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

[Second seating]

The nighttime cruise is beautiful, I saw it a few years ago.

 

Second seating

[bubbulz]

3 minutes ago, Second seating said:

The nighttime cruise is beautiful, I saw it a few years ago.

 

Second seating

 

Agreed!

[Deval]

So today Ama emailed us with the changes to our 12/2-12/9 itinerary.  After a night at Kempinski Budapest we’ll be bussed to Vienna to board AmaViola instead of AmaLea.  We’re bummed, we purposely booked this Christmas Markets trip to cruise on the brand new Lea!  

 

The itinerary now spends 3 full days in Vienna but looks like Ama is working the revised cities and tours to make the best of a bad situation.  The cruise was supposed to end in Nuremberg but now we’ll be transferred from Vilshofen on morning of disembarkation.  We have an 11am flight to Zurich so I hope they can accommodate us and get us to the airport on time.

 

We are remaining optimistic, especially given a deviated itinerary is 1,000 times better than spending the time home at work!  As the saying goes, we’re making lemonade out of lemons!!

 

DAY #	PORT	ARRIVAL	DEPARTURE	ITINERARY
1	Budapest	-	-	Hotel Check-in in Budapest for arriving guests Evening Illumination cruise
2	Vienna	-	Overnight	Morning city tour in Budapest Embark AmaLea in Vienna
3	Vienna	-	Overnight	Morning walking tour in Vienna or Bike tour Afternoon Bratislava Walking tour or Hiking excursion or Tastes of Bratislava or Shuttles into for Vienna for Christmas Markets
4	Vienna	-	Midnight	Morning Shuttles into Vienna Afternoon Schönbrunn Palace &  Karlsplatz Christmas Markets
5	Dürnstein	7:30am	12:00pm	Morning Walking tour & Wine Tasting or Hiking excursion or Apricots & sweets tasting or Afternoon Durnstein to Melk Bike
5	Melk	3:00pm	8:00pm	Afternoon tour of the Melk Abbey
6	Linz	7:00am	Midnight	Linz Walking Tour or Bike Tour Full day Salzburg excursion or Cesky Krumlov Tour or Half Day Salzburg
7	Passau	8:00am	12:00pm	AM: Walking tour or bike or hike
7	Vilshofen	3:00pm	Overnight	Oktoberfest (Schweiklberg Abbey)
8	Vilshofen			Disembark

[peregrino]

On 11/24/2018 at 12:49 AM, JAG64 said:

Vienna by imperator Monday for two night and then flying to Amsterdam for a 11 day cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium.

 

Hi JAG64, we are on the "cruise" after yours, supposedly from Amsterdam to Budapest. 

We expect that we will get the mirror image of what happens to your cruise, unless it suddenly and unexpectedly "buckets down" in the headwaters of the Rhine.  BIG buckets!!!

Do you know if you will see Cologne or the Rhine Gorge at all?  If the water levels rise, will they change the back-end of your trip to include the Moselle, for example?

Thanks in advance for any info that you can provide.

[pully8]

Yes would like to know how that cruise is going too. A brief search looks as if the AMAVenita left Rotterdam and is now in Amsterdam.

It would appear they started the land bit in Budapest on Saturday, perhaps 2 nights Budapest and 2 in Vienna then flight to Amsterdam?  

Hope you learn soon what they are offering for your cruise, ours is Budapest to Amsterdam I think after yours. 

[G.M.T.]

A cold sunny dry day along the Danube (my part at least).The river is maintaining the levels.

 

After yesterdays 3 ships braving the Danube shallows, let have a look at what today brings. Looks like another 3 ships are trying to get to Regensburg, Avalon Expression (135m) is approach Pfeilling, Emily Bronte (135m) and Amelia (135m) are not far behind, both these ships overnighted in Deggendorf probably to unload fuel and water to make them lighter and with less draft. Espirit (110m) is approaching Deggendorf, we'll see what she will do.

 

I think the ships are not trying to beat low water levels but more like doing a runner from angry bus (ex cruise) passengers.

 

[notamermaid]

13 minutes ago, G.M.T. said:

A cold sunny dry day along the Danube (my part at least).The river is maintaining the levels.

 

After yesterdays 3 ships braving the Danube shallows, let have a look at what today brings. Looks like another 3 ships are trying to get to Regensburg, Avalon Expression (135m) is approach Pfeilling, Emily Bronte (135m) and Amelia (135m) are not far behind, both these ships overnighted in Deggendorf probably to unload fuel and water to make them lighter and with less draft. Espirit (110m) is approaching Deggendorf, we'll see what she will do.

 

I think the ships are not trying to beat low water levels but more like doing a runner from angry bus (ex cruise) passengers.

 

Escaping from the Danube to get away from the grin Lol "Vikingitis" at Straubing into the safer waters of the Canal perhaps?

 

Offenbach on the Main is currently the cheap (financially) hiding place of the other companies.

 

I do wonder if the Christmas market cruises on the Main can all take place? Nuremberg to Frankfurt or Nuremberg round-trip are popular standards. It would be somewhat frustrating if a company had a ship at Passau and a ship at Cologne neither of them making it onto the Main and ship swaps occupying the other ships. Are any desperately trying to get through the shallows empty just to relocate?

 

I think two thinking caps are needed in these logistical nightmares. One is not enough.

 

On the Rhine not much is happening, apart from the unusual actions of the Robert Burns. And the small ships are quietly smiling and thinking their part while sailing past the luxurious large vessels stuck in harbours...

 

notamermaid

 

[G.M.T.]

1 hour ago, G.M.T. said:

A cold sunny dry day along the Danube (my part at least).The river is maintaining the levels.

 

After yesterdays 3 ships braving the Danube shallows, let have a look at what today brings. Looks like another 3 ships are trying to get to Regensburg, Avalon Expression (135m) is approach Pfeilling, Emily Bronte (135m) and Amelia (135m) are not far behind, both these ships overnighted in Deggendorf probably to unload fuel and water to make them lighter and with less draft. Espirit (110m) is approaching Deggendorf, we'll see what she will do.

 

I think the ships are not trying to beat low water levels but more like doing a runner from angry bus (ex cruise) passengers.

 

Well the three ships made it to Straubing, Esprit is still struggling along.

 

A new development, the first ship is on it's way downstream Heidelberg (110m).

 

The river prediction is for the levls to fall.

[Trvlcrazy]

11 hours ago, Deval said:

So today Ama emailed us with the changes to our 12/2-12/9 itinerary.  After a night at Kempinski Budapest we’ll be bussed to Vienna to board AmaViola instead of AmaLea.  We’re bummed, we purposely booked this Christmas Markets trip to cruise on the brand new Lea!  

 

Hi, what was your original trip called ?  original ship Ama Lea ?  The itinerary you copied in your post still shows Ama Lea.

I want to understand how much of itinerary was changed.  Mine is Ama Viola departing on Dec 7

[suspaul]

On 11/27/2018 at 8:37 AM, G.M.T. said:

Suspaul, it's been a pleasure accompanying you these last few days.

 

Have a great time in PBP, all great cities.

 

Thanks G.M.T., we will have a fabulous time and are actually looking forward to this change.  We have lived in northern Germany and travel independently often but lately we’ve fallen under the spell of river cruising - and that can be a good thing too!  

 

Thank you for taking time to add so much especially in this time of travel uncertainty with weather challenges.

 

Good luck with your own challenges, MIL!

 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!!

 

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by suspaul

[suspaul]

On 11/27/2018 at 7:46 AM, notamermaid said:

I am so sorry to read that. After the email, I know what you mean with relief, you can actually plan the alternatives properly. Good that you were able to change things with your tour company and TA. And your new plan sounds great. Although I do not know the details, putting those three cities into a holiday in Advent sounds exciting.

 

Have a great trip.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thanks for the good wishes notamermaid!   Putting our Plan B in effect, we’re ready to leave in a few days and know we’ll have a wonderful time, it’s hard not to enjoy the ambiance and beauty of the holidays in Europe!

 

Thanks again for all of the help you’ve provided, and continue to provide,  for all of us facing weather challenges.  

 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!!!

[notamermaid]

2 minutes ago, suspaul said:

 

Thanks for the good wishes notamermaid!   Putting our Plan B in effect, we’re ready to leave in a few days and know we’ll have a wonderful time, it’s hard not to enjoy the ambiance and beauty of the holidays in Europe!

 

Thanks again for all of the help you’ve provided, and continue to provide,  for all of us facing weather challenges.  

 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!!!

aahh, Thank you!

 

Fröhliche Weihnachten to you, too.

 

notamermaid

 

[suspaul]

16 hours ago, mtkprint said:

When were you travelling and with which company?  We are seriously looking at cancelling ours in the next few days. we are supposed to sail on 22 December but have heard nothing from AMA. Every time we contact them all we get back is it is too far away and they will get back to us with the itinerary closer to sailing date and that any itinerary may change up to the date of departure. Future cruise money is absolutely no good to us. We are in Australia and are certainly not paying going to Europe just to do a 7 day cruise. We booked this because it worked in with other things we were doing as we were going to be in the UK at the time and for the experience of a white Christmas. if this has been going on for months why don't they have an alternative itinerary which can work and put it out so everyone knows what is happening. Probably because too many would cancel and they would loose money.

 

mtkprint,  wishing you safe travels, I believe you leave Australia soon and I sincerely hope the water levels rise and your river cruise on the 22 December runs with no problems.  

 

We depart the US Monday, 3 December, now that the travel changes have been made and there’s no worries about what may or may not be for our river cruise we’re quite excited.  I do have a bit of sympathy for the companies, while I’m sure they’re attempting to make acceptable changes,  the lack of communication is beyond frustrating, especially since this has been an ongoing situation for months now.   We are extremely fortunate that our travel company and TA worked hard to accommodate by giving us options, cancellation being one of them.

 

Enjoy your holiday in Europe.

 

 

[Deval]

3 hours ago, Trvlcrazy said:

 

Hi, what was your original trip called ?  original ship Ama Lea ?  The itinerary you copied in your post still shows Ama Lea.

I want to understand how much of itinerary was changed.  Mine is Ama Viola departing on Dec 7

 

We’re on the Iconic Christmas Markets on AmaLea.  When I first accessed the page the table had AmaViola.  They must have realized the error and corrected it by the time I went back in to copy the table.  My wife is calling AMA today just to confirm. The itinerary is pretty different than what we booked:  https://www.amawaterways.com/destination/europe-river-cruises/2018/iconic-christmas-markets

[FoxHallFamily]

We are on the Ama Magical Christmas Markets cruise, originally departing Nuremberg on Dec. 1st.  Ama sent us a second revised itinerary yesterday, which we don't like as well as the first revised.  The first revision had us cruising to Esztergom and closer to Budapest, which we believe would have significantly reduced the bus travel time to Budapest.  Now we are in Vienna for multiple days, with we believe a 3-4 hour long (each way) proposed bus excursion to Budapest.  We are also assuming we will be stacked up with multiple boats in Vienna and potentially unable to look out our balcony.  There are a couple times on the itinerary that don't make sense, so we're hoping it might change again, and we have inquired with Ama.  We shall see . . . but we're feeling disappointed at the moment.

 

 

DAY #	PORT	ARRIVAL	DEPARTURE	ITINERARY
1	Passau			Embarkation
2	Passau	-	10:00pm	Morning excursion to Vilshofen for walking tour or Bike tour or Hiking excursion
3	Linz	5:30 am	12:00 am	Linz Walking Tour & Christmas Markets or Bike tour or Full Day Salzburg Afternoon visit to Cesky Krumlov
4	Melk	9:00 am	12:00 am	Morning excursion to the Melk Abbey or Melk Bike or Melk-Durnstein Bike
4	Durnstein	3:00 pm	2:00 am	Durnstein Walking Tour or Apricots & Sweets Tasting
5	Vienna	8:00 am	Overnight	Morning City Tour & Rathaus Christmas Markets Afternoon  Schonbrunn & Karlplatz markets or Bike tour
6	Vienna	-	12:00 am	Budapest Excursion & Vörösmarty Christmas Markets
7	Tulln	3:30 am	8:00 am	Morning cruise
7	Vienna	1:00 pm	Overnight	Afternoon Walking Tour or Hiking excursion or Tastes of Bratislava
8	Vienna	3:00		Disembarkation

[Trvlcrazy]

30 minutes ago, Deval said:

 

We’re on the Iconic Christmas Markets on AmaLea.  When I first accessed the page the table had AmaViola.  They must have realized the error and corrected it by the time I went back in to copy the table.  My wife is calling AMA today just to confirm. The itinerary is pretty different than what we booked:  https://www.amawaterways.com/destination/europe-river-cruises/2018/iconic-christmas-markets

Hi Deval, I am on the Iconic after yours.  I will probably hear a changed itinerary on mine any time soon.  Did the starting and ending ports remain same or have they changed ?  Nuremberg is not even on your itinerary now.  Did you buy flights from Ama or on your own ?  If on your own, how far are the changed ports to airports with your flights ?  I am following your updates really closely...  thank you for taking the time

[G.M.T.]

6 hours ago, suspaul said:

 

Thanks G.M.T., we will have a fabulous time and are actually looking forward to this change.  We have lived in northern Germany and travel independently often but lately we’ve fallen under the spell of river cruising - and that can be a good thing too!  

 

Thank you for taking time to add so much especially in this time of travel uncertainty with weather challenges.

 

Good luck with your own challenges, MIL!

 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!!

 

 

Suspaul, thank you for bring dear MiL up, I was trying to forget her.

 

Talking about bring up, everytime I think about her (or is it) I keep bringing my dinner up.

 

Sad day, this afternoon we laid dear MiL to rest.

 

Dear MiL tripped over an empty gin bottle, hurt her ankle and has to rest for a couple of days.🤐

 

 

 

[suspaul]

1 hour ago, G.M.T. said:

Suspaul, thank you for bring dear MiL up, I was trying to forget her.

 

Talking about bring up, everytime I think about her (or is it) I keep bringing my dinner up.

 

Sad day, this afternoon we laid dear MiL to rest.

 

Dear MiL tripped over an empty gin bottle, hurt her ankle and has to rest for a couple of days.🤐

 

 

 

 

G.M.T, I’m still laughing!  

 

I was trolling the internet this afternoon and came across this

https://muth.at/en/produktionen/gute-hirten-the-good-shepherds-2018/

 

We were able to get tickets for the performance on 11.12, not many choices left but we were able to get row 1 in the Galerie, 2 end seats!  It seems like a special evening, we’ve always been interested in seeing the Vienna Boys Choir and this is the icing on the cake. Very very excited.

 

If anyone is interested, there are concerts for 5 nights I believe.  Just look at the link above!

 

[Lggva]

Leaving for Europe tomorrow, still praying for rain we are supposed to be on the Viking Alta Nuremberg to Budapest Romantic Danube departing Dec. 2. Any updates appreciated. 

[Vinny123]

Lggva,

Our group is on the same itinerary on 12/22... (Uniworld Beatrice) please keep posting about your trip so we’ll have some first hand updates about the conditions.. we’ll really appreciate your communication.

thanks, Vinny123 

[Lggva]

11 minutes ago, Vinny123 said:

Lggva,

Our group is on the same itinerary on 12/22... (Uniworld Beatrice) please keep posting about your trip so we’ll have some first hand updates about the conditions.. we’ll really appreciate your communication.

thanks, Vinny123 

Happy to share. Planning for a good time no matter what Mother Nature has in store. Christmas Markets are beautiful. I’ll post next week. 

[Vinny123]

Thanks again, hope you have a wonderful trip !

[Deval]

9 hours ago, Trvlcrazy said:

Hi Deval, I am on the Iconic after yours.  I will probably hear a changed itinerary on mine any time soon.  Did the starting and ending ports remain same or have they changed ?  Nuremberg is not even on your itinerary now.  Did you buy flights from Ama or on your own ?  If on your own, how far are the changed ports to airports with your flights ?  I am following your updates really closely...  thank you for taking the time

 

We’re still starting in Budapest but being put up in hotel for 1 night.  Was originally Kempinski but now we’ll be in Sofitel.  We’ll still have illuminations cruise & city tour next morning, then 3 hr bus ride to board Lea in Vienna.  Cruise now ends in Vilshofen & Ama said they will transfer us to Nuremberg (2.5 hrs).  We booked our own flights, we’re flying to Zurich & staying in Lucerne for 2 nights before returning to FL.

[G.M.T.]

The Danube levels between Passau and Regensburg continue to fall, this time tomorrow they will be back to the same level as before the recent rain. Haven't seen any cruise ship pass through this area.

 

Beautiful sunny, cloudless sky, but cold minus 5°C.

 

I have a feeling that this current weather patent will stay with us until al least New Year (end of the cruising season).

[Jcat2010]

Lggva.   Assume you are on the Viking Jarl on Dec 2.  Keep us posted, we're following you on the 9th. 

 

 Jarl is currently in Straubing , between Regensburg and Passau.  That's as far down river as it got.  It will likely head back to Nuremberg today (the Dec 1, Egil is already on its way back to Nuremberg).  Unfortunately, no viking ship has moved east of straubing .  so you'll be bussing it to Passau.    looks like somewhere around Linz, you'll meet up with another viking ship after your bus tour(atla and three more are moving between Vienna and Linz). 

 

I've not seen much viking traffic between Vienna and Budapest.   There are currently three viking "hotel" ships that have been stationary in Budapest for the last few weeks.