Where have the river ships been during the pandemic?

[Turtles06]

A year ago  -- April 2020 -- we were booked on our much-anticipated first European river cruise (Viking's Tulips and Windmills).  Obviously, that didn't happen.  We re-booked for April 2022, and now that we're a year out from that, I've again been thinking about river cruises.   And I just started wondering  -- where have the river ships been for the past year?   There's been so much media attention given to, and discussion in other forums here on CC about, what has happened to the ocean cruise ships during the pandemic -- repatriating crew, warm storage at sea, etc. --  but what about the European river boats?   I know that in "normal times" they don't operate all year, so I imagine they are docked somewhere during the winter/off season, but this has been a very long down time, and getting longer.   Are they all just docked in various places?  In the water?  Storage out of the water?   What will be involved in getting them up and running when the time comes, especially given the long period of inactivity?

 

Thanks for any information!

[notamermaid]

As far as I know they are not out of water, dry dock only when repairs are needed. During Winter they need to be in safe harbours literally, i.e. safe from flooding and away from fast currents on the river. They are usually in the same port every winter and stay mostly on the rivers where they are deployed. They are in the harbours now. They can also be repositioned via the ocean, for example from the Rhine to the Rhone.

 

One such harbour is Cologne Niehl, one of the largest it seems, the photo only shows part of it: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Hafen_Köln_Niehl_I_(Niehler_Hafen)_-_Panorama-07900792.jpg

 

River cruise ships can be up and running within a few weeks, but I do not know any details of logistics like hiring crew, etc. which can be a bit tricky, at least this year when they come from many different home countries.

 

Some ships are not idle in this difficult time, they are used as floating stationary hotels (when guests are allowed on board), or are chartered by another operator if they cannot run for the original company, AmaWaterways will again be doing this from May, lending two ships to a German operator.

 

You can see them clustered as blue dots and ship shape images in various cities on marinetraffic, this is the port of Linz on the Danube for example:

 

 

 

notamermaid

 

[Turtles06]

On 4/11/2021 at 7:31 PM, notamermaid said:

As far as I know they are not out of water, dry dock only when repairs are needed. During Winter they need to be in safe harbours literally, i.e. safe from flooding and away from fast currents on the river. They are usually in the same port every winter and stay mostly on the rivers where they are deployed. They are in the harbours now. . . 

 

Thank you so much for all of the information in your reply!  The photo from Cologne at the link you provided, with all of those boats rafted together, is great.  It had not occurred to me to check marinetraffic.com (duh!), so I did so for the boat we are booked on next year, the Viking Gefjon, and it's docked with many other boats in Cologne.   (The photo to which you linked is from May 2020, but the scene probably looks very similar now, sadly.) Very interesting, and thanks again!

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by Turtles06