Which river cruise lines are more likely to use busses when water levels on Rhine

are higher or lower than normal.?

Last river cruise was in 2014 on Danube and alot of complaints about Avalon and Viking bussing when AMA waterways did not. Wonder if that has changed with new ships and different on Rhine. Looking to go in 2019,Thanks

You'll have to do some sleuthing. Not sure if all the cruise companies post details about their individual ships. The magic number for low water is the draft of a ship. That is how much of the ship is below the water line.

You'll have to do some sleuthing. Not sure if all the cruise companies post details about their individual ships. The magic number for low water is the draft of a ship. That is how much of the ship is below the water line.

notamermaid did some research about the draft figures for various river ships, and it didn't always seem to match the experience of those ships in low water situations. I think the experience of the Captain is another factor -- some Captains know the river very well and are confident to power through areas where they know there is a sandy bottom, while other Captains are very cautious because they aren't sure where the rocks are.

notamermaid did some research about the draft figures for various river ships, and it didn't always seem to match the experience of those ships in low water situations. I think the experience of the Captain is another factor -- some Captains know the river very well and are confident to power through areas where they know there is a sandy bottom, while other Captains are very cautious because they aren't sure where the rocks are.

That is right. It is very difficult to get hold of figures, even more so with German lines. CroisiEurope once published a statement for the Elbe saying that "x" % of all the itineraries fully took place. You only seem to get answers when you ask directly. From what past cruisers have reported Viking appears to have a policy of swapping ships and bussing inbetween, rather than giving you the option to cancel. They can do that as they now normally have two ships going in either direction that more or less meet in the middle on the Rhine. A policy that I would normally applaud. It is just that some people prefer not to go rather than face the prospect of being on a bus.

I find the Rhine is a little easier to handle in low water situations as the worst part is the middle section of the Rhine Getaway itinerary by Viking for example. Swapping is easy. It gets trickier if your itinerary is Budapest to Amsterdam. Starting in Budapest you might not know yet what awaits you on the Rhine. In low water decisions need to be made at short notice and the captain in the end decides whether it is safe to sail or not.

In high water the authorities "close" the river for all ships. It is a predetermined figure and can be anticipated to some extent.

As regard the draft of ships. Yes, I tried to get as close as possible to finding a reliable figure but it prooved very difficult for a few ships. marinetraffic has other figures than shipyards. They sometimes give empty versus full figures. But that does not directly translate into whether a ship will "fall victim" to a bus tour.

I have as a general rule figured out that the 110m ships have lower drafts than the 135m ships ( the width these days is usually the same) which gives the former ones a few inches advantage over the latter ones in low water. During flooding that makes no difference unless it is a low bridge that needs navigating under and need not even be the case then. On the Rhine low bridges are rarely an issue (there seems to be a tricky one near Basel harbour, but past cruisers comments were not clear). The Danube has a notorious one in Passau.

I have answered a past cruiser's question of "when to go to avoid low water" to ensure no bus tour, to choose a 110m ship and to avoid October. But this can only be a tip, never an assurance. For high water it is more diffcult, there I would say go between June and September. But we had a bad year a few years ago when the river was closed beginning of June in several sections for two days or so (cannot recall exact dates or figures). So, again this can only be a guideline.

How the several river cruise lines react in such situation depends on how many ships they have on the river, low or high water and the forecast for the next two days, where the ship is in its itinerary, etc. and the general policy of the company.

I fear there is no definite answer to your question. To get close to a statistically viable answer one would need to ask many river cruisers I think: which company, which itinerary, high or low water, where from to, which ship.

The determining levels for river closure are available online at pegelonline.de (I have mentioned the figures in the thread on the Rhine in the past), a rough figure for problems with low water I could establish as being 90cm at Kaub in the Middle Rhine valley. At that figure one ship might stop sailing while another will carry on. This is the best I can do to help with your question. Sorry it is a long post, hope it helps.

notamermaid

That is right. It is very difficult to get hold of figures, even more so with German lines. CroisiEurope once published a statement for the Elbe saying that "x" % of all the itineraries fully took place. You only seem to get answers when you ask directly. From what past cruisers have reported Viking appears to have a policy of swapping ships and bussing inbetween, rather than giving you the option to cancel. They can do that as they now normally have two ships going in either direction that more or less meet in the middle on the Rhine. A policy that I would normally applaud. It is just that some people prefer not to go rather than face the prospect of being on a bus.

 

I find the Rhine is a little easier to handle in low water situations as the worst part is the middle section of the Rhine Getaway itinerary by Viking for example. Swapping is easy. It gets trickier if your itinerary is Budapest to Amsterdam. Starting in Budapest you might not know yet what awaits you on the Rhine. In low water decisions need to be made at short notice and the captain in the end decides whether it is safe to sail or not.

 

In high water the authorities "close" the river for all ships. It is a predetermined figure and can be anticipated to some extent.

 

As regard the draft of ships. Yes, I tried to get as close as possible to finding a reliable figure but it prooved very difficult for a few ships. marinetraffic has other figures than shipyards. They sometimes give empty versus full figures. But that does not directly translate into whether a ship will "fall victim" to a bus tour.

 

I have as a general rule figured out that the 110m ships have lower drafts than the 135m ships ( the width these days is usually the same) which gives the former ones a few inches advantage over the latter ones in low water. During flooding that makes no difference unless it is a low bridge that needs navigating under and need not even be the case then. On the Rhine low bridges are rarely an issue (there seems to be a tricky one near Basel harbour, but past cruisers comments were not clear). The Danube has a notorious one in Passau.

 

I have answered a past cruiser's question of "when to go to avoid low water" to ensure no bus tour, to choose a 110m ship and to avoid October. But this can only be a tip, never an assurance. For high water it is more diffcult, there I would say go between June and September. But we had a bad year a few years ago when the river was closed beginning of June in several sections for two days or so (cannot recall exact dates or figures). So, again this can only be a guideline.

 

How the several river cruise lines react in such situation depends on how many ships they have on the river, low or high water and the forecast for the next two days, where the ship is in its itinerary, etc. and the general policy of the company.

 

I fear there is no definite answer to your question. To get close to a statistically viable answer one would need to ask many river cruisers I think: which company, which itinerary, high or low water, where from to, which ship.

 

The determining levels for river closure are available online at pegelonline.de (I have mentioned the figures in the thread on the Rhine in the past), a rough figure for problems with low water I could establish as being 90cm at Kaub in the Middle Rhine valley. At that figure one ship might stop sailing while another will carry on. This is the best I can do to help with your question. Sorry it is a long post, hope it helps.

 

notamermaid

All good points. The other thing to consider is that even the normal draft of the ship may not tell the whole story. For instance, when we were on Uniworld's SS Antionette and we encountered a couple of days of particularly low water levels in parts of the Rhine, the captain emptied the swimming pool for a couple of days. That allowed us to sit a bit higher in the water column and we made it through fine, whereas some other lines were bussing guests.

We were on a Viking Rhine cruise in early May 2015 and were affected by high water levels - the river was closed to traffic for a couple of days. We were unable to start our cruise in Basel because the ship was unable to sail there, were met at the airport and took a bus ride to Breisach where the ship was docked. Following Breisach we were stopped at a dock apparently in the "middle of nowhere" for a couple of days. There was nothing but a dock, an embankment with trees, and stone steps down to a dirt parking lot where we met our excursion buses. From this location we had our excursions to Strasbourg, Colmar, and Alsace wine tasting. Our cruise director said we were closer to Colmar and further from Strasbourg than the usual docking location. Other disruptions included having to spend a whole day in Heidelberg instead of the half-day originally scheduled...not bad, Viking even arranged lunch at a traditional restaurant for us. We sailed to Rudesheim late at night so we missed seeing that city, and got up very early the next morning to sail the castles and Lorelei. We did not stop in Koblenz at all, and were back on schedule for Kinderdjik and arrival in Amsterdam. We didn't feel that we missed anything major and Viking made the best of a bad situation out of their control. As a nice bonus they credited us 25% of the cruise price toward our next cruise, which we gladly used!

Oops, forgot our stop in Cologne. We docked within walking distance and had the included walking tour of the city. I seem to recall that our free time in Cologne was cut a little short to make up time heading north.