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Danube water levels 2019 and similar topics - plus tips and info


notamermaid
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Hi - wondering about the current Danube water levels and predictions for the near future.  We have a 14 day, round trip Passau to the Black Sea cruise coming up on July 2nd.  We are excited about our third river cruise but nervous about possible disruptions.  
 
Thanks for any input, knowing that by asking for “predictions” opens me to “no one can predict…….” criticism!
 
-Johnette
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Let's see. The Danube at Passau is around the critical level for that bridge,  but forecast to fall. The weather forecast for Munich, Regensburg and Passau shows little rain for the next 14 days. It suggests to me that we will see no more flooding in June and the levels going down further. At Pfelling in Bavaria the Danube is still at a good level so with that amount of rain forecast coming and the temperatures not being over 30 degrees I do not anticipate low levels there in June. Predictions are given up to 14 days in advance, so we are now not too far away from the start of your cruise. I would say that it looks promising for that, but as for the duration of your cruise I prefer not to guess. I am also not familiar with Hungary and further downstream. Please have a look further up in the thread where I have given a link to a Hungarian site.

 

notamermaid

 

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Notamermaid thank you so much keeping us posted on the Danube.  We are leaving today for Budapest . . our ship sails on Tuesday.  Posting all your informations has been very helpful.  

 

Thanks again!

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22 minutes ago, MareT said:

Notamermaid thank you so much keeping us posted on the Danube.  We are leaving today for Budapest . . our ship sails on Tuesday.  Posting all your informations has been very helpful.  

 

Thanks again!

  Enjoy your trip.. We will be flying out of Newark in Oct. to Charlotte and on to Munich .. should be a great trip with Oktoberfest 🙂 

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Thank you so much Notamermaid for your research and experience.  I'm so happy to hear your analysis of the current and predicted situation. Your help on the this topic has been so very, very helpful to all of us cruising on the Danube this year.

 

- Johnette

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Thank you for all the info. We are on the Emerald Sky from Amsterdam to Budapest, July 12-26. Concerned, of course, about the river levels but we have no control over the weather. More of a concern now is the drone threats over LHR which may interfere with our flights since we are flying  ATL-LHR-AMS. If it's not one thing, it's another!

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The weather forecast has been adjusted so that this week will see temperatures a little higher than before, with Regensburg having up to three days with 30 Celsius and above. It will be rainier in Munich though. Currently there is a hail storm sweeping over the Munich area.

 

Stay safe, steamboats.

 

notamermaid

 

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On 6/10/2019 at 12:19 PM, notamermaid said:

The weather forecast has been adjusted so that this week will see temperatures a little higher than before, with Regensburg having up to three days with 30 Celsius and above. It will be rainier in Munich though. Currently there is a hail storm sweeping over the Munich area.

 

Stay safe, steamboats.

 

notamermaid

 

Hi,

Thank you so much for the valuable information you provide. We’ll be on the Viking Passau to Budapest 6/18-25. I was wondering if you’ve heard anything regarding the water levels for that time. Additionally, I was wondering if you have an update on the situation in Budapest. We hear nothing about it in the US. Thank you in advance.

Nancy 

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Nancy,

 

Thank you, happy to help.

 

The Danube at Passau is a little high, but not on flooding status. That means the problem is the low bridge there, how that will affect your cruise I cannot say, as it depends on where your ship will be in the days up to your cruise and where it will dock to pick you up. Snow melt in Tyrol paired with rain and high temperatures have led to severe flooding and warnings for the Inn river. That river meets the Danube in Passau. Again, how that will affect your docking there, I cannot say. G.M.T. is our expert for the geography there. This is an article with photos from Innsbruck: https://www.tt.com/panorama/natur/15740599/hochwasser-am-inn-lage-angespannt-b171-und-bruecken-gesperrt

The Danube from Regensburg downstream will not bring that much water in the next few days, only moderate amounts of rain. That does not seem too bad, but sounds as if the bridge could be tricky for days to come. It is not a problem for all ships, two passenger-level ships have no problems, with the three passenger-level ships it depends. You would need to speak to your company.

 

For current events in Budapest I cannot say what is happening beyond what the newspaper websites feed us.

 

For river levels in Hungary please look here: http://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/index.html

A forecast in the proper sense is only available around six days out (switch to graph on the website from here: http://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/hidelo.html) with an inbuilt error interval.

 

notamermaid

 

 

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

The upper reaches of the River Inn, around Innsbruck are experiencing high water levels of the century.

 

This will hit Passau, later this week. As the Inn carries more water in volume, it will act as dam for the Danube and it's water will be backed up. Could see some flooding in Passau.

 

https://tirol.orf.at/stories/1975/

So water being pushed back up the Danube. I feared as much.

 

Innsbruck looks bad.

 

notamermaid

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1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

The Danube at Passau is a little high, but not on flooding status. That means the problem is the low bridge there

 

There has been lots of mention of dredging out the channels to help with low-water situations.  Is there any talk of raising this bridge to help with high water?

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Last summer about this time, the worry on Danube was LOW water.  We sailed Basel to Vienna first week of July.  Boats were stranded all over the place.  Some cruisers had been bused TWICE so were on their third ship.  We were on Avalon.  Their ships are very new and have a very shallow draft.  We sailed on through without a problem, though the captain did express concerns a couple of times.  At some ports,   cruisers on other lines said they were shocked to see us sail in, as their ship had been stranded for a few days and they were being bused everywhere.  

I guess it got worse after our cruise because later Avalon cruises had some issues.  We were just very fortunate.  We were on three Avalon cruises in the past five years, two of which involved low water concerns on the Danube that disrupted other cruise lines.  We were blessed that it didn't affect us.

 

Now, we are booking a Linz to Budapest on Avalon in late August/early September.  With high water to this point, I'm hoping the levels will stay decent for our cruise.  Too far away to guess right now.

 

Cheers!

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2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

There has been lots of mention of dredging out the channels to help with low-water situations.  Is there any talk of raising this bridge to help with high water?

 

No, it´s not just dredging. There are two plans - one would need a dam and lock plus sort of a new canal to cut off a bend.

 

Raising bridges would mean that you have to build a complete new bridge. That´s a task for several years plus most of the bridges are pretty high in traffic. Any constructions wouldn´t really please the commuters.

 

steamboats

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GMT & Notamermaid,

 

Thank you so much for the information. We’re on Viking. The itinerary is:

Passau, Linz, Krems, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest.

In your opinion, will there have to be ship swaps due to high water for 6/18-6/25? 

It will help us in how we pack. 

Thank you again,

Nancy

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13 hours ago, Cairn Mom said:

GMT & Notamermaid,

 

Thank you so much for the information. We’re on Viking. The itinerary is:

Passau, Linz, Krems, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest.

In your opinion, will there have to be ship swaps due to high water for 6/18-6/25? 

It will help us in how we pack. 

Thank you again,

Nancy

The Danube at Passau is still abit high - but falling, the Inn is very high and risng some but should start to fall beginning of next week. Weather for next 7 days, some cloud and sunny intervals at about 27°C.

 

Normally ship swaps to not happen when the Danube is running high (except in Passau because of a low bridge, this would involve a coach journey of about 5 Km.). Ship swaps are when the Danube is extremely low and ships cannot navigate the shallows, e.g. the Danube situation last year.

 

Have a great cruise.

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

The Danube at Passau is still abit high - but falling, the Inn is very high and risng some but should start to fall beginning of next week. Weather for next 7 days, some cloud and sunny intervals at about 27°C.

 

Normally ship swaps to not happen when the Danube is running high (except in Passau because of a low bridge, this would involve a coach journey of about 5 Km.). Ship swaps are when the Danube is extremely low and ships cannot navigate the shallows, e.g. the Danube situation last year.

 

Have a great cruise.

Thx

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3 hours ago, thunter1224 said:

So when there is a ship swap.. we have to pack up all our belongings and they move it to another ship ? 

 

Yes.  Most river cruise lines have identical ships (except maybe for decor), so the crew moves your packed bags from your existing cabin into the same cabin on the new ship – usually while you are out on the day's excursion.  You do end up with a different crew because they stay with the ship.

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7 hours ago, Ranch Cruiser said:

I am on gate1 Amsterdam  Budapest leaving 6 19.  What is the info on the riedenburg lock? Is the  lock operational or are ship swaps taking place?  Thanks

 

It´ll be out of service til June 19th - that´s the last news.

 

steamboats

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I got back last from Budapest to Bucharest cruise with Viking. We were supposed to be on Embla boarding Budapest on 5 June but shortly before we left we had an email to say we would be in Lif. Other passengers had travelled from Amsterdam and the Embla couldn't pass under a bridge so after a days sightseeing the coaches took them to Lif and their bags were in the cabin in the new ship. I presume passengers from Lif transferred to Embla. Crew stayed with their ships except from Programme Director who also transferred

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28 minutes ago, pontac said:

I got back last from Budapest to Bucharest cruise with Viking. We were supposed to be on Embla boarding Budapest on 5 June but shortly before we left we had an email to say we would be in Lif. Other passengers had travelled from Amsterdam and the Embla couldn't pass under a bridge so after a days sightseeing the coaches took them to Lif and their bags were in the cabin in the new ship. I presume passengers from Lif transferred to Embla. Crew stayed with their ships except from Programme Director who also transferred

I bet the bridgewas in Payssau.

 

The town missed a great opportunity when the bridge was rebuilt, instead of the suspension bridge they shoud have built a "Tower Bridge" what a sight that would have been.

 

image.thumb.png.e7ddc964026127ee4dacf2166abd9f0e.png

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