notamermaid

I certainly hope the view improves from here. What a boring and slightly scary place to be in. A long way up the river for you today. Not that it is much consolation but at least they take you through the valley with a stop at Lorelei and Bingen. notamermaid

I think @RDVIK2016 has officially taken over from me explaining this 👍. I have nothing to add! notamermaid

Thank you for taking us along on your journey through Europe. Have a great cruise, we all know it is going to be a bit adventurous in this drought. Looking forward to the next installment. notamermaid

Viking is actually based in Switzerland, but you book with a different entity of Viking that means you book with Viking A and sail with Viking B. Or something. NDA's make my blood boil, at least when it comes to the general public consumer on one side and a big company on the other. To be frank, I would not silence myself with a pen and the promise of 500 dollars. From Wikipedia, in German but obvious: based in Switzerland. "Viking River Cruises AG ist ein weltweit agierender Anbieter von Flusskreuzfahrten. Der Hauptsitz des Unternehmens ist in Basel, Schweiz." and from the T&C on https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/2-220413_BookingAndSaleTermsAndConditions.pdf comes: "THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS GOVERN THE BOOKING AND SALE OF YOUR CRUISE TOUR THROUGH VIKING RIVER CRUISES, INC." Your carrier is different again and depends on where your ship is registered, i.e. Rhine, Douro, Nile, etc. Complicated stuff and well worth reading before you book. It also says that if you have any disputes with the company you do legal action as an individual and with signing the terms and conditions you sign away the right to use class action. I have not read the details but I get the feeling that if you leave the ship because you do not want to be on a coach or in a hotel, you are completely and utterly on your own, financially and legally... That does sound much better. notamermaid

With all the god news of rain - and not so good news of too much - let us have a quick look at Pfelling gauge. Air temperature is only 22.6 Celsius, noticeably cooler than yesterday. River level: Yes! 👍 247cm is not brilliant for river cruiser ships, definitely need quite a bit more, but it is a start and it is still raining. So could it be too much to handle? For the small rivers and the Isar things could be tricky. Hope it does not get too much in the built-up areas. The Lech will also be transporting lots of water. At Kelheim, that is the Danube just before the Main Danube Canal joins, the Lech has already joined and therefore we will also see a high rise there. This is the forecast: That is admittedly a bit fast. What that will do to the Danube further downstream will be interesting to see. By the way, although we may see a rise of the level at Lake Constance from the rain and the levels of the Rhine should rise, the Middle Rhine valley is bone dry still. Almost all rain so far has come down South of the Rhine Gorge and it looks on the radar video as if the Black Forest hills are blocking the clouds from swirling towards the Upper Rhine valley this afternoon. That of course increases the risk of flash flooding in the Danube catchment area. notamermaid

Up there in the North indeed. That has made me wonder: actually, what are the ships in the South doing? Such an itinerary is obviously not possible there but Amawaterways has one river available (the Neckar locks are too short) and that is the Main. I know German companies rerouted to Basel to Frankfurt. notamermaid

It has been raining a little, in Austria that is. And it may rain more, on top of that more water is coming from Germany, i.e. the Danube in Bavaria should rise. As it is still one week to your cruise the company will likely be waiting before notifying you. Vilshofen to Komarno should be okay anyway and by the time you cruise the rain could well be in Budapest so no changes may by necessary. Fingers crossed. notamermaid

It is late in the evening for me as well, but I want to elaborate on this, see post #711: " We stop in a shipyard in an area called Hafen Niehl (according to Google map) and will stay overnight here. It is a 15 minutes drive to the Cathedral." It may be (only) a fifteen minute drive, but if this is the harbour area at Niehl that I had a land day trip to in 2021, it is not scenic staying overnight. Here are the photos of entrance to the area: train line and fence of Viking: Viking ships dock: and dock of other river cruise ships It is the winter harbour, perhaps there is a slightly more comfortable, inviting area that I did not see. notamermaid

Yes, that should be possible, the canals can be controlled and the Rhine has considerably more navigation channel depth from Duisburg downstream. Cologne is 250cm GlW, Düsseldorf is 250cm GlW, Duisburg is 280cm GlW, Emmerich is 280cm GlW. However, from Emmerich it is not far to Lobith, the next gauge and the first one in the Netherlands. Lobith is on a record low now as well a Emmerich. So sailing will likely be impeded, i.e. going slowly. I cannot say anymore about the Rhine/Waal in the Netherlands. Belgium also has strong control over the water level, the Albert Canal for example, so keeping to those areas is a good idea. *GlW is the reference point which is different at each gauge. notamermaid

Sleep well. So sorry about that change. notamermaid

Yes, good, you destroy that negative stuff from CNN. Death of river cruising, my foot!! As far as I know, things are running smoothly on the Seine and the Rhone, and also the canals of the Netherlands still have enough water. If needs be people can still sail the Mittelland Canal. Phoenix Reisen is sending another ship right now from Serbia to the Netherlands to be launched in 2023. notamermaid

By the time this was picked up internationally (Bloomberg being onto it very quickly of course) the ship had already been dealt with and was making the last few kilometres upstream to a safe space. In the evening, i.e. 24 hours ago, shipping had fully resumed. The backlog was likely a few hours more. Here is the report by Deutsche Welle from yesterday for some background and a lot of information on other rivers in Europe - and some lakes. Lake Constance is of course very low. Hopefully by Saturday we will see a couple of centimetres on the gauge at Konstanz, please note that this is the Lake not the city: 5cm up would already be a lot of water... notamermaid

On the radar I see rain over Lake Constance, now having also moved North and West, an almost perfect direction to give water to the Rhine and its tributaries. notamermaid

Thank you for your post. Really appreciated. 1. Quite honestly, I expected an unhappy cruiser react to my praise of Avalon and complain 2. Pleasantly surprised that the good report is better than I expected should a satisfied customer answer me. Quite honestly, if you have to stay in a hotel instead of on the ship and miss at least 24 hours of sailing, a refund is the thing to offer. Rerouting of minor kind is not an issue. I checked the general understanding again of what would happen in Germany and it is the consensus that a customer must get a voucher in the very least but for any major change affecting the nature of the river cruise must be offered a refund the sum of which will vary vastly depending on what has been missing from the trip. notamermaid

Oh sh** We feared this may happen. Flash flooding on the Lech and Isar is not going to be good, not good anywhere. Stay safe. We have no warning on the Rhine at all as of now. Why can't we have this in moderation? One thunderstorm will only result in a spike in river levels that is gone in 36 hours. notamermaid

An update. Rain for the Danube catchment area? Let us have a look at the radar image. Tada! Not brilliant, but better than nothing. General direction is further towards the river as the day progresses. notamermaid

That is certainly nice. It ties in with the fact that we read few complaints on this board. I do wonder how they handle the Grand European right now. One ship swap is logistically okay to handle, two is a challenge. Could make for some unhappy customers. Well, the Rhine may be going up enough now, to reduce it to one ship swap, just the Danube one that is. notamermaid

Thanks Daisi. Nice clear message from Avalon. I see you can click on the info directly and clearly visible from the home page. Really customer friendly. notamermaid

I am sorry to read this. A disappointing experience. Hope you can enjoy Strasbourg a little despite the situation. notamermaid

Have you joined a roll call? Plenty of info there and you may find some one else has put their name down but prefers not to be on this main river cruising board. notamermaid

That's the spirit! It will not be a normal river cruise as planned if you are going soon, that is for sure, a bit of an adventure, but you are prepared. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

A bit more from CC on the situation: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/7073/ Important to take away from it: "the Hungarian government could shut down sailings into Budapest, Schreiner told Cruise Critic." This is a fact I learnt in 2018. Budapest may do this in extreme conditions. German authorities/captains/other experts stress again and again that in Germany this will not happen. notamermaid

Forgot to mention the forecast. River level at Kaub is supposed to go up to 38cm tonight, Friday into the 40's, Saturday 50 and possibly a bit more. Sunday 60. notamermaid

It is a little cooler, a little windier here and more humid. Haze and clouds dominate the sky. The anticipation level is rising. Will it rain more and where? There has been drizzle and what looked like a thunderstorm East of Basel. Clouds with what could be decent rain are forming over the Main and coming West/Northwest. Looks kind of promising. Maxau gauge: a rise to 349cm Kaub gauge: 37cm, slightly higher than yesterday Koblenz gauge: 30cm, fluctuating, no reaction to rain yet it seems Cologne gauge: 73cm, daily fluctuation, may the overall downward trend end today? Emmerich gauge: -4cm, will that be steady today and may we see the zero again tomorrow? To be honest, I am very skeptical of improvement for river cruising, but at least it is raining. Will see how the day progresses. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge as forecast has gone down to 220cm. Air temperature 26.2 Celsius. It is clouding over here in the Rhine valley. This may well be happening along the Danube as rain is forecast. Will this mean humid air turning into thunderstorms today? We will see how the afternoon progresses. It is raining in the Middle of Germany as I write, but not much, a band of rain North of the Danube. Not sure if much water goes to the Northern tributaries of the Danube today. Radar image shows the clouds being pulled over the Main river to the North and away from Bavaria. Remember that the river needs a lot of water and level to get to any decent level to give large river cruise ships a chance. From 220cm to decent is a long way. I would be surprised if the rain today and tomorrow did the trick. If at all, my money is on three ships up, three ships down and then back to no ships. Sorry folks, I am just very skeptical. notamermaid