Danube water levels 2024 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[notamermaid]

Is Tulln ever a regular port stop with North-American lines? Just wondering as it is again busy tonight:

 

Or are they creating a logistics situation whereby they see Greifenstein lock as the bottle neck and try to do ship swaps or at least let passengers embark and disembark there? The lock is nearby. For geography:

Greifenstein is in the middle of the screenshot at the top. Tulln left, clusters of blue dots are Vienna Nussdorf dock and Vienna city dock.

 

Greifenstein lock is closed. Other locks have one chamber only operating, have a vigilance notice as regards reduced depth in approaches due to silting up, or are free. So, delays are likely along the Danube from Passau to Greifenstein, where as of now of course nothing is happening.

 

To be fair to the companies, they may have hoped for the situation to resolve with the decreasing water levels and as soon as the level is low enough the authorities give the go ahead and everything is fine. Weellll, that is what I believed as an amateur until not long ago. We had the situation in June that locks were not available after the flooding so this is something to reckon with. All in all, I do find there is still improvement as regards communication with passengers. What is the problem with saying, "we hope to see the level fall to x, authorities doing y and the lock chambers being fully operational"? Or something to that effect.

 

Sorry to read of the current mishaps (to use a mild word), folks.

 

Budapest is still on orange flood alert, but will most likely have left this (fallen below 700cm) by tomorrow evening. Which means the lower embankment will still be flooded during tomorrow.

 

Talk to you tomorrow or the day after.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 05:34 PM by notamermaid
clarification

[hermione8181]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Is Tulln ever a regular port stop with North-American lines? Just wondering as it is again busy tonight:

 

Or are they creating a logistics situation whereby they see Greifenstein lock as the bottle neck and try to do ship swaps or at least let passengers embark and disembark there? The lock is nearby. For geography:

Greifenstein is in the middle of the screenshot at the top. Tulln left, clusters of blue dots are Vienna Nussdorf dock and Vienna city dock.

 

Greifenstein lock is closed. Other locks have one chamber only operating, have a vigilance notice as regards reduced depth in approaches due to silting up, or are free. So, delays are likely along the Danube from Passau to Greifenstein, where as of now of course nothing is happening.

 

To be fair to the companies, they may have hoped for the situation to resolve with the decreasing water levels and as soon as the level is low enough the authorities give the go ahead and everything is fine. Weellll, that is what I believed as an amateur until not long ago. We had the situation in June that locks were not available after the flooding so this is something to reckon with. All in all, I do find there is still improvement as regards communication with passengers. What is the problem with saying, "we hope to see the level fall to x, authorities doing y and the lock chambers being fully operational"? Or something to that effect.

 

Sorry to read of the current mishaps (to use a mild word), folks.

 

Budapest is still on orange flood alert, but will most likely have left this (fallen below 700cm) by tomorrow evening. Which means the lower embankment will still be flooded during tomorrow.

 

Talk to you tomorrow or the day after.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

It does look like Viking is bringing ships down to Tulinn, maybe to make the bus to ship swap shorter and preserve more sail time? I wonder how long the lock will be fully out. I imagine that cruising aside, this also has an economic impact on freight and cargo ships.

[hermione8181]

Word from the Viking Egil is they are expecting the lock repaired by tomorrow afternoon. let’s hope the engineer people get it right:)

[grumpypharm]

I'm currently on Viking Tor.  There's no mention of anything amiss on board and no one serms to be talking about this.  We are docking in Krems tomorrow getting bussed to Göttweig Abbey then to Tulln where we are to reboard the ship. The daily activities are going ahead as scheduled as far as I can tell.

[Kenster]

What’s the situation between Budapest and Bucharest? Particularly for a westbound leaving Bucharest on the 23rd? 

[Kenster]

47 minutes ago, hermione8181 said:

Word from the Viking Egil is they are expecting the lock repaired by tomorrow afternoon. let’s hope the engineer people get it right:)

Hope so!  There’s a good backlog of ships waiting to lock. 

[moonriver54]

1 hour ago, Kenster said:

What’s the situation between Budapest and Bucharest? Particularly for a westbound leaving Bucharest on the 23rd? 

You'll be our eyes and ears for the Lower Danube.  I've seen virtually nothing mentioned about Lower Danube flooding here on CruiseCritic.  We're departing Bucharest headed west to Budapest aboard the Avalon Passion on 12 October.

[notamermaid]

The wave still has a long way to go on the Danube and will of course cause problems. However, generally speaking, the wave will most likely not be as strong as it is now when it gets to Romania as the country's Danube level has until recently been on a relative low. The country was suffering from lack of rain. But details we would need to have from people in the area now. No idea when the authorities in Croatia and Serbia prohibit river traffic where the problems are of course now. The wave is at its peak in Mohács today and there is a flood warning for Vukovar.

 

You could check on the ships docked at the mouth of the Vuka with the Danube:

 

No change to lock status in Austria yet.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Izengolf]

While searching for flooding news in Romanian pages, I came across Flood Hub in Google Maps which is quite helpful. The markers are green, yellow, red and clicking one brings up a graph with the current and projects levels. 

 

A reminder that the Storm Boris flooding was by the Danube Delta, closer to the Ukrainian border.

 

[hermione8181]

Saw in a Facebook post, so unsure of truth level, that the lock is closed due to lack of electricity. Seems too simplistic?

[luv2trvlmep]

Just returned from our last pre-cruise excursion to Terezin and met some post cruise passengers that said they had a great cruise, they were one of the last ships that got out of Budapest. They said they had to do a ship swap I assume at the nonfunctional lock but all went well. We got notified this morning that our expected ship change has happened from Viking Ingvi to Viking Vilhjalm. We are also anticipating to do a ship change at Krems if the lock repairs isn’t completed, we are just happy that it sounds like we will be cruising. Hopefully Budapest will be open by the time we get there

[hermione8181]

Lock still down. Cannot find news on it. 

[adkturn]

On 9/22/2024 at 10:18 AM, Kenster said:

Avalon would give a 50% refund if your cruise turned into a bus/hotel tour. 

I got travel insurance this time out by comparison-shopping at this site. An aborted May 2020 Danube cruise was fully refunded by the operator (Viking) due to the whole world shutting down. Going forward I won't leave home without a trip policy!    

Edited 17 hours ago by adkturn

[grumpypharm]

50 minutes ago, hermione8181 said:

Lock still down. Cannot find news on it. 

Yep. We're in Tulln for the night. They've told us to be back on ship by noon tomorrow. No itinerary for tomorrow yet

[steamboats]

Using our Deutschland ticket I made a trip to Regensburg yesterday (Sunday). Only the Viking Atla and the Viking Gullveig were in port. No other river cruise ships. The water was already down to normal (maybe a bit higher) but we did the Strudelfahrt (going under the Stone Bridge) and there were no cancellations of any local excursions.

 

We didn´t know that they had the big Wiener dog parade that day. A total of 1,172 Weiner dogs took part (along with 1,700 owners). 30 K visitors were there to watch. Watched it for an hour and then made our way back visiting a church and then the train station. BTW that parade was worth an entry in the Guiness World Record Book. Just some of the Viking passengers were a little disappointed that the Stone Bridge was so crowded and they weren´t able to take a group photo.

 

steamboats

aka Carmen

[NewB2Cruise]

My husband and I are about to take our first Viking River Cruise and will be flying into Budapest and boarding our boat on Friday 9/27 and heading to Regensberg, which is the last stop.

Given all the flooding we've been reading about, how this is impacting the locks and the ability of cruise ships to navigate down the Danube, I'm wondering if there is anyone who is currently on a cruise ship trying to leave Budapest and what is happening today.  I'm hearing about changes in plans, switching ships and altered itinerary and I'm wondering if this situation is still going on or have there been improvements.  Thanks to everyone here for sharing their experiences; I've learned a lot here.

[hermione8181]

45 minutes ago, grumpypharm said:

Yep. We're in Tulln for the night. They've told us to be back on ship by noon tomorrow. No itinerary for tomorrow yet

Which ship?

[hermione8181]

14 minutes ago, NewB2Cruise said:

My husband and I are about to take our first Viking River Cruise and will be flying into Budapest and boarding our boat on Friday 9/27 and heading to Regensberg, which is the last stop.

Given all the flooding we've been reading about, how this is impacting the locks and the ability of cruise ships to navigate down the Danube, I'm wondering if there is anyone who is currently on a cruise ship trying to leave Budapest and what is happening today.  I'm hearing about changes in plans, switching ships and altered itinerary and I'm wondering if this situation is still going on or have there been improvements.  Thanks to everyone here for sharing their experiences; I've learned a lot here.

Two ships are departing Budapest today, already did, and headed north. The river is clear for sailing minus one lock that is damaged north of Vienna. The only change I could imagine you having is maybe a different ship than planned since ships are all in the wrong spot logistically.

 

the info was from a passenger on the Jarl who was excited to announce they were departing. 

Edited 15 hours ago by hermione8181

[The Hudson Co. Landlubber]

Posting this without endorsement - this is from a site which sells river day cruises in Budapest, so please read with skeptic's eye:

 

Budapest Flood September, 2024

Update on Sep 23, 12 pm: the official predictions about the length and height of the Danube flood water levels in Budapest are even more optimistic, now that the flood is receding in Budapest (past the peak), without major hiccups, gushes or complications from large debris carried by the river. The Danube is currently at 719 cm. After the riverbanks are cleared (disinfected if needed by the authorities to stop potential contamination of the sewage like river waters) and the pontoons, docks and ships are also cleared for safe and healthy use, Budapest visitors can enjoy the sightseeing city river cruises again. Some docks and several cruises are expected to get back into normal operations on the evening of Sep 24, 2024. Please check the online booking calendars for further details.

 

https://budapestrivercruise.com/budapest-river-cruises-cancelled-flood-alert-and-protection-september-2024

 

I will view this optimistically since I prefer being told what I want to hear. 😉

 

Still hoping for repair of the Lock Greifenstein this week.  

[NewB2Cruise]

I'm happy to hear good news! However, I realize this is a fluid situation (no pun intended) and we have to be realistic and take it day by day until the situation has time to resolve.  

[The Hudson Co. Landlubber]

From the Scenic Facebook group:

 

"We are on our scenic cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. But we started in Nuremberg only to enjoy a 12 hour bus ride to Budapest."

 

Whoa!

[notamermaid]

Now there are five in Tulln:

 

notamermaid

 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

all said and told a ship swap between Tulln/Vienna would not be the worst situation one could encounter given all the recent flooding.  River traffic being as important as it is to the European economy I am sure they are working on repairing the locks as quick as is safely practical.

[Canal archive]

I suspect most of the lock problems are straightforward sch as some silting up and lifted gates on non guillotine locks. The challenge for the engineers will be the sheer volume of water they have to cope with.

[Kenster]

22 minutes ago, The Hudson Co. Landlubber said:

From the Scenic Facebook group:

 

"We are on our scenic cruise from Nuremberg to Budapest. But we started in Nuremberg only to enjoy a 12 hour bus ride to Budapest."

 

Whoa!

That doesn’t make any sense! Bused all the way from Nuremberg to Budapest?? 
Calls for a wee bit of elaboration.