notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 269cm. Situation and trend upstream from Regensburg look undecided. Not clear at all if the weather pattern will have a good effect extending to Straubing and Pfelling. Some rain with heavy showers in parts has come down in the area and more clouds are sweeping into Germany from the West. Will see how it goes. Remember, the Isar river coming from the Alps through Munich cannot help the low stretch around Pfelling. notamermaid

Busy week, visit from dear people I have not seen in three years. Exciting! Higher work load due to events season. Visit to dear people not possible as they have cancelled the party - leak in the water pipes, they need to rip up part of the kitchen floor. Holiday plans amended, will most likely stay in Germany, staying clear of France. Hope you all have had a good Canada Day and are enjoying celebratory 4 July. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge is at 268cm, running below the forecast. We may have stayed over 270cm... So, again waiting for rain. The Rhine is doing better, but the Elbe is also too low. notamermaid

Same route, same distance covered (more or less, a variation in the Dutch Rhine stretch is possible), most ports the same most likely and excursions similar. I think Scenic has a couple of exclusives on this route that no other company offers. But you would need to check the details. With such an itinerary it is difficult to vary the "important" ports unless you very much change sailing schedules. A ship can only cover so much distance in a day - mostly night. To make the journey in 14 days you need to get in daytime sailing really, Viking sails a stretch while passengers are on excursions on the Main, I think twice. There are enough interesting ports to turn this into a 16 night itinerary which I hope a company will one day offer. Which may reduce the occurrence of rafting a little. notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. I am afraid not. Perhaps I can say that there is a sense - a feeling - in the news that we may see low levels in summer, earlier than is "normal". Which is not unreasonable, seeing that the levels were pretty low in August last year and it has been indicated that there was insufficient rainfall in Spring. But the probability graph only goes 14 days into the future, so we are not near your date with that. Looking further into the future there is a computer model that takes in historical data and other parametres, so only deals with "statistically we may expect...", etc. For now it looks as if we will have a summer with a reduced volume of water and low-ish levels in July but how low August will be - no real idea other than that the computer modelling bars do not look to be going far down into the below 100cm area, so not dire. The margin of error is large so far into the future... notamermaid

Not fun, not fun at all what is happening around my country borders and further afield. My country(side) is quiet, touch wood. Of course, you sail through Alsace on the Rhine so there could be some problems, who knows. I have been checked at the border by the French in the North and they mean business, with bright lights to dazzle you while tough guys with machine guns look at your car closely. Hopefully all stays quiet on my river - well there is always something happening on several hundred kilometres and not all good. That is enough for all of us, thank you. Do not need any more. By the way, scaremongering headlines about low water online again, you know, Bloomberg and such. Tons of ships sailing constantly, less cargo but all running. @Host Jazzbeau have a good holiday, hope the experience will improve swiftly once you have unpacked and settled down. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge is stable, but annoyingly stuck below 290cm - now at 282cm. notamermaid

If you downsize and I mean really, you get to the converted barges that sail on small and large rivers and canals. I have come across a rather unusual case of a river cruise ship that is not a converted or new barge type of boat but a purpose-built ship the size of a small barge. And she can only be found in a rather different place from what you are used to read. Not a river, not a canal but a lake, several lakes. The "MS Classic Lady" was built in 2003 and sails the Masurian Lake District. This specialist German tour operator offers cruises, unfortunately only in German: https://www.dnv-tours.de/ms-classy-lady/ If you feel confident enough in German, this I think is a great offer. I have been to the area and highly recommend exploring this landscape in Poland. notamermaid

Yes, most number of castles on that length of river anywhere in the world they say. 65kms of "there is one - there is another one". But there are many more elsewhere along the river and nearby. Just the combination of hills, castles, villages and the sheer number of them is wonderful in the Rhine Gorge and that is what makes it so scenic. notamermaid

Yeaahh, I understand that. Could be a bit on the low side later in July but there is not that much to worry about. From what others have reported the ship swap is handled smoothly, it just is a bit of a long drive on a coach potentially on that day. I do admit that it is kind of annoying that what is regarded as the most scenic part of the Rhine is the one that causes the low water problems. Hope everything runs smoothly for you and all others this Summer. notamermaid

I would be wary of mixing countries, in this case I mean booking conditions and credit cards of US and UK. I agree with getting a TA to help with the UK booking. Also T&C in the UK are better overall with Viking due to the different consumer rights laws and what is customary in the UK (and EU). If possible you may be better off doing everything through the UK. But again ask a TA what may cause you a headache at borders, boarding a plane, etc. Good luck sorting this. notamermaid

I cannot say for certain but it looks to be on demand, i.e. the ferryman takes you across when needed. It has fixed opening times but no actual sailing times like every ten minutes or so given. However, you cannot steer yourself it seems, so no random times use. It is on this website of the local authorities: https://www.pentling.de/freizeit-kultur/#faehre notamermaid

So, Kaub gauge has risen to 125cm. Good. But we still need to anticipate a drop to 90cm later in July. But first a look back at June. In other news: an excursion boat has hit an embankment wall in Duisburg this week - seven people injured. A captain of a barge has hit a tanker - drink driving. The former ferry at Königswinter called "Alte Liebe" has become a restaurant. Thousands of people celebrated "Rhine in Flames" last night in Bingen and Rüdesheim. Largest of the fireworks events coming up at Koblenz on 12 August. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge is at 283cm, looking stable apart from standard fluctuations. It is Sunday and no trend is issued at Pfelling. Stations further upstream do not indicate a rise, i.e. not much volume of water for Pfelling. We will just need to wait and see. In other news: A ferry and a barge collided at Regensburg on Friday afternoon. Noone was injured. German news calls the ferry a "Gierseilfähre". An interesting construction and these days not many are in operation on the Danube and the Rhine, but can still be found in bigger numbers on other rivers. The English is "reaction ferry". notamermaid

I am late to the party but I hope your DH has had a super birthday and many happy returns of the day. Here is to him doing the speed and as graceful manoeuvres as that ferry for years to come. 🍾 notamermaid

Indeed, several hours but half a day only, unless a ship sails very slowly. It only needs to cover 65km. A few itineraries break this up by having a stop in Boppard which is a small town on the left bank of the Rhine Gorge. Which is a nice idea. Not sure if ships are allowed to park in second row there, i.e. raft. Uniworld stops in Boppard and a couple of European companies do, not sure about others. notamermaid

A good jump - Pfelling gauge now at 282cm. notamermaid

Kaub did go briefly to 112cm. Bands of rain clouds are sweeping over the valley. An overcast day, a bit blustery in parts. That should give us a few centimetres on the gauge at Kaub which is now at 113cm. notamermaid

In 2024 Sunday of the Dead is on 24th November. You will find markets mostly closed (Sunday trading laws) but the rule is not a complete one, a few exceptions exist. Some markets open just before that day, others on the following Monday (or a bit later if they are small). All in all that should give you most markets, but you can see that leaving just two days later would be better. notamermaid

That is kind of cool. Never seen this or heard of this before. Back in the day when there was nobility in Germany palaces at the river had a landing stage for the guests of the residing nobleman. Not sure that anyone can do this these days, I mean families do own castles and palaces but I know of no private docking like that or indeed an attraction having their own dedicated crew. notamermaid

Yes, that is good to know. As I said/implied, docks and landing stages vary in size, actual number in port and policy. So in Speyer they do give slots to others. notamermaid

Okay, I admit, I just could not let this topic sit idly over the weekend... I have checked. Not sure but a very strong contender for the oldest river cruise ship sailing on the Rhine is the Lady Anne. She was built in 1903 as a barge and converted. Not sure if she is still sailing itineraries but she is certainly still sailing in the Dutch waters. notamermaid

There are just a few cruises where there is an actual full days of cruising, meaning no port stop 8am to 8pm. A-Rosa does an itinerary on the Rhine and Moselle where that happens, as an example. Forgot to mention a few days ago: Viking prides itself on having prime location in some ports and sole use of their landing stage. They do not sell a slot to other river cruise operators to dock there. So no rafting right? Please do not assume this, they have no other company there but raft with each other. In Koblenz rafting together is the norm these days, happens almost every day for several hours. You can see it from Ehrenbreitstein webcam. Other ports, i.e. Viking landing stages, may differ. Not all docking locations are cleared by the authorities for rafting. notamermaid

Kaub gauge at 117cm. Lowest figure suggested for tomorrow is 112cm. But the current level is running above the forecast so the figures may stay a little higher. Sunday should show a minimal rise. We really need that to get us comfortably through the first half of July. Longer forecast - helped by the rain and the higher figures Sunday and Monday - looks okay but a bit on the low side, meaning 100cm is a scenario that is possible if it stays dry from next week and at this point in time we cannot rule out going as low as 90cm by the middle of the month. Which would still be kind of bearable. But we will look at this again in a few days time. Talking of older ships, I spotted a barge the other day, it looked old to me, quite small, almost dainty compared to the large full container ships sailing these days. Binnenschifferforum says that the "MS Deimos" (not her first name) was built in 1959, is 67.5m long and 7.25m wide. Built in Belgium she is now sailing under Dutch flag. She is not very old, but compared to river cruise ships, she is certainly not a youngster. I do not know which the oldest river cruise ship is on the Rhine, that would be quite a task to find that out, seeing that the ships can change rivers. But we can comfortably say that most river cruise ships sailing this days were built long after the Deimos first touched water in Gent. I guess the oldest ship may be a converted barge and probably not much bigger than the Deimos. notamermaid

In other news, the ship spotters have posted that Argo with the hull Amina arrived in Regensburg yesterday. Later in the day she was already tied and secured to the pushboat Zasavica III and ready for the next leg of her journey, that is the Main Danube Canal and the Main river. They are now in the Canal. Destination in the AIS info is given as Mainz. notamermaid