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

[notamermaid]

Passau

 

Most of you will know all this by now, but just in case you do not, here is Passau from the UK's newspaper "The Telegraph" cruise port guide series: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/port-guides/passau-cruise-port-guide/

 

notamermaid

 

[LinP]

Hi, 

 

I've just returned home from my trip on the Danube on 2 Nov. 

 

We were scheduled to sail from Budapest to Prague (last two nights in hotel in Prague)

 

We were not able to join the ship in Budapest with the water levels, but we were put up in a hotel for two nights then taken to the ship in Bratislava.  The rest of the trip was traveled as planned with no ship swaps or other changes.

 

Avalon did a great job keeping all the excursions and services as close to the original plan as possible.  Mother Nature sure has been tough on that region this year. 

 

It was a fantastic trip - glad we didn't panic and cancel.   

[suspaul]

1 hour ago, LinP said:

Hi, 

 

I've just returned home from my trip on the Danube on 2 Nov. 

 

We were scheduled to sail from Budapest to Prague (last two nights in hotel in Prague)

 

We were not able to join the ship in Budapest with the water levels, but we were put up in a hotel for two nights then taken to the ship in Bratislava.  The rest of the trip was traveled as planned with no ship swaps or other changes.

 

Avalon did a great job keeping all the excursions and services as close to the original plan as possible.  Mother Nature sure has been tough on that region this year. 

 

It was a fantastic trip - glad we didn't panic and cancel.   

Hi LinP,   If you don’t mind, which Avalon boat did you travel on?  We’re doing Festive Time on the Legendary Danube, Prague (3 hotel nights prior to the river cruise portion) to Budapest 12.4-12.14.2018 and leave 4 weeks from today.  Looking forward to it but hoping for a bit of rain.  You never know.  I’m glad you had a great trip.

 

just curious, we’re you even offered a chance to cancel?  

 

Welcome home.

[G.M.T.]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Passau

 

Most of you will know all this by now, but just in case you do not, here is Passau from the UK's newspaper "The Telegraph" cruise port guide series: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/port-guides/passau-cruise-port-guide/

 

notamermaid

 

Straight out of the guide book.

[larryfromtexas]

My wife and I will board the Crystal Mozart on November 30 for a 10-day, round-trip cruise from Vienna.  I have a friend who is on a Viking cruise at this moment, cruising the Rhine.  He has reported ship changes and bus detours because of low river levels.  Our itinerary ranges the Danube from Passau to Bratislava.  Crossing my fingers that all goes well (but I understand I can't control the weather.) Still... planning on having a great time!

[CasaM]

We fly out tomorrow, and embark Viking Vilhjalm on Wed.  We've just been notified by Viking that the ship will remain in Vienna after our day there and we will be bussed to Bratislava the next day for our tour and return to Vienna.  The following day we will disembark and bus to Budapest for our tour.  That night we will stay on a sister ship docked in Budapest.  

[MGGG54]

We just got the same email from Viking.  Could be worse could be cancelled or be on bus for the whole time

[Judy845]

We just returned Nov. 2nd from our week on the Danube river with Viking. We were so lucky because we were originally told we would be bused and changing ships several times but the only busing we did was the first day where we had to be bused from Budapest to Komarno, Slovakia (about 60 miles away) to get our ship. All week we were on edge thinking we would have to be bused  from one city to another and change ships but  just the day before the transfer, we were told the river level was high enough for us to continue on our cruise. This happened on each leg of the trip and we were able to cruise all the way to Nuremberg. We were told that one leg of the trip we cruised on Tuesday, another Viking ship tried on Wednesday and they were unable to get through. I was dreading the trip because of all the problems I read about from other people doing the Danube but it turned out wonderful. I hope that for those of you planning on taking this trip in the near future that you will be as lucky as we were.

[Coral]

2 hours ago, larryfromtexas said:

My wife and I will board the Crystal Mozart on November 30 for a 10-day, round-trip cruise from Vienna.  I have a friend who is on a Viking cruise at this moment, cruising the Rhine.  He has reported ship changes and bus detours because of low river levels.  Our itinerary ranges the Danube from Passau to Bratislava.  Crossing my fingers that all goes well (but I understand I can't control the weather.) Still... planning on having a great time!

I am on the same itinerary November 20th. I will be checking my emails (if internet permits) and hopefully can post about our cruise. I am also planning on having a great time regardless.

[larryfromtexas]

18 minutes ago, Coral said:

I am on the same itinerary November 20th. I will be checking my emails (if internet permits) and hopefully can post about our cruise. I am also planning on having a great time regardless.

I hope you do!  Please post anything you'd like to share.  My wife is also interested in the weather.  I think our trip, right after yours, could see lower temps than you will see.  We had been talking and preparing wet weather gear clothing for excursions.  Perhaps that won't be a problem!  But I hate that Europe has had this drought.  I get enough of that around here in Texas!

[Coral]

1 minute ago, larryfromtexas said:

I hope you do!  Please post anything you'd like to share.  My wife is also interested in the weather.  I think our trip, right after yours, could see lower temps than you will see.  

I am preparing for wet weather also. I figure November in Europe is similar to November in the Midwest!

 

My email address is in my signature - feel free to email me during the cruise.

[Flamencacha]

Happy to report Avalon Panorama has made it to Budapest. 

 

 

[Flamencacha]

7 hours ago, Judy845 said:

We just returned Nov. 2nd from our week on the Danube river with Viking. We were so lucky because we were originally told we would be bused and changing ships several times but the only busing we did was the first day where we had to be bused from Budapest to Komarno, Slovakia (about 60 miles away) to get our ship. All week we were on edge thinking we would have to be bused  from one city to another and change ships but  just the day before the transfer, we were told the river level was high enough for us to continue on our cruise. This happened on each leg of the trip and we were able to cruise all the way to Nuremberg. We were told that one leg of the trip we cruised on Tuesday, another Viking ship tried on Wednesday and they were unable to get through. I was dreading the trip because of all the problems I read about from other people doing the Danube but it turned out wonderful. I hope that for those of you planning on taking this trip in the near future that you will be as lucky as we were.

I was very fortunate too, did my whole cruise as planned. Being my first River cruise I didn’t know  what to expect. 

I too hope everyone else has the same fortune for your cruises. 

[G.M.T.]

1 hour ago, Flamencacha said:

I was very fortunate too, did my whole cruise as planned. Being my first River cruise I didn’t know  what to expect. 

I too hope everyone else has the same fortune for your cruises. 

It was the breaking out the vintage sherry and toasting the river gods that really helped.🍷

[Flamencacha]

26 minutes ago, G.M.T. said:

It was the breaking out the vintage sherry and toasting the river gods that really helped.🍷

The fact it was a wine cruise probably helped too. 

[JAG64]

Departing 24 November Budapest to Amsterdam as a first timer river cruiser on AMAVenita! Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and also praying for some rain!!

[Mark_T]

54 minutes ago, JAG64 said:

Departing 24 November Budapest to Amsterdam as a first timer river cruiser on AMAVenita! Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and also praying for some rain!!

 

It probably won't be AmaVenita unless something goes unexpectedly well with our cruise on her starting Saturday this week 🙂

 

... but they do have AmaReina at the Budapest end of things so you will have a ship.

[Mark_T]

I mentioned keeping an eye on 'Excellence Melodia' a while ago, she is a 135m ship that has been racing towards Passau, empty, having made it down the Rhine Gorge some days ago.

 

As expected, she has come to an abrupt halt at Regensburg today, due I assume. the lack of sufficient water to get any closer.

[LinP]

On 11/5/2018 at 12:21 PM, suspaul said:

Hi LinP,   If you don’t mind, which Avalon boat did you travel on?  We’re doing Festive Time on the Legendary Danube, Prague (3 hotel nights prior to the river cruise portion) to Budapest 12.4-12.14.2018 and leave 4 weeks from today.  Looking forward to it but hoping for a bit of rain.  You never know.  I’m glad you had a great trip.

 

just curious, we’re you even offered a chance to cancel?  

 

Welcome home.

We were on the Panorama

 

We were not offered a cancellation but there were 30 ish people who cancelled. We were told we would be receiving a 50% refund for each of the two days we were in the hotel. I’ll be watching for that in the next couple weeks. 

[suspaul]

Thanks for the info LinP.  I may be mistaken but I think someone posted earlier today that they just completed the entire cruise on the Avalon Panorama with no changes.  

 

Unfortunately it looks like little rain along the Danube for the next 2 weeks so we’ll see what happens.

 

 

[jgrahamiii]

Just finished Budapest to Passau on Viking Vilhjalm with no issues other than slow travel through Wachau Valley with less than 2 feet of water below our ship in one place (cruise director did express a concern with this stretch earlier in the cruise).  Left Budapest on 11/1 arrived Passau 11/6. We disembark tomorrow. Met another Viking passenger in Passau from a different Viking ship which should have sailed for Regensburg today. They are definitely being bused from Passau to another ship in Regensburg to complete cruise. They did not seem too concerned.  Rumors on our ship are that the Danube between Budapest and Bratislava is again unsailable. You can see on the shores how much levels have dropped last couple of days. So, cruise one week before ours was bused to Vienna. Looks like cruise one week after will be too. The water levels seem to change very fast. 

[madda]

7 hours ago, Mark_T said:

 

It probably won't be AmaVenita unless something goes unexpectedly well with our cruise on her starting Saturday this week 🙂

 

... but they do have AmaReina at the Budapest end of things so you will have a ship.

Hi everyone, I have been following this thread very carefully. Now something seems very strange, my husband and I are also due to embark on the AmaVenita on 24th November from Budapest to Amsterdam. We are picking up our travel documents tonight so I'll see if anything has changed.

[Mark_T]

8 minutes ago, madda said:

Hi everyone, I have been following this thread very carefully. Now something seems very strange, my husband and I are also due to embark on the AmaVenita on 24th November from Budapest to Amsterdam. We are picking up our travel documents tonight so I'll see if anything has changed.

 

Nothing strange, APT have 4 AMA ships on this route, AmaVenita and AmaVerde are one pair, AmaReina and AmaBella are the other pair.

 

Each time the cruises run correctly the two pairs swap between Amsterdam and Budapest.

 

Right now, AmaVenita is in Amsterdam where we will board on the 10th, if all went to plan she would be in Budapest for you on the 24th, but all is not going to plan.

 

It is very unlikely that AmaVenita is going to be able to make it to Budapest but on the other hand it also means that AmaReina will not be making it to Amsterdam either so she will be at the Budapest end for your cruise.

 

Depending on water levels she may or may not actually be in Budapest, but she will be close by.

 

You are unlikely to see a change in your documents as AmaVenita has not yet failed to get there, but in all probability she will fail.

 

Doesn't really matter though as the two ships are pretty much identical.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Mark_T

[madda]

Thanks for your quick reply - at least we'll be on one of the boats. This will be our 3rd river cruise with APT, the two previous ones were Amsterdam to Budapest, so this will be something different, like going backwards. We have also done Amsterdam to Basel with Scenic. Enjoy your cruise.

[Mark_T]

1 minute ago, madda said:

Thanks for your quick reply - at least we'll be on one of the boats. This will be our 3rd river cruise with APT, the two previous ones were Amsterdam to Budapest, so this will be something different, like going backwards. We have also done Amsterdam to Basel with Scenic. Enjoy your cruise.

I hope you enjoy yours as well.

 

Just to set expectations, right now 135m ships are still reaching Budapest, but they are not able to reach Regensburg. Depending on rain, both of those could change...

 

A ship swap to get past Regensburg isn't possible as the route from Amsterdam is blocked at the Rhine Gorge as the water levels are too low there for reliable travel. This also can change.

 

To get an idea for what is going on I'd suggest you follow AmaBella and AmaReina to see what they do over the next two weeks.