notamermaid

This is an unusual report of two river cruise ships in a kind of comparison - and in German. One is the Riverside Debussy on her maiden voyage after the renaming and the other is the Junker Jörg, that is the ex-Theodor Fontane, sailing for a while as the Viking Fontane (never officially renamed as such), and then sold and given the current name. Some interesting details on the Riverside Debussy. She was built for nearly 50 million euros as opposed to the standard costs of 15 to 20 million euros for a typical river cruise ship. After the insolvency the new owner is Gregor Gerlach with his Riverside company (he owns hotels) and he says he got the ship "for a very good price". His second passion after being a hotel owner is boats. Here is the video, its theme is how different companies want to create interest in their river cruising product. The interior of the Debussy is, well, luxurious. That is certainly worth looking at should you not wish to watch a German language video. Unfortunately, the link is not allowed per youtube rules so please type the address manually if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ps9RKuN0BY The Junker Jörg has a very different "strategy". She is small-ish and has kind of said good-bye to the standard route that is now sailed by Viking and others. From the Elbe around Dresden the ship has transferred to the canals and rivers East and North and the northern Elbe river section. Oh, and she can sail on the Baltic Sea (close to the coasts). notamermaid

Lock maintenance is finished and the river level on the Main is good. An explanation for those only having recently found this thread: When I say good I mean there is sufficient water in the river to sail and the locks are keeping it that way. The Main river basin tends to get low on water and the engineering done on the Main Danube Canal helps to divert water from the Danube basin to the Main river. It is relatively common for gauges on the Main to show low levels in late spring, summer and autumn but as the river is dug so deep there is hardly ever a problem. The whole navigable river is controlled by locks (apart from a tiny but that is only allowed for small pleasure craft and never sailed by ships). Although the river is long enough to warrant sailing without the Rhine or the Danube it is hardly ever done. Admittedly, this following river cruise also uses the Canal but neither river on either side of the Main (see *comment coming later). Saga has this offer on the "Spirit of the Moselle" which will enter service in 2025. Nice of the company to dedicated a whole morning to Schweinfurt: https://travel.saga.co.uk/cruises/river/where-we-go/rhine-river-cruises/gems-of-the-main-river.aspx?boardbasis=AI The cruise ends in Mainz, just after the confluence with the Rhine, so yes, *I admit it is a bit of sailing on the Rhine river - about 1.5 km. The airport Frankfurt is nearby but Mainz is a nice alternative for disembarkation, also seeing that car and coach can reach the UK in eight to ten hours from there. A no flight option works. notamermaid

Riviera has two new themed cruises. One is gardening and will be on the Rhone in October, the other is on the Rhine in October: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/cruise/garden-tv-star-and-royal-experts-to-join-new-riviera-cruises notamermaid

Next one: Ghent. Here is an article on the city wanting to limit river cruise dockings. Only in Dutch (so far). Take the link from here and translate if desired: https://binnenvaartlog.nl/gent-zet-harde-limiet-op-aantal-cruiseschepen-antwerpen-niet/ notamermaid

That is quite a wide estuary... Or the Ijsselmeer? Em, err, no beats me. Definitely in the top ten of geography fails. Who edits the stuff? notamermaid

Bayern Erleben - Experience Bavaria - is the title of a documentary that I have enjoyed watching, a series actually, this episode is set on the Danube, the Canal and the Main. This German river cruise on the "Elegant Lady" started in Passau and ended in Aschaffenburg if I have understood it correctly. It was filmed in 2017 but I have only found it recently in the broadcaster archives. Perhaps this is interesting to compare a German cruise company (Bulgarian flag) ship to an international one. Lovely footage of towns and some interesting shots of a lock in action. I must say, the Main looks so narrow compared to the Rhine. It is in German but the scenery can of course be enjoyed without the commentary.You can put the subtitles in German on. If you have any questions about the text, let me know: https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/bayern-erleben/eine-flusskreuzfahrt-durch-bayern/br-fernsehen/Y3JpZDovL2JyLmRlL2Jyb2FkY2FzdC9GMjAxN1dPMDA3ODU1QTA notamermaid

It is May, let us have a look at how the river did in April. This is Kaub gauge: In short: a good range all through the month with just typical reactions to rain or the lack of it. Correspondingly, Maxau in the Upper Rhine valley looked like this: As I mentioned in my post above, this good range of levels is very likely to continue. notamermaid

It is May, time to have a look at what the river did in April. This is Pfelling gauge: We see that the river is at a good level. Weather conditions led to a spike in the second half of the month but that will have caused no real problems. Interesting is the comparison with Passau. A spike at Pfelling can of course lead to a brief problem at the low bridge in Passau: Yes, you are seeing this correctly - there is no spike. All good. My guess is water was retained by the locks and the Isar which joins at Deggendorf did not contribute much water. The latter we can show: A rise certainly but not enough to speak of as significant in the grand scheme of the river basin of the Danube. All looking good for now. Although I find that the river has lost a bit of water in the last few days. Still, 362cm at Pfelling is more than sufficient. notamermaid

Kaub gauge at 267cm, a reaction to rain we have had in the last few days. That is a good level, the river is overall in a great range and things are looking pleasant going forward. Brief recap of April coming soon. The river is as busy as ever with barges and tankers, but also lots of river cruise ships. The other day I spotted the S.S. Victoria, i.e. the new livery of the ship. All are nice to look at but I am looking forward to spotting "The Gentleman". Hope it works out as she will not be sailing often in my realm this year. notamermaid

I must admit that I like a bit of detective work now and again. Never will be a Holmes, though, much above my deductive powers. Good to read that there was not much damage to the lock, I had a "oh, no!" moment when I heard the news. The locks had only just finished their annual maintenance. And we know what happened at Iffezheim on the Rhine. So back to water levels. Recap of April coming soon. Spoiler, no spoiler as you can tell from the few posts in the last weeks. All was good. notamermaid

Surprised to read that. I spotted the S.S. Victoria on the Rhine, she was sailing alright and is now in Basel. I could not see many people on the sun deck but then it was a cool day and they may have been busy in the lounge or something. It was not in the Rhine Gorge. She is now in Basel. notamermaid

I completely agree with the pre- or post-cruise idea. My suggestion is to fly into Munich, do an organized pre-cruise thing or DIY this. Then head to a ship that starts its itinerary from Vilshofen. That cuts out Nuremberg, etc. which I reckon you are not that interested in. Make sure your itinerary has more than just two hours in Bratislava and head for Budapest where most cruises end. Alternatively you can do round-trips Passau to Passau (European river cruise companies) or start in Linz (Austria), a rarer embarkation port. Lots to choose from. Have fun planning. notamermad

I was not fully happy with the timeline of the Viking Mimir so I checked ships from the other direction. There was the Viking Vali. She arrived at the lock later than the Mimir and docked in the approach for several hours. I guess that rules her out? There may of course be another ship that I have not looked at - the Canal is quite busy. I know of no ship on European rivers that is exactly 130m long, by the way. A few come close. notamermaid

Funny you should mention that as I have just read an article on overtourism in Germany, a very recent one at that. It identifies - you have guessed it - towns on the Moselle as potential candidates for overtourism, being what the Federal Government calls "besonders Tourismus-intensive Gemeinden". In this article of the regional broadcaster SWR they give towns for Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Würrtemberg. Among them are our favourites Cochem and Bernkastel-Kues: https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/leben-und-gesellschaft/overtourism-im-suedwesten-100.html notamermaid

Excellent point. I would say that overall Amsterdam is faring well with river cruise tourists who tend to be a very agreeable crowd and do sometimes stay overnight. It appears that the authorities target almost all types of tourism and see how they can curb the numbers of visitors per year. They intend to go for the 50 percent by 2028 so who knows they may revise that plan and keep the percentage higher. Still four years to go and enough time for the river cruise companies to complain. One does wonder - where else are they supposed to start the cruise from? I doubt that the river cruise ships will sail much from Utrecht (far too small for the logistics) or even Rotterdam. They would have to take the train or the coach from Amsterdam airport. Not environmentally friendly... Talking of which. As regards European river cruises the Grand European (or similar name) from Amsterdam to Budapest is quite heavy on the environment, i.e. possibly the top spot for coach travel during a cruise. There is at least one town that is only used as a drop off or pick up point and you have long distance excursions, not to mention the shuttles that take you into town from the harbour (like in Nuremberg where walking that distance is quite the time-consuming hike even for the younger legs - 90 minutes). notamermaid