine. The mind "extrapolates" meaning "river cruise ships dock right in town (everywhere)", is what registers as the obvious. But when you look at the photos of river cruises more closely you will notice that you never see a ship docked in Nuremberg on any of them as that town is not on the Danube. The inner town does not even have a river cruise dock. The river Pegnitz that flows through Nuremberg is not exactly navigable...

 

 

 

The same by the way applies to Strasbourg, the town centre is not on the Rhine but on the Ill river (capital i double l), ships dock only on the Rhine.

 

 

 

notamermaid

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I recognize that this question is premature however I will ask anyway. In light of the long dry summer what are some of the opinions folks have over how a December Danube cruise will be impacted. I recognize this will be speculation but would be interested to hear what people say. thanks adi

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Currently on uniworld Beatrice. This segment started in Budapest and ends with a hotel stay in Bucharest. We were supposed to stop in Rousse Bulgaria for a full day and an overnight tomorrow ( Tuesday), then disembark from Giurgiu, Romania on Wednesday morning. The ship can’t get past Nikopol on the Bulgarian side of the Danube an Turnu Măgurele on the Romanian side. The nautical distance between there and Giurgiu is 70 miles. This means that the tours that were supposed to leave from Rousse will be departing from Nikopol, with a 2 to 2 1/2 hour bus ride each way. And the bus on Wednesday will have to drive a longer distance to get to Bucharest. Considering the severe drought and water levels, this is a pretty good outcome. We still have all the same tour options and can stay on the ship the whole time.

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I recognize that this question is premature however I will ask anyway. In light of the long dry summer what are some of the opinions folks have over how a December Danube cruise will be impacted. I recognize this will be speculation but would be interested to hear what people say. thanks adi

 

If you are travelling with Crystal, they have the best balls for cruising.

 

Magic 8 ball says:

 

As I see it, yes

Ask again later

Better not tell you now

Cannot predict now

Concentrate and ask again

Don’t count on it

It is certain

It is decidedly so

Most likely

My reply is no

My sources say no

Outlook good

Outlook not so good

Reply hazy try again

Signs point to yes

Very doubtful

Without a doubt

Yes

Yes, definitely

You may rely on it

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Re the comments about buses. I realise that some excursions from the ship involve taking a bus. That’s fine - I would choose not to go on those that involved a long bus trip & do something independently or just relax on the ship.

 

If the water levels are too low for the ship to continue then I’m concerned that I will be forced into taking long bus trips. Not my idea of fun & I wouldn’t find that at all relaxing.

 

I was really looking forward to a CRUISE down the Danube something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’ve checked the terms & conditions & they do allow the cruise company (in my case Avalon) to substitute the cruise with bus & hotel when required with little or no notice to customer.

 

Hopefully it won’t come to that. Or Avalon will give us the opportunity to cancel/rebook. We can only wait & see.

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Re the comments about buses. I realise that some excursions from the ship involve taking a bus. That’s fine - I would choose not to go on those that involved a long bus trip & do something independently or just relax on the ship.

 

 

 

If the water levels are too low for the ship to continue then I’m concerned that I will be forced into taking long bus trips. Not my idea of fun & I wouldn’t find that at all relaxing.

 

 

 

I was really looking forward to a CRUISE down the Danube something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’ve checked the terms & conditions & they do allow the cruise company (in my case Avalon) to substitute the cruise with bus & hotel when required with little or no notice to customer.

 

 

 

Hopefully it won’t come to that. Or Avalon will give us the opportunity to cancel/rebook. We can only wait & see.

 

 

 

 

I am with you. From what I have heard on this thread and several others, AVALON has been offering several options. I am still hoping for rain.

 

I lived in Puerto Rico for 9 years and we had a dry spell . Water rationing was about to commence, then lo and behold the rains came and everything was back to normal within a few days.

 

Maybe being overly optimistic, but at this point there is not much we can do.

 

 

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Still in Germany after leaving our Viking cruise just this past Saturday. The weather has been beautiful. Good for Oktoberfest and such but not much help for the Danube. Good luck to all of you. Headed back to the US tommorrow morning.

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Still in Germany after leaving our Viking cruise just this past Saturday. The weather has been beautiful. Good for Oktoberfest and such but not much help for the Danube. Good luck to all of you. Headed back to the US tommorrow morning.

 

 

 

Thanks for all the updates, have a good flight back!

 

 

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The only change to report is the Danube river levels have fallen slightly.

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is that the Christmas Markets will not be impacted by the low river levels (at least for us locals).

 

 

 

Speaking of the markets when do they start

 

 

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Speaking of the markets when do they start

 

 

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Generally speaking the Christmas Markets run from 1st. Advent until 23rd. December.

 

 

Some stat a week before Advent and some are open after Christmas, e.g. Munich Airport Christmas Market is open 18th. November to 30th. December.

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Speaking of the markets when do they start

 

 

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I found several start in November in Vienna:

 

https://www.city-walks.info/Vienna/Christmas-Market.html

 

Same in Salzburg:

 

https://www.austria.info/uk/things-to-do/skiing-and-winter/christmas-markets/christmas-markets-in-salzburg

 

Munich - November 27:

 

https://www.bavaria.by/experiences/city-country-culture/christmas-markets/christmas-market-munich/

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Off topic, but to squeeze signatures down to something reasonable, use bullets.  I despise empty white space.  Clearly I'm in the minority though.

Yesterday I joined a Viking Facebook page.  The lack of knowledge about river conditions is unsettling.  At least three referenced rivercruiseinfo.com to dispute the low-water-level contingent.  I sent a message to Cruise Critic asking if their tech guys knew of a way to take the site down.  Among other pages, the Contact Us link is broken on that site.

Viking's advisory is admitting that things are not ideal, but still saying rain is in the forecast.  I think they're drinking too much beer.

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2 minutes ago, austinetc said:

Off topic, but to squeeze signatures down to something reasonable, use bullets.  I despise empty white space.  Clearly I'm in the minority though.

Yesterday I joined a Viking Facebook page.  The lack of knowledge about river conditions is unsettling.  At least three referenced rivercruiseinfo.com to dispute the low-water-level contingent.  I sent a message to Cruise Critic asking if their tech guys knew of a way to take the site down.  Among other pages, the Contact Us link is broken on that site.

Viking's advisory is admitting that things are not ideal, but still saying rain is in the forecast.  I think they're drinking too much beer.

 

austinetc's, if I remember correctly the gentleman managing the website was or is a CruiseCritic member but has not posted for all long time (a year+). I wonder if he is ok?

For accurate info you can mention the official website pegelonline.wsv.de The map on the computer version shows a massive amount of orange dots. All those stations are on low water. On the mobile phone version the station names are framed in orange. The situation should be clear then even it will fail to convey details that might not be understood due to the language barrier.

Thank you again for keeping us going in that waiting lounge by starting a thread. SMILE

notamermaid

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2 hours ago, austinetc said:

Off topic, but to squeeze signatures down to something reasonable, use bullets.  I despise empty white space.  Clearly I'm in the minority though.

Yesterday I joined a Viking Facebook page.  The lack of knowledge about river conditions is unsettling.  At least three referenced rivercruiseinfo.com to dispute the low-water-level contingent.  I sent a message to Cruise Critic asking if their tech guys knew of a way to take the site down.  Among other pages, the Contact Us link is broken on that site.

Viking's advisory is admitting that things are not ideal, but still saying rain is in the forecast.  I think they're drinking too much beer.

Rain is in the forecast, ten days from now(per the Weather Channel app).  Of course it's been ten days from "now" for the last couple of weeks at least.  It'll be nice when the model starts showing rain a little more imminent:classic_rolleyes:.

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3 hours ago, jeb_bud said:

Rain is in the forecast, ten days from now(per the Weather Channel app).  Of course it's been ten days from "now" for the last couple of weeks at least.  It'll be nice when the model starts showing rain a little more imminent:classic_rolleyes:.

All the forecasts I've seen preface "rain" with "a little" or "a bit of".  The Danube needs a lot more than that before Regensburg becomes accessible.

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