Rhine water levels 2023 and similar topics

[Host Jazzbeau]

21 hours ago, Vilhelm2 said:

Unfortunately I have learned since returning, after reading some reviews, that Viking has been fully aware of the need to trade ships long before our trip even started.  As it turns out the prior three ships heading for Budapest had to be switched due to low river levels at Regensberg.  Viking said that it was "possible" that we may have to switch ships a couple days before it happened.

 

This is unfair to Viking, as river levels can change very quickly.  The experience of the prior cruises did not mean that your cruise would need to have a ship swap, as shown in this report:

7 hours ago, rcaruso said:

We just got back from our wonderful Grand European from Budapest to Amsterdam.  Yes, we had to change ships, and a day later the river had recovered and now is fine.

[CastleCritic]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Scenic, Tauck and Uniworld are all-inclusive, and AMA although not all-inclusive is top quality.  Also the new Riverside, a German hotel company that bought the lovely Crystal river ships.

Not sure that I would really call AMA "not all. inclusive" though I think I know what you mean.  Considering Im booking ocean cruises and BOY do those show what "not inclusive" can mean.

 

On AMA youre going to pay for, 

 

Drinks outside of happy hour and meals

tips

laundry, except in suites on some ships at least

any massages/hair appointments you make

 

thats it, all the food is included, all the excursions are included, unlimited wifi/internet is included, your room will be cleaned in the morning and turndown in the evening.

Edited August 2, 2023 by CastleCritic

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 minutes ago, CastleCritic said:

On AMA youre going to pay for, 

...

tips

All the other things you mention are optional and many people won't pay for them at all, but tips is the biggie.  It adds quite a lot to the fare, and hurts AMA in cost comparisons.  I love AMA, but I think they should roll tips into the fare.

[CastleCritic]

14 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

All the other things you mention are optional and many people won't pay for them at all, but tips is the biggie.  It adds quite a lot to the fare, and hurts AMA in cost comparisons.  I love AMA, but I think they should roll tips into the fare.

Probably, I dont get salty about it, but it is the one thing that gets me to trudge down to the reception desk in my socks(usually) last night of the cruise to finally put a credit card on file.

 

Again I knew what you meant, but I just cant get the Royal Carribean version of "not inclusive" out of my head (versus Virgin Voyages where all that stuff is already paid and I have $600 to drink myself into oblivion if I so chose).

 

Plus on Viking not inclusive also means having to pay for the optional excursions every day.

Edited August 2, 2023 by CastleCritic

[Canal archive]

I’m not to sure but I was lead to believe that port charges are add on’s for some companies.

[Vilhelm2]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

This is unfair to Viking, as river levels can change very quickly.  The experience of the prior cruises did not mean that your cruise would need to have a ship swap, as shown in this report:

I had no idea the Danube could recover that rapidly.  When we drove past the area where the river was too shallow the driver pointed it out and said the ships don't have wheels so that is why you had to change ships.  The river at that point was just gravel with narrow channels of less than 20 feet in width running through it.  I apologize for my non-researched assertion.  

[notamermaid]

49 minutes ago, Vilhelm2 said:

I had no idea the Danube could recover that rapidly. 

No problem. A quick change in weather pattern can be the difference of sailing and non-sailing and I would say from having monitored this over the years that the Danube is more pronounced with the rapid recovery than the Rhine. Mind you, the Rhine tends to have the fewer problems with it than the Danube in Bavaria.

 

We are now in August so it is time to recap July on the rivers Danube, Elbe and Rhine. And on the Danube we will see this rapid recovery in the graph quite clearly. On the Rhine it is there as well but as we saw the river on a "mild low" the effect was virtually non-existent, i.e. river cruise ships have been sailing with very little impact and no ship swap (as far as I can ascertain) was necessary.

 

notamermaid

 

[Kristelle]

MY understanding is that APT - Australia's arm of AMA - does trips inclusive of tipping

 

although this might just be for Australian bookings, given we are not used to a tipping culture and therefore often prefer to do it this way

 

as I did with Scenic

[reeves35]

7 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

All the other things you mention are optional and many people won't pay for them at all, but tips is the biggie.  It adds quite a lot to the fare, and hurts AMA in cost comparisons.  I love AMA, but I think they should roll tips into the fare.

In Australia, AMA is sold as APT ( APT has a significant shareholding in AMA).  APT is sold as all-inclusive in Australia and this includes gratuities.  We do not have a tipping culture so having gratuities added in later on is a major turn-off. 

 

Like Scenic has Emerald as a second level slightly below the premium brand, APT operates Travelmarvel as more a value oriented offering with inclusions more similar to what you'd see on Viking.  The one difference is that, as Travelmarvel is targetted at Australians, New Zealanders and Brits, all fares are always inclusive of gratuities.

[Host Jazzbeau]

37 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

In Australia, AMA is sold as APT

Do you see all the sailings of the AMA ships?  There are evidently APT-centric sailings that show up as gaps in AMA's US website.

[reeves35]

42 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Do you see all the sailings of the AMA ships?  There are evidently APT-centric sailings that show up as gaps in AMA's US website.

Not sure but potentially they do.  I have seen photos of AMA ships with APT decals on them; maybe these are exclusive fully all-inclusive APT sailings targeting APT's core AU, NZ and UK demographics. 

[notamermaid]

Not sure myself about the set-up of Ama and APT. There are the few specific ships that have the APT livery/logo when I see them sailing on the river. I know that one grand European journey has an APT tailored specific itinerary. It includes Namedy Castle as an excursion and at its inauguration was mentioned as being exclusive.

 

About Brohl and the saga of the Carmen Sylva: The sale has been confirmed. The Andernach businessman is now the proud owner of the excursion boat. In an interview with a local newspaper he has stated that he wants to turn her into a "house boat". A major restoration task, I hope for a happy ending. So far, I am delighted that she is still around.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

It is August, time to have a look at what the river did at Kaub:

The month started on a relative low for this time of year and the worry of the level going to a real low was certainly there. The decline was slow and before problems for river cruise ships could really arise the river recovered in the middle of the month. This was a short relief that could not be backed up and we saw first the return to where the figures had been before and then a further decline that brought the river close to a level that would have been problematic. Thankfully, after a very dry week, rain set in all over the catchment area and we see a fast rise of about 90cm. On the Danube at Pfelling this was even more pronounced with the level rising by just over 100cm in that short space of time. Cooler temperatures and continued rain on and off kept the level high enough till the end of the month.

 

notamermaid

 

[Vilhelm2]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

On the Danube at Pfelling this was even more pronounced with the level rising by just over 100cm in that short space of time. Cooler temperatures and continued rain on and off kept the level high enough till the end of the month.

I see that our change of ships on the 23rd was just before the river recovered.  Just a case of bad timing.  Oh well.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Vilhelm2

[ksloanbrown]

Passing through Kaub right now on the Avalon Expression. Smooth sailing. 

[notamermaid]

@ksloanbrown welcome to Cruisecritic and thank you for the photo of Pfalzgrafenstein at Kaub.

 

Have a great time on the Avalon Expression.

 

notamermaid

 

[MamaMags123]

5 hours ago, ksloanbrown said:

Passing through Kaub right now on the Avalon Expression. Smooth sailing. 

 
We (AmaSerena) passed Kaub earlier today as well! Thought of all of you here on this board! The gauge showed 179! 😁

 

[notamermaid]

Famous Pfalzgrafenstein is an iconic site. So many great things to see in the Middle Rhine valley. What I find fascinating about my river is the sheer variety of landscapes. Like my avatar photo. It is very different from the river where the famous castles are. At that spot at Rhinau I saw a wide river with island and factory and other grand scale man-made structures in the distance. The buildings and villages in France looked similar to ours but the differences were still noticeable.

 

There are several landscape spots apart from the castles that I like. Not sure that I have a favourite one (beyond a particular sight that I grew up with). Rüdesheim hills, Bacharach, Boppard are all memorable, Oberwesel town wall is great. Urmitz Rhine bridge is a fascinating sight because I like steel bridges. After the wide valley at Neuwied the Andernach Gate where the river enters the mountains again stands out. Petersberg near Bonn is always a welcome sight. Cologne Hohenzollern Bridge at night is fascinating. A particularly warm memory I attach to the sunrise at Oberwinter. But after all that idle talk I will leave you for the weekend with two videos of the Upper Middle Rhine valley, both posted before in a previous year, but you can relive some moments from your cruise, learn a little about the valley or have your appetite whetted.

 

By the way, weather should go back to being really summery soon and Kaub gauge is doing just fine, now and for the foreseeable future (let us say at least a week).

 

https://www.dw.com/en/upper-middle-rhine-valley-a-unesco-world-heritage-site/video-16995075

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XElvTqJVWA

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

5 minutes ago, MamaMags123 said:

 
We (AmaSerena) passed Kaub earlier today as well! Thought of all of you here on this board! The gauge showed 179! 😁

 

Have a good cruise! AMASerena was the first ship I cruised on.

[notamermaid]

5 minutes ago, MamaMags123 said:

We (AmaSerena) passed Kaub earlier today as well! Thought of all of you here on this board! The gauge showed 179! 😁

Hope you are having a great time on the AmaSerena and touring the ports.

 

Thank you for the photo. Could Kaub gauge become one of the most photographed "non-castle" towers on the Rhine?

 

notamermaid

 

[flahagan]

Thanks for all of the time you put into this thread!  I'm flying over to Amsterdam tomorrow to begin my Gate1 cruise down the Rhine on Sunday.  Looks like pretty awful weather Sunday will prohibit much walking around the city.  Have tickets to visit Anne Frank house Sunday afternoon and will probably have to use the tram or taxi.

[gnome12]

6 minutes ago, flahagan said:

Thanks for all of the time you put into this thread!  I'm flying over to Amsterdam tomorrow to begin my Gate1 cruise down the Rhine on Sunday.  Looks like pretty awful weather Sunday will prohibit much walking around the city.  Have tickets to visit Anne Frank house Sunday afternoon and will probably have to use the tram or taxi.

Just a minor correction. You are cruising UP the Rhine. 

[Canal archive]

Translated from the Celtic the Rhine means ‘raging river’ so I’d just go with the flow.

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, flahagan said:

Thanks for all of the time you put into this thread!  I'm flying over to Amsterdam tomorrow to begin my Gate1 cruise down the Rhine on Sunday.  Looks like pretty awful weather Sunday will prohibit much walking around the city.  Have tickets to visit Anne Frank house Sunday afternoon and will probably have to use the tram or taxi.

My pleasure. You may well hit the bad weather front on Sunday but the week ahead looks to get better as you sail towards Basel.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Translated from the Celtic the Rhine means ‘raging river’ so I’d just go with the flow.

If we are going into the linguistics/history nerd thing - and I cannot resist at this point - let us have a look at Rhenus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenus_Pater

 

Fun fact: Rhenus is also in the name of a maritime logistics company, they were of course inspired by that Latin word for Rhine.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

A bridge over the Kennet &Avon Canal in Bath has on its arch when travelling west the head of Sabrina goddess of the river Severn, which you eventually reach, on the opposite arch when travelling east the head of Old Father Thames, so these deities were still being revered 300 years ago.