DocHifi

Finally. Don't know if we'll move but at least we are on the boat

I wish to ammend my previous comments regarding Viking. Now I want to express outrage at this company and their lack of communication. Last evening we finally arrived in Munich around 10:30pm. A Viking rep was waiting for us at the airport. She had waited at the airport for 5 hours yesterday without being told by Viking that we were delayed and not arriving that day. She only discovered this after seeing all passengers in the luggage area retrieve their luggage and exit the airport. When no passengers were left and she had seen no suitcases with a Viking tag at the carousel, she surmised that we had not arrived. Again, no communication from Viking to their own rep that she did not need to waste her time waiting at the airport for passengers that were not going to arrive that day! The next day she insitgated a phone call to Viking and learned that we were arriving that day but was given no indication of what time, so when we did finally arrive she had been waiting at the airport for four hours. I find it outrageous that Viking would not only fail to communicate with us, but would also leave their own rep in the lurch. We are now being bussed 5.5 hours from Munich to Vienna to finally meet up with our longboat, the Jarl. So we have missed the first two days of our itinerary and the first three locations on our itinerary with no idea what is in store for the remainder. Blue skies and a good weather forecast for the next 5 days are a welcome boost for our weary spirits.

We are supposed to be on Viking Jarl from Regensburg to Budapest. 4 days before flying to Europe we received an email from Viking saying our departure had been moved from Regensburg to Passau. I posted about this earlier in this thread. Since then: our flight was delayed over 9 hours and a different airplane was required due to mechanical issues. We reached Amsterdam one day late and were put up in a hotel overnight as Delta/KLM was unable to get us to our destination (Munich) until today. We are just now boarding a plane for Paris where we will have a layover before heading to Munich. During this time there have been exactly ZERO communications from Viking beyond that initial email four days before start of flights. I want to stress this point: no communication from Viking about status of cruise ship port, potential port changes, problems with the river, problems with our itinerary. The way we have learned what is happening on the ground is from three sources: this forum, a phone call to an officer on the Jarl, and my brother, who is also supposed to join us on the Jarl but arrived in Munich 2 days earlier than us. Phone calls to Viking emergency service yielded no actionable information, telling us to simply check in when we actually reached Munich. They did not offer up any indication of trouble ahead unless pressed and asked very direct questions, and answers to direct questions about itinerary changes due to rising river levels can be summed us as "we don't know and cannot say". Now let me say that every call to Viking was received by a real person who seemed to do their best to help us in this obviously difficult and ever changing situation, so I am not attempting to assign blame on things out of Vikings control. Yet it is unacceptable to receive no communication insitgated by Viking during this entire time. My brother was able to take a walking tour today of Regensburg with Viking guides (I believe) and then he was placed on a bus to meet the Jarl at Linz. After being on the bus for some time he was then told that they were not going to Linz but to Ybbs Austria, but they were not sure if they would be staying over night there. A bit later he was then told they might end up in Vienna tonite but won't know until they get to the boat. Keep in mind that if we had not been paying attention to what was happening on the river due to rain, and making further inquires from this forum we would have been blissfully ignorant of the issues and would have been expecting to land in Munich and be bussed to Passau to resume our Viking itinerary. Instead, because of what we have learned on our own, we now know that when we arrive at Munich we will be put up in a hotel overnight and will learn where we will be going tomorrow to meet up with the Jarl. No emails, no texts, no communication whatsoever initiated by Viking about this major change of plans. As of this writing we will have missed two full days of our itinerary (Regensburg and Passau) and it appears Krems is also likely a bust. We can see on cruisemapper.com that the Jarl is well on its way to Vienna, so my expectation tomorrow is to learn that the Jarl has been docked in Vienna for the remainder of the itinerary. That is a guess, and as someone else said in a previous post, there could be worse places to be stuck for multiple days. The purpose of this lengthy post is not to disparage Viking's efforts to deal with what is truly a bad situation, but to be clear about where we believe they have let us down with lack of communication, lack of transparency about the situation, and failure to properly set expectations. I cannot image being other passengers on this cruise who are being surprised by this information as they learn it as they are on some bus or finally on the ship...if they ever get on the ship.

In Regensburg the area that is UNESCO sight is flooded and off limits

Thank you all

We are actually still in our hometown of Minneapolis Minnesota waiting to board a flight that has been delayed over 5 hours. So we are not even in Europe yet but we know for a fact that we will miss our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Munich and won't likely arrive in Munich until 3rd of June. We also just spoke with someone on the Jarl (our riverboat) and he said that they are currently docked in a small village in Austria and won't make it to Regenburg and are unlikely to make it to Passau. But they plan is to get to Krems perhaps on Wednesday but they simply cannot say at this point.

Brian1, so you are in Regensburg waiting for a bus ride to ship moored in Passau?

We are desperately trying to make a decision as to whether we cancel our Viking rivercruise from Regensberg to Budapest. We already know that we will be placed on a ship that is ahead of thr problematic bridge in Passau but have no idea what lies ahead. Anyone with real knowledge of the situation have anything to suggest

So if we are going down stream from Passau to Budapest (2 June- 8 June), your thoughts? Any additional bridges that would be problematic?

Back in 2013, Passau, where the Danube, Inn and Ilz converge, was underwater on 1 June 2013 with the water levels reaching 12.85 m (42.2 ft). Compared to then, any guess as to what water levels in Passau could likely reach with the forecasted rain? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_European_floods

I have attached a downloadable PDF with bridge info and map links. For anyone taking the Viking Romantic Danube river cruise from Regensburg and Budapest, here are the bridges that span the Danube River between Regensburg and Budapest: Sinzing Highway Bridge Sinzing Railway and Pedestrian Bridge Mariator Railway Bridge Pfaffenstein Highway Bridge Pfaffenstein Pedestrian and Bike Bridge Oberpfalz Bridge Protzenweither Bridge Iron Bridge Nibelungen Bridge (South) Nibelungen Bridge (North) Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Downstream) Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Upstream) Schwabelweis Road Bridge Donaustauf Bridge Wörth Highway Bridge Pratter Bridge Straubing Bridge (Donaubrucke Straubing) Agnes-Bernauer Bridge Reibersdorf Bridge Bogen Railway Bridge Bogen Bridge (Maver Hafner Bridge) Metten Highway Bridge Deggendorf Pedestrian and Bike Bridge Donausteg Deggendorf Fiecherldor Highway Bridge Deggenau Bridge Winzer Bridge (Danube Forest Bridge) Vilshofen Bridge (Marienbrücke) Schalding Highway Bridge Kachlet Cable Bridge Kachlet Lock Bridge Steinbach Railway Bridge Franz-Josef-Straub Bridge Schanel Bridge Luitpold Bridge Kräubelstein Railway Bridge (Downstream) Kräubelstein Railway Bridge (Upstream) Jochenstein Material Transport Bridge Danube_Bridge_Clearance_Heights_Widths.pdf

Here is that list of bridges in english: Directory of Bridge Clearances in the GDWS District Würzburg Area - Danube Bad Abbach Section Maximilianbrücke Kelheim (2414.250 km): Clearance Height - 5.25 m, Width - 17.25 m Europabrücke Kelheim (2412.720 km): Clearance Height - 6.80 m, Width - 31.10 m Saal Bridge (2410.100 km): Clearance Height - 7.10 m, Width - 64.40 m Poikam Railway Bridge (2401.920 km): Clearance Height - 7.05 m, Width - 28.75 m Bad Abbach Weir Bridge (2401.740 km): Clearance Height - 6.40 m, Width - 48.45 m Bad Abbach Economic Path Bridge (2400.280 km): Clearance Height - 6.45 m, Width - 48.60 m Regensburg Section Sinzing Highway Bridge (2387.590 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 49.25 m Sinzing Railway and Pedestrian Bridge (2386.710 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 48.65 m Mariaort Railway Bridge (2385.670 km): Clearance Height - 8.65 m, Width - 32.60 m Pfaffenstein Highway Bridge (2381.130 km): Clearance Height - 6.75 m, Width - 35.00 m Pfaffenstein Pedestrian and Bike Bridge (2381.040 km): Clearance Height - 6.60 m, Width - 37.00 m Oberpfalz Bridge (2380.170 km): Clearance Height - 6.40 m, Width - 65.00 m Protzenweiher Bridge (2379.560 km): Clearance Height - 6.65 m, Width - Chamber Width Iron Bridge (2379.260 km): Clearance Height - 2.45 m, Width - 32.05 m Nibelungen Bridge (South) (2378.450 km): Clearance Height - 6.90 m, Width - 74.00 m Nibelungen Bridge (North) (2378.390 km): Clearance Height - 6.95 m, Width - 50.20 m Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Downstream) (2376.820 km): Clearance Height - 5.95 m, Width - 34.00 m Schwabelweis Railway Bridge (Upstream) (2376.820 km): Clearance Height - 6.00 m, Width - 33.00 m Schwabelweis Road Bridge (2376.330 km): Clearance Height - 8.65 m, Width - 101.00 m Donaustauf Bridge (2369.640 km): Clearance Height - 8.75 m, Width - 101.75 m Wörth Highway Bridge (2358.260 km): Clearance Height - 8.10 m, Width - 138.45 m Straubing Section Pfatter Bridge (2353.320 km): Clearance Height - 7.35 m, Width - 85.35 m Straubing Bridge (2321.820 km): Clearance Height - 8.30 m, Width - Chamber Width Kachlet Section Agnes-Bernauer Bridge (2320.000 km): Clearance Height - 8.85 m, Width - 66.55 m Reibersdorf Bridge (2316.980 km): Clearance Height - 8.85 m, Width - 71.90 m Bogen Railway Bridge (2311.270 km): Clearance Height - 5.00 m, Width - 43.95 m Bogen Bridge (2308.400 km): Clearance Height - 9.00 m, Width - 75.10 m Metten Highway Bridge (2290.120 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 71.40 m Deggendorf Railway Bridge (2285.890 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 88.00 m Deggendorf Pedestrian and Bike Bridge (2285.870 km): Clearance Height - 8.75 m, Width - 88.00 m Fischerdorf Highway Bridge (2285.490 km): Clearance Height - 8.40 m, Width - 89.85 m Deggenau Bridge (2284.590 km): Clearance Height - 9.65 m, Width - 82.90 m Winzer Bridge (2266.230 km): Clearance Height - 8.60 m, Width - 62.00 m Vilshofen Bridge (2249.160 km): Clearance Height - 8.00 m, Width - 89.00 m Schalding Highway Bridge (2234.260 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 100.15 m Kachlet Cable Bridge (2230.630 km): Clearance Height - 8.50 m, Width - Chamber Width Kachlet Lock Bridge (2230.415 km): Clearance Height - 9.40 m, Width - Chamber Width Steinbach Railway Bridge (2230.280 km): Clearance Height - 6.30 m, Width - 59.20 m Franz-Josef-Straub Bridge (2230.100 km): Clearance Height - >10.00 m, Width - 67.00 m Schanzl Bridge (2226.960 km): Clearance Height - 7.70 m, Width - 101.00 m Luitpold Bridge (2225.750 km): Clearance Height - 5.15 m, Width - 80.55 m Kräutelstein Railway Bridge (Downstream) (2223.280 km): Clearance Height - 9.50 m, Width - 92.00 m Kräutelstein Railway Bridge (Upstream) (2223.280 km): Clearance Height - 9.50 m, Width - 71.00 m Jochenstein Material Transport Bridge (2203.310 km): Clearance Height - 7.70 m, Width - Chamber Width

We are taking the Viking Romantic Danube long boat trip from Regensburg to Budapset. I received this email yesterday (4 days before our trip begins): This message is to update you regarding a change in your embarkation. Due to high water levels on the Danube River near Passau, your ship will be unable to reach its regular embarkation port in Regensburg and you will now embark in Passau (75 miles east of Regensburg). As a result of these changes, we have made the following adjustments to your program: Day 1: On arrival at the airport on Day 1 of your itinerary, please collect your luggage, exit customs and find the Viking airport representative in the arrivals area for transfer to your ship. Day 2: On day 2 of your itinerary, your Regensburg shore excursions will operate out of Passau by motorcoach. Day 3: Resume previously advised itinerary. I am curious if anyone who has taken this trip before can elaborate on what we should expect on day 2. It appears we will be bussed from to Passau to Regensburg, which from Google maps appears to be about a 1.25 hour bus ride one way. Does this mean our time in Passau will be reduced by 2.5 hours due to round trip bussing?