Anyone leaving on Rhine/Danube cruise in next couple weeks - don’t go

[cruisr]

19 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Hearing that Avalon did a ship swap and the Imagery II arrived by water in Amsterdam. It picked the passengers up in Koblenz, bussed up from Strasbourg. 

Wow, a 2.5 hour drive on French and German motorways.  How unscenic.  Such an awful situation for the residents and companies in Germany who depend on the river for so many things.  An inconvenience for river cruisers but a disaster for residents.  @notamermaidThanks as always for your very informative posts.

[keeponswimming]

Hello to All,  Thank you for all the information. I am to leave Sept 3 on Grand Circle MS Adagio for the Amsterdam-Bucharest Grand European cruise. After spending days reading here and studying my map its looking very grim.  

As is the case with most of you, the company is giving out no information except to say "itineraries are subject to change" and we will do our best under the circumstances.

Is anyone on this cruise currently that can comment? or on the sister ship MS Aria? I believe they are 125m.

Thank you!

[CPT Trips]

Friends of Overseas Adventure Travel/Grand Circle Travel might have some info. It tends to be more OAT oriented, but check it out on the Zuckerberg site.

[SometimesCruiser]

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

Hearing that Avalon did a ship swap and the Imagery II arrived by water in Amsterdam. It picked the passengers up in Koblenz, bussed up from Strasbourg. 

 

This would be the second swap made with the Visionary, I assume.  Same script from last week....  (Last week, we were bussed from Strasbourg to Rudesheim, then boarded a tourist sight-seeing cruise of the Rhine Gorge.  From the tourist ship, we boarded the Imagery II.)

[milling73]

We board boat at Trier on Monday. Maybe we will know more then. I believe in Viking - this is our 8th cruise with them, and we have always raved about our trips. These are extreme circumstances all over Europe, and to give Viking credit, they are doing their best to give a similar itinerary in seeing the sights / towns, booking us very nice hotels and buses.  
BUT…a similar itinerary is not the same as similar experience. That is where I fault them for not saying upfront what the cruise might or could become, and letting their passengers decide whether to go or wait. 

[CILCIANRQTS]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Well we can safely say that we are monitoring the conditions on this board here. And in an hour's drive* I can personally monitor them by dipping my feet in the water or walking across to an island on dry foot.

 

It is getting comical. Or for a cruiser plain annoying.

To be fair, rain is forecast so as you are now in Paris, by the time you get to the Rhine you just about may be lucky to actually sail through on your second attempt. Wednesday into Thursday conditions may improve. But it is all still tentative.  Not sure when you will be in Koblenz.

 

Why are they not a bit more honest or direct, like it's 35cm, no way we will sail, we hourly check the levels and should we reach xy cm we may be able to say more. Or just a different record in the office on the record player: like captains on the Rhine have informed us that ..., we will know more by Monday... etc. Or at least say that they do not know and will get back to you with more info - or not. Some people just want to know before they leave their continent on a long flight. For me it is easy - two hour train ride** and I am back home...

 

And I know that the terms & conditions in my contract will be at least favourable enough to give me money back instead of a voucher for another river cruise.

 

*approximation for privacy

 

** if on the Rhine sailing near home

 

notamermaid

 

 

Terms and conditions in a Viking contract.

Briefly translated - we take NO responsibility for anything!
 

https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/2-220413_BookingAndSaleTermsAndConditions.pdf

[milling73]

I can confirm we arrived in Amsterdam Thur evening around 6 pm by bus from Cologne. We left Cologne Thur morning for the drive to Kinderdyke, and about 2 hours there.
There was a stop at a restaurant for lunch, only to find bus was at wrong restaurant. Back on bus, to right restaurant who unfortunately had received wrong head count and didnt have enough meals to serve. Some made do with a grilled cheese. 

It was a long last day, on interstates, few views. Nor a great last few days -  everyone was tired of the bus, not everyone was happy with hotel room received compared to what they had on boat, the lack of menu choices,  and general disappointment in how trip ended. 

[TMLAalum]

@milling73

Wish cruise critic would have more appropriate reaction emojis for posts besides thanks, haha and like! Your experiences deserve a wow or angry or sad response!

😮😠😒

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, cruisr said:

Thanks as always for your very informative posts.

My pleasure.

 

I think I have not said this yet: a big thank you to @milling73 for reporting your experiences. It is so helpful to have really up to date information for others. I hope telling us what is happening to you helps with the frustration if only a little.

 

Hope you are able to enjoy the Moselle with fabulous Trier and the vineyard covered hills and small towns lining the river banks.

 

notamermaid

 

[travellingprof]

28 minutes ago, milling73 said:

I can confirm we arrived in Amsterdam Thur evening around 6 pm by bus from Cologne. We left Cologne Thur morning for the drive to Kinderdyke, and about 2 hours there.
There was a stop at a restaurant for lunch, only to find bus was at wrong restaurant. Back on bus, to right restaurant who unfortunately had received wrong head count and didnt have enough meals to serve. Some made do with a grilled cheese. 

It was a long last day, on interstates, few views. Nor a great last few days -  everyone was tired of the bus, not everyone was happy with hotel room received compared to what they had on boat, the lack of menu choices,  and general disappointment in how trip ended. 

Hi Milling73,

 

Thanks so much for all the details of the changes and challenges you have endured. You honest info has been very helpful to us as we made the decision on whether to postpone our cruise or not. We have decided to go ahead, as postponing would likely cost us significantly more money to rebook at another date due to an amazing promo we took advantage of when we booked a few months ago. We will probably take the train instead of the Viking coach some days and then just use the Viking assigned hotels if it comes to that. Yes, it will cost us some money, and we may miss a couple ‘attractions’ but we’ve seen windmills before and have done the Rhine Gorge previously, so not the end of the world if we don’t do the ‘tourist boat’ to see it. From the sounds of things, even paying for a few extra meals will likely be better than hotel offerings. 
 

Fingers crossed the forecasted rains in the next week or so will help water levels, but if not, we will make the best of it. Enjoy your Moselle cruise.

 

Kim
 

 

[ural guy]

travelingprof-  regarding taking the train, I did that during our 2018 low water cruise.

We missed 5 days of sailing out of 14, and kept on taking the bus north from Basel, further each day.  The night before the final jump to ship waiting in Koblenz, I stayed in Strausburg overnight on my own and took the train in Koblenz. 

 

My wife stayed with the program, the bus got caught in a traffic jam, and they wound up on the bus for 8 hours. I missed Heidelburg and a lot of bus time, and was able to get a lot of great night pictures around the city in Strausburg and then visit a museum in Koblenz; neither of which I could have done staying with the program.

 

Only point is this, it's your vacation, absolutely take zigs and zags if that is what works for you.

[rizello]

Travellingprof, interesting option to take train instead of buses.  Not sure how that would work as often the ship changes its docking ports if changes to itinerary.  It might also make coordinating excursions more problematic if you are taking included ones.  We had many modifications to our excursions because of the daily adjustment to our cruise itinerary.
 

if you do end up doing this, will be interested to hear how it goes.  

[ural guy]

rizello-  In the situation I think we're talking about, this works when you're either in a hotel, or the boat isn't moving for a few days.  We were just going back to the same hotel in Basel for 5 days, the drives getting longer each time, until we finally met the ship in Koblenz for the remaining 8 days we could sail. Unfortunately, this is the scenario a lot of cruisers might find themselves in.

 

Sidenote:  We are scheduled to sail the Danube in November, and it's partly on credits from low water in November of 2018, which we were booked to use in April of 2020...and Covid happened.

 

And it was the same situation then as now, we were told we were sailing until 3 days before boarding, no cancellation options.  The ship had been stuck in Koblenz for 3 weeks, but Vantage stuck to their guns, and their agents just kept reading off the script.

Edited August 14, 2022 by ural guy
hopefully clarity

[travellingprof]

12 hours ago, rizello said:

Travellingprof, interesting option to take train instead of buses.  Not sure how that would work as often the ship changes its docking ports if changes to itinerary.  It might also make coordinating excursions more problematic if you are taking included ones.  We had many modifications to our excursions because of the daily adjustment to our cruise itinerary.
 

if you do end up doing this, will be interested to hear how it goes.  

Hi Rizello,

 

Will let you know how it goes, if it happens. Only plan on doing it if we are being bussed like milling73 was. Since we start in AMS, unless water levels increase significantly in the next two weeks and we can sail the Rhine, we will likely take the train to Köln, stay in the Viking provided hotel, then take another train to Mainz (or wherever the ship is docked that we are meeting). We’ve also booked a Budapest hotel for our last night so we aren’t being bussed back and forth between Kormáron and Budapest, which is what we are hearing is happening at the other end.

We certainly don’t mind some bus rides for the regular excursions, but not interested in being on them for full days (plus we enjoy train travel!). We’re also not too worried about missing excursions in those areas, since we have been there before.

 

Kim

Edited August 14, 2022 by travellingprof

[UDChE89]

I have an acquaintance and former neighbor who is currently on the Viking Vilhjalm.  She’s posted photos from Krems after stops in Bratislava and Vienna.  Boat departed Budapest and they’ve not taken a bus during the entire trip.

[travellingprof]

9 minutes ago, UDChE89 said:

I have an acquaintance and former neighbor who is currently on the Viking Vilhjalm.  She’s posted photos from Krems after stops in Bratislava and Vienna.  Boat departed Budapest and they’ve not taken a bus during the entire trip.

This is great news!

[medskis]

19 hours ago, milling73 said:

I can confirm we arrived in Amsterdam Thur evening around 6 pm by bus from Cologne. We left Cologne Thur morning for the drive to Kinderdyke, and about 2 hours there.
There was a stop at a restaurant for lunch, only to find bus was at wrong restaurant. Back on bus, to right restaurant who unfortunately had received wrong head count and didnt have enough meals to serve. Some made do with a grilled cheese. 

It was a long last day, on interstates, few views. Nor a great last few days -  everyone was tired of the bus, not everyone was happy with hotel room received compared to what they had on boat, the lack of menu choices,  and general disappointment in how trip ended. 

for Milling73 and others who recently completed a Viking Rhine cruise (or similar impacted by low water levels)….. was there any mention of ANY credits etc when much if your sailing was not happening, loss of silver spirits package, and more?  Decision Day is tomorrow for August 30 Amsterdam - Basel.  We are already in Europe (3 weeks on our own and we bought our own air over here but took Viking free air promo to get home) ….. we have found a very good points flight if we need to book own air back to PHL and good car rental prices - comfortably able and willing to at least get to Koln/Koblenz (Rudesheim, Lorelei) on our own and would do that since we are already in Europe and would take voucher from Viking for future cruise.  Watching all the boards and we thank those of you (notamermaid and more) for being so helpful with posting your observations .

 

[Daisi]

@TravelingProf, we took the train from Basel to Amsterdam after our cruise. We did the milk run, all along the river, and saw a lot that we missed sailing at night. The only parts we "skipped" was from Cologne to Amsterdam, as that portion had been daytime sailing. If you are looking at doing this, you can check out the Man in seat 61's site, he has the stops to look for to go along the river.  You will probably miss excursions, as the trains don't always run at the right times or to the right locations, but you will see other things. 🙂

 

[UDChE89]

3 hours ago, travellingprof said:

This is great news!

Especially for me since I leave on the 23rd for a Danube Cataracts cruise round trip from Passau.

 

Has anyone heard of issues south of Budapest?  Serbia is the only country I haven’t been to that’s a port on my cruise.

[ural guy]

1 hour ago, Daisi said:

@TravelingProf, we took the train from Basel to Amsterdam after our cruise. We did the milk run, all along the river, and saw a lot that we missed sailing at night. The only parts we "skipped" was from Cologne to Amsterdam, as that portion had been daytime sailing. If you are looking at doing this, you can check out the Man in seat 61's site, he has the stops to look for to go along the river.  You will probably miss excursions, as the trains don't always run at the right times or to the right locations, but you will see other things. 🙂

 

Daisi-  That sounds great, I'd like to do something similar, combing train and e-bikes.  The local trains I've seen have cars marked you can bring your bikes on, super easy.

 

Medskis-  Sounds like a great backup plan.  Hopefully you don't need it, but prepared if you do.  'No battle plan survives the initial contact with the enemy'.  The enemy is low water, and you have flexibility in minds.  Props to you.

[Haqdeluxe]

52 minutes ago, UDChE89 said:

Especially for me since I leave on the 23rd for a Danube Cataracts cruise round trip from Passau.

 

Has anyone heard of issues south of Budapest?  Serbia is the only country I haven’t been to that’s a port on my cruise.

The area around Belgrade saw significant rainfall yesterday.  This can't but help all points south/southeast. I've seen no indication that ships are having problems reaching their scheduled ports between Budapest and Bucharest. 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Haqdeluxe

[Daisi]

It took us a full day to get to Amsterdam from Basel - probably just about 8 hours. Our longest stop was about an hour, where we grabbed a quick bite to eat. It was interesting, we met 2 friends from Germany (different towns) who were travelling up to Amsterdam to shop, and once they realised we were Canadian, they went all out to help us out. Took us a while to figure out how the system worked as to reserved seats, but it was a fun day and nice and relaxing way to sight see.

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Daisi said:

check out the Man in seat 61's site,

Agree. Highly recommended. Middle Rhine valley (Bingen/Mainz to Cologne) great and easy to do on trains.

 

notamermaid

 

[travellingprof]

2 hours ago, Daisi said:

@TravelingProf, we took the train from Basel to Amsterdam after our cruise. We did the milk run, all along the river, and saw a lot that we missed sailing at night. The only parts we "skipped" was from Cologne to Amsterdam, as that portion had been daytime sailing. If you are looking at doing this, you can check out the Man in seat 61's site, he has the stops to look for to go along the river.  You will probably miss excursions, as the trains don't always run at the right times or to the right locations, but you will see other things. 🙂

 

Thanks for the tip!

[FM-R]

On 8/13/2022 at 1:54 PM, milling73 said:

I can confirm we arrived in Amsterdam Thur evening around 6 pm by bus from Cologne. We left Cologne Thur morning for the drive to Kinderdyke, and about 2 hours there.
There was a stop at a restaurant for lunch, only to find bus was at wrong restaurant. Back on bus, to right restaurant who unfortunately had received wrong head count and didnt have enough meals to serve. Some made do with a grilled cheese. 

It was a long last day, on interstates, few views. Nor a great last few days -  everyone was tired of the bus, not everyone was happy with hotel room received compared to what they had on boat, the lack of menu choices,  and general disappointment in how trip ended. 

Did Viking make any attempt to offer reimbursements for any of your unexpected out of pocket expenses?  Did they refund/credit any portion of the trip?  This is really sad to hear.  I've always enjoyed traveling with Viking, but I do not like the fact that they are not being above board.  And, on another topic, I don't like it that I leave in less than 2 weeks and have not received travel documents.  I mean, they are now electronic - so send them out promptly.  Customer service can't tell me when will  get - except for saying "sometime soon."