reeves35

As I understand it, the Danube is free-flowing near Budapest so is this because there have been numerous thunderstorms in the Danube's catchments over the past few days? I've been watching the European rain radars in the past few weeks and have noticed more thunderstorms in the mountains which I assume is related to the heat being experienced throughout Europe right now. Admittedly selfishly, I hope this continues for the next few weeks with our long-delayed Amsterdam to Budapest cruise now only 3 weeks away.

I believe it varies depending on the day. Sometimes you will cruise during lunch and visit another town in the afternoon whilst, on other days, you may have an afternoon at leisure like you suggest. Given how intensive these river cruises are, I think I'm looking forward to maybe a quiet afternoon on the sundeck every now and then.

That'd be diddly squat

Spoke with a cruise ship captain about water depths a few years ago and he said squat is also a factor to consider in shallower waters. As the ship increases speed, it squats down into the water further. For a cruise ship, the squat is significant, up to a metre, but for a river ship I'd think squat at speed could be up to 15-20cms so in areas with low water levels, the captain may choose to sail at a much lower speed to reduce the effect of squat.

With the huge growth in river cruising in recent years which seems to continue post-Pandemic, do we see a time when one or more of the major Big 3 US cruise-lines (Carnival Corp, RCCI, NCL) will try to enter this market either via starting up or taking over one of the existing major participants? Currently many of the river cruise companies remain in private hands including Scenic (Australia), APT (Australia), Avalon (Switzerland), Viking (Norway), Ama Waterways (US) though trying to work out exactly who owns what is quite complicated given many ships seem to be developed by the cruiselines then sold and leased back from private equity investors. At some point, one of these private owners will probably seek to cash-out and you would think the Big-3 cruise lines would be attracted to this market if the opportunity arose. The Big-3 have developed sophisticated loyalty schemes that enable them to know their customers' travel habits and market to different demographics, many of whom are now trying river cruises. It would be strange if one of them didn't try their hand in this burgeoning market at some time soon.

A fun fact we learnt about the cemetery when we visited there on Explorer last week is that anyone can be buried there for free even if you have have no connection with Norfolk Island at all. Not sure why you'd do it and, by time you paid for the coffin and the body transport from mainland, it may not be such a good deal anyway.

The veranda cabins are definitely noticeably bigger than the french balcony cabins. As has been stated, Viking has an asymmetric layout on the main deck with starboard cabins (veranda) having significantly more available space compared with the portside (french balcony cabins). Looking at the pictures of these cabins, you can definitely see the extra space available on the veranda cabins between the bed and the window as well as the exterior deck. Apparently this layout is patented by Viking though I'm not sure the other cruise lines are particularly envious of it anyway.

I found this time series online from the TUM in Munich which gives an interesting perspective of Rhine river levels at Wesel which I think is near Dusseldorf. It looks like 2023 is tracking in a very similar way to 2022 but nowhere near as bad as 2018. With the Rhine very dependent on rainfall with no major weirs along the way to moderate flows, it would be foolish to make a forecast of where we will be in August but, selfishly given I have a cruise commencing mid-August, I have my fingers crossed.

We did Dragon Lady twice on Explorer last week and it was mixed. The first night was really good; the second night was very average with satays coming out to us cold and some items being removed from menu (calamari) because the waiters were getting consistently bad comments on it. The other thing we found was both Deck 6 restaurants (Dragon Lady and Angelo's) were incredibly cold. We mentioned it to the waiter in DL who just laughed and said it was always cold which was a strange response.

Yes, the most classic European river cruise is the 14 night journey from Amsterdam to Budapest or v.v. Thie itineraries are basically the same though, as you point out, there can be some difference in The Netherlands with some cruise lines choosing to have a bus journey between Amsterdam and Utrecht to avoid what is a pretty industrial part of the river. The itinerary is the same hence the need for rafting as there are only so many places a ship can stop and during peak season there are a lot of ships on the rivers. Even the names the cruise lines choose for this classic cruise are remarkably similar: - Viking, Grand European - Scenic, Jewels of Europe - Travelmarvel, European Gems - Emerald, Splendours of Europe - APT (AMA), Magnificent Europe - Uniworld, European Jewels - Avalon, Magnificent Rivers of Europe - TUI, European Icons

There has been a decent amount of rain in UK over past 24 hours with play at Wimbledon suspended. This system appears to be heading towards continental Europe with potential to fall across Rhine catchments in Germany. Hopefully it will give a welcome top up.

There has been a decent amount of rain in UK over past 24 hours with play at Wimbledon suspended. This system appears to be heading towards continental Europe with potential to fall across Rhine catchments in Germany. Hopefully it will give a welcome top up.

There are only a few large tables in both the Waterfront and in Angelos. I don't think there are any in Dragon Lady though I assume a few tables could be joined together. It is obvious that customer surveys have shown that people prefer to sit within their group rather than with strangers so the days of the big circular tables of 8 - 10 people have probably gone for good. On our recent cruise, we were only sat with other couples once though the tables are fairly close together in lots of the restaurants including Dragon Lady and Luke's so you might as well be sitting with someone else.

Always check with the cruise line if they are offering any bundled deals. Sometimes, they have great pricing like this week I am flying to Cairns to join Dora and then flying home from Auckland. Best flights I could find online were about $1300 but P&O did it for $800 each and then gave us a $400 flight credit on top!. Likewise, we are doing river cruise with APT Travelmarvel in August. They gave free (or included) economy flights as part of the cruise and we upgraded to business class on Singapore Airlines for only $3500. At the time, the equivalent Singapore Airlines Business Class ticket was selling for over $10,000. In both cases, we were able to pick our dates and for Europe we could choose our arrival and departure points but ,as we are now arriving in London and not Amsterdam, there are no transfers there but we still get transfers in Budapest.

Not sure. Travelmarvel Vega is currently underway between Regensburg and Nuremberg so some ships are obviously getting through.

Cook Islands are actually quite a long way from Auckland, further than Sydney to Port Vila. It would be 3 sea days each way so hard to see it being a popular option. From Auckland, P&O still tend to concentrate on New Caledonia and Vanuatu but Fiji is also possible on a 10 day itinerary.

Carnival and P&O do run a number of 10 day cruises into the South Pacific. They tend not to go much above that as longer cruises tend to be harder to sell and the per diem they get from passengers drop off. That is why short cruises are so popular right now; the daily fare tends to work out higher and the onboard spend per passenger per day is much greater. Unfortunately, the tyranny of distance means a 10 day cruise from Sydney will not go past Vanuatu and, even then, probably have 5 sea days. A cruise that includes Fiji would typically be at least 12 days and Samoa etc even more. With Australia's population heavily weighted in the south, it is difficult to see a regular year-round cruise port ever being established anywhere north of Brisbane.

P&O do offer flight packages and sometimes they are quite reasonable but that doesn't mean cheap. It is not like Europe where TUI etc can sell flight packages from UK to Spain for very little. Europe has many flights to ports in Spain, France, Italy etc and a significant number of charter airlines. Cairns and Darwin will only ever have a limited number of flights and charters don't work because for them to be economical for airlines and cruise-lines you basically need a ship turning around every day or so.

Low water is most common in late summer or autumn but that does not necessarily mean you are automatically moved onto coaches. Often the ships can still get through particularly the more modern riverships which have less draft. Sometimes two ships will meet either side of the part of the river unable to be navigated and passengers swap ships with a small coach transfer in between. As most companies have a fleet of ships basically the same, you would move into an identical cabin onthe second ship. I believe the last time a significant number of cruises were disrupted to the point where they got offloaded was in 2018.

Any suggestion of Newcastle or Wollongong ignores the simple fact that the cruise lines want to sail into one of the most dramatically beautiful harbours in the world; it is a selling point. Along with New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong, it is hard to think of a harbour that cruise lines regularly go to that is so much of a bucket-list item. They may hate the OPT and White Bay but none of them will be putting up their hand to be the first to dock at some other port they see as a poor-cousin outpost.

In Australia, prices tend to include gratuities as P&O/Princess know that is what Australians like. US pricing rarely if ever includes gratuities so headline pricing will be very different from what you end up paying.

It would be good if true. Hopefully, they would spend a bit on a major refurb before the transfer so the ship could remain in the fleet for a good period of time.

Obviously, it comes down to how much time you wish to spend cruising. The most popular cruise is the Grand European, European Gems etc (different lines have different names for it) but it is a 14 night cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest or v.v. covering most of the headline sights on both the Rhine and Danube Shorter cruises are the ones such as Amsterdam to Basel so it depends on how long you want. The next choice would be the cruise line and there is a great choice available. Given you are looking at Avalon and Emerald, it looks like you are going for a mid-market but still very good cruise rather than a premium line such as Scenic, APT or Uniworld. Other English language cruise lines in your price range would be lines such as Viking or Travelmarvel. The weather in October will be much cooler than August or September but, equally, the crowds will be much less too. Water levels are a bit of a lottery all through late summer and autumn so you can't really work around that with a flawless solution. Good luck with whatever you choose.

It's a hard problem to solve. The waterfront east of the Harbour Bridge is, by far, the most expensive real estate in Australia and would be close to the most expensive real estate in the world. Getting access to this land is therefore incredibly difficult. Botany Bay made sense from an access point of view but you could also understand the disappointment of losing the ability to cruise into one of the great harbours of the world. I can see why politicians of all persuasions have decided to file any solution in the "too hard" basket.

P&O etc already offer flight packages but typically only on scheduled services and they aren't in a situation where a whole complement of 2000 passengers are transported in a day or 2. The logistics of charter flights are quite difficult and expensive unless you are in a location where lots of cruise ships are turning around. It works in Europe where a charter flight to a cruise port such as Malaga, Barcelonaa etc will have a daily ship turnaround so there are always people disembarking and embarking. That is the Marella/TUi model though it also used by lots of other cruise lines during the summer season in Europe. It doesn't work so well in a place like Darwin where there would only be a single ship turning around once a week at best. This would mean lots of inbound or outbound charter flights would be arriving or returning empty and that cost has to be built into the ticket of the paying passengers.