How fast do these ships go?

How fast does a typical river cruise ship (esp Viking Longboats) move? Could one keep up with them with a bicycle?

This is pure idle curiosity, I'm not planning to do anything with the information.

I dug back into some of my Google data and found that we often cruised at speeds of 10MPH while on the Danube. There may be some element of averaging in there due to slowing down in the locks, etc.

The other piece of data I have was from the Rhine Gorge segment; I recorded our course through the castle section for later reference. 28 miles in 2h25m, for an average speed of about 10MPH. Seems consistent...

Someone more knowledgeable than I can comment about the boats' top speed. But you might be able to keep up on a bike if you want. In fact, on SS Antoinette it was an option to ride a bike from Rudesheim to Boppard while the boat cruised that route. We saw the group about halfway through, when we passed them. Similarly, you could ride from Durnstein to Melk when we did the Danube.

Slowly

I dug back into some of my Google data and found that we often cruised at speeds of 10MPH while on the Danube. There may be some element of averaging in there due to slowing down in the locks, etc.

Awesome info. Thanks.

I agree with JP. If you want, you can always confirm by going to marinetraffic.com. When you find a ship, it will display the ships speed. You'll see that going downstream is often significantly faster than going upstream.

FuelScience

If you want, you can always confirm by going to marinetraffic.com. When you find a ship, it will display the ships speed.

FuelScience

Interestingly, it has max and average speed for the current trip. Which for Viking Alruna right now is 11.9 knots max and 10.4 knots average.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:3900434/mmsi:269057550/imo:0/vessel:VIKING_ALRUNA

Right now a bunch of Viking and Scenic ships are all in the same basin in the same port.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:3900434/zoom:14

How fast does a typical river cruise ship (esp Viking Longboats) move? Could one keep up with them with a bicycle?

 

This is pure idle curiosity, I'm not planning to do anything with the information.

You might be able to keep up with the ship while it's cruising...but #1 most of the cruising is done at night, so bicycling could be dangerous and #2 why would anyone want to when they could be sitting in a lounge chair, sipping a nice glass of wine and enjoying the scenery as opposed to concentrating on peddling as fast as the ship!! :D

Fast enough that there is a stiff breeze when you're sightseeing on the sundeck. On our recent Rhine cruise, the crew brought up cups of hot chocolate for everyone, optionally spiked with Kahlua.

different view

like any cruise 'ship' they only go as fast as they need to

if you know the departure time from a port & arrival time at the next port, you can find the distance and then it is simple math

I was a navigator b4 I was a Captain ... and a good Captain never accepts what the navigator tells them with out double checking!

******

going up stream they may need to 'turn' pretty hard ... the current on the Danube our last trip up river was SWIFT .... if the current down is 5 knots, you must turn for 6 to make 1 heading up stream ....

going down stream, they can almost drift and make the arrival times! But must maintain 'steerage' for control (altho a longship has 4 pods in the rear for control, plus the bow thrusters.)

Standard maximum speed of the modern fleet (let's say ships built after 1990) seems to be around 22km/h or 14 miles per hour. Have not read any higher figures in ship descritions yet. However, this is downstream, I have read on marinetraffic those ships showing speeds close to that figure. Upstream the engines really have to work hard, on marinetraffic I myself have never read speeds of more than 7 to 8 miles per hour upstream, but in slow flowing rivers or in the Main Danube Canal I reckon they will do more than that (I have just never looked at it that closely).

But, as Capt BJ has pointed out, they might go more slowly for various reasons. One being a scenic stretch that the passengers want to enjoy.

notamermaid

I am a 68 year old cyclist that does long bike rides and on a typical day of 60 mile ride can average 12 MPH that includes stops every hour for water.

Yes, biking at night is very dangerous, even if you have the proper lights.

However, when I go on a river cruise, I don't wish to race with a cruise ship. I would rather be on the ship drinking a glass of wine.

Papa, I will be sure to save you a glass! :D

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Papa, I will be sure to save you a glass! :D

 

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Yeah, me too.....maybe:D But I'll definitely wave from my lounge chair!!!

:D

We cruised on the Ama Prima from Vilshofen to Budapest in 2015. There was a fairly large group of bicyclist on the ship and they rode within view of the ship one day in particular. Their speed was slightly ahead of the ship's speed that day.

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