Danube water levels 2023 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[UDChE89]

I’m late in reporting back from my April 9 cruise to Budapest.  Weather was not favorable most of the trip.  Our Bratislava stop was miserable.  I wound up wet and cold.  Vienna earlier wasn’t much better.  Spent very little time on the sun deck which I enjoyed a lot on my cruise in August of last year.

[notamermaid]

20 hours ago, UDChE89 said:

I’m late in reporting back from my April 9 cruise to Budapest.  Weather was not favorable most of the trip.  Our Bratislava stop was miserable.  I wound up wet and cold.  Vienna earlier wasn’t much better.  Spent very little time on the sun deck which I enjoyed a lot on my cruise in August of last year.

That is a great pity. It has been cool recently, April is never really that warm, but I think you hit the Danube when it was cooler than average and wetter than average.

 

Talking of rain, there has been heavy rain and the river rose considerably in Bavaria yesterday. The wave is leaving Passau and going into Austria as I write. Luckily the level at Passau has stayed below the critical figure of 630cm for river cruise ships (passage under a low bridge).

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

It is May, time to have a look at what the river did in April:

 

We see the river more or less the whole month over the mean water level which is good for the drier months to come when we can expect more higher temperatures and less rain (with snow melt all gone) leading to low levels. The river was high at the end of the month, quite a wave but not flooding. The slight worry at this level was that the volume of water then reaching Passau would make the passage under a low bridge difficult. This did not happen, the level stayed below that.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Kinga dweller]

Having been drawn in to a river cruise by Cruise Critic and reassured as to the exaggeration of water level scares by this very thread we've booked a last minute deal with Travel Marvel, Budapest to Amsterdam as part of a six week Europe and UK tour.

I have to express my appreciation of the effort 'notamermaid' and others have put into this very informative thread. We may not have bothered had it not been for the enthusiasm shown here which proved to be quite infectious.

We have previously done a river cruise up the Mekong / Ton Le Sap to Ankor Wat, now that was incredible, but surely very different to our upcoming adventure. Also a four-day 'taster' from Singapore along the Malacca Straights which was OK but spoiled somewhat by the trashy casino on-board.

Booked just today and leaving Friday next week, it was very uncharacteristically impulsive but we're now excited and looking forward to it.

[Ritabob]

Looking forward to hearing about your adventure. 

 

[Enjoythejourney4]

We returned from a Danube cruise on Monday. We were on the Amamagna. Beautiful ship and a wonderful crew. We started in Vilshofen and ended in Budapest.
 

It was cooler weather but better than we anticipated. It threatened rain daily but only rained in Cesky Krumlov. We didn’t spend a lot of time on the sun deck or even on our balcony but we loved the trip and all the tours.

 

I wish we had not packed so heavy and that we had done more laundry on the ship. I didn’t have as much time to souvenir shop as I wanted but still managed to fill a carry on suitcase… haha! 
 

We learned so much and we will definitely be back. The people of Eastern Europe were wonderful and the countryside is magnificent.

 

 Thanks to all those who helped on this thread!

[Greysandy]

Thanks for the reminder about bringing less clothes.... My husband still insists on bringing way too many socks and underwear, even though I have the dehydrated laundry strips and am will to pay for laundry on the ship. 😂

[Enjoythejourney4]

The laundry on the ship worked so well. We ended up not wearing 1/3 of what we  brought. You really can wear things…other than underwear…2-3 times. The ship had umbrellas, slippers, robes etc. they even had Q-tips and cotton rounds. 
 

Have fun! We loved everything about the cruise and met so many wonderful people. 

[Kinga dweller]

I'm a terrible over-packer so must try to avoid that, but we do have a few days in Budapest then after cruise Amsterdam, then Scotland to visit my daughter and a driving tour through England. Our suitcases may be a little smelly at the end of it, - and us!

[reeves35]

9 hours ago, Kinga dweller said:

Having been drawn in to a river cruise by Cruise Critic and reassured as to the exaggeration of water level scares by this very thread we've booked a last minute deal with Travel Marvel, Budapest to Amsterdam as part of a six week Europe and UK tour.

I have to express my appreciation of the effort 'notamermaid' and others have put into this very informative thread. We may not have bothered had it not been for the enthusiasm shown here which proved to be quite infectious.

We have previously done a river cruise up the Mekong / Ton Le Sap to Ankor Wat, now that was incredible, but surely very different to our upcoming adventure. Also a four-day 'taster' from Singapore along the Malacca Straights which was OK but spoiled somewhat by the trashy casino on-board.

Booked just today and leaving Friday next week, it was very uncharacteristically impulsive but we're now excited and looking forward to it.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience on Travelmarvel.  We are doing Amsterdam to Budapest with Travelmarvel in August.

[Rebel54]

41 minutes ago, Kinga dweller said:

I'm a terrible over-packer so must try to avoid that, but we do have a few days in Budapest then after cruise Amsterdam, then Scotland to visit my daughter and a driving tour through England. Our suitcases may be a little smelly at the end of it, - and us!

Me too.  I am forcing myself to take a carry on only on our next trip which will be 20 days on the Danube...gotta pack smart 🙂

[Canal archive]

Kinga dweller you do know we’ve just introduced - border smellometer machines - so you could be out before your in, as it were. Have a great time in the U.K. and we will be in Scotland later this year so I will be checking on any odd wiff’s.

[Kinga dweller]

On 5/3/2023 at 11:26 PM, Enjoythejourney4 said:

We returned from a Danube cruise on Monday.

 

I wish we had not packed so heavy and that we had done more laundry on the ship.

 

Just wondering what a typical load of washing would cost onboard a cruise.

[Enjoythejourney4]

I should have taken a picture of the costs. We had two options on board our ship. We could do the laundry ourselves. The ship has a little laundromat room or we could send out. We had overpacked so we didn’t do a lot of laundry but we did do a pair of pants. I believe the cost was $1.40. We sent them in the morning and had them back In a few hours. We met  some wonderful people on the ship and they are still cruising (they chose the 14 day cruise). If they will send me a picture of the laundry costs, I will post it later.

[Enjoythejourney4]

I hope this laundry list helps. This cost is from Amawaterways Amamagna. This is the cost they charge to do the laundry for you and deliver it back to your room (they did a great job and it only took a couple hours).

[reeves35]

22 hours ago, Kinga dweller said:

 

Just wondering what a typical load of washing would cost onboard a cruise.

Here is the Travelmarvel pricelist for laundry. I asked them for our cruise in August  and they sent me an email with it.

[Kinga dweller]

Many thanks @reeves35 & @Enjoythejourney4 it's good to know what to expect, less than a week to go, getting pretty excited now. Been looking up Jazz clubs in Vienna and Budapest, there's plenty in both cities. Also bike hire, well, e,bike hire for the misses, she won't use an ordinary bike now. As we have an extra couple of days in Buda we will be able to cruise around the place and not worry about the hills so much. Vienna seems to be pretty flat from my Google map street view wanderings. I almost feel like I know the place already.

[Enjoythejourney4]

Your are doing what we did. I think you are going to love your trip. We enjoyed it very much! Good luck and have fun!

[notamermaid]

I have mentioned the low bridge at Passau several times so here it is, the Luitpoldbrücke: https://structurae.net/en/structures/luitpold-bridge-1949

 

The river is rising again after substantial rain along the Upper Danube, upstream from Regensburg. In the next 48 hours it looks as though the level at Passau will stay well below the critical level for passing under the bridge.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The weather front that left the Rhine area appears to be moving East slowly, meaning substantial amounts of rain are coming down this evening in most parts of Bavaria and filling the river. At Kelheim mild flooding is expected (level one, but level two is a probability). Subsequently we will see a rise further downstream which, according to the forecast issued this morning, could take Passau up to 620cm around lunchtime tomorrow and a further rise may happen.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling has risen to 505cm, flood mark I is at 580cm. Passau went for the top end of the margin that was suggested in the forecast, so has risen very fast and instead of being around 620cm no stands at 648cm. A further rise is expected, around 670cm but the top end suggests 700cm (that is flood mark I).

 

Parts of Bavaria still have a weather warning for prolonged and heavy rain.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

On 5/3/2023 at 3:38 PM, Kinga dweller said:

Booked just today and leaving Friday next week, it was very uncharacteristically impulsive but we're now excited and looking forward to it.

Hope your river cruise and trip overall will be fabulous. What an adventure to book at short notice and travel as far as you will do.

 

Drop us a line here from somewhere on the rivers if you have time and feel like it.

 

notamermaid

 

[LTC]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Pfelling has risen to 505cm, flood mark I is at 580cm. Passau went for the top end of the margin that was suggested in the forecast, so has risen very fast and instead of being around 620cm no stands at 648cm. A further rise is expected, around 670cm but the top end suggests 700cm (that is flood mark I).

 

Parts of Bavaria still have a weather warning for prolonged and heavy rain.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thanks for your info, especially on Passau. We board an Emerald cruise in Passau on Sunday which cruises to Budapest. From what I've seen of the weather it will be raining just about the entire time. Our daughters are coming with us and it's their 1st time on a river cruise, so I'm hoping this won't turn into a bus cruise.

[notamermaid]

Yes, it appears that what we call a "Tiefdruckrinne" is giving Bavaria and Austria a band of persistent bad or at least unsettled weather for several days. It is coming from the Southeast of Europe rather than the West and Britain, where most of our German weather is made, actually the Atlantic but we usually get what Britain and the Netherlands get.

 

4 hours ago, LTC said:

Our daughters are coming with us and it's their 1st time on a river cruise, so I'm hoping this won't turn into a bus cruise.

Austria does not look too bad to me as regards water levels yet. And the ship could avoid the low bridge at Passau by docking downstream at Lindau or Engelhartszell. A short bus ride. Provided of course your ship is not upstream from Passau now. But, not every ship has a problem with the bridge at 630cm automatically.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by notamermaid
added info

[LTC]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Yes, it appears that what we call a "Tiefdruckrinne" is giving Bavaria and Austria a band of persistent bad or at least unsettled weather for several days. It is coming from the Southeast of Europe rather than the West and Britain, where most of our German weather is made, actually the Atlantic but we usually get what Britain and the Netherlands get.

 

Austria does not look too bad to me as regards water levels yet. And the ship could avoid the low bridge at Passau by docking downstream at Lindau or Engelhartszell. A short bus ride. Provided of course your ship is not upstream from Passau now. But, not every ship has a problem with the bridge at 630cm automatically.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks notamermaid. You gave me hope that the trip maybe able to go as a river cruise and not a bus tour. Had no idea that Emerald could dock downstream not far from Passau or that the bridge may

not be a problem for all ships. Great to know!