Danube Update

[cherylakers]

Glad to hear Viking handled it well.

 

Free concert is nice too.

 

We leave 2Wednesday and i am so looking forward to this. We booked almost 2 years ago.

 

Cheryl

[JVilleGal]

Glad to hear Viking handled it well.

 

 

 

Free concert is nice too.

 

 

 

We leave 2Wednesday and i am so looking forward to this. We booked almost 2 years ago.

 

 

 

Cheryl

 

 

Take your smile and if lemons coming your way "make lemonade". You will have a wonderful time! Take Binoculars, that was what I wished I had with me :)

[cherylakers]

Thanks jville.

 

I will get my binocs out now.

[Dolebludger]

Host Jazzbeau and all,

 

Your last post above brings me to a question. Is there a link on which I can get ata on space/passenger and passenger/crew ratios for river ships? I used to have such a link for ocean cruise ships and found it accurate and useful in curise selection.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Host Jazzbeau and all,

 

Your last post above brings me to a question. Is there a link on which I can get ata on space/passenger and passenger/crew ratios for river ships? I used to have such a link for ocean cruise ships and found it accurate and useful in curise selection.

 

I don't know of such a link, but you can find this information in the Berlitz guide to River Cruising in Europe.

[Thyme2cruise]

I believe Vantage also has shallow drafts. When we were on our Holiday Cruise on the Main in 2012 there was low river levels so much so that they found an undetonated WWII bomb near Koblenz. Vantage rescheduled our stops toward the end of our trip because they had to evacuate the area near Koblenz to remove the bomb. We were docked in a wonderful little town, bussed to our scheduled stops then continued on our way. We were told that Vantage has shallower drafts than most ships so they were able to cruise.

 

I'm wondering if one were to click on a certain river ship you would be able to see how many passengers it held & how many staff. Time consuming but worth it to find out passenger/staff ratio.

 

Also, I haven't seen anything on these posts about Vantage ships not getting through, swapping ships, bussing passengers or cancelling cruises due to low river levels.

[dnhill]

We went through the Passau low water area two days ago on Avalon. The Viking boats were bussing instead of cruising. It was low and we were worried about this stretch for weeks, but made it through. We were delayed for about 12 hours due to a faulty lock, earlier in the cruise, but apparently that is a risk you take on river cruises.

[notamermaid]

A lot of companies give the ratio in the description of the ship online, it usually is a link like "our fleet". Some online agencies (German sites) provide that info, too. A complete list I have not seen so far. It would currently have to be updated every few months to keep it complete, with so many new ships being built!

 

The Danube shows up as very low again on the official pages and there is no rain forecast for the next three days.

 

notamermaid

[tribbs1]

I had clients who were on the AMA Lyra about a week or two ago and they apparently had some minor issue due to the low water. While AMA does not usually have this problem due to short draft on their boats, something did happen this time. I received a letter from AMA giving them a $1380 per person future cruise credit - 30% of their cruise fare! They also have until December 31, 2018 to use it. I called my clients and they were pleasantly surprised which leads me to believe that their issue was very minor and they were not expecting anything. This was a genius move by AMA because with that credit they are looking to cruise again very soon. Very classy move.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear rbarb1111 and Snocat,

 

We truly regret to hear your recent Romantic Danube cruise was impacted with itinerary changes sparked by low water levels. While a goodwill gesture is sometimes provided by the crew onboard to alleviate immediate disappointment, it is not necessarily designed to compensate for your total dissatisfaction.

 

If you have not already, please contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss your experience in its entirety.

 

We are looking forward to speaking with each of you!

 

Warm regards,

Viking Cruises

 

Just got back from trip on viking var yesterday. Turned out to be an expensive bus trip. We had to stop in Regensberg , and had bus tours to Passau or Munich (3 hours on the bus). The next day we were transferred to the viking Tor after they had a broken engine fixed??? To keep us busy they bussed us to Melk(4 hours) and gave us a river tour/lunch and a tour of the abbey. Then they bussed us to Linz to meet the ship(another hour). We then learned that because of the low water we would not be able to get into Budapest. We were bussed the next day to Budapest(1 1/2 hours each way) had a short tour and lunch in a restaurant a had only 2 hours to walk around town. We had to leave the ship by 6:30(some people left earlier) the next morning to be bussed to airport(1 1/2 hours). Not a pleasant experience. All we saw was while docked was industrial sites.

 

I was also on Viking Var/Tor and our biggest disappointment was not making port in Budapest and being able to see that wonderful city at night.

In defense, when many complained about missing the daytime cruise through the Wachau Valley, Viking arranged for a river cruise with lunch on the river cruiser "Austria" while we were in Melk at no charge. Also, when we arrived in Vienna there was an evening Opera additional excursion @73 euros pp that Viking made available to everyone without charge...and I did somehow get a free drink on our last night.

The CD did everything he could to work within the limitations. While we were not happy with the cruise overall,it was nature related and out of the control of Viking. We were told our recourse would be to complain to Viking Customer Service and negotiate restitution.

[MalibooNewYork]

Any news on the water level on the Danube? We leave in approx. 2 weeks and I am increasingly apprehensive about the quality of our cruise.

[hugueys]

I am very interested in river levels because I have friends leaving today on KD cruise line Sonata. Anyone ever heard of this cruise line? It seems like a typical Danube cruise staring in Nurember to Regensburg, Passau, Melk, Vienna, Bratislava, and ending in Budapest. They are taking an extension to Prague. Do you think they will be able to complete this trip based on river levels?

[xpcdoojk]

I think KD Sonata is operated by Tui, which I have seen signs for in Europe. I think most of the clientele is probably European, which probably means that English is not the most common language spoken. That said, I know nothing.:eek:

 

jc

[notamermaid]

The TUI Sonata has been renamed the WT Sonata, TUI "gave it up", no longer uses the ship. It is indeed a European ship, operated by KD cruise services, the relatively new company that manages the river cruise ship fleet. It separated from the Köln-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt Aktiengesellschaft (shortened to KD in daily proceedings and by the locals here). That (very old) company does the day trips on the Rhine.

 

Depending on the charter the main language will be either German or English. Often though, both languages are used side by side throughout the cruise.

 

The WT Sonata is a standard long ship and will encounter as many or as few problems as the others of the same size. No way of knowing exactly as the captain has the final decision (unless the company says from the beginning "we are doing a ship swap" or similar).

 

hugueys, would your friends like to have their cruise experience in a separate thread, courtesy of you, perhaps?

 

As it is a different company and operator it might be of interest to others; is it a British or North-American charter?

 

The company was mentioned briefly in a thread last year, do not know where.

 

notamermaid

[Normand53]

does anyone know how Emerald waterways is making out with the water situation? we are leaving in 10 days for the danube Amsterdam to Budapest?

[cherylakers]

We leave in viking on Saturday. I will report back on current levels. If we make it thru then anyone can since their longships seem to have more problems.

 

Cheryl

[davidrw]

When I was on an Avalon boat this year, the captain explained that they had some control over draft as they used ballast tanks to change their draft (ie go up or down a bit).

 

When going under a Saone bridge they also banned us from the lower sun deck due to heights which was unusual as normally that is open even when the sun deck is closed - that was pretty tight.

[arima22]

Friends just returned from Viking Amsterdam to Budapest. The usual ship change Regensburg to Passau and all went very smoothly. No problem getting to the normal dock in Budapest. They were very happy with the cruise.

We've been watching the status of the rivers as we will be doing the Budapest to Amsterdam cruise the end of October.

[JVilleGal]

Friends just returned from Viking Amsterdam to Budapest. The usual ship change Regensburg to Passau and all went very smoothly. No problem getting to the normal dock in Budapest. They were very happy with the cruise.

 

We've been watching the status of the rivers as we will be doing the Budapest to Amsterdam cruise the end of October.

 

 

A ship swap is far from usual or expect ;) it certainly is better than a bus trip. My Amsterdam to Budapest sailing that ended last Friday had no swap of boats or bus trips.

[hugueys]

Thank you notamermaid for the info. I had a hard time finding the boat on marine traffic because of the name change My friends are officially out of touch from the real world until they get back. I will encourage them to post their review of the trip, though. They booked with a TA out of Atlanta; I believe their were 17 people on their flight over to Munich. It was an impulse buy in July; they have never been on any kind of cruise and only over to Europe once so I am very excited for them.