Rhine water levels 2018 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

12 hours ago, Intlxpatr said:

Ural guy, we are loving your photos.

 

Today I found the newest alert from Tauck regarding the Christmas Market cruises on the Rhine and Danube:

 

TRAVEL ALERT REGARDING TAUCK'S CHRISTMAS MARKET RIVER CRUISES

(11/9/18) Water levels on some of Europe’s rivers (particularly the Rhine and to a lesser degree, the Danube) remain below normal following Europe’s hot, dry summer. These low water levels have the potential to impact our upcoming Christmas market river cruises, but at present it is far from certain if those cruises will actually be affected, or what any specific impacts might be. Conditions along the river are subject to change with short notice, and itinerary alterations – should they occur – could be minimal or more material, including additional motor coach travel or other adjustments.

Please know that, in conjunction with our European office and our wide network of trusted partners, we are continuously and carefully monitoring conditions along the Rhine and Danube. Should there be a major itinerary change, we will inform impacted guests as soon as those changes are known and confirmed.

If Tauck was using only 135m ships and sending out this message applying it to cruises coming up in the next five days, this would ludicrous to the point of annoyance. However, they are referring to cruises that by definition of Christmas market should not start before 22 November. That is 12 days out (as of yesterday) and the Tauck Treasure is only 110m long. So I regard this e-mail as sufficient for the time being. I am not sure what the other ships' lenghts are and for a cruise Amsterdam to Budapest, well, to be a honest I cannot see that happen in its entirety in November at all. Again, it could depend on when which ship is where...

 

The Tauck Treasures is currently in Koblenz having come from Boppard. There is a chance she made it through the gorge, but I am too late to check that at this point in time. She could have double-backed like the S.S. Antoinette.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[feelincruisey]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

If I miss any questions I’ll catch up later. 

 

Yes, Arnhem is on our revised itinerary, ships seem to be getting there OK as well. 

 

Regarding the ‘Signature Events’ right now the train is not going to happen, but the choir in Vienna is still on. There is a possibility that the visit to Namedy could happen but that is not confirmed. 

Oh great! I hope you get to Namedy Castle. Princess Heide is an inspiring host and her home is delightful.

[hbr777]

11 day cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium? That's quite a route revision.

 

At least it is raining for once where it is most needed. And the levels are going up where it is needed.

 

 

[FuelScience]

7 hours ago, ural guy said:

Does anyone have any ideas for what we can do in the Schweich area tomorrow?  The options I can think of are heading out for a bike ride, or bus to Trier.  Understand that there is also a small Roman Villa you can visit about 2 kms outside of Schweich, just not sure about access it being a Monday.

 

If you're a fan of Roman history, you have to choose between the villa and the Landesmuseum in Trier. It's a great museum with tons of Roman artifacts and the fabulous Roman gold hoard of over 2,500 gold coins discovered in 1993. If they have multiple buses to Trier you might be able to do one in the morning and another in the afternoon.

[notamermaid]

14 minutes ago, FuelScience said:

If you're a fan of Roman history, you have to choose between the villa and the Landesmuseum in Trier. It's a great museum with tons of Roman artifacts and the fabulous Roman gold hoard of over 2,500 gold coins discovered in 1993. If they have multiple buses to Trier you might be able to do one in the morning and another in the afternoon.

The Landesmuseum in Trier will be closed on Monday, I am afraid. But here is some info on Trier as a Roman heritage city. Definitely worth exploring: http://www.zentrum-der-antike.de/en.html

 

notamermaid

 

[Mark_T]

In no particular order...

 

AmaVenita is 135m, and middle of last week one of her sister ships, also 135m, sailed into Arnhem without problems.

 

Our ship has 123 guests on board, so down a little on her full capacity.

 

Regarding compensation, 10 days before we were due to start APT gave us the option to cancel for a full refund, or continue with a modified itinerary and get a 20% future cruise credit.

 

i also have news on how the next cruise, due out of Budapest on the 24th, will be handled, I’ll put that in my next post.

 

 

[notamermaid]

On 11/9/2018 at 3:35 PM, FuelScience said:

Looks like Teeming's leased Johann Strauss (110 m) made it through the gorge going south. Marinetraffic.com shows her approaching Mainz.

Yes, she is doing fine at these levels. Still, I think it will have been tight for her as well around Kaub. With itineraries reduced in November I have hardly tracked ships. I found the Excellence Coral, though, this morning. She has just passed Cologne having sailed through the gorge yesterday. 135m? No, less. 110m? No, less. 105m? No, less. Alright, I'll stop this: 82m!

 

Small is practical, and she looks alright, too. She sails for a Swiss operator on some itineraries and with her almost diminutive size can get almost anywhere. She even has an itinerary for next year Berlin to Strasbourg. Yep, that actually works without a landtrip in-between.

 

notamermaid

 

[ural guy]

Thanks all for the suggestions, will probably bike to Trier.  If spouse gets tired, train back to Schweich. 

Will stop in at Longuich. 

 

When climbing down from the castle in Bernkastel, heard a band playing in town.  Followed the music, and it was a festival starting in one of the squares.  Many people dressed up in silly costumes, including the band, who were pirates.   Currywurst with frites, accompanied with several pils made for a great lunch.  

[notamermaid]

6 minutes ago, ural guy said:

Thanks all for the suggestions, will probably bike to Trier.  If spouse gets tired, train back to Schweich. 

Will stop in at Longuich. 

 

When climbing down from the castle in Bernkastel, heard a band playing in town.  Followed the music, and it was a festival starting in one of the squares.  Many people dressed up in silly costumes, including the band, who were pirates.   Currywurst with frites, accompanied with several pils made for a great lunch.  

Ouiii, 11.11. Karnevalseröffnung! Today is the start of the silly season. And with that type of lunch it really cannot get any  more German than this! 

 

notamermaid

 

[Intlxpatr]

"If Tauck was using only 135m ships and sending out this message applying it to cruises coming up in the next five days, this would ludicrous to the point of annoyance. However, they are referring to cruises that by definition of Christmas market should not start before 22 November."

 

Our cruise, on the MS Grace, is due to start 24 November out of Cologne. The Cruise Tracker app says she is 135m. I just checked; she is harbored today close to Maastricht. Following this thread, it seems possible that we might be on board in Koln, but that there may be some bus travel involved if the trip is not cancelled. I don't know how good Tauck may be at swapping out ships; I believe they lease the ships, not own them.

 

This was not an e-mail, merely an alert at the top left of the page when I looked at the Tauck Web page.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Intlxpatr

[DonnaMW]

Thanks Bogdan and Steve. Great time in the River Voyager. They made the best they could out of a bad situation. 

[CILCIANRQTS]

Viking Idi (originally Mani) will bus to Heidelberg tomorrow, Viking buys us lunch in a brauerei, then meet Viking Eir at Braubach. Only missed stopped is Rudesheim, which is no great loss.

Crew of Idi was great. Most of passengers seem flexible for the swap. All nights on a ship are a big plus!

[gadugger]

Not looking too good at Kaub: https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/gewaesserkunde/wasserstaende/wasserstaendeUebersichtGrafik.html.php?pegelId=1d26e504-7f9e-480a-b52c-5932be6549ab

 

[Mark_T]

The river beat the forecast at Kaub today, just have to wait and see if it can do it again, or not...

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Mark_T said:

The river beat the forecast at Kaub today, just have to wait and see if it can do it again, or not...

Yes, that is why there is a gap in the graph between blue (what has happened) and red (what was supposed to happen). The two do no meet tonight. And tomorrow will see the forecast altered accordingly. That is why I never post figures about Kaub more than what the forecast says for the next 36 hours. In actual fact about 36 to 48 hours is only the forecast, what you see as full red squares, the outlined red squares after that are a "tentative prediction".

 

Temperatures forecast for tomorrow show up to 18 degrees maximum in the valley. In November! Rain will happen tomorrow and Tuesday. After that the weather will change to cooler temperatures with more or less no rain in Germany for three days, at least, as of today.

 

notamermaid

 

[Jaydub99]

Sailing out of Amsterdam, I’m almost thinking that Emmerich is more of a problem than Kaub if one wants to avoid a lot of bus travel - it’s trending in the right direction but currently only at 18cm. Am I missing something? I don’t often see it mentioned as a choke point. 

[Wannawander]

16 hours ago, ural guy said:

Wannawander-  thanks for the info, I showed the picture to the 'winetender' at the place I stopped for my nightcap.  He forget when I had earlier told him 'mein Deutsch ist kaputt', and started talking real fast.

 

I think Katzen were involved at some point.  I had only tried asking if it spun around...so of course now in my head, there is a treadmill that cat's walk along to turn it, as real candles would just be too dangerous.  I know about the danger from playing with the one my folks had when I was a kid, and the one I played with the one we bought when stationed in Germany....

 

Well, of course the small ones use the candles. Interesting that they use cats.Really? I know the actual name is Pyramide, but as kids we called it Mühle probably because it means “mill” and the concept is used in that manner to grind.....I guess I better read that Google description.....I would love to see that in person. Next year?

[notamermaid]

Jaydub99,

How the river gauge measure and the navigation channel relate to each other is what counts. See it as a kind of calculation/translation thing. At Emmerich even though the figure is much lower than at Kaub the relationship is more favourable, i.e. there is still more water under the hull than at Kaub and the river cruise ships can sail there in the lower Rhine (so far we have not had reports to the contrary). As has been reported, ships are at Koblenz and have even made it as far as Boppard, upstream of Koblenz.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited November 11, 2018 by notamermaid
Clarification

[hbr777]

2 hours ago, gadugger said:

Not looking too good at Kaub: https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/gewaesserkunde/wasserstaende/wasserstaendeUebersichtGrafik.html.php?pegelId=1d26e504-7f9e-480a-b52c-5932be6549ab

 

Kaub is looking great compared to what it was. It takes a while for the rain to make the level rise.

[pully8]

11 hours ago, Mark_T said:

In no particular order...

 

AmaVenita is 135m, and middle of last week one of her sister ships, also 135m, sailed into Arnhem without problems.

 

Our ship has 123 guests on board, so down a little on her full capacity.

 

Regarding compensation, 10 days before we were due to start APT gave us the option to cancel for a full refund, or continue with a modified itinerary and get a 20% future cruise credit.

 

i also have news on how the next cruise, due out of Budapest on the 24th, will be handled, I’ll put that in my next post.

 

 

Thanks for that info.

Good news about the 10 day notice and offers.

Do you know if that was offered to all passengers, or just for the UK market?

[newgolfr]

On 11/10/2018 at 9:14 AM, hbr777 said:

newgolfr, are you saying they comped your cruise?

that what they said!  We have 3 years to use the credit.  (Only what we paid for the cruise.)

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by newgolfr
more info

[gadugger]

1 hour ago, pully8 said:

Thanks for that info.

Good news about the 10 day notice and offers.

Do you know if that was offered to all passengers, or just for the UK market?

5 days out from our A - B cruise and AMA has said nothing. 

[pully8]

Amsterdam to Basel? not Budapest?

when do you fly out to Amsterdam? what does your TA say?

we know AMA have a message on their website informing their office was closed because of the fires, would that explain the lack of communication so far?

hope you get the info soon. its a nice cruise and if going to Switzerland beautiful.

we have taken the train Paris to Montreux, very scenic and fast.

good luck.

 

 

[madda]

17 hours ago, Mark_T said:

In no particular order...

 

AmaVenita is 135m, and middle of last week one of her sister ships, also 135m, sailed into Arnhem without problems.

 

Our ship has 123 guests on board, so down a little on her full capacity.

 

Regarding compensation, 10 days before we were due to start APT gave us the option to cancel for a full refund, or continue with a modified itinerary and get a 20% future cruise credit.

 

i also have news on how the next cruise, due out of Budapest on the 24th, will be handled, I’ll put that in my next post.

 

 

Thanks for your update Mark. We are waiting with baited breath to see what will happen with our departure from Budapest on the 24th November, haven't heard anything as yet.

[ural guy]

Wannawander-  I went back and peaked, there is an electric motor, no cats.  I'm sure I misheard the winetender, I just thought the idea of cats on treadmills funny.

 

Beautiful views from the Bernkastel castle (Landshut?).  Climb up was steep but well worth it. 

 

The door that leads into the wine cellar was changing colors before or eyes, as the sun came in an out from behind the clouds.  Pretty nifty.

 

Sunrise is from an hour or so ago.