Low Waters Divert Danube and Elbe Cruises

Of course, how effective this transfer is, from a passenger standpoint depends on how close the ships can get. If the 2 ships are too far apart, you may have to stay in hotels along the way, or have multiple out and back trips from the ship to visit featured planned stops. These 2 scenarios each cost the cruise line extra and make the line more reluctant to offer compensation to the passenger. Attempting to get the ships closer together may result in the stranding of a ship making both the cruise line ans the passengers unhappy.

Of course, how effective this transfer is, from a passenger standpoint depends on how close the ships can get. If the 2 ships are too far apart, you may have to stay in hotels along the way, or have multiple out and back trips from the ship to visit featured planned stops. These 2 scenarios each cost the cruise line extra and make the line more reluctant to offer compensation to the passenger.

I cannot see why they should have to offer compensation. If you read the terms and conditions when signing up for a river cruise, it states that due to high or low water on the river, you may need to be bussed.

When you book a river cruise you know this is a possibility.

I cannot see why they should have to offer compensation. If you read the terms and conditions when signing up for a river cruise, it states that due to high or low water on the river, you may need to be bussed.

 

When you book a river cruise you know this is a possibility.

Marketing 101: if the passengers leave the ship with a bad taste in their mouth, you have lost them forever. A small compensation that retains future business is a good investment.

Yes, the T&C probably relieves the cruise line of legal responsibility, but the compensation is to make the passenger feel happy that they were treated well and get them to come back. Most river cruise lines rely heavily on returning passengers. Once you loose a customer to another line, you will probably never get them back, unless the other company disappoints them. Where passengers have a real right to be unhappy is when the cruise line lies to them that they will be able to cruise and their ships have not been able to navigate the river in a week.

Why is it always a bus that is mentioned as the alternative. On all of the major rivers, there are many smaller day cruise lines that could be chartered, giving the view from the river, instead of a highway. The river conditions would have to be very severe for these boats to be unable to navigate. There are also some stretches of river that are major attractions to the cruise, such as the Wachau Valley on the Danube or the stretch of the Rhine from Koblenz to Mainz, with the vineyards and castles..

Hello Beverlyjack,

Yes, the T&C probably relieves the cruise line of legal responsibility, but the compensation is to make the passenger feel happy that they were treated well and get them to come back. Most river cruise lines rely heavily on returning passengers. Once you loose a customer to another line, you will probably never get them back, unless the other company disappoints them. Where passengers have a real right to be unhappy is when the cruise line lies to them that they will be able to cruise and their ships have not been able to navigate the river in a week.

 

Why is it always a bus that is mentioned as the alternative. On all of the major rivers, there are many smaller day cruise lines that could be chartered, giving the view from the river, instead of a highway. The river conditions would have to be very severe for these boats to be unable to navigate. There are also some stretches of river that are major attractions to the cruise, such as the Wachau Valley on the Danube or the stretch of the Rhine from Koblenz to Mainz, with the vineyards and castles..

I had the same idea of that type of charter yesterday! I wonder if anybody has tried out the idea of changing to the small boats to "ferry" passengers. Here on the Rhine there at least 5 companies able to do the stretch Bingen to Cologne in reasonable time, some are not much slower than the river cruise vessels. Their ships can carry anything between 50 and about 500 passengers. One company even has English commentary coming from a tape as standard when sailing the castle stretch.

On the Danube, of course, the situation is similar. There are lots of day trips offered around Passau and Vienna by companies.

notamermaid

I cannot see why they should have to offer compensation. If you read the terms and conditions when signing up for a river cruise, it states that due to high or low water on the river, you may need to be bussed.

 

When you book a river cruise you know this is a possibility.

They don't have to offer compensations. however, as HostJazz has pointed out from a public relations/marketing standpoint, it's always good to leave customers felling happy. Or at the very least treated well. Riving cruising is a VERY expensive form of vacation so the stakes are very high.

Like most major corporations, cruise lines can write off these ' unforeseen expenses' as a business loss and save money on their taxes (depending upon what country they are registered) against thier debt.

I'm going to venture out on a limb here by saying that Viking Cruises probabaly has a VERY high debt load right now. Given the huge number of river boats they've launch in the last couple year plus 2 cruise ships on the way, I'm sure their creditors are very nervous. This could be one reason why they are reluctant to cancel or provide comparable compensation.

I assume the swaps are necessary because there are areas of rivers being sailed on are too low for the ships to go. From what I can tell from other posts on this thread you travel part of the cruise on one ship and then are transferred by bus to another ship. One poster mentioned being driven by bus from Vienna to Regensberg about 285 miles and then doing bus tours to a couple of the towns they would have visited by ship if the river was deep enough. Unfortunately Viking doesn't seem to be explaining this to their customers before it happens to them.

 

IMHO Viking should have done more research on their longship design before they committed millions to build a whole fleet of them. Now they are stuck with this mess. Today I got another marketing email from Viking wanting me to sail on this route later this year and there was no mention of the bus trips that are having to be done to complete the route.

Hi neighbor, we have yet to sail Viking but somehow they obtained my mailing address , and it seems we receive multiple mailings every week. By the way we have lived between Mansfield and Cedar Hill for a lifetime. My mom recently planned and attended her reunion for 1943 Cedar Hill High School, but there was only five or six still around.

6/24

Not in Budapest as scheduled, ship still in Regensburg.

Saw Viking Bestal in port yesterday.

First two nights in hotel in Budapest. Leaving via bus 6/26 thru Slovakia to Vienna for 2 nights in hotel. Not sure from there.

good luck with your trip.

Things seem to change very quickly....How much rain will it take to raise the rivers enough to make them navigable? or is the rest of the season in jeopardy? Has the spring/early summer been unseasonably dry?

marinetraffic is showing boats moving from from Regensburg toward Straubing. I haven't seen any movement in Passau, but it is daytime and they may be scheduled to stop during the day.

6/24

Not in Budapest as scheduled, ship still in Regensburg.

Saw Viking Bestal in port yesterday.

First two nights in hotel in Budapest. Leaving via bus 6/26 thru Slovakia to Vienna for 2 nights in hotel. Not sure from there.

According to marinetraffic.com Bestal is in Belgrade as of yesterday.

The Bestla (note spelling) has been in Budapest for 2 days with no information

on its next cruise.

One cruise we did with Holland America in 2001 which included a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise back to back with a 24 day San Diego to Rio. Total days on board = 36. It was after 9/11 and people were afraid to sail and many cancelled. We decided to go forward and just enjoy our trip and make the most of any problems as they occurred. As a result, many obstacles were overcome by HAL including getting us Visas for Brazil and processing us part of the crew to get our Visas only to being told we could not go ashore in the Faulkland Islands because our passports were being flown to another country to get our Visas. In the end, our passports were returned to the ship in time and we were able to go ashore in Stanley. Originally, we had only booked half the cruise route from San Diego to Valpariaso, Chile because the ship was sold out from Valpariso to Rio.. HAL kindly handled all the changes for us including our air changes which allowed us to take the full cruise after some cancellations. The only problem we encountered was in Rio when we were bumped from our flight and had to stay overnight in the airport hotel until we could get a flight out the next day. And, we were given the entire trip fare as a repositioning cruise which saved us thousands of dollars.

Like HAL, I fully believe Viking will do the best they can to make our cruise/trip a memorable one. They are doing the best that they can with many challenges. An old saying "if everything goes perfectly, you will have no stories to share when you get home". We are leaving Monday and will join our new ship Viking Kvasir in Amsterdam. Rain is predicted next week and we are hoping all will work out for us. We have many pictures to take and beers to drink....

Worldcrzr

I hope it works out well for you . . . Please keep us posted.

Worse case, you drink more beer ;)

As we have previously reported, due to the lack of rain in Europe, water levels between Regensburg and Passau are low. To date, these water levels have affected three sailing days for both the Impression and Illumination this week. Both ships were sailing downstream and, unfortunately, it's more difficult to traverse low waters going downstream than upstream.

While both ships have remained docked in Passau, we have provided passengers sightseeing choices. For instance, on Tuesday, one group opted for leisure time in Passau, while another group chose sightseeing in Prague. The hope and goal for all passengers is to help them make the most of their journey and enjoy all that Europe has to offer.

And because the nature of rivers is to ebb and flow, much can change daily. We are all doing our best rain dances in hopes that more rain makes its way to Europe (specifically, the Danube) ... soon. In the meantime, we will provide additional posts on Facebook and as needed.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

I love that Avalon is doing "rain dances" !!! We are too and hope everyone has a wonderful trip in-spite of the water level.

Thanks Avalon for stopping by with an update!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

(We had an error in our previous message ...)

As we have previously reported, due to the lack of rain in Europe, water levels between Regensburg and Passau are low. To date, these water levels have affected three sailing days for both the Impression and Illumination this week. Both ships were sailing upstream and, unfortunately, it's more difficult to traverse low waters going upstream than downstream.

While both ships have remained docked in Passau, we have provided passengers sightseeing choices. For instance, on Tuesday, one group opted for leisure time in Passau, while another group chose sightseeing in Prague. The hope and goal for all passengers is to help them make the most of their journey and enjoy all that Europe has to offer.

And because the nature of rivers is to ebb and flow, much can change daily. We are all doing our best rain dances in hopes that more rain makes its way to Europe (specifically, the Danube) ... soon. In the meantime, we will provide additional posts on Facebook as needed.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Upstream is which way? Starting or ending in Budapest?

I would think upstream would be from Passau to Regensberg......:confused:

Right now, the Swiss Gloria and Scenic Pearl are headed from Regensburg toward Passau....somehow I lost the Avalon boat that was on the map.....

There don't appear to be any boats leaving Passau.

(We had an error in our previous message ...)

As we have previously reported, due to the lack of rain in Europe, water levels between Regensburg and Passau are low. To date, these water levels have affected three sailing days for both the Impression and Illumination this week. Both ships were sailing upstream and, unfortunately, it's more difficult to traverse low waters going upstream than downstream.

 

While both ships have remained docked in Passau, we have provided passengers sightseeing choices. For instance, on Tuesday, one group opted for leisure time in Passau, while another group chose sightseeing in Prague. The hope and goal for all passengers is to help them make the most of their journey and enjoy all that Europe has to offer.

 

And because the nature of rivers is to ebb and flow, much can change daily. We are all doing our best rain dances in hopes that more rain makes its way to Europe (specifically, the Danube) ... soon. In the meantime, we will provide additional posts on Facebook as needed.

 

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Avalon - Does this mean that guests swapped ships in passau???

Hello Beverlyjack,

 

 

 

I had the same idea of that type of charter yesterday! I wonder if anybody has tried out the idea of changing to the small boats to "ferry" passengers. Here on the Rhine there at least 5 companies able to do the stretch Bingen to Cologne in reasonable time, some are not much slower than the river cruise vessels. Their ships can carry anything between 50 and about 500 passengers. One company even has English commentary coming from a tape as standard when sailing the castle stretch.

 

On the Danube, of course, the situation is similar. There are lots of day trips offered around Passau and Vienna by companies.

 

notamermaid

I think your idea is an excellent one but would still require packing and unpacking several times instead of being able to pack and unpack and stay on the same ship for all 15 nights. Also it would be costly for the cruise lines. But good idea that might help people not feel like they are missing those stretches of the river.

Avalon - Does this mean that guests swapped ships in passau???

Hi gentlemancruiser-

Thanks for your question. Because only two of our ships have been affected, there was not an opportunity to swap ships. Instead, we provided our travelers choices each day to help them make the most of their extended time in Passau.

Best wishes to you.

Upstream is which way? Starting or ending in Budapest?

Upstream (going against the flow of the river) would be Budapest to Vienna.

I would think upstream would be from Passau to Regensberg......:confused:

Correct

Right now, the Swiss Gloria and Scenic Pearl are headed from Regensburg toward Passau....somehow I lost the Avalon boat that was on the map.....

 

There don't appear to be any boats leaving Passau.

The water levels between Regensburg and Passau have slightly improved, especially at the botlleneck - Straubing the Danube has risen from 110 dm to 150/160 cm, see attached.

Straubing.pdf

Whoop whoop!!!!!

Come on rain!!!!

(I think I did see that rain is in the forecast in Regensberg for the weekend).