Any ideas on how Crystal will handle high/low water for River cruises?

I was reading on the river cruise board that some European river cruises may be affected by low water in the Danube/Rhine etc. Mostly it seems that the river cruise lines transfer passengers between 2 ships (avoiding the low water area) by bus. This works because these lines run 2 ships on the same route going in opposite directions.

Crystal will only be running one ship per route. While it is still early as I am booked on the Mahler for November 2017, I am starting to wonder...

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If they only have one "yacht" on a river then it turns into a "luxury" bus trip I guess - that will be their only option if Mother Nature intervenes

Reports from those who have been on the initial river cruises are that while nice enough the Crystal buses are no more special than order touring buses

An all exclusive bus should have no more than 12 passengers. I'm guessing they will hire private cars.

Where's the "Like" button?

This is not generally a problem on the Rhine, or the Danube below Passau. The problems have usually occurred on the Danube up toward Nurnberg. What happens depends on the line. Some will do what Viking did to Kathy, others like AMA, will use the boat as a floating hotel and do bus tours out and back. I had this happen in this area to two different clients in 2015 with AMA, and they were also given what I thought were very generous future cruise credits. I would think (think being the operative word!) Crystal would be more likely to follow the AMA example. Keep in mind that, while not as common, the opposite problem of too much water can have the same impact.

This happened recently to my mom a few days of her river cruise unfortunately turned into a bus tour with hotel stays. She was on Tauck and no credits were given.

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This happened recently to my mom a few days of her river cruise unfortunately turned into a bus tour with hotel stays. She was on Tauck and no credits were given.

 

 

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Gee, what river and what ship?

Low water issues:

Could have been the Elbe. The itinerary and the sights are great, but the river is unreliable. We were in Dresden in July and saw Viking passengers and their buses at the Westin hotel.

I haven't heard of any other low water problems in 2016.

do not know about crystal but they are current low water on the rivers.

http://www.bafg.de/DE/06_Info_Service/01_Wasserstaende/wasserstaende_node.html;jsessionid=243E08EDA3A453A3926154EC5E03A966.live21302

see map it can be translated with google.

I was reading on the river cruise board that some European river cruises may be affected by low water in the Danube/Rhine etc. Mostly it seems that the river cruise lines transfer passengers between 2 ships (avoiding the low water area) by bus. This works because these lines run 2 ships on the same route going in opposite directions.

Crystal will only be running one ship per route. While it is still early as I am booked on the Mahler for November 2017, I am starting to wonder...

 

 

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Hello Swn4,

I reached out to our Crystal River Cruise Team, and would like to share the following information with You, and the Cruise Critic Community. I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to email me at the email address in my signature, should you have additional questions. Wishing you a wonderful voyage on Crystal Mahler. Thank You !

We will constantly monitor water levels and when faced with low or high-water situations we will adjust the ship’s nautical itinerary, while maintaining our guests’ excursion itineraries, to get ahead of any challenges. Under this scenario, while guests are out enjoying their excursions the ship will move further along the river. At the conclusion of the excursions we bring guests back to the ship at the alternate port of call. This makes it easier for the guests by having to avoid packing and moving during their vacation.

sounds a reasonable plan to sail without the passengers to reduce the load. those of us who will be sailing soon really hope the rivers will rise.

Good to see you here, Andy!

Nice response by your River Cruise Team, but actually I think they have to learn their lesson first ;). Rivers do not behave as oceans. And in some cases you can´t move the ship without passengers and pick them up after the excursion. When the river is too low that it is closed for traffic even a river cruise ship can´t pass through. Same when the river is closed to traffic due to an accident (happened last week) or when a lock is closed. In case of high water the ship can´t pass under the bridges anymore. Then a river cruise has to turn into a bus trip. When you have a second ship on the reverse itinerary you can swap ships (with a bus ride inbetween - which can be done as an excursion). In case there´s no other ship near the river cruise turns into a bus trip with hotel stays. Actually along some stretches adequate hotel rooms are hard to find (sorry, there´s no 5 star hotel in the middle of nowwhere). That´s not just a problem for Crystal but for all river cruise companies. And that even multiplies when you have quite a few of river cruise ships all facing the same problem. You need to find an appropriate accomodation plus restaurants. For large groups (and that means as little as 30 or a "bus load" of 50) you need to give an advance notice to any restaurant (at least here in Germany) as they usually don´t have provisions in stock for such large numbers. And usually the group is limited to a fixed menu. These are the "perils" of river cruising and you have to be aware of this - both, passenger or cruise line. Anyway I love it! :D

steamboats

whose first 7 night river cruise on the Danube river ended after 23 hours due to high water

I agree, the response they gave just shows that they have a lot to learn about river cruising.

Thank you, steamboats, you have put all the problems they might face in a nutshell.

To see what can happen in low water one might like to have a look at the thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2191352&page=10 and the following pages. Or indeed this year's thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=51344274#post51344274

Threads on the Elbe low waters are on previous pages on cruisecritic.

For flooding there have been some threads as well.

While low water issues result in captain and company making decisions about sailing or not sailing and changes of itineraries, flooding is an official term and local authorities close sections of the river. In that situation, wether you are on a barge, small river cruise ship or a luxury Crystal ship you are just not allowed to sail. You could end up in the same four star hotel as those passengers from the Dutch 20-year-old ship or the Viking three-year-old one.

The Crystal Bach and the Crystal Mahler will be 135m long. If they have a draft close to that of the Viking ships they might get stranded like the Viking ships did last year, while Avalon and the small Dutch ships sailed on. CroisiEurope fared better as well as all their ships are 110m. If the Crystal ships turn into luxury floating hotels I hope Crystal has terms and conditions that are favourable and as regards service excede what some other cruise lines offer.

notamermaid

<Nice response by your River Cruise Team, but actually I think they have to learn their lesson first ;). Rivers do not behave as oceans. And in some cases you can´t move the ship without passengers and pick them up after the excursion.>

Exactly. Nice response from a marketing perspective but the reality can be quite different. I have been on two river cruises affected by low water and two with high. River happens and the cruise lines make their decisions at that time based on the realities and options available.

<This is not generally a problem on the Rhine>

From personal experience, this is not accurate. We had very low water on one of our Rhine cruises (unexploded WWII bombs were found days later in Koblenz and there are currently low water issues as well.

Andy,

Thank you for the response, if I have any questions, I will definitely reach out!

Low water issues:

Could have been the Elbe. The itinerary and the sights are great, but the river is unreliable. We were in Dresden in July and saw Viking passengers and their buses at the Westin hotel.

I haven't heard of any other low water problems in 2016.

I was asking about the Tauck cruise and I don't believe Tauck sails the Elbe for exactly that reason.

It was Amsterdam to Budapest not sure which river caused the problem

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Thanks...I am on the verge of booking that cruise for next fall. Did they enjoy the cruise otherwise?

Yes she said the service was excellent. She did say she wished they had seen more castles, sights etc so make sure you research your excursions

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Low water issues:

Could have been the Elbe. The itinerary and the sights are great, but the river is unreliable. We were in Dresden in July and saw Viking passengers and their buses at the Westin hotel.

I haven't heard of any other low water problems in 2016.

Two weeks ago, we were on Vantages Cruise of Eastern Europe on the Danube and that ended early due to low water. We disembarked about 100km upstream of Rouse, the scheduled last port. I had thought we'd be fine on the lower Danube, I had never heard of issues.

We wound up being on the bus an hour longer each way to Veliko Tarnovo. This also meant we went on some tiny roads, not usually traveled by tours buses, heading through some really poor towns. The guide told us that 80% of the homes were vacant in some of them, only the old pensioners stay. The port of Nikerpol, had received some heavy flood damage 10 years back, and the downtown didn't rebuild some of the damaged buildings. Not much for anyone to do w/ the last free afternoon of the cruise, but a very sobering walk through town.

So this was an inconvenience to us, but you saw parts of the country that are usually tucked away from visitors. Provides balance to all the pretty spots that are in all the pictures.

It was Amsterdam to Budapest not sure which river caused the problem

 

 

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Argh! I am booked Budapest to Amsterdam on Mahler for Nov 17, hopefully I don't get with a similar problem.

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When booking a river cruise, you should avoid going during the months when high and low water problems occur the most frequently just as you should avoid Alaska during its most wet months.

When booking a river cruise, you should avoid going during the months when high and low water problems occur the most frequently just as you should avoid Alaska during its most wet months.

I'm curious for future reference when would that be?

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For the Rhine this would be January to April (with possible disruptions into the beginning of June) and October to beginning of November. The Elbe is getting increasingly tricky. The Danube tends to be similar to the Rhine. The Moselle is less affected than the Rhine but - unless you go with a British or Dutch company - you will sail on the Rhine as well on any itinerary.

In general low water is less of a problem than high water as in low water the captain decides if he can sail, in high water the authorities decide if the ship is allowed to sail - a ban extends to all river traffic and can stop a ship from sailing for days.

Personally I would not start a river cruise before 2 April on the Rhine. It is cool and rainy, usually, and not much green landscape to look at yet. The foliage in mid October is lovely and I would book for that reason in October, although there is a small chance you might not be able to sail all the way because of low water.

Other countries' rivers, line the Seine and Rhone, have similar or other patterns for flooding or draught. You could look at older threads for that or ask specifically about them.

notamermaid