Disaster scene awaits river cruise passengers

[heathcharnock]

The above is the headline of a story in today's Sunday Times (UK)

 

Extracts include

 

"passengers could find themselves in the midst of a mosquito infested disaster scene"

 

"Communities in the worst hit areas report oil contamination in gardens and homes, rotting animal carcasses and piles of rubbish"

 

"Waterfront shops, bars and restaurants in many popular river ports remain closed"

 

"There's also a health risk: the entomologist Professor Burkhard Schricker of the Free University of Berlin warned that large pools of stagnant nutrient-rich water combined with rising temperatures will cause a huge rise in mosquito numbers"

 

Is this all just journalistic licence and scare mongering or does it accurately reflect what we might expect on our first ever river cruise next week .(Amsterdam to Budapest)

[webfoot]

Thanks! I will add repellent to my packing list!

 

Pat

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[heathcharnock]

Thanks! I will add repellent to my packing list!

 

Pat

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

Yes we just did

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for the info ..

[no fuss travel]

Guess what, wherever in the world there has been flooding, there will be mozzies. Take some insect repellant with you. They are now selling a gadget you can attach to your clothes and therefore you do not have to spray yourself with repellant. In Alberta, where they have had massive flooding this week and past, they will be having to do the same thing. The mozzies will be out for the Calgary Stampede.(which Calgary says will happen and I believe the Calgarians will make it happen) Mozzies happen everywhere, so don't be scared off your trip. Enjoy and make lemonade out of the lemons offered.

[Cary Cruiser]

The above is the headline of a story in today's Sunday Times (UK)

 

Extracts include

 

"passengers could find themselves in the midst of a mosquito infested disaster scene"

 

"Communities in the worst hit areas report oil contamination in gardens and homes, rotting animal carcasses and piles of rubbish"

 

"Waterfront shops, bars and restaurants in many popular river ports remain closed"

 

"There's also a health risk: the entomologist Professor Burkhard Schricker of the Free University of Berlin warned that large pools of stagnant nutrient-rich water combined with rising temperatures will cause a huge rise in mosquito numbers"

 

Is this all just journalistic licence and scare mongering or does it accurately reflect what we might expect on our first ever river cruise next week .(Amsterdam to Budapest)

 

It sounds like the way things are normally here in Florida.

[jpalbny]

Hm - we visited some of these areas over the past 2 weeks... We were booked on a 6/10 Avalon Sailing from Vienna to Passau which was canceled. But we went to Germany anyway aor 2 weeks, and had a great time. Just got home last night, so our observations should be fairly up to date.

 

Regensburg looked just fine. High water, flood barriers up, but the city was dry and open for business as usual.

 

Nuremburg was fine as well.

 

Vienna looked totally normal to us.

 

We saw river boats docked on the Main in Wurzburg; no issues with the city itself.

 

Passau could well be a mess, as could some othercities along the worst -affected parts of the Danube; we didn't go there so can't say. But, as far as the places we visited, we saw no effects. I'd take this article with a grain of salt...

[Keith1010]

Our friends are going on a river cruise at the end of the week and I will let them know today about bringing insect repellent with them.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Keith

[Paulinda]

Hm - we visited some of these areas over the past 2 weeks... We were booked on a 6/10 Avalon Sailing from Vienna to Passau which was canceled. But we went to Germany anyway aor 2 weeks, and had a great time. Just got home last night, so our observations should be fairly up to date.

 

Regensburg looked just fine. High water, flood barriers up, but the city was dry and open for business as usual.

 

Nuremburg was fine as well.

 

Vienna looked totally normal to us.

 

We saw river boats docked on the Main in Wurzburg; no issues with the city itself.

 

Passau could well be a mess, as could some othercities along the worst -affected parts of the Danube; we didn't go there so can't say. But, as far as the places we visited, we saw no effects. I'd take this article with a grain of salt...

 

jpalbny - sounds like you made lemonade out of those lemons you were served. that's the spirit! we would have done the same. what did avalon do for your non-cruise in the form of comps?

[jpalbny]

jpalbny - sounds like you made lemonade out of those lemons you were served. that's the spirit! we would have done the same. what did avalon do for your non-cruise in the form of comps?

 

Full refund. Had a nice negative balance on our cc (until we spent it over the last 2 weeks...:)). Our choices were:

 

1) if you change to another sailing (must sail by 12/31/2014) you will receive $500 discount per person and they will refund you up to $250 per person for the airfare change fee. If you take the same itinerary, they will also credit any difference in price. If it's a different itinerary you would pay the prevailing rate.

 

2) Cancel and not rebook: you will be refunded 100% and refunded up to $250 per person for any airline change fee

 

We chose 2, but kept our air tickets unchanged so didn't have to worry about refunding a change fee.

 

 

It worked well for us. We had a fantastic time, and got to see more than I think we would have seen on the river cruise. We missed a few smaller towns on the Danube, and would have liked to have seen Passau. But all in all, thought it was a very fair trade.