MrsT12

Re the comments about buses. I realise that some excursions from the ship involve taking a bus. That’s fine - I would choose not to go on those that involved a long bus trip & do something independently or just relax on the ship.

If the water levels are too low for the ship to continue then I’m concerned that I will be forced into taking long bus trips. Not my idea of fun & I wouldn’t find that at all relaxing.

I was really looking forward to a CRUISE down the Danube something I’ve wanted to do for years. I’ve checked the terms & conditions & they do allow the cruise company (in my case Avalon) to substitute the cruise with bus & hotel when required with little or no notice to customer.

Hopefully it won’t come to that. Or Avalon will give us the opportunity to cancel/rebook. We can only wait & see.

On the Avalon Expression right now and are not sailing to Nuremberg which was to have been our final stop before Prague. At least no ship swaps. We stay on the boat and lose Nuremburg but in compensation they are offering full day tours in Salzburg for free. And have offered anyone who wanted to get off the boat now a full refund for the days on the boat that they will miss. Barely a ripple. Kudos to Avalon. It has been handled very well and the feeling on the boat is quite cheerful.

Thank you for the update. We are doing the exact same cruise next week so are interested to hear how Avalon are dealing with low water levels. We have visited some of the places previously by train. The whole point of this trip was to do it in a leisurely way on the river & not have to pack up & move on every day! So the solution of staying on the ship would suit us.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise. I am praying for rain at night so it doesn’t disrupt your days out!

Keep us updated if you can on how it works out.

We were cruising on Avalon Oct. 7th Nuremberg to Budapest & received notice today of changes. The accomodations now are we would be embarking from Vilshofen & receive a free concert in Vienna (an optional tour) They have also offered a full refund. It's an unknown now what the levels are near Budapest. We opted for the full refund & plan on rebooking our river cruise in the spring. Now we know more about water levels & will pick a river cruise that's hopefully okay! Thankfully Avalon has been very helpful throughout! Best wishes to all & may your water levels be perfect!

Thank you for this information. We are due to do this cruise (in reverse) from 17th Oct. I’m pleased to hear that a full refund has been offered as an option. We are looking forward to our cruise but don’t want to end up on a glorified bus tour instead! So in the same circumstances we would take the refund too.

Still hoping that rain will come in time for us. We have not heard anything from Avalon yet but I guess it is too early.

Watching this thread with interest. We enjoyed a Rhine cruise in October 2016 with Avalon. We liked being able to ‘do our own thing’ and wander independently rather than just go on organised excursions. I think we only did 3 half day organised excursions in the week long cruise which suited us.

We are booked on Avalon Expression Budapest to Prague leaving 17 October. I know that is 3 weeks away but the forecast looks sunny in Central Europe for the next week at least.

I am worried that if the Danube isn’t navigable that we will end up in hotels & long bus journeys and forced to do the organised tours.

I was looking forward to a relatively relaxing time on board ship as life has been stressful lately (caring for elderly parent) & I don’t want to be packing & moving every day. In fact one of my happiest memories of our last cruise was being on board ship when most other passengers were away. My friend & I relaxed in the hot tub & felt like we were millionaires on our own private yacht!

If rain doesn’t arrive will we be allowed to cancel or rebook for a different date? I would be disappointed but would prefer that to an exhausting bus tour.