notamermaid

Disappointing. For the price of your river cruise, Viking should do better. No problem buying the map I linked to above as a bulk order and offer them on board in the shop. Or getting good maps from the regional tourist board. No, this tourism employee is not satisfied with Viking... Forgot to mention yesterday that the publishers also has a Rhine map available that covers (almost) the full length, Lake Constance to Rotterdam: https://www.rahmel-verlag.de/de/produkte/produkte_details.php?prod_id=43 notamermaid

I expected as much (or as little in this case). The feratel webcam is normally very clear with high resolution but a couple of raindrops must have hit it "full force". Pity you missed the Altes Brauhaus but Ehrenbreitstein Fortress is certainly a great place to be at. notamermaid

Brief news: Pfelling up to 352cm! Levelling off soon. Likely to stay above 300cm for a bit as temperatures and weather conditions are now more favourable for this. Looking promising for levels in Austria then, of course. Slowakia and Hungary will see higher temperatures with less rain during the coming week than Germany. Outlook for next week I will post on again when the forecast has been adjusted (plan to post around lunchtime tomorrow). notamermaid

Brief news: the wave of water that I reported about yesterday has reached Dresden nicely, level there now at 141cm. Already on the way down, though. Still, better than it had been in the previous days. Hope Viking can make it work. notamermaid

Screenshot of Koblenz 2.15pm: notamermaid

We posted simultaneously, please note that I replied to the previous query. Will be back later in the day. notamermaid

Time for me to briefly jump in I think. The situation between Budapest and Bucharest is different from the stretches upstream so I cannot due to lack of experience can say what the situation will likely be like. A 110m ship is good to be on as it will give you extra centimetres "to play with". I have not heard of the situation being dire in Budapest. We are generally speaking not in a bad situation. It is just a bit too low for comfort. Any rain that falls is good for the river of course, be it in Bavaria or in Vienna. Rain along the tributaries from Budapest onwards is better, or let us say aids the situation further. In short: I am relatively confident for your cruise but cannot give any details for the river situation during your itinerary. For finding figures, I need a bit more time. Would be happy to hear from current cruisers in Budapest or thereabouts. Whether your ship will sail, in the end depends on your captain (and perhaps the authorities) there is no way we on this board can give a definitive answer. notamermaid

Google maps is a great tool, I agree. The problem with the itinerary Amsterdam to Basel is that Amsterdam is not on the Rhine, so in the standard book realm this is difficult to find. The river cruise companies have the best details for that it seems, better than a bookshop. The standard edition here in Germany for tourists for the most scenic section is this folded map: https://www.rahmel-verlag.de/de/produkte/produkte_details.php?prod_id=42 , which you may be able to purchase online or in a souvenir shop in Cologne for example. But the maps I have seen posted by past cruisers of what they have been handed out for the Rhine Gorge sailing look very nice. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

It is not quite evening yet, but the gauge is at 293cm now. Nice, but not high enough to relax about it. I recommend the link br111 has provided above, for keeping an eye on the figures. And I will, too. notamermaid

It should get a bit better, Schöna gauge at the border has seen a jump today. But if it is good enough when the wave reaches Dresden tomorrow is a big question. Hope it works out. Refund or compensation is tricky, I agree with Canal archive. notamermaid

Kaub level has risen 24cm in 24 hours. Nice. Now at 156cm, we may even see 180cm tomorrow. Time to relax about it and enjoy. Maybe talk a little more about ferries in the next few days. As always, if you have some photos from your recent river cruise that you feel like sharing, do share. 🙂 notamermaid

Would you be willing to challenge Tauck on using the voucher somehow, i.e. some other way? You could tell them the voucher arrived just a little to late. Really just an idea, I just think you deserve to be able to use it. While Tauck has no obligation to do so as far as I can assume, it would be really nice of them to offer a gesture that is something you can use, some money token (i.e. money back in your pocket), a letter of appreciation or something in the line of "sorry the experience was not the best", something that is not a future voucher. Like in restaurants I am of the attitude that one should get money back, or "the dessert is on the house". Better than a future voucher. I would come back more likely with such a token rather than "come back and we will do better next time when we will give you a free coffee". I hope your Douro river cruise will be much more enjoyable. notamermaid

It is nice when the forecast turns out to be correct, Maxau has gone up to 484cm. This means a nice rise at Kaub will give the ships more water under the hull over the weekend and into Monday. 170cm are likely. For those new to the subject, here is some info: I normally do not post river levels downstream from Koblenz as the navigation channel deepens and at this level few to no problems should occur that are directly linked to low levels. There is the odd risk of a landing stage not being accessible at Cologne for example, but that is a minor thing that is easily dealt with. notamermaid

Hope to read about your booking of a river cruise some time in the future. 🙂 Meanwhile, have a great time in Scandinavia! notamermaid

A real pity, but in the current heat, I somewhat had the feeling it would happen. As mentioned before, Viking and the shipyard did a great job designing and constructing the modern ships for the Elbe, but the river has its own mind. notamermaid

Not quite. Here is a map: Regensburg should be fine. Straubing to Vilshofen is the problem stretch. Vilshofen has a lock and as far as I know the docking area at Vilshofen is already deeper in its navigation channel and the lock gives the area more water, so that should be okay. Passau and there onwards has the retained water from the locks also. But there are one or two stretches in Austria where the distance between locks is not able to give that effect. I only learnt this in 2018 when the ships could not pass that area in Austria. Where they are is something you would need to find out in detail from navigation maps or the crew on your ship. Generally speaking problems there appear to start later i.e. at lower respecitve figures than in Bavaria (Germany). Timing, i.e. where you are on a certain date at a certain river level, can be crucial, but I would say that if you make it through at Pfelling, the chances are good you will make the other stretches as well. Pfelling gauge now stands at 279cm but the rain has pushed the forecast up, 291cm tomorrow may be reached again late evening. notamermaid

As of 4 June Arosa as a company does not require proof of vaccination or recovery anymore. But regulations of various countries still need to be adhered to so the Douro still cannot be sailed by those who do not meet the requirements. Here are the details: https://www.arosa-*****/river-cruises/company/current-travel-information.html I am a little surprised they have taken that step now, I expected it later in the year. But from an economic point of view it makes sense to do this sooner rather than later. A test instead of vaccination or recovery would have the same effect of opening up the booking to everyone but with all regulations scrapped in Germany (more or less) the consumer is probably more content with having a completely open and normal river cruise... A couple of weeks ago I saw that another European company (small one that charters ships) had moved to "3G". Cannot remember the name. Question is whether and when international river cruise companies will follow suit. notamermaid

This small country in Europe borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, but also has a coastline along the North Sea. Despite the country bordering on the popular river cruising countries there is the somewhat curious fact about Belgium that none of the large and at the same time popular river cruising rivers flow through it. Yet the country is sometimes visited on river cruises that focus on this part of Europe. The Meuse is the longest river that flows through Belgium but of the over 900kms only 183kms are actually in Belgium. And the Meuse is sailed by river cruise ships but nowhere nearly as much as the other rivers we so often talk about. So we need to have a different approach here I think and say: tell us about Belgium! The country, the towns, the excursions from the Netherlands, the waterways that crisscross Belgium and are used by river cruise ships. To start us off with the waterways here is the European map, which you need to enlarge quite a bit to see the waterways of Belgium: https://unece.org/DAM/trans/main/sc3/AGN_map_2018.pdf notamermaid

Here is the thread on the Main river. It runs entirely through Germany from East to West and joins the Rhine opposite the old town of Mainz. The river is navigable for a length of 388km from Bamberg to the mouth as a federal waterway, a few more kilometres can be sailed by small boats. At Bamberg (harbour) barges and river cruise ships divert into the Main Danube Canal leading to the Danube. To continue with more info here is the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_(river) Like the Moselle, the Main is a river that is rarely sailed by river cruise ships on its own, but is combined in an itinerary with another river or canal, a standard shorter route is for example from Frankfurt to Nuremberg, which is already on the Main Danube Canal. So much from me as a start. Over to you. Tell us about your experience. Further travel tips and info always welcome. notamermaid

Cruisecritic.co.uk ran this story on 11 April: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/3982/ TUI, apart from being a European well-known package tour operator, rang a bell with me as regards river cruising. There was something, in German, let me think... I have found it, TUI Sonata! Digging a bit deeper in my brain and consequently the internet, I re-found this article about the end of river cruising for TUI: https://www.schiffe-und-kreuzfahrten.de/sonstige-reederei/kein-tui-flussgenuss-mehr-aus-fuer-flusskreuzfahrtschiffe-ende-oktober/52455/ The TUI Sonata was one of four ships of TUI Flussgenuss that was an enterprise serving the German river cruising market. Sailings only started in 2011, it ceased operations at the end of the 2014 season. As a company not being a complete newcomer to river cruising as such, this article from the German correspondent with Seatradecruisenews, reads a little differently: http://www.seatrade-*****/news/news-headlines/tui-returns-to-the-rivers-with-three-vessels-for-the-uk-market.html And this is how travelweekly ran the news: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/TUI-launching-river-cruises-in-2020 TUI UK will operate these three ships solely for the UK market. The vessels have not been confirmed yet, it will be interesting to learn which ones they have chosen. The WT Sonata mentioned in the article, when it started sailing for TUI, was a new-built, a so-called twincruiser, a design that is a kind of pushboat in that the driving vessel is separate from the passenger vessel, both parts together have a standard length of 135m, the longest allowed on the rivers she operates on. notamermaid

There are rivers and landscapes beyond the standard Rhine, Main, Moselle, Danube, Seine and Rhone, or even the Elbe and the Douro, the last one getting ever more popular. Here is the catch: you cannot see them on a 135m ship. Even the 110m ships might not be small enough. Do not get me wrong, I am not talking of the very expensive barge cruises on the canals in France. I mean other rivers and canals built as trading routes. They criss-cross Europe and give you access to towns and landscapes that you might never have heard about... So, in order to see such places you need to downsize, go for the smaller ships and forget about multiple dining options, swimming pool, sundeck lounge, etc. If you are still interested read on. One example of such a cruise crossing Europe is CroisiEurope's offering: Amsterdam to Berlin! Yes, there is a different way out of Amsterdam, you do not need to go to Cologne. :) The problem: there are very few sailings. But to give you an idea what is possible on smaller ships, here is the itinerary: http://www.croisieurope.co.uk/cruises/amsterdam-berlin-formula-port/port-without-transfer I have given the Neckar and Oder rivers their own threads and mentioned a few companies in those. More info to come. And please ask away... beyond the language divide I might be able to find out something for you. :) notamermaid

The ITB (Internationale Tourismusbörse Berlin) is behind us and one of the topics that has left me contemplating is "overtourism". Even if you are new to the subject the idea is easy to grasp: there are places in the world that are so heavily visited by tourists that the negative side effects are straining the place and the people who live there. On the "negative bucket list" this year is - among others like Venice with 22 million visitors a year :eek: - also a popular river cruise destination: Amsterdam! Those are the places people should not go to this year to give them a rest. Here is an introduction to the topic: http://www.dw.com/en/overtourism-where-will-it-take-us/a-42863355 And this is the situation in Amsterdam: http://www.dw.com/en/overtourism-swamps-amsterdam/a-41746155 Now, river cruising is still a niche product which becomes apparent in the fact that the ITB had no separate section for it but listed the articles and events under cruising on its website. Yet with small places like Rüdesheim on the Rhine having a relatively high number of tourists, overtourism is something that could affect us river cruisers more than we like. I do not mean to be a spoilsport but living on a river and working in the industry has made me sensitive to the subject. Your thought and comments are very much welcome. notamermaid

As the UK-based company moved onto the North American market last year I think it is time that past and future cruisers and all those interested in the company as such were given a "venue" to discuss and share info. You may also post as a present cruiser from a ship, of course. :) Just a few basics. Riviera Travel has been around for some years, offers also land trips and is expanding with its river cruise section. Their latest ships have all been given names of famous novelists and poets of the United Kingdom and this is the latest offering for river cruisers. The Robert Burns, soon to be christened: http://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Omega-World-Travel-CEO-named-godmother-river-cruise-ship notamermaid P.S.: the photo or rendering of the Robert Burns was taken in front of the Lorelei rock on the Rhine

First of all, where is the river and why do I start a thread on it? The Neckar is a river in Germany for its entire length and is a tributary to the Rhine coming from the South East, i.e. joining the Rhine at Mannheim on the right bank. The Neckar is 362km long and has been an important trading route for centuries - first for food from the large foresty areas and later, since the industrial revolution, for the large factories developing on its banks. This may lead you to think that the Neckar is a dirty canalized river with little appeal - you are right to some degree, but also mistaken. I will come back to that later. The Neckar has some relevance for river cruisers as it is not only a river used by barges but river cruise vessels are also allowed to sail it - up to a length of 105m, the ships that is. Ok, this would mean that you past cruisers on the large ships have not sailed the Neckar, but many of you have at least have seen its banks - at Heidelberg on an excursion from your Rhine cruise! Here is the wikipedia page on the Neckar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neckar notamermaid

Beyond the standard ports... part 1 I would like to start with a port that some of you have stopped at, some have been to on an excursion and the city is well known: D?sseldorf, the capital of the "Land" of North-Rhine-Westfalia . However, being relatively close to the more alluring Cologne it is not a typical stop for river cruise lines. Comparing it to Cologne one can say that it is younger, somewhat less historically interesting in an all-encompassing sense due to the lack of Roman antiquities, more stylish and vibrant in a fashion sense and with a leaning towards modern art. The harbour area has been refurbished with modern architects having been "let loose" with ideas. ;) D?sseldorf is said to have the "longest bar" in Germany in the old town. The district of Benrath with its baroque palace has an unusal claim to fame: it is a dividing line between German dialects - very important for linguists - called the "Benrather Linie". Here is a short video to give you an idea of what to expect: http://www.dw.com/en/a-checklist-for-d%C3%BCsseldorf/a-36475922 notamermaid