notamermaid

Trier gauge is now at 833cm, the situation should further ease during today so that likely we will see figures under 800cm by midnight. The peak of this wave is just passing through Cochem. Do have a look at the webcam at Koblenz, you can see the force of the rivers at Deutsches Eck, with the Moselle "ferociously" draining into the Rhine, the Moselle rather brown compared to the larger river. https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/koblenz.html Oh, and busy with river cruise ships at the dock. notamermaid

There has been a tragic accident on the Danube. A pleasure boat collided with a river cruise ship last night. It happened near Veröce at the Danube bend upstream from Budapest. Two are dead and five are missing. A river cruise ship allegedly involved has been stopped at Komarno. Please be aware that police may be in the area looking for survivors. notamermaid

Just read the German headlines. Two dead and five missing in a collision of boats 30km North of Budapest. Awful. It appears that a "Hotelschiff", that is a river cruise ship, was involved. A damaged ship of that kind was stopped at Komarom. The investigations are ongoing: https://www.20min.ch/story/ungarn-5-noch-vermisst-bootskollision-auf-der-donau-fordert-zwei-tote-103109048 notamermaid

Here she is, the Porto Mirante of Scylla, mainly sailing for Riviera Travel. Unusual here is the fact that the ship was christened in Düsseldorf and will now be transferred to her future home, the Douro: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/river-cruising/rivieras-porto-mirante-named-dusseldorf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZCBJBAczf0 Save travels to her always. notamermaid

I have just noticed that the Viking Alsvin is docked in Engers, a highly unusual stop for the company. Could it be to due with the high level of the Rhine and especially the Moselle or is it a normal itinerary? If anyone knows I would be interested to read about it. There is a "Viking invasion" at Koblenz as all the docking areas are busy with ships of varying companies and Viking is present there with three (!) ships tonight. Avalon Waterways stops at Engers and offers a concert I believe. The palace is a venue for classical chamber music. notamermaid

There is a severe weather warning for the area North of Munich and nearby areas of Bavaria are seeing thunderstorms. The Danube has risen but not as much as expected for today. It may rise further into tomorrow but as of now it looks all rather uneventful compared to the Rhine. notamermaid

Update. Much of the huge amount of rain has hit the Saar and its tributaries so that water will drain into the Rhine via the Moselle. The Nahe drains into the Rhine at Bingen, the forests have given that tributary quite a bit of water. But the Neckar is also now draining into the Rhine a lot so are the smaller tributaries coming from the left around Speyer. One example: It just all adds up. Maxau gauge peaked at 708cm during the afternoon. It will go down fast, but then probably stall and stay at a relatively high level, very likely above 600cm. For those new to the topic - Maxau is here nearly Karlsruhe, currently a yellow dot: Kaub will rise all through tomorrow and peak not before Monday afternoon. It is likely to stay under flood mark I. Koblenz has just reached flood mark I, Andernach will during the night, Cologne early in the morning. River traffic bans are issued at flood mark II. The river is far away from that. notamermaid

The Moselle at Trier peaked at 960cm (!) late this afternoon and is now on the way down. This means the level is still rising at Cochem and the wave is also reaching Koblenz. The peak at Cochem should be early on Sunday (around 6am). Trier will not return to normal before Monday lunchtime (that is where the forecast ends). notamermaid

The "proper" rain is indeed strangely absent from the East and the Czech Republic but it is cloudy with some rain now. I doubt it will be enough for long term relief. The authorities' graph of the gauge at Decin shows the line close to official drought. Dresden gauge is at 94cm, the Czechs may have let a little water through. A rise to 100cm is expected during the night. notamermaid

Thank you for mentioning this topic, it had come up before but it is good to be reminded why cruises do not run in that time frame. Which strikes me then as you say and as gnome12 said, this should not (have to) happen. notamermaid

Situation on the Danube calmer than on the Rhine. Most of the rain is coming down over the Rhine catchment area although there is a wedge of a band of rain over the Danube towards Regensburg. The river will rise substantially but no flooding is indicated. notamermaid

Wow, that is worse than I expected up there. It has been raining hard here with me but not as bad as I had expected. It may rain more in the next 24 hours. These are the gauges Basel-Rheinhalle and Maxau, as timelines: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?parameter=WASSERSTAND ROHDATEN&pegeluuid=94f6eff1-4f3f-4850-82e0-a086198e9ffd&pegeluuid=b6c6d5c8-e2d5-4469-8dd8-fa972ef7eaea&ansicht=einzeln According to the forecast, Maxau gauge is on a fast trajectory to over 700cm midday tomorrow. Official flooding level will most likely be reached by midnight tonight. The weather is still calmer in Bavaria and at the Main upstream from Würzburg (which is also Bavaria) so from there the Rhine will not be fed excessively and the Danube should cope better than the Rhine as well as much of the Danube basin lies beyond this weather front. Not fun in my state at the moment and people are anxious with the Ahr valley disaster still so vividly in everyone's mind. The valley is at the top of this map left of the Rhine, so far everything is okay there. The dark purple means "100 year flood" and is hitting the forests away from the large rivers. The purple bit near Luxembourg is the Saar valley. Kaub gauge is at 246cm and due to rise to about 350cm by tomorrow evening. That is not a problem. The Moselle is very high already, update is in that thread. Next update from me not before 1600 hours Saturday. notamermaid

Viva Cruises is one of them. @loriva Nice to know that I have whet your appetite for smaller boats and rivers/canals. Must admit that I second the idea of the Moselle. Riviera Travel flies into Düsseldorf from Heathrow and other British airports I believe and they transfer you to Cologne. That is the one I would really like to try. Moselle, Rhine and Main with the Main Danube Canal that would be. The places I know from land trips. I always enjoy seeing the Amawaterways ships on the river. As we know, many people are very happy with them. Looking forward to cruisers' thoughts and what you choose in the end. notamermaid

Both the Saar and Moselle have been put on flood vigilance, meaning an update to the situation is issued every 15 minutes. This is what it looks like, you can follow along: https://www.pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?ansicht=einzeln&pegelnummer=26100100&pegelnummer=26500100&pegelnummer=26900400&start=2023-11-10T00:00 Trier gauge is now at 755cm. That is flooding and above HSW M III (river traffic ban). notamermaid

The weather warning map as of now: Purple is the worst weather, level 4, not often seen on the map. In this case rain and flash floods on small rivers. Dangerous. 100-year-occurrences are possible, meaning flooding reaches a level that statistically only happens once in a hundred years. Maxau gauge is now rising fast. Navigational flood mark I will be reached during today and the official flood warning will most likely be triggered during the night. Kaub will rise fast soon but stay under 380cm most likely. I do not like the grey sky outside of my window, a bit ominous... notamermaid

If you are still around Basel and the area of the Grand Canal d'Alsace, yes, you are not in "Viking ads country" yet. This will come. Daytime sailing is done where the river is more scenic. I reckon you have been on the Black Forest excursion? That is one of the least favourite of excursions that are talked about here on CC. No consolation but it appears that other companies have more appealing versions of that excursion. Thank you for your first impressions. Hope you are otherwise happy with food, drink and attention of the staff. notamermaid

After uneventful weeks as regards river levels the Moselle is now seeing a fast rise. The Saar river has risen already and this additional wave will very much feed the Moselle from the confluence at Konz and from there Trier and the Middle Moselle, starting from tomorrow afternoon. Warning level for flooding will be reached but a bi-annual flooding level is as of now not very likely. notamermaid

The thunderstorms are indeed travelling East so warnings have been extended into Bavaria. A rise of the Danube in reaction to the rain is now indicated in the forecast for tomorrow (Upper Danube in Germany) and to some extent for Saturday (Lower Danube in Germany). We will see how this develops when the thunderstorms have passed during the night and tomorrow. notamermaid

I guess that is the big question with the North-American lines: do they have the supplier equip them with European standard beds or North-American standard beds? Butler service is indeed a rather general term, on my cruise the lady who acted as "butler" just said hello and said we should contact her with any queries. There was only one thing that came up during the whole week and that was sorted at the reception desk. I do not recall seeing a detailed description of what she may have been able to do for us or what was part of her job description. I reckon that on the so-called luxury lines there is a wide range of services, just like you posted, which I assume are more than would have been part of our butler's service. I sailed neither "budget" nor "North-American luxury". notamermaid

Interesting that you mention that, I thought about Esztergom when I posted about Komarom. Seeing that my ship docked in Esztergom as part of its regular itinerary I was wondering why we here so little about that port. Good to know that it is used in low water. It is closer to Budapest than Komarom but still before the Danube bend: notamermaid

The Danube river is mostly still in the clear as regards the thunderstorms in Germany. If the weather heads the usual direction this can still change. Here is a map to follow along: https://www.dwd.de/DE/wetter/warnungen_gemeinden/warnkarten/warnkarten_node.html notamermaid

The warnings for flooding in smaller rivers and a fast rise of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine valley are still standing. Heavy rain over the Black Forest. Here is the warning map: https://www.dwd.de/DE/wetter/warnungen_gemeinden/warnkarten/warnkarten_node.html As the weather is - as is usual - coming from the general West, rain is hitting the Vosges mountains as well and we will see a fast rise of the Moselle, with additionally the Saar contributing a lot of water at Trier, too. The confluence with the Moselle is a few kilometres upstream from the city at the town of Konz. notamermaid

Just to give an idea. Viva Cruises offers this Basel to Amsterdam cruise for 1,995 euros: https://www.viva-*****/en/reise/basel-kurs-amsterdam I can book the S.S. Victoria for 7,109 euros. I can book an Amawaterways ship from 3,498 euros. With all three I will get different amenities, but all include a bed of sorts and three full meals per day. notamermaid

Oh, I see. The gap is "disappeared" by putting something on top. That way the company is flexible with the beds rather than having one large bed. So the twin becomes a queen. In the German brochure of CroisiEurope it says either twin bed or "französisches Bett", which is a grand-lit, i.e. smaller than a double bed. I guess they mean this type: https://www.croisieurope.travel/en/boat/ms-douce-france I am not sure which river cruise line I would call budget. For me apart from a few small ones and a few old Dutch ones they are mid-range to me. But I come from a European perspective to this topic. I never knew you could have a butler on a river cruise ship and food that is tasty rather than "lobster flown in from x or beef reared in fashion y" is fine for me. What I would not want is a bunk bed and a malfunctioning 20-year-old shower. I guess that would be really "budget" and a little less than that to me. notamermaid

Yes, all good. Here for everyone's interest is a historical photo. In 2013 Passau saw one of the worst flooding in history. There is a wall where they put the significant markings. On Wikipedia is a photo that shows the old figure scale just after the water had receded and before they painted the 2013 figure on. You can see where the wall is wet: They also made a correction so the new scale looks a little different. notamermaid