Most Reliable River Cruise?

[Victoria_BC_Mom]

I know that when rivers run too high to go under bridges, or too low for ships to sail the river cruise can turn into a bus tour.  What European river cruises are the least subject to those problems?

 

[steamboats]

I´d say none... Rhine, Main, Danube rivers, Seine & Rhone/Saone rivers, Elbe river, Po river all have seasonal problems.

 

I hardly hear anything about the Duoro river in Portugal.

 

But it´s all weather related and therefore there is no guarantee when you are cruising on a river that everything goes as planned. But anyway most of the cruises do go as planned. Those are the ones we are not talking about ;-).

 

steamboats

[CDNPolar]

We were informed while on the Duoro that the river was at a very low point that was difficult to navigate, but we did make it through...  I think that they were warning us.  It was not the entire river, but one area that is quite shallow.

 

My knowledge is that you are at the hands of mother nature every season with every river, for either too much rain or too little.  

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, steamboats said:

I´d say none... Rhine, Main, Danube rivers, Seine & Rhone/Saone rivers, Elbe river, Po river all have seasonal problems.

You are of course right. Seasonal problems can and inevitably will occur on any river, a bit of careful planning and a bit of luck will help to find a "best" one. You have left out the Moselle. Which made me think that the Moselle is quite a good river to choose.  I always say to avoid the bottleneck Rhine Gorge. Which you do when sailing from Luxembourg/Remich to Amsterdam. At least for low water that is good, flooding can occur everywhere and is pot luck really - although one can plan to avoid it a bit. The Moselle has high modern bridges but the problem is more that the authorities ban river traffic in flooding.

 

I will extend the question to which river and which ship. Then you can get close to 100 percent success rate in finding the cruise with virtually no problems. 110m with just two passenger decks on the large rivers (does not apply to the Douro and Elbe is a different case almost entirely) will almost completely ensure perfect sailing. The big thing to remember is that flooding is a short thing normally, low water can be a longer duration. Lock controlled rivers and canals like the system in Northern Germany or in the Netherlands are normally a safe bet as regards low water, for flooding this will depend on season, weather and other variables.

 

5 hours ago, steamboats said:

But anyway most of the cruises do go as planned. Those are the ones we are not talking about ;-).

I have read comments from people in the industry saying that 95 percent and more of river cruises run smoothly. When you think about the problems on the Danube right now and how many cruises are affected there must be tons of other rivers and canals with smooth sailing that help to get the statistics up that far. Although I am usually a bit sceptical of statistics. 😉

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[steamboats]

The Moselle river is part of the Rhine/Main/Danube river system 😉 and they have the same problems there.

 

I found a nice one on the Swiss Ruby from Saarbrücken to Stuttgart (or vice versa). Some rivers which aren´t that much in the focus of a river cruiser. Or from Bremen to Saarbrücken...

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, steamboats said:

The Moselle river is part of the Rhine/Main/Danube river system 😉 and they have the same problems there.

Yes, the problems are more or less the same just not at the same time always and the Moselle is lock controlled in its entirety for river cruising whereas the Rhine is not. We have had years when there was flooding on the Moselle but the Vosges mountain range prevented the rain from causing flooding on the Upper and Middle Rhine. But that is again down to weather patterns so luck and not what one can plan.

 

4 hours ago, steamboats said:

I found a nice one on the Swiss Ruby from Saarbrücken to Stuttgart (or vice versa). Some rivers which aren´t that much in the focus of a river cruiser. Or from Bremen to Saarbrücken...

Yes, those are great itineraries on a smaller ship that has all the ease built into it, meaning small enough not to get into trouble easily and the cosiness that some people really appreciate. Sailing the Saar, Moselle, Rhine and Neckar is a good unusual route and the Swiss Ruby as I said is small enough to avoid problems in the Rhine Gorge. Bremen to Saarbrücken is the even weirder one but has so much history as it takes you from the flat North with all its red brick and low German dialect to the hilly French-leaning Saar people with their very different dialect. Only drawback is that all of that is in Germany. I am really happy that this itinerary is easily bookable on the Anglo-American market now.

 

But, again, if one prefers the standard routes there are tons out there, like on the Seine, which rarely cause problems. One particular feature on the Main, which we have discussed elsewhere, is that the sundeck is mostly closed due to the low bridges and in flooding is a more pronounced problem than on the Rhine for example. Again, to avoid this chose a ship that has one deck fewer like some of CroisiEurope for example. Or indeed the Swiss Ruby.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

 

[WanderingTravels]

No worries on itineraries that visit Holland & Belgium, usually sailing round trip out of Amsterdam.