notamermaid

Brief update. Pfelling gauge has gone down steadily and a bit more than I had thought it would. 300cm. Forecast suggests figures a few centimetres above that with a further slow decline tomorrow. Rain in Austria today, with drizzle perhaps coming into Bavaria. Tomorrow more rain in Bavaria. Looks like a decent level at Pfelling of a little over 290cm at the weekend could be possible. Difficult to judge. The authorities indicate so but the range of figures they give for Saturday suggests there is quite a bit of room for error, or let us say the river's reaction being unpredictable. notamermaid

Worst case scenario, yes. That is one neat little map with drawing you have posted. Thank you. Great to visualize what might happen, might in only when the water is very low. Hopefully it will not happen at all. It did happen to a few itineraries, people did just that about 10 days ago. It may just be Speyer to Koblenz ship swapping, I honestly expect them to happen again, meaning that the level will get so low that ship swaps are needed. I think I am not the only one. It is only August, we have a long September in front of us. notamermaid

Yes, that is important to note. @geekette on your map you have marked Strasbourg to Koblenz. Viking did that, then they switched to the even longer swap, i.e. your red line would extend down(stream) to Cologne. Within that section is the Rhine Gorge that you need to bypass when it cannot be sailed on a river cruise ship, i.e. you swap ships and do that stretch with the famous castles on an excursion boat, by rail or by car/coach. I copied it, again with all passenger ships in: Bingen to Koblenz. When you enlarge your map, you will find Bingen on your map south of Koblenz accordingly. notamermaid

Fun with Maths - and Geography Those ship swaps got me thinking and and I keep wondering why some ships came from Basel down to Strasbourg or to Speyer or to Mainz or even as far downstream as Rüdesheim. Okay, we know now that the ships have their individual differences and it seems clear that while Viking did not make it to Rüdesheim from early on Amawaterways still sailed down there. The last week before the level rose again I did not spot any of those either but I may have missed one or two. Gradually all the ports from just past Iffezheim to the Rhine Gorge must become inaccessible with the fall in water levels, but why did Viking choose Strasbourg and why so early? Safety? Convenience? And likewise, why Cologne so early and not Engers, Andernach, Königswinter or Bonn? Are their ships really lying so much deeper in the water? I will probably never find out, but the point is that many passengers have spent a large amount of time on a coach rather than on a ship. You may of course not mind. I just wanted to know what it looks like on the ground and in distances. If it is just a question of getting from Strasbourg to Cologne fast, yes, that is a doable distance in a day. But what about the actual distance, the sailing kilometres you have missed? I wanted to find out and first had a look at a map. I chose marinetraffic with the passenger ships filtered in, as that gives you a nice idea where the course of the Rhine is: A couple of notes: I think the river cruise ships dock where the word Basel is and just under that. The last blue dot, i.e. towards the East must be an excursion boat. Strasbourg dock is underneath the word Strasbourg, Cologne has tons of blue dots, the Waal, where ships sail, is underneath the word Netherlands I think and then you look at Utrecht and Amsterdam. Now, from a certain day onwards and with several itineraries Viking did not sail the stretch Strasbourg to Cologne. That looks to be a third of the itinerary to me. But the map is only a rough estimate, so I calculated the Rhine, Waal and Canal kilometres, as best as I could. And that is interesting. Naturally, some places have an embankment on the Rhine for several kilometres so please do not nail me down on one or two less or more. Here goes: 1. From Basel dock at Klybeckquai at km169 - sail to Strasbourg/Kehl dock at km293 - makes 124km sailed 2. Strasbourg/Kehl to Cologne unsailed 3. Cologne dock at km687 (near railway bridge) - sail to turn-off Rhine Amsterdam Canal at km913 - sail Canal for 72km (if sailing the whole length) - makes 298km sailed So in all that is 422 kilometres that have been sailed. And the unsailed part from 293 to 687 is how many kilometres? You can work it out and find out the percentage between sailed and unsailed. I was surprised. I am still so surprised that I think the maths must be wrong. Over to you: could I be wrong? By the way, the Rhine Gorge is officially about 65km long, The UNESCO world heritage site is slightly longer, 67km. notamermaid

You know, that is a very short and succinct comparison. Like it very much. Thank you. What a great mindset to have, puts all those moaning, grumbling 70 year olds in their place... I think on balance I would also prefer to sail and on the luxurious ship rather than the excursion boat, as fun as it can be. Thanks for the European weather map. Really interesting to look at. I see Hamburg people may be drenched with rain, for our Rhine it is a bit more difficult to make out. It is not clear to me how much will go the Rhine river basin. I had a look at the weather map just before I posted and notice that drizzle to moderate rainfall could happen on Friday, but a good amount of rain could come down on Saturday, with pockets of heavy rain in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. No downpours in the Upper Rhine valley. This scenario I would say is reflected in the graph at Maxau, which has been adjusted and now shows no further spike and rise but just a gradual decline, very slowly, due to widespread rain over the whole basin further upstream keeping a higher volume of water going. Which could be all we need to keep Kaub at a sufficient level for sailing through the Rhine Gorge over the weekend and into next week. Quick look: Kaub continues the slow decline, 114cm, all good. Emmerich 48cm. Now that is certainly much better than it was. notamermaid

Ah, yes. Nothing as such, but I call it vigilance. 93cm is the official low water mark at which figure the green dot on the gauge map turns into an orange dot. In the past I have observed that 90cm on the gauge when it is not raining and the river is on a downward trend is noteworthy and soon after that a few ships may need to change their docking location as they cannot safely reach their landing stages and generally speaking sail more slowly, potentially creating short delays in an itinerary. I realize it sounded too dramatic, sorry about that, and I shall change how I report on it. notamermaid

According to a regional news report Danube rive traffic was halted overnight at Vilshofen. From around 10pm last night till 8.30am this morning. A barge got stranded on a gravel bank during a docking manoeuvre and partly stood in the navigation channel therefore the authorities prohibited ships from sailing past. Traffic has resumed but the ship is still there awaiting being towed free. A closure like this can cause delays also for river cruise ships, depending on traffic, especially going through locks. notamermaid

@floridababa You have been very unfortunate to have not been able to sail that itinerary and that Scenic cancelled it. It is a long itinerary and at least half the days will be on the Rhine. So yes, I reckon it was easier and quite frankly IMO better for Scenic to be straightforward and cancel if they cannot get this itinerary to run smoothly. I said that Amsterdam to Trier is a good choice but the Rhine river got so low that many ships did not even go to Koblenz. That may have been for safety partially or it was logistically impractical. So that would also mean no turning onto the Moselle. It is rare but can happen. Scenic may or may not have been able to change the itinerary to Amsterdam to Trier/Remich and back but with people having to get to Basel for flights (or Amsterdam vice versa) this could be a logistical nightmare. Viking got round that by going Trier to Koblenz and then hotel/boatel to get people to Basel. Which on that advertised itinerary (Paris to Trier to Basel) meant a rather curtailed sailing experience. As an example. Does one prefer sailing for a short time and then switch to hotel or does one prefer not going on the cruise at all, i.e. is content with the company's decision not to sail, however disappointing this may be? I do not know and because for me the embarkation port for a Rhine cruise is just a decent train ride away it would not be fair of me to comment further. This year the situation is extreme. Two weeks ago the Rhine Gorge was impossible to sail for large ships and the other German stretches became a bit "complicated" (very much depending on individual ship and the connected logistics of embarkation). As an alternative a river cruise company could have parked a 135m ship on the Moselle at Koblenz for embarkation. This believe it or not could have been unimpeded sailing to your heart's content all the way up to Remich in Luxembourg and back - unless more than one company decided to do that and the ships used up all available docking spaces. The Moselle has a beautiful landscape and some say they overall prefer that river to the Rhine. In the past I have found it a pity that not more itineraries concentrate on the Moselle, the Dutch and British companies go for that a bit more, i.e. spend more time on that river, like on an itinerary going Cologne to Trier and back for example. Guess what, apart from bike and barge cruise, a few cruises and more than there used to be start in Koblenz, this year Viva Cruises is going for the Moselle experience, that is Koblenz up the Moselle and return to Koblenz, just four nights but fun to do I should think. Especially the Christmas market version of it. Or the seven nighter Düsseldorf to Trier/Riol return. Which by the way, just like Amsterdam to Trier, is a wise choice of itinerary to try and avoid an impacted cruise in low water of course. Well, enough blather on that topic from me 😁, you all get my point. Many things to consider when choosing your itinerary and many choices out there besides the Amsterdam to Basel classic seven night/eight day route. notamermaid

Brief update. Kaub gauge at 118cm. That is almost spot on with the forecast. So it makes sense to look at tomorrow: 110cm and less. Friday 100cm and likely dropping below that by lunchtime. Saturday, wellll... okay I will say it: the dreaded 90cm appears and the river is on a down trend. We really need that rain on Saturday and this time along the Main and actually in the Gorge please. notamermaid

Brief update only today: Pfelling gauge at 328cm, a bit lower than the forecast suggested for this lunchtime. Tomorrow and Friday will be more interesting to look at to see what may be happening over the weekend. Budapest gauge reached the peak early this morning and is now showing signs of going on the downward slope. Seeing that it is still double what it was 48 hours ago, this should not worry too much. notamermaid

Thank you. Photos can be tricky, not sure what goes wrong in your case. I have had stubborn ones that stayed upside down so I flipped them upside down on the computer (made a copy first) and they came onto CC the right way up! Please do not go to too much trouble, was really thinking just a couple of notes for future cruisers and a thumps up if you enjoyed it. @UDChE89 sounds as if the experience on the MS Thomas Hardy should be rather pleasant, things seem to be well organized so far. Hope the internet will be as good as you need to have it and perhaps we can look forward to another upload from you some time. My tip, as photos can be tricky with the connections (as you will probably know), it may be favourable for you to stay to text only for us here. notamermaid

Indeed, the Main and Main Danube Canal are notorious for low bridges. Unfortunately, this is always the case regardless of water level - that is controlled by the lock and dam system. In high water it will be worse to some degree but as a minimum depth of the river and canal are maintained the problem is always there. If you are looking for a river cruise on the big rivers of Europe without any issues - well forget it. If you go for reduction of risk and inconvenience to the absolute minimum either go for Amsterdam to Trier or look beyond Germany to the Netherlands/Belgium or the Rhone and Seine. Not too sure about low bridges on both French rivers but they have not been mentioned as far as I can recall. But that is taking us elsewhere - back to the Rhine. Brief late night look at Kaub: 119cm. Definitely on the down slope, but thankfully slowly. By the way, when the thunderstorms happened around Lake Constance we did get brief rain overnight around where I live. It was so little that by the time I got up (I am a late riser when not at work) every trace of it had vanished in the thirsty soil and on the warm stones and tarmac. Tomorrow will see temperatures in Rhineland-Palatinate again rise to 32 Celsius. notamermaid

I am sorry to say that this is a typical reaction of Viking (and potentially a couple of other lines) and while I understand it (the FCC) - but not agree with it - in cases of low water or similar things, I do not understand it here. Unacceptable. Media - going for bad media, publicly wide range - may be the only, but brutal way forward for you. Newspaper, online sites beyond the circle of river cruisers... Viking have not been very successful in their approach and planning of the Mississippi cruises, to put it mildly. Negative press is not what they want right now. "Mishaps" may now have a bigger impact than they would in normal circumstances. Go into battle, but prepare well. So, Viking could not get all state rooms ready in five months: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Viking-Mississippi-float-out https://www.travelweek.ca/news/viking-celebrates-25th-anniversary-with-new-video-and-special-savings/ New ships are built on the back of the FCC's receivers, the one year in advance full payers, the payments of very happy sail againers and with money the banks that pump into this and the confidence of the investors behind Viking. It is a very successful business and great product, but for me not the company to sail with, ever. I do not approve of their business practices. It would be very interesting to hear what happened to other state rooms. Hope you can sort this out to your satisfaction. notamermaid

Riviera UK went for the names of writers. The ships are mostly Scylla ships, Riviera UK charters them long term and they are built in cooperation. Viva Cruises is the brainchild and river cruise operating company of Scylla. We actually call this mother (company/association) and daughter (company/association), in English you say that Scylla is the parent company of Viva Cruises. Perhaps you could leave a short message in our thread on Riviera to say how it went? Would be nice to read. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

Low bridges can be a problem in flooding, that is when the water is very high, just before the authorities ban river traffic. River traffic is halted in flooding but not in low water. Low water is almost no issue on the Moselle, i.e. you can basically forget about it. The Rhine - you know low water... Flooding can occur as well of course. Again, a river traffic ban is then possible. Low bridges are not an issue as far as I know, certainly not in low water. Mean water or flooding - I know of no problems, but this does not mean they do not exist, they are few and may occur in areas of the Rhine that I am not familiar with. I remember reading about a bridge in Basel that a ship could not pass under. For that I refer you to the experienced river cruisers in the Upper Rhine valley. I have never heard of the sun deck being closed for any length of time. Again, this may be something that is rare and happens only in the Upper Rhine valley. Not sure. notamermaid

Quick update to what is happening on the Lower Rhine. Cologne gauge has risen to 154cm and appears to be levelling off. Emmerich gauge is rising nicely and is now at 20cm. This means the Netherlands can now finally benefit from the rain in Switzerland and the Upper Rhine valley. The wave has reached Lobith just beyond the border. notamermaid

Viva Cruises is bilingual, I have no worries about our lone English speaker having problems. Okay, port talks may be awkward, but I am sure the cruise director is always on hand to help. I also got a bit confused, do you mean they may not be able to find a guide who can throw in an English explanation, or have they not been able to get enough guides to cover the whole passengers? I gather you booked the excursions on top of the basic product, as this is standard with the company I believe? Then hopefully there will be no problem to reimburse you. I think Viva Cruises will be fair on that, they better be if they want a repeat customer... Nice. Good to read you feel comfortable in the cabin. Hope the bedding will give you better sleep than you are anticipating. This I must admit I thought may turn out to be the biggest worry on your cruise, rather than language or anything else (apart from the low water which for now we may assume has resolved itself), as past Budapest infrastructure can be not as developped as you may need. It may not affect the ship, but I think you may want to get some work in early on in the river cruise - or talk to the cruise director again to see what they think. Thank you for planning to take us along on your journey and be possibly the first North-American to report on Viva Cruises, definitely a highly unusual constellation of language set-up, company, ship and itinerary. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

My memory is failing me at the moment - are you leaving on Saturday for your river cruise? The link to the youtube channel is blocked, i.e. I cannot even get a starting page from which I could subscribe to it. The instagram looks really nice, will you cover your trip on your account? notamermaid

Yeaahhhh, hmm, something went - unusually - very wrong with the forecast. Where is the 140cm at Kaub? Not there, as the level peaked at 128cm and has gone down to 124cm. Which results in a highly adjusted forecast that says the level is very likely to fall to 110cm on Thursday. Rain is forecast for Saturday. notamermaid

The Moselle is fed by the Vosges mountains, the Meurthe and the Saar mainly. The whole navigable stretch for large ships is controlled by locks and the navigation channel is maintained at a depth that makes the Moselle of no concern. So far I have only heard of a minor problem at Koblenz in 2018. As a side note: on a large river cruise ship an itinerary going from Amsterdam onto the Moselle is a good choice for reducing the likelihood of interruptions due to low water, you divert away from the Rhine Gorge that way. A wise choice of ship helps further. notamermaid

see my post #434 Pfelling gauge has fallen, but not as fast as one may fear. Now at 377cm. That means it is just below the mean water level. Still looking pleasant, as expected and noted in a post of mine above, a rapid decline to extreme lows does not happen. The forecast is looking spot on today as regards how the river is reacting, so I reckon the estimate further into Wednesday should come close as well. A fall to 330cm we can expect, but looking (and guessing) at Thursday we may see 320cm. That is still good but makes us wonder how well the level can be sustained going into the weekend and next week. No rain of note anywhere in the German Danube basin, weather forecast says rain in Passau today, i.e. coming from the East, which is good for Austria and the Danube downstream, but is useless for Pfelling gauge. Significant rain to sustain the level and hopefully make the river in Germany rise is forecast for Saturday. notamermaid

Spotted the autocorrect quickly, question was, what does it stand for? I think the photo explains it, "we had an early start at Würzburg"! 🙂 Thank you for the video and photos. What a lovely thing to happen, meeting that Canadian family. Your question has been answered of course, but just to expand: there are so many low bridges on the Main and Main Danube Canal, that the sun deck may be closed for days as the crew do not want to, cannot or are not allowed to spend so much time putting down and up the railings often. You can read a little more here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2670259-the-river-main-infos-and-river-cruising-experiences/ Post #4 and a few following that one. notamermaid

My comment: "Modelling puts the level firmly under 400cm by latest Friday and may mean that the level drops to official mean low water again on Saturday. If that happens as a consequence we will see a drop at Kaub that we may need to watch again as regards river cruising" And the quote referencing that: I think the timeline may not be so clear. The level at Maxau dropping below 400cm and further on Saturday means that the level at Kaub will drop more or less accordingly (unless we get tons of water from the Main) a good day or so later but this does not lead to low water at Kaub on Saturday yet. The by then slower decline will happen into next week at Kaub. The question - I agree - is indeed how low, something we cannot know but the modelling exists and I will just hint at the suggested high probability of the level falling to 80cm on 29 August. It is computer modelling and always to be looked at with caution. I will come back to that in another post. notamermaid

New article on air travel to a river cruise with the company: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/riviera-travel-scraps-charge-for-passengers-flying-from-regional-hubs notamermaid

Bruges, a popular excursion on river cruises and a very popular town as such. Can there be such a thing as off the beaten path in such a place? A contributor on travel weekly tried to find a quieter side of Bruges: https://www.travelweekly.com/Europe-Travel/On-a-quest-to-find-the-quieter-side-of-Bruges notamermaid