Danube water levels 2018 and similar topics - plus tips and info

Currently on Viking Aegir from Budapest on our way to Amsterdam and been informed we are switching to Viking Lif. Thus we switch ships in 3 days while in Nuremberg.

We are scheduled to be on the Lif in late October. (Though who knows at the moment?) If you have the chance, I'd appreciate any comments about your experience with the crew.

(Have you subscribed to the Grand European Tour 2018 thread?)

Currently on Viking Aegir from Budapest on our way to Amsterdam and been informed we are switching to Viking Lif. Thus we switch ships in 3 days while in Nuremberg.

Thank you for the info. Do you know if the Aegir is going back to Bucharest?

We're scheduled to board the Lif in Bucharest on Oct 5. For several weeks I haven't thought that would happen. Thought we might be on the Aegir. It's looking more like that's what will happen.

Thanks again -- have a great trip!

Does anyone have an update on Avalon Panorama on the Danube - Budapest to Prague? We are to sail in one month.

 

 

 

Thanks

I just looked her up on Marine Traffic, she is in Linz Austria enroute to Amsterdam.

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Following her myself.

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People have been asking "Have you heard from Avalon?" Well, we heard from Avalon this afternoon, and the news (at least for us) isn't good. We're booked on WAB 80921 from Amsterdam to Budapest, scheduled to leave this Friday on Avalon Expression. Well, Expression hasn't been west of Passau in six weeks, but we assumed we'd leave AMS on another ship and do a ship swap somewhere in Bavaria. NOT SO!

 

This afternoon (less than 24 hours before we're scheduled to fly to AMS), I received an email from Avalon telling me that, because Expression will be "stuck in Passau," the first six days of the cruise will be by bus. We will first check into a hotel in AMS (not yet identified) for two nights, then bus for several days, with hotel stops in Bonn, Frankfurt, and Nuremburg (two nights) before finally joining Expression in Passau on 9/27. This means missing a couple of scheduled stops along the Main River, so they're adding a couple of stops (Linz and Grein) in Austria. We'll do the Rhine gorge for a few hours out of St. Goar, presumably on a day-cruiser. No mention of any disruption at the eastern end of the cruise (Bratislava, Budapest), but that shoe could still drop.

 

Avalon offers the option of cancelling before the cruise starts, with full refund or rebooking on a future cruise but no assistance on "outside airline change fees or price changes for new vacations." OR, if we go on the trip with the new itinerary, we "will be refunded 6 days accommodated in hotel at 100% per day of the cruise only price including cabin upgrades." I'm quoting the Avalon email here, exactly as it was written, i.e., with no punctuation, and I have no idea what it means. I guess we'll find out eventually.

 

 

 

Obviously the water levels aren't Avalon's fault. But I suspect they have found themselves with no ship available to carry us from AMS to, say Nuremberg or Regensburg, where a ship swap might be possible, and that is their fault, at least in terms of poor planning. And whoever's "fault" it is, it certainly isn't what we thought we were buying when we booked this cruise. But that said, we and the friends with whom we're traveling have decided to go ahead with the revised plan. We'll still be seeing interesting new places that we haven't seen before, and we'll still get an 8-day cruise, rather than the original 14 days, if there are no problems below Vienna. In short, we've been handed a few lemons, but we're hopeful that the lemonade may still be reasonably tasty and refreshing.

 

 

I provide this information for the benefit of others who are also ticketed on Avalon, to give you a hint of what you may expect (including the relatively short notice)

Thanks for the information on your Avalon cruise! It helps to have an idea what may be in store for us come October 7th on Avalon. Any more updates would be greatly appreciated. I hope your lemonade is wonderful!

Anyone know if ships are able to sail on the Danube between Budapest and Bucharest? Our vacation is supposed to begin on Monday. Looks like our ship has been in Budapest for several days. Can’t get much info from Grand Circle so far. Thanks for any info.

Does anyone know where the Crystal Mahler is currently?

 

Thanks....

Is this Barbara? Are you scheduled to leave on Crystal Mahler on October 3rd?

This is Susan. I got off Mahler yesterday. We did round trip Amsterdam instead of Amsterdam to Budapest. It is my understanding that Mahler is doing a similar itinerary right now.

If it turns out that your itinerary is also adjusted, I can help you by sharing the experiences we had on our trip.

Even though it is still disappointing that we did not make it to Vienna and Budapest, we had a great time and saw many places we may not have ever visited like Luxembourg, Brussels and Bruges.

Susan

Thank you for the info. Do you know if the Aegir is going back to Bucharest?

 

We're scheduled to board the Lif in Bucharest on Oct 5. For several weeks I haven't thought that would happen. Thought we might be on the Aegir. It's looking more like that's what will happen.

 

Thanks again -- have a great trip!

From what two of the staff told me tonight, they were looking forward to finally leaving Eastern Europe. They thought they were actually going all the way to Amsterdam for the first time in 6 weeks. But now they are planning to go back to Bucharest. So I am guessing you are probably in the Aegir on 10/5. Enjoy the crew. They are amazing!!

For Avalon cruisers, last night I read on SOCIAL MEDIA, a statement from Avalon. Basically explaining what we already know from posts on this site.

Keeping fingers crossed.

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It is currently raining in Bavaria around Nuremberg and Augsburg. Those areas give their water to the Danube before the impassable stretch around Pfelling and Hofkirchen. More rain is forecast for the area Sunday and Monday. Hopefully this will be enough to have a good impact on the river where it is most needed by Tuesday.

notamermaid

I just looked her up on Marine Traffic, she is in Linz Austria enroute to Amsterdam.

 

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Following her myself.

 

 

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Thank you so much - we sail on 24 Oct, so I'll keep an eye on her.

Further clarification re Avalon's "make good" offer for the extensive disruption in our AMS-Budapest itinerary, noted above. According to my TA, who talked to them this morning, the unclear sentence that I quoted means that we will be refunded for 6/14 of the cost of our cruise (proportionate to the number of days we'll be on bus rather than ship), AND they will put us up and feed us during the bus portion of the revised trip. Pretty good terms, as I see it. Apart from the disappointment, I really have no basis for complaint at this point.

really good to hear that you are being treated fairly! Again, thank you for the update.

Does anyone have any info on the Viking Jarl? The last couple weeks it has sailed from Nuremberg to Straubing and not gone through to Budapest - assuming they have been doing a ship swap at that point but would love to hear specifically as we are supposed to board the Jarl in Budapest this coming Sunday! Thanks

I just looked her up on Marine Traffic, she is in Linz Austria enroute to Amsterdam.

 

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Following her myself.

 

 

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Late last week boats were not making it past Passau, on their way upstream to Regensburg. Straubing May be the jam point up north. Passau was said to be jammed with boats. The Danube above that point was sandbars and impassable. I don’t know what boats are doing

Thank you so much - we sail on 24 Oct, so I'll keep an eye on her.

And I on the 31 of October

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Late last week boats were not making it past Passau, on their way upstream to Regensburg. Straubing May be the jam point up north. Passau was said to be jammed with boats. The Danube above that point was sandbars and impassable. I don’t know what boats are doing

We are on Tauck's MS Savor, currently tied up in Passau. We were supposed to go to Nuremberg but will not sail beyond here, being bussed to Nuremberg on Friday morning. Today's tours went by bus to Straubing, and while we did not go, a member of our group who did said there was very little water in the Danube much past Passau. At the moment, the Avalon Impression is rafted to us, the Viking Freya is behind us and we passed a tour group in town from the Viking Jarl, but I have no idea where it is docked. Based on what we can see, and what our friends have seen, do not plan on cruising anywhere between Passau and Nuremberg unless we get about ten inches of rain this weekend, and the last forecast we saw is for no rain at all!

We are on Tauck's MS Savor, currently tied up in Passau. We were supposed to go to Nuremberg but will not sail beyond here, being bussed to Nuremberg on Friday morning. Today's tours went by bus to Straubing, and while we did not go, a member of our group who did said there was very little water in the Danube much past Passau. At the moment, the Avalon Impression is rafted to us, the Viking Freya is behind us and we passed a tour group in town from the Viking Jarl, but I have no idea where it is docked. Based on what we can see, and what our friends have seen, do not plan on cruising anywhere between Passau and Nuremberg unless we get about ten inches of rain this weekend, and the last forecast we saw is for no rain at all!

Further on the Danube extra low water level west of of Passau - A week or so back notamemaid posted a link to this gage / water level site at Pfelling :

https://pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?ansicht=einzeln&pegelnummer=10078000

On this chart RNW = Regulatory Low Water...>Does Any One Know< is this about the cut off for most shipping / cruise ships??

We are curious about “normal “ water levels in December. We are thinking about putting a deposit on a Prague to Vienna Christmas market cruise for 2019. Thanks for any information. Also this thread is very informative, we’ve learned a lot. J&K

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Further on the Danube extra low water level west of of Passau - A week or so back notamemaid posted a link to this gage / water level site at Pfelling :

 

https://pegelonline.wsv.de/webservices/zeitreihe/visualisierung?ansicht=einzeln&pegelnummer=10078000

 

On this chart RNW = Regulatory Low Water...>Does Any One Know< is this about the cut off for most shipping / cruise ships??

The shallow points on the Danube are between Passau/Vilshofen and Regensburg (so these are normally start and finish bus stations).

We are curious about “normal “ water levels in December. We are thinking about putting a deposit on a Prague to Vienna Christmas market cruise for 2019. Thanks for any information. Also this thread is very informative, we’ve learned a lot. J&K

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I would think many cruisers are curious about water levels in December, especially with the Christmas markets in full swing. Because of our crazy weather patterns recently, noone can predict what conditions will be.

The only thing certain would be that Passau - Vienna would be cruiseable, because it is controlled by locks, is not normally impacted by low river levels, high levels then things stop all together.

Book it and enjoy all the goodies in the Christmas markets.:wine-glass::beer-toast:

We are enjoying our last two days of summer in Passau, today and tomorrow. The river levels are falling slowly.

For all you rain watchers and dancers, looks like your wishes will be granted.

Temperatures will drop from 26°C on Friday down to 11°C on Monday, so time to pack your long johns.

From Saturday, we are expecting 4 days of heavy and continous rain, which should improve the river levels.

So things are looking up. Keep dancing.

We are enjoying our last two days of summer in Passau, today and tomorrow. The river levels are falling slowly.

 

 

 

For all you rain watchers and dancers, looks like your wishes will be granted.

 

 

Temperatures will drop from 26°C on Friday down to 11°C on Monday, so time to pack your long johns.

 

 

From Saturday, we are expecting 4 days of heavy and continous rain, which should improve the river levels.

 

 

So things are looking up. Keep dancing.

Let's hope that forecast holds or Passau may be a problem. We are docked right beside the depth gauge tower in Passau and the water level has dropped from 4.23 Metres to 4.09 Metres, which, for our American friends is almost 4 inches, since this time yesterday afternoon!!! The ship is actually leaving after we disembark tomorrow to go downriver to "deeper" water!!

December seems to be less problematic than Autumn. I've recently done the Danube Christmas markets in three different years without problems, including Nuremberg to Budapest. There is of course no certainty of water levels.

A note on MarineTraffic.com...if you register and create your own fleet (which can consist of a specific vessel or all the vessels from a river line), you can receive emails as your boat(s) move from port to port. When you receive those emails, there will be a Position and Track button that you can click on to see movement...and when it takes you to MarineTraffic, you can change the date range to see the last 3-4 days of movement. We happen to be on Gate1 leaving October 1, so I am tracking the movement of all their boats.

We are enjoying our last two days of summer in Passau, today and tomorrow. The river levels are falling slowly.

 

 

 

For all you rain watchers and dancers, looks like your wishes will be granted.

 

 

Temperatures will drop from 26°C on Friday down to 11°C on Monday, so time to pack your long johns.

 

 

From Saturday, we are expecting 4 days of heavy and continous rain, which should improve the river levels.

 

 

So things are looking up. Keep dancing.

Thank you for the update - I'll keep dancing