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

[bubbulz]

3 hours ago, worldtraveller99 said:

Unfortunately I have already bought our own train tickets from Nuremberg to Munich airport for our return flight - we will see if they will refund us that if the ship then sticks at Passau.

 

Be sure you check your travel insurance as you may be able to get a refund for your train tickets if your itinerary changes.

[Coral]

I personally don't want any rain right now as my trip is coming up. No one wants rain during their cruise.

 

Ok - rain when I am sleeping is ok.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Coral

[hoosier2017]

Hello fellow Danube river cruisers.  Just finished up on the AMA SERENA. Left vilshofen last Friday.  All was great until Wednesday night.  Bused Thursday from Bratislava to Budapest instead of sailing from Vienna to Budapest.  Overnight hotel stay.  AMA did what they could including a group lunch, lovely hotel, and dinner cruise on the Danube (illuminations cruise).  We certainly missed the amazing staff and quality of food we had to leave behind due to the water levels.  Weather for the week was fantastic, but that comes with a price of the water levels continuing to go down in certain areas.  

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, hoosier2017 said:

Hello fellow Danube river cruisers.  Just finished up on the AMA SERENA. Left vilshofen last Friday.  All was great until Wednesday night.  Bused Thursday from Bratislava to Budapest instead of sailing from Vienna to Budapest.  Overnight hotel stay. 

 

That is a pity as even today, other lines have 135m ships moving between Vienna and Budapest...

[worldtraveller99]

Thank you so much GMT and bubbulz - that puts my mind at rest re where we will dock!

 

I don't want to try and cancel or exchange the train tickets in advance in case we do make it. When (if) I get to the station in Passau I will ask them if they can change it? I have printed out the ticket for 2 which I bought online.

[worldtraveller99]

PS Is there any likelihood - at the very beginning of December - that the ship will be able to continue to Regensburg and Nuremberg?

[G.M.T.]

3 hours ago, worldtraveller99 said:

PS Is there any likelihood - at the very beginning of December - that the ship will be able to continue to Regensburg and Nuremberg?

Ask me who is going to win next year's Grand National.

 

No one can say at this time, being 3 weeks out, I find the forecasts only good for upto 8 days. Ask again a week before you leave.

[worldtraveller99]

Thank you! Though a tip for the Grand National would be good........

[Coral]

3 hours ago, G.M.T. said:

Ask me who is going to win next year's Grand National.

 

No one can say at this time, being 3 weeks out, I find the forecasts only good for upto 8 days. Ask again a week before you leave.

Ours are good for about 16 hours where I live 🙂

[Host Jazzbeau]

7 hours ago, G.M.T. said:

Ask me who is going to win next year's Grand National.

 

No one can say at this time, being 3 weeks out, I find the forecasts only good for upto 8 days. Ask again a week before you leave.

 

3 hours ago, Coral said:

Ours are good for about 16 hours where I live 🙂

 

I see a business opportunity here:  the Old Farmer's Almanac needs an edition for Germany!  They know the weather for New England well over a year in advance – prognosticated by secret 18th or 19th century methods but 'proven' more accurate than modern weather services [granted, that wouldn't be hard to achieve – particularly when you are rating yourself ]

[wmgroot]

We are currently on the Viking Legend cruising Passau to Budapest. We made it as far as Komarno so are getting bussed to Budapest this morning to spend the day there, overnighting there and transfers to plane Sunday.  We were told that none of the Viking ships will be able to cruise south of Vienna until the water levels raise. Our ship has the shallowist draft and that's why we could make it this far, but this is the last time for that to happen until the river raises. 

[Bizmark'sMom]

On 11/9/2018 at 9:52 AM, worldtraveller99 said:

PS Is there any likelihood - at the very beginning of December - that the ship will be able to continue to Regensburg and Nuremberg?

I've been thinking about this myself, because we have several days post cruise planned in Nuremberg.  We are coming up with plans B and C, and making sure everybody packs light so that catching a train won't be a big deal.

[Nodakboiler]

We just returned home from the 23-day Viking European Sojourn from Bucharest to Amsterdam that started on the Aegir. It was an adventure because of the water levels all over Europe. It was a Planes, Boats and Busses tour. We ended up on 4 different ships over the course of the trip. The Viking Staff did an incredible job of helping everybody make the best of some challenging situations. Our trip included three medical emergencies, including a passenger suffering a stroke (leaving the ship in Passau) and turning around so that a crew member could be taken to a hospital in Vidin, Bulgaria. The water levels can change daily as we found out; that means your travel plans might change on multiple occasions on any given day. Despite all of these challenges, we had an incredible time. The former Eastern Bloc countries have a fascinating history, Budapest and Vienna were beautiful, and the quaint German towns were memorable. Enjoy!

[kellyirwin610]

This is encouraging; thank you for your input! We leave on November 18; Nuremberg to Budapest.

[suspaul]

We begin our Avalon River Cruise in Prague 12.4, a few nights hotel before transferring to the Avalon Illumination in Nuremberg 12.7.  I’ve been looking, well OK obsessing, and attempting to track the Illumination but  it appears to be on a cruise from/to nowhere.  Please someone enlighten me!!!

[K9pal]

Just returned yesterday from our Viking river cruise on the Danube, Nuremberg to Budapest.  River levels rose about a week before we cruised and at least one Viking boat made the entire journey with no ship swap or bussing.  However, water levels declined again, and we actually had to do TWO ship swaps for our week (11/2 - 11/9).  We made it from Nuremberg to Straubing, where we had a one hour bus ride into Passau for the day.  Viking also did lunch for us at a local restaurant that day, a fixed menu but free beer and wine. The following day we were bussed to Ybbs, and boarded another boat for sailing on to Vienna.  From Vienna we were bussed to Budapest, where we spent our final night on board a third ship.  While the first swap was expected, the second was sprung on us about 36 hours before it happened.  We also talked with people aboard another Viking ship in Vienna, and they had sailed there from Budapest the previous day.  That's how fast the water levels can change. Whether you sail or not also depends on how much water the boat needs to sail, and that differs from cruise line to cruise line.  So my advice is to hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.  We had no rain for the entire week.

[steamboats]

On 11/9/2018 at 1:00 PM, G.M.T. said:

The best ticket is a group Bayern Ticket for Two, €31.00, weekdays can only be used after 09:30, weekens no restrictions.

 

Sorry to correct you, but the Bayern Ticket is valid weekdays after 9 am (not 9:30).

 

steamboats

[PaulS]

We are currently in Prague after our cruise on the Avalon Illumination which was to be from Budapest to Nuremberg. Avalon could not get the ship to Budapest so we had an extra day in Budapest and then were bused from Budapest to Vienna with a stop in Bratislava. We boarded the ship last Saturday and were advised that the water levels were too low to get to Nuremberg so the cruise ended in Passau. The itinerary was slowed down and we docked in Linz overnight Tuesday and then sailed to Passau on Wednesday. On Thursday were were bused to Regensburg and then Friday we bused to Prague. Even though we did not get to Nuremberg, we have had a wonderful time and there were only 57 passengers on the ship. Service was great and the food and wine were good.

 

When we departed the ship on Friday in Passau, the ship was going to stay there for about 10 days until the first Christmas markets cruise. The crew was all going to go home for a brief vacation. 

[G.M.T.]

3 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Sorry to correct you, but the Bayern Ticket is valid weekdays after 9 am (not 9:30).

 

steamboats

No. problem, just trying to save DB some money.

[suspaul]

12 hours ago, K9pal said:

Just returned yesterday from our Viking river cruise on the Danube, Nuremberg to Budapest.  River levels rose about a week before we cruised and at least one Viking boat made the entire journey with no ship swap or bussing.  However, water levels declined again, and we actually had to do TWO ship swaps for our week (11/2 - 11/9).  We made it from Nuremberg to Straubing, where we had a one hour bus ride into Passau for the day.  Viking also did lunch for us at a local restaurant that day, a fixed menu but free beer and wine. The following day we were bussed to Ybbs, and boarded another boat for sailing on to Vienna.  From Vienna we were bussed to Budapest, where we spent our final night on board a third ship.  While the first swap was expected, the second was sprung on us about 36 hours before it happened.  We also talked with people aboard another Viking ship in Vienna, and they had sailed there from Budapest the previous day.  That's how fast the water levels can change. Whether you sail or not also depends on how much water the boat needs to sail, and that differs from cruise line to cruise line.  So my advice is to hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.  We had no rain for the entire week.

Thanks for sharing your journey and I’m so glad you had a wonderful time given the circumstances.  I know a lot can change in a matter of hours and we’re still 21 days from departure but the weather forecasts don’t look good, very little if any rain predicted and again, that could change.  🤞🏼fingers crossed.  

[Jcat2010]

K9 pal,   did Viking offer any adjustment for the second swap?   Since bussing to Budapest misses a large part of the promised cruise itinerary ?

 

 

[CasaM]

We are currently on the Viljhalm in Vienna and were just told we can not sail any further.  We will be bussed to Bratislava tomorrow, then bussed to Budapest with our luggage on Tuesday, which will be a 3 hour drive.  We'll have lunch onboard another ship, the Bragi, which is in Budapest and then do our tour in the afternoon.  Of course it gets dark very early, so the tour won't be the same as one done in daylight. Then we spend the night on Bragi before disembarking Wed. All optional tours are cancelled and money refunded.

 

There was no mention of any credit for the inconvenience or disruption to our sailing.  

[K9pal]

5 hours ago, Jcat2010 said:

K9 pal,   did Viking offer any adjustment for the second swap?   Since bussing to Budapest misses a large part of the promised cruise itinerary ?

 

 

We were told that Viking would contact us with details concerning compensation.  Unfortunately, the program director had no further details other than we could expect some sort of compensation.  I'm sure it will be in the form of a discount on a future cruise 

[Coral]

A friend received 25% off a future cruise on Viking River or Ocean. Their boat could not get to Budapest (where they started). 

[dogs4fun]

We returned from our Danube cruise on Thursday. Gate 1 did not inform us of any change until about 8 hours before embarkation (our embarkation point had changed from Vilshofen to Straubing). We had arrived in Munich 5 days before our cruise commenced so we took the train to Vilshofen & Gate 1 provided a bus to transport us to Straubing. Our cruise director informed us that we would find out at dinner that night whether or not there was ample water to make it to Budapest. We were very concerned that our ship would not make it all the way but we were very fortunate in that from Straubing onward, we made it all the way to Budapest. Spent an additional 5 days post cruise in Budapest - great cruise!