What happens when the River is Low?

[GrammaRama]

The river too high, too low issue is important. Just keep in mind that the problem doesn't happen very much. Sure, you don't want it to be your cruise that is disrupted but the cruise lines only operate cruise during the times of years they don't expect to have problems. Before our first river cruise I looked into it and, going back say 20 years, there seemed to be only a few periods when the river heights were a problem (at least in Europe where we were going).

Being able to switch boats to work around impassible areas was one advantage to companies like Viking who have enough boats on the river to be able to have flexibility when things go wrong.

 

 

Is there a time of the season that should be looked at regarding High/low water levels. I was told a few months ago that Spring might have high water due to Spring run off and the Fall low water due to lack of rain. I have been reading recently of all the problems on the Danube between Passau and Regensburg (I believe) with ships not able to go through. Some posts indicate that their cruise line transports them via land to the other side of the low water and basically switch ships. Others indicate that their cruise line moors at an industrial area and do excursions during the day returning to the moored ship to be used as a hotel overnight. This is all being posted in mid July !! Can anyone (maybe Mother Nature) shed light on whether this is going to be an ongoing problem in the next few years? Looking to book a group trip with our senior club and don't want to be the responsible one for booking the trip at the wrong time.

Is the high/low water levels a problem on just the Danube or are the other European Rivers in the same boat so to speak.

[G.M.T.]

Can anyone (maybe Mother Nature) shed light on whether this is going to be an ongoing problem in the next few years? Looking to book a group trip with our senior club and don't want to be the responsible one for booking the trip at the wrong time.

Is the high/low water levels a problem on just the Danube or are the other European Rivers in the same boat so to speak.

Even mother nature cannot tell you what the river levels will be even in a weeks time.

 

This is a current problem and will be so for years to come, Years ago high water was was separated by decades (i.e. Passau 1954 and 2002) now it is down to years, latest 2002 and 2013 flooding.

 

You will have a better chance of cruising down river from Passau, direction of Budapest than up river towards Regensberg.

 

All rivers can be affected, not only Danube, but Rhine, Elbe etc.

[Prague Shuttle]

My company has been providing private transfers to the boats for many years now, this year is becoming problematic for many of the boats - Viking in particular as their drafts are much lower. Indeed some time ago a barge was stuck (and the barge sent to help it got stuck too) so the boats could not get higher than Kelheim - not to Nuremberg but this has been cleared and now it is low water. In the last 10 days all the passengers that we were planning to take to Nuremberg were sent to Engelhartszell in Austria or even lower. about 20 km from Passau. I think this is more a lack of space for docking - all the Passau docks are full - even Raclau (a messy industrial spot) in most places they are double docked and I saw three boats side by side at Lindau. I just received an email from the clients I dropped off at a Scenic ship yesterday asking for a receipt because Scenic was planning to reimburse them :-)

[steamboats]

Even mother nature cannot tell you what the river levels will be even in a weeks time.

 

Exactly! We had low water in spring when it´s supposed to be high. We had severe flooding in August when we´re supposed to have lower waters.

 

There´s no guarantee for anything regarding the river stage. I wouldn´t chose March or April as it´s more likely to have spring flooding then. I wouldn´t chose second half of July and August as it´s more likely to have low water. But it can be vice versa or no problems at all...

 

steamboats

[jeb_bud]

Thank You, I hope you are right.

 

We are on the Scenic Jewels of Europe, Budapest to Amsterdam next week.

 

 

 

Hi Pete_coach, when you get a chance could you let us know how Scenic is handling the low water? From vesselfinder.com it appears that Scenic Jasper made it to near Passau but she is back in Vienna.

 

Did you do a ship swap? How did it go?

 

 

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[tracyasu]

This is a great site as well to see where ships are currently:

http://www.cruisemapper.com/?mmsi=256306000

[notamermaid]

Here is an article on summing up what river cruise companies do in times of low water. It does not give the full picture of course, there being more than just the companies mentioned: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Uniworld-ship-in-France-getting-makeover (the odd title refers to an article further down the page).

 

 

notamermaid

[Avalon Waterways]

I just got home on Monday night from cruising on Avalon Expression .... Budapest to Prague.

When we got to our hotel in Budapest there was a "M & G " with the Cruise Director.

We had already been informed before leaving that we would spend one night on the Avalon Panorama leaving Budapest and get on the original ship the next day . She then said that we would all be compensated $200 pp to our charge card and currency used when booking this cruise.

We were supposed to have the day sailing but because of low water levels we would be stopping in Pratislava and have a free tour and lunch on them. We then boarded buses to Vienna and boarded our original ship there and spent the night in Vienna.

We had the whole day in Vienna which was nice and didn't leave till 10:30 that night.

 

Then because of very low water and all the ships stuck in Passau we instead went to Linz Austria and they gave us free tours to either Cesky Krumlov or Salzburg. Those that had pre-paid got cash refunds.

 

spent the next day in Passau .

Because the water levels were so low we couldn't get to Nuremburg. They bused us to Regensburg and we were given free lunch vouchers. The people that weren't doing the extra days in Prague were going to be bused to Nuremberg and put up in the Le Meridien Grand Hotel with dinner / breakfast included..

We stayed the night in Passau and then were bused to Prague for our 3 day stay there.

 

All in all I think that Avalon did a great job in keeping us informed and keeping the low river impact to a minimum. They had a meeting every night just before dinner to let us know what was going to happen the next day.

I didn't hear a lot of complaining from fellow passengers. All we really missed was the day of cruising but I think the $200 pp refund was more than enough compensation. There were 10 of us traveling and we all thought the whole package that Avalon offers was "top notch" They were pro-active and we didn't get stuck in Passau with 50 other ships and had a lovely day in Linz instead. Those tours they gave us were all around Euro's pp so that was much appreciated.

I wouldn't hesitate to suggest or book another Avalon cruise. In fact we were all talking about maybe next yr.

 

 

Thank you so much for sailing with us.

It's true ... Sometimes Mother Nature gets in the way of water levels. But when Mother Nature doesn’t rise to the occasion, we do our best to step in to ensure our travelers enjoy every moment of their vacation, even with itinerary changes here and there. Some changes include ship swaps, other times we offer complimentary excursions in exchange for missed sailing moments. In short, we always do our best to do right by our guests.

We are making advanced calls to guests whose itineraries we know will experience low waters, affecting docking locations and more. In the meantime, we are training our team in the latest rain dances to inspire Mother Nature to step up her rain game.

Should others have questions or concerns about an upcoming Danube River cruise, feel free to reach out to your travel agent directly or contact our team at TravelerServices@GlobusFamily.com or 877.333.3920.

[riversonly]

Hi Pete_coach, when you get a chance could you let us know how Scenic is handling the low water? From vesselfinder.com it appears that Scenic Jasper made it to near Passau but she is back in Vienna.

 

Did you do a ship swap? How did it go?

 

 

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We finished the Gems of the Danube on Scenic Thursday - from Nuremberg to Budapest. We were supposed to be on the Scenic Amber but boarded the Scenic Jade instead as the ships get stuck in sections of the river due to low water levels. We were told the day before departure that we would board the Jade and have a ship swap from the Jade in Regensburg to the Jasper in Linz. This was a day we were scheduled for a full day trip to Salzburg anyway, so we just had to pack and leave the bags and they were in our rooms on the Jasper when we returned. It was handled very well. We were very lucky that this was the only disruption on our trip except an hour delay in arriving in Budapest as the ship had to slow down due to low water levels. In all, Scenic communicated on board went very well and handled the ship swap seamlessly. I would say I’ve seen other lines communicate better before the cruise starts. Viking for example has updates on cruises that may be impacted on their web site. Scenic gave one day notice.

 

Good luck.

[Adventures ahead]

We finished the Gems of the Danube on Scenic Thursday - from Nuremberg to Budapest. We were supposed to be on the Scenic Amber but boarded the Scenic Jade instead as the ships get stuck in sections of the river due to low water levels. We were told the day before departure that we would board the Jade and have a ship swap from the Jade in Regensburg to the Jasper in Linz. This was a day we were scheduled for a full day trip to Salzburg anyway, so we just had to pack and leave the bags and they were in our rooms on the Jasper when we returned. It was handled very well. We were very lucky that this was the only disruption on our trip except an hour delay in arriving in Budapest as the ship had to slow down due to low water levels. In all, Scenic communicated on board went very well and handled the ship swap seamlessly. I would say I’ve seen other lines communicate better before the cruise starts. Viking for example has updates on cruises that may be impacted on their web site. Scenic gave one day notice.

 

Good luck.

 

Also Gems of the Danube...

Two days ago, someone who was supposed to be boarding the Amber in Budapest was boarded on the Jasper, must have been as you were disembarking.

 

We're supposed to be boarding the Amber in Budapest on Aug 16. I'm curious about why you weren't on the Amber at all, given that was the ship you booked on. I was looking forward to being on the Amber as it's a bit newer, although identical layout. Has the Amber been spotted? I can't see if it's stuck around Passau and, at this point, who (what sailing) would still be on it?

 

BTW (off topic), how was the heat wave?

Edited August 4, 2018 by Adventures ahead

[sbjornda]

Has the Amber been spotted? I can't see if it's stuck around Passau and, at this point, who (what sailing) would still be on it?

According to cruisemapper.com it's currently in Vienna. According to anyoverip.de it left Passau a few days ago. I expect you'll catch it in Budapest no problem.

 

Sterling

[Adventures ahead]

According to cruisemapper.com it's currently in Vienna. According to anyoverip.de it left Passau a few days ago. I expect you'll catch it in Budapest no problem.

 

Sterling

:D Thanks for the update.

[riversonly]

Also Gems of the Danube...

Two days ago, someone who was supposed to be boarding the Amber in Budapest was boarded on the Jasper, must have been as you were disembarking.

 

We're supposed to be boarding the Amber in Budapest on Aug 16. I'm curious about why you weren't on the Amber at all, given that was the ship you booked on. I was looking forward to being on the Amber as it's a bit newer, although identical layout. Has the Amber been spotted? I can't see if it's stuck around Passau and, at this point, who (what sailing) would still be on it?

 

BTW (off topic), how was the heat wave?

 

I don’t know why we boarded the Jasper vs the Amber - I’m guessing it was jus the logistics of trying to keep all the cruises as best they could with all the disruption. That said, the Jasper and the Amber were built the same year, so I don’t expect there’s much if any difference. I expected a big difference moving from the Jade to the Jasper since the Jasper is the latest generation, but we didn’t see it. The Jasper had a small “pool” (more of a hot tub) and the room layout was slightly different (not the rooms - how they were arranged). We didn’t use the pool, so we saw zero difference - both were very nice.

 

The heat was pretty oppressive, but we managed. We were going to take the bike tour, but decided better of it.

 

Enjoy your cruise

[jeb_bud]

Actually, while Jasper, Opal and Amber are sister ships Amber is a year or two newer than the others. I had thought they are identical but in a recent post someone said that Amber has screens in addition to the windows on the sunlounges. I’m pretty sure Opal did not have screens when we were on her in 2015. There were no bugs so it didn’t matter to us.

 

 

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[pete_coach]

Hi Pete_coach, when you get a chance could you let us know how Scenic is handling the low water? From vesselfinder.com it appears that Scenic Jasper made it to near Passau but she is back in Vienna.

 

Did you do a ship swap? How did it go?

 

 

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Well, we just got back. We spent an extra week in Belgium and Germany.

Long story short. We Left Budapest on the Amber as opposed to the Jasper becasue the Jasper could not make it to Budapest.. We had to change ships 3 times and had to take a ferry through the Rhine Gorge as none of the Scenic ships could get there.

 

Amber to Regensburg, then the Ruby to Rudeshiem then the Opal to Amsterdam (Oh and the Boppard Ferry down the Rhine Gorge in between. Imagine, a regular ferry for local folks and then another 160 people from a river cruise ship getting on.).

Nothing you can do about Mother Nature but it was too bad and the trip was, in my opinion, spoiled by lots of bus rides and transfers and packing, unpacking and re-packing.

From the sounds of it, Scenic did a lot of bus transfers for a lot of ships and customers. Some even ha to stay in hotels for part of their trip. To be fair, Scenic was not alone in having difficulty getting up and down rives. All other cruise lines had the same problem with the longer cruises. The shorter ones may not have been affected. We met people in the hotel in Amsterdam that had their cruises cancelled. They found out when they checked in.

A pretty big disappointment over all.

Edited August 22, 2018 by pete_coach

[jeb_bud]

That does sound like a lot of stress and inconvenience. My metric for a successful river cruise has been that we are able to sleep on the ship every night. By that metric your cruise was a success but after reading of your experience I think my metric is a little too generous. That was a lot of packing and unpacking.

 

 

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[pete_coach]

That does sound like a lot of stress and inconvenience. My metric for a successful river cruise has been that we are able to sleep on the ship every night. By that metric your cruise was a success but after reading of your experience I think my metric is a little too generous. That was a lot of packing and unpacking.

 

 

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Yes, it was. We were really looking forward to the river cruise, especially on Scenic.

 

As said, can't argue with Mother Nature but it sure ruined the experience we had so long anticipated. We purposely booked on the newest boat they have and never even saw it, let alone get on it. We started off on an newer boat and then progressively got ones with lesser amenities.

 

Scenic does have a River Cruise Guarantee and said they would refund moneys for the inconvenience. I did all they asked but the Chubb (their insurer) website is geared for Australians and would not work properly for persons form other Countries. I contacted Scenic USA and they gave me an alternative method and did that. It has been a week now and had no communication or even acknowledgment of claim from them. Perhaps they are overloaded with claims as all Scenic cruises have been affected for months now due to the low water levels in the rivers.