Douro river closed April 14-27th 2016

I have just read a Uniworld review saying that they did not cruise at all during their trip which was in April.

Anyone else on the Douro in April 2016. The Scenic Azure was launched this month, so their cruises must have been impacted.

I am booked next year for cruise starting 30th April on the Douro.

We have a Douro river cruise with Vantage with three days in Lisbon starting 15 May.

Yes, on the Vantage thread there was someone that did the Vantage Douro during the middle of April.

The cruise critic member that was on that Douro cruise Tom Thumb washttp://boards.cruisecritic.com/member.php?u=186131

We are all on the Douro right now and it is closed due to high water levels. There is no cruising between locks. We have been told we will be able to move again Saturday, just in time to go back to Porto and head home.

Hello Sexydva74,

On a German website one couple reported back that they did not like the Douro Queen they sailed on, the ship being the problem rather than the crew or food. They did not sail as there was flooding "throughout April".

I hope you can still enjoy your time in this - as I have been told - beautiful landscape.

Have a safe trip home.

notamermaid

I received an email from our Vantage guide in Portugal:

Mr. George, early in April there were problems with high waters on the

Douro river but since May all ships habe been absolutly okey. Regards. Manuela

I sailed the Vantage Douro Spirit 5-13 April 2016 with water running on the highish side, but without any sailing difficulties. I pronounce myself lucky:)

Thom

We were on the same April cruise with Thom and we loved it. Didn't notice anything unusual along the river, and lucky for us, very little rain. We would recommend this vacation! The river and its vineyards are breathtaking.

Avram from Pasadena, Ca

We had an abbreviated itinerary because of the high water levels. We were able to make it the first 3 locks but were prevented by high waters to go any further. It is my understanding that all Viking ships for the previous two weeks did not sail at all. Viking sent us an email the day we were leaving. It is my understanding that they gave those the week after us the opportunity to cancel and as a result they did have several cancellations. Given they had the two weeks prior to our departure to notify us I'm wondering why they did not give us the same option.

That said we had a great time on the on board crew went out of their way to salvage what they could of the trip. They even added an overnight stay in Span to compensate for a 4 hour bus ride necessitated by not being able to go proceed up the river. The headquarters staff could learn a thing or two from the on board staff when it comes to customer service.

The River has been closed for some time now. We arrived in Lisbon on 10th May to join the Viking Torgil in Porto on 12th. We were put on busses to Barca d'Alva and have not and will not move again until they put us on a bus to go back to the airport. Viking did not tell us of any issues, did not offer any chance to cancel or postpone and act like it's all a bit of a surprise. The folks on the boat before us clearly only managed half of their cruise.

This is all a bit concerning. I did not think the Douro river was so affected by water levels. Is this unusual for this time of year. I had read that March sometimes was a bit risky but not end April / May.

My cruise starts end of April next year with Scenic. They started cruising this year in April, but I have not read anything about cancellation of any cruises.

All been kept very quiet. No mention of anything on their facebook page.

As of today (May 15), Viking's website has this message:

Apparently not all guests get the notification. Nor would I consider not sailing at all to be a "slight" modification. :confused:

At 1845 today, the cruise director confirmed that, despite some limited improvements in the water conditions, the authorities would not allow sailings for several days. Accordingly, we will be disembarked on Tuesday morning and taken by coach to Porto for a 2-night hotel stay to complete the holiday. This is, of course, bitterly disappointing. Today 2 coach trips to nearby locations were arranged and my wife and I found these enjoyable. However, tomorrow's substitute trip looks less of interest AND involves 2 and 1/2 hours each way on the coach and we probably will give it a miss. Regrettably there is not much to do here in Barco d'Alva unless you are into walking, which we are not, so the day will be mostly wasted (except for the food which is as good as you would expect). I get the impression that the quality of cruising the Duoro lies more in the scenic beauty seen from the river rather than for the special nature of the sites to be visited, and so traveling on land is a very poor substitute.

It is not clear to me how much Viking should have anticipated this situation; some passengers (eg see earlier post) clearly believe they should have been more aware, The on-board staff are clearly taking the brunt of people's dissatisfaction, and most agree they are doing their best. The big decisions (eg should they have cancelled before the holiday?) are down to top management.

This is our 3rd Viking cruise, and thee second one where there has been no cruise! The previous one was on the Elbe in, I think, 2013. On that occasion, after some exchange of emails, we got quite good compensation. Hopefully it will be the same this time, and it would be good if Viking could be a bit more proactive this time.

A few years ago I set off for Canada with American Airlines - a short while in to the flight we developed a fault and made a rather spectacular emergency landing at Shannon airport in Ireland where we spent the next two days. Before I even landed in Canada I had received a full refund of my total flight costs, a voucher for 50% off a future trip and completed forms for a €600 EU compensation claim ... That is being proactive. Vikings response .... Contact us individually when you get home. Will I fly AA again - yes. Will I cruise with Viking again ?

It appears that some passengers, in this case a couple flying from USA, got last minute emails from Viking offering them an option to cancel. The email was fairly last minute (the couple were already at the airport or on the plane), but they were on a pre-cruise extension and was a day or two before we left UK for the trip. We, and others, did not receive such an email. Why not? I will ask Viking in due course. If Viking are monitoring this thread, perhaps they can tell us.

We have a Douro river cruise with Vantage with three days in Lisbon starting 15 May...

Thom

We were on Uniworld this past week. We sailed on the Douro on Sunday May 8th out of Porto. The next day, we went through the Carapatelo dam. After a fueling stop, we were told that the ship would move a little further down the river and would not move again. Instead of cruising down the Douro, we took buses to different excursions. To make sure we didn't miss Salamanca, we were offered a bus ride (4 1/2 hours) with an overnight stay. For those who opted to stay on the ship, we had an excursion in the morning with the afternoon on our own.

On Friday, we were told that we would not be able to sail to Porto at all and that the river would be assessed again on Tuesday (5/17). Those with flights before 10:30 am on Sunday would leave the ship at 3pm on Saturday and stay overnight at the Crowne Plaza in Porto (dinner and breakfast were included). The night before we left, we all found letters in our staterooms apologizing for the inconvenience and offering us a complimentary 7-night cruise to be used within the next two years.

Despite the fact that it was not their fault, Uniworld handled the situation the best they could. They kept us informed the entire time and compensated us for the weather issues without having to ask for it.

Yesterday there was a slight but temporary improvement on the river. Limited navigation was permitted but locks were NOT opened. Viking took advantage of this to do a 2-hour cruise downstream from Barca d'Alva to the first lock. There we picked up the passengers (less than 50% I think) who had opted for the rather arduous coach trip which had been organised whist we were stuck at Barca. The vessel then returned to Barca. This meant that we had a small taste of actually cruising the Duoro. The sun was shining and it was a very enjoyable, if limited, trip.

Today, we leave the ship are being taken by coach to Pochino rail station, where we will take the train to Regua. Apparently this line runs mostly beside the river and the scenic trip is intended to give us a bit more of the Duotro experience. Viking are at least trying to do their best! At Regua we get back on the coach and go on to Guimares. There we have a local excursion and stay overnight. The next (and final) night we will stay in Porto. Changing hotels like this is a bit of a faff, but better than staying in Barca.

The next day we transfer to airport as planned.

We were on Uniworld this past week. We sailed on the Douro on Sunday May 8th out of Porto. The next day, we went through the Carapatelo dam. After a fueling stop, we were told that the ship would move a little further down the river and would not move again. Instead of cruising down the Douro, we took buses to different excursions. To make sure we didn't miss Salamanca, we were offered a bus ride (4 1/2 hours) with an overnight stay. For those who opted to stay on the ship, we had an excursion in the morning with the afternoon on our own.

 

On Friday, we were told that we would not be able to sail to Porto at all and that the river would be assessed again on Tuesday (5/17). Those with flights before 10:30 am on Sunday would leave the ship at 3pm on Saturday and stay overnight at the Crowne Plaza in Porto (dinner and breakfast were included). The night before we left, we all found letters in our staterooms apologizing for the inconvenience and offering us a complimentary 7-night cruise to be used within the next two years.

 

Despite the fact that it was not their fault, Uniworld handled the situation the best they could. They kept us informed the entire time and compensated us for the weather issues without having to ask for it.

Looks like Viking could learn a thing or two from Uniworld. It appears that our week on the river was not nearly as bad as others but it would have been nice Viking to proactively do soothing because we did not get the vacation we paid for. Viking did however offer a $1000 future cruise credit when we called to express our concerns about the poor communications. I am assuming they are doing something more for the folks that did not get to cruise at all.

I trust that you arrived in Lisbon uneventfully. Today should have been your Lisbon city tour. I'll be interested both in the current prediction and the actual amount of cruising you get. Wishing you full sailing, or barring that at least the best of available options.

 

Thom

If you are with Viking you will NOT be cruising. Our tour guide admitted yesterday that it would be at least a week before the river was navigable again. Enjoy you bus tour👿👿👿

we are scheduled to leave for portugal on thursday 5/26, and start our douro river cruise with viking on the 31st.

But i just got an email from Viking saying in part "Days 1 and 2 in in Lisbon will not be affected since you are in a hotel the first two nights, but if sailing is still restricted some of the subsequent destinations are likely to be visited by motorcoach. We regret that we at this point can’t offer you any details, as this will depend on how the conditions develop closer to departure."

well, we certainly dont want to sit in a motorcoach; we actually bought a suite on the boat to make it nicer (this is our first cruise ever).

But reading all your posts (VERY helpful, thanks) we are worried about going at all. We DO have the option to cancel with little penalty (just about $600 in airline upgrade fees which were non refundable; the rest of the trip is fully refundable as long as we do it in the next few days)

any suggestions? no one knows the future, but our trip is about a week out, and maybe the river will be cleared by then? or is this going to continue for a while?

the other option we are pursuing this morning is changing to a self driving tour staying in various hotels around the area. more or less what it sounds like we would get if the boats dont move, but more under our control with the ability to stay where we want, with less driving back and forth.

any ideas from you frequent travelers or specifically people who are over there now and see the issue? there is NOTHING on the internet that i can find which shows the current status/problem with the douro river, just that it flooded back in january. So other than your reports and the cryptic email from viking, we have no info. We did call viking and they were very nice, but had no additional information whatsoever.

thanks for any comments

mg721:

Having had a nice cruise on the Douro in early April (perhaps the last week with full sailing), I'm feeling luckier and luckier. Almost 3/4 of the Douro basin is in Spain, so that is where the bulk of the water is coming from, but I haven't been able to pin down much about recent and predicted rain in the area (Vallodolid, which may be the largest Spanish city in the basin, is predicting 1.5mm [about 1/20 of an inch] of rain tomorrow, but I couldn't find recent past actual rainfalls).

Before any cancellation, confirm exactly what you will get back from Viking (eg is it all cash, or some sort of voucher). Did you book your air directly or through Viking? If you booked through Viking, will they cancel your air reservation if you cancel the cruise? If they do (I expect they might) that would seem to disrupt a plan to fly in and do a self drive tour (which otherwise would seem a worthy option to consider).

Best of luck. Keep us posted on how things work out.

Thom

thanks for the response.

you are right, the airfare will be cancelled along with the rest of the trip, which is a pain since i already paid for the upgrades and will lose that $800 or thereabouts.

but we have a full cancellation deal with them; it was a special for a week or so several months ago, and we can cancel any time for a full refund, or so they claimed and confirmed yesterday. but as we all know, saying it and doing it are frequently not the same, so we will see. but i feel pretty good about it.

i have a travel agent working on airfare now, and i figured all i need more is a car and a room for a couple days in lisbon, which gives us plenty of time to get the rest arranged.

but our main concern is getting there and then finding out we are on a bus instead of the boat.

i dont think i could handle that, no matter how nice the bus is...

thanks for the response.

 

you are right, the airfare will be cancelled along with the rest of the trip, which is a pain since i already paid for the upgrades and will lose that $800 or thereabouts.

 

but we have a full cancellation deal with them; it was a special for a week or so several months ago, and we can cancel any time for a full refund, or so they claimed and confirmed yesterday. but as we all know, saying it and doing it are frequently not the same, so we will see. but i feel pretty good about it.

 

i have a travel agent working on airfare now, and i figured all i need more is a car and a room for a couple days in lisbon, which gives us plenty of time to get the rest arranged.

 

but our main concern is getting there and then finding out we are on a bus instead of the boat.

i dont think i could handle that, no matter how nice the bus is...

Hi we were not given the opportunity to cancel because Viking simply didn't tell us of any issues and that having not moved, the offer on the table is currently 50% of what we paid this time off another cruise booked before the end of 2016! With trust issues like that I am not sure I will ever cruise again. One of our reps admitted before we left (19thMay) that it would be another week, without more rain, before the river would be navigable. Keep your flights, book yourself a luxury apartment or villa in Portugal, hire a car and explore! That's what we would have done given an option.

We just returned from our AMA Douro river cruise, which was, indeed, impacted by very high water levels and the inability to cruise through the locks.

AMA crew turned themselves inside out to make the very best of our trip. Our cruise manager, Rachel, was outstanding and kept us informed constantly with up to the minute updates. We got to see everything on our planned itinerary and perhaps much more. While our cruise was cut very short, and we had to rely on busses and an unplanned two night hotel stay in Porto, we had a tremendous time.

AMA gave us incredible compensation for these difficulties. Kudos to AMA and their more than generous compensation! We will cruise on you again, as you more than made us whole! Thank you!