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

[Canal archive]

Yes interesting they say Spanish and Italian is similar - note not that much but they are both Latin based. Although throw in Portuguese and it’s a complete new ball game. A friend of ours had worked in Brazil for many years and at a Portuguese restaurant he held court beautifully but he thought as many do that Spanish was the same so fell flat on his face at a Spanish restaurant. You can tell we all ate out a lot across the world a few years ago.

[ural guy]

 

Here is the water level, 330cm, in Budapest a few minutes ago.

 

 

I saw that CDN is trying out the Magna, the behemoth is currently moored in front of us.

 

 

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

My language nerdiness got the better of me again: Once I found the article in the original (North) Macedonian it appears a better translation instead of "Bach" should have been something like "Strömung" as in English "the flow" or "current".  The Macedonian word was "течениет" meaning "flow". "Bach" would be "Бах" (actually pronounced Bach) or "поток". 

RDVIK

Aah, I see. That is interesting as we have the word "Strom", meaning either electricity - hence "current" or river - which is connected to Strömung of course, i.e. something that flows (which electricity does too of course). I guess that is where the machine (or possibly still a person) went wrong.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Magna certainly looks big, I guess the name came easily to the owners of Amawaterways. 😉 Seeing that we are talking about languages. Behemoth these days refers to something really big like an animal, but back in the day... If I was to choose a word to describe here compared to the small river cruise ships of old I would say she is definitely a monster. Thank you for the photos.

 

I have always enjoyed spotting the Emily Bronte on "my" river. Have a great time with "the English" @ural guy. Although I hope for you that they have some German beer on board. [Grin.]

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

Yes interesting they say Spanish and Italian is similar - note not that much but they are both Latin based. Although throw in Portuguese and it’s a complete new ball game.

Having learnt Spanish, I noticed the patterns that Portuguese follows. Listening I do not understand anything, but reading becomes interesting as I can detect the words that they share.

 

Looking at all those river levels recently I of course went to the Serbian authorities' website and thought "oh no, they use the Cyrillic alphabet". Had completely forgotten about the other script. But they apparently officially use both at least when dealing with international things. I can now detect Novi Sad in Cyrillic, hooray! 😁 Will try and learn some more.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Some few years ago now my mum and I decided to learn Spanish, sadly I gave up but she continued and became quite proficient. Our teacher a fairly young man recounted this story, he decided to hitchhike through France and into Spain heading for his college in Madrid, he was picked up by a Catholic Priest on his way to a Monastery there, our teacher then only spoke English fluently and the Priest Spanish but they both spoke Latin, they conversed all the way in what is supposedly a dead language. 

[notamermaid]

So Budapest river level is good, further downstream things are looking up and Passau gauge is down enough again as well (comfortable sailing under that bridge). Looking pleasant. End of September already. Soon time to look back at this eventful month. Fun fact for a comparison: Pfelling gauge is now at 484cm, that is above the mean, this day last year it was at 271cm, too low for many river cruise ships. It got even worse the following day, rendering sailing for all the large river cruise ships almost impossible.

 

notamermaid

 

[ural guy]

Notamermaid-  yes, we've been brushing up on our English.  I'm sure we'll find something good to drink.  I've already picked up a bottle of Bailey's for my coffee.

 

Ship's captains will have to have a sharp eye, seen a lot of logs in the water.  

 

 

 

An oddity, the River Monarch is behind us.  We sailed on her twice when she was the River Voyager.  She was tied up close to us on our December cruise as well.  Stalker!

[Canal archive]

Sun deck with a Baileys sounds good to me!

[notamermaid]

Briefly to something different, but staying with Budapest. The city has a tram system. Quite a few other towns and cities in Europe still do as well. Such places have got together to organize (in turns) to host the Tramdriver European Championship. This year it was Frankfurt on the Main that invited 24 other teams. And you may have guessed it from my first sentence - Budapest won. Congratulations!

This is what it is about: https://www.tramem.eu/

 

Next year it will be in Vienna. So if you are so inclined, or are a driver yourself, you can plan your river cruise on the Danube accordingly.

 

notamermaid

 

[RDVIK2016]

On 9/30/2024 at 1:53 PM, notamermaid said:

Briefly to something different, but staying with Budapest. The city has a tram system. Quite a few other towns and cities in Europe still do as well. Such places have got together to organize (in turns) to host the Tramdriver European Championship. This year it was Frankfurt on the Main that invited 24 other teams. And you may have guessed it from my first sentence - Budapest won. Congratulations!

This is what it is about: https://www.tramem.eu/

 

Next year it will be in Vienna. So if you are so inclined, or are a driver yourself, you can plan your river cruise on the Danube accordingly.

 

notamermaid

 

Looks like fun and that location in Oradea is very pretty. I have to admit I can't remember ever hearing about Oradea. Based on my visits to Prague I would have been surprised if they had not landed among the top finishers. 

[Izengolf]

4 hours ago, RDVIK2016 said:

Looks like fun and that location in Oradea is very pretty. I have to admit I can't remember ever hearing about Oradea. Based on my visits to Prague I would have been surprised if they had not landed among the top finishers. 

Oradea is the main city of my county in Romania and I visit often. There has been a lot of investment in renovating the Art Nouveau "palaces" / mansions and they are gorgeous. Of course, there are also many areas with old Communist buildings as well as modern new construction that show the evolution of this city with a history very similar to that of Budapest. If armies marched to one they inevitably marched to the other. The fortress is almost 1000 years old and has been renovated recently and includes a nice little museum. 

 

https://thehistoriantraveller.com/oradea-art-nouveau-tour/

[brian1]

On 9/30/2024 at 6:53 PM, notamermaid said:

Briefly to something different, but staying with Budapest. The city has a tram system. Quite a few other towns and cities in Europe still do as well. Such places have got together to organize (in turns) to host the Tramdriver European Championship. This year it was Frankfurt on the Main that invited 24 other teams. And you may have guessed it from my first sentence - Budapest won. Congratulations!

This is what it is about: https://www.tramem.eu/

 

Next year it will be in Vienna. So if you are so inclined, or are a driver yourself, you can plan your river cruise on the Danube accordingly.

 

notamermaid

 

Hope they don't get too stressed and go off the rails.

[Canal archive]

Having used both I’d say best is Vienna but I wasn’t testing the actual drivers.

[notamermaid]

There is quite a bit of water coming from the Upper Danube in Germany so we will watch that a bit. All in all, sailing looks to be far smoother than it did a week ago. And as we have seen, the flooding that caused so many problems up to and including Croatia, is less of a big problem in Serbia and appears to get even less of a big problem further downstream. Details of course we would need to find out from people now in the areas. Glad to see that the lock issues in Austria appear to resolved enough to allow for shipping being almost unimpeded. Note though that as I have mentioned before, there will be minor work going on at two locks in October.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[RDVIK2016]

9 hours ago, Izengolf said:

Oradea is the main city of my county in Romania and I visit often. There has been a lot of investment in renovating the Art Nouveau "palaces" / mansions and they are gorgeous. Of course, there are also many areas with old Communist buildings as well as modern new construction that show the evolution of this city with a history very similar to that of Budapest. If armies marched to one they inevitably marched to the other. The fortress is almost 1000 years old and has been renovated recently and includes a nice little museum. 

 

https://thehistoriantraveller.com/oradea-art-nouveau-tour/

Kind of interesting that your linked article only details how to get to Oradea from Bucharest, although it would take less than half as much time (driving) from Budapest. I had a little difficulty finding Oradea on older maps until I realized the Hungarians call it Nagyvárad and until 1948 the city was 90% Hungarian. Wikipedia's tables of the ethnic make-up over the years of areas and cities ruled by the former Kingdom of Hungary show incredible changes. I don't imagine Romanians have a lot of nostalgia over the end of the k.u.k era (kaiserlich und königlich) Austro-Hungarian Empire.

RDVIK

[ural guy]

We departed Belgrade last night around 2300.  Today we have a 'river day', and sail through the Iron Gates.  Don't stop until Nikopol, 573 km's downstream.  With this route being RT Budapest to Budapest, we do a lot of sailing, which I enjoy.

 

Had a first in 6 cruises last night, around 0300ish, heavy wind must have lined up with the river direction, as there were large waves, and we were throwing up huge sprays of water.  Emily Bronte was chugging along, creaks and splashing thrown in for atmosphere.  Most of the time you have no sensation of movement, so this was interesting.

 

Very happy that we upgraded to one of the four cabins that have the bed angled towards the French balcony.  The sliding glass door is made up of three panels, so it slides open further than what Vantage had, just a two panel door.

 

This is herself's retirement cruise, so playing solitaire, knitting socks and taking in a sunset are very much the future.

 

[Canal archive]

Sounds idyllic so ‘herself’ plying your craft and keeping your brain active - no just thoroughly enjoying your down time superb and photographer with feet up I notice! Plus a wonderful sunset enjoy. 🥰

[notamermaid]

@ural guy This is a truly adorable photo. 🙂🙂 

 

Winds on rivers do not quickly catch vessels, you are right. Occasionally we get the wind blowing from the right direction to create waves so that it makes it look as if the river is flowing in the other direction. Always an interesting sight. From what I remember river cruise ships are designed to sail with ease up to force eight winds, after that I am not sure if it is just uncomfortable or there are restrictions that kick in. If anyone knows a bit more I would be happy to hear it.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On 9/30/2024 at 7:53 PM, notamermaid said:

This year it was Frankfurt on the Main that invited 24 other teams.

Sorry, I got that wrong it was Frankfurt on the Main and 25 other teams. Interesting what people enjoy excelling at, good to be proud of what you do in your job. Sheer coincidence made me see an article on the European snow plow driving championship held in Mendig near Koblenz on the Rhine. Austria won, second place went to Slowenia. This is what they did: https://www.autobahn.de/planen-bauen/projekt/snowplough2024

 

Back to the trams. Vienna as we know will be hosting next year's event. One station is famous for its architecture. No longer an active tram stop overground but an U-Bahn, after public outcry, the station buildings were preserved. Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlsplatz_Stadtbahn_Station

 

notamermaid

 

[AMhappy]

We are planning an Avalon Cruise next fall (Danube, Budapest westbound to Vilshofen) and we understand that water levels are constantly changing and that one year does not portend the next.  We are looking at the end of August, beginning of September, middle of September, and end of Sept/first of October. From historical information is there significant differences between these time options---water levels etc.  We are are fine with fluctuating temperatures.  I have read spring/early summer is better in relation to having enough water, but we can not travel during that period. So is late August better than late Sept/early Oct etc. 

I see comments that the rivers are typically low late summer, early fall, but the last two years there seem to be flooding.  Basically I guess I am asking is there information about percentage of travelers whose trips are not disrupted during late summer/early fall?  We read the comments of those who have been disrupted, but is that typically a low percentage or is it really the majority of cruises are disrupted. thanks for any information. We are first time river cruisers and appreciate learning from experiences. 

[ural guy]

Canal Archive and Notamermaid, thanks for comments, shared with herself.  We are both quite gruntled with Riviera and Emily Bronte, they have hit a sweet spot for us.

 

Unlike Viking, I am back to being one of the youngest passengers on board, complete with original hair color.  Lots of laughs and good stories flowing.

 

Weather has been great, sun or partly cloudy, no 'R' word, temperatures getting into mid 80's today in Nikopol.

[Canal archive]

ural guy keep up the good work I’m so glad your gruntled, by the way brilliant one for my grandson at the age of 12 he’s fascinated with where words are derived(come) from. Keep your feet up and stories flowing from under your original locks!

[notamermaid]

Welcome to Cruisecritic.

7 hours ago, AMhappy said:

I see comments that the rivers are typically low late summer, early fall, but the last two years there seem to be flooding.  Basically I guess I am asking is there information about percentage of travelers whose trips are not disrupted during late summer/early fall?

That is a good question and a difficult one to answer. As far as I know river cruise companies do not publish figures, but when asked make comments or if you are lucky give you a percentage. Viking is a bit more evasive than others with that. Over a whole year you will find that companies get away with saying that 95 percent of all their cruises ran, as an example. That is not helpful to you looking at a comparison month on month on the Danube only. And I am unable to help with that either. We have here on the board basically thrown experiences of many years of many people together.

 

What I have done for a couple of prospective cruisers in the past year is compile the statistics for Pfelling to see what low water has done as that is something that can be determined relatively easily. This is back several pages in this thread. I could do something similar for you with a bit of time (next week). The time period you have given is a tricky one to answer without real statistics for me. It is easier to say that July is better than August and November is better than October.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited yesterday at 09:50 AM by notamermaid

[AMhappy]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Welcome to Cruisecritic.

That is a good question and a difficult one to answer. As far as I know river cruise companies do not publish figures, but when asked make comments or if you are lucky give you a percentage. Viking is a bit more evasive than others with that. Over a whole year you will find that companies get away with saying that 95 percent of all their cruises ran, as an example. That is not helpful to you looking at a comparison month on month on the Danube only. And I am unable to help with that either. We have here on the board basically thrown experiences of many years of many people together.

 

What I have done for a couple of prospective cruisers in the past year is compile the statistics for Pfelling to see what low water has done as that is something that can be determined relatively easily. This is back several pages in this thread. I could do something similar for you with a bit of time (next week). The time period you have given is a tricky one to answer without real statistics for me. It is easier to say that July is better than August and November is better than October.

 

notamermaid

 

If you wish to do something like that, that would be absolutely wonderful.  This would be so appreciated. It is mind boggling to me, oh my.  thank you