Water Levels On The Rivers Of Europe

2,271 Responses

1. We cancelled our 9/15 Basel-Amsterdam cruise yesterday. We had to cancel the same cruise last year due to Covid, so we decided to book an ocean cruise instead, 9/24 Trade Routes of the Middle Ages. It is much more expensive but we really want to finally have our adventure. After one Viking rep said we could not use our vouchers to rebook until they had been reissued (2 weeks), another rep was much more helpful and told us, after speaking with his manager, that we could pay for the new cruise and get reimbursed once our vouchers are released. So, that made us decide to jump on the last available cabin. This manager also said we would get our voucher back in 7 days. Looking forward to our first Viking ocean cruise!

2. Thank you for the update.

3. Thanks for the update Amanda, just waiting for the call so we can move to plan B!

4. Thanks Susie, really appreciate your updates. We are due to be on Avalon, Amsterdam to Basel, leaving 27th September. From Basel we are bussed to France for a 7 night cruise on the Rhône, that leg of the cruise looks ok at the moment. Really concerned about the Rhine though!

5. Hi All, I just had a phone call from UNIWORLD to say our Amsterdam-Basel Rhine cruise starting this Sunday (21st Aug) has been cancelled. They have offered price protection on rebooking a ‘same duration’ trip either this year or next year, or have offered a full refund. They will also cover flights up to £450 each o change. They said although there is rain coming in this week and possibly at the weekend, they didn’t think it would be anywhere near enough to stop significant changes to our schedule so have thought it best to cancel the whole trip – which in my opinion is the right decision. Just thought I’d update for anyone considering whether or not to cancel their trips at this time…All the best, Amanda x

6. Hi Cindy – we decided to wait it out to see if we heard from Uniworld – today they have just telephoned us to say they themselves have decided to cancel our trip (leaving Amsterdam this Sunday). They said even though there is predicted rain coming in this week and possibly the weekend, they don’t envisage it will be anywhere near enough to ensure there are no significant disruptions to our schedule. The good thing with Uniworld is they do have customer satisfaction as their top priority so although it’s disappointing not to be able to have our vacation, my husband and I both agree that we would rather have it cancelled than do buses/hotels! They have emailed a few options to us: have a full refund, rebook on any other trip this year or rebook on another trip next year (both with price protection for a trip of same duration). If we rebook on a more expensive trip I think we’ll just have to pay the difference. They also have a £450 each flight change for us, so hopefully any flights will fall within that price. I hope this helps you in deciding what to do – the positive thing is you can trust Uniworld to do the right thing, so may be best to wait for them to decide the outcome of your trip? Hope it all goes wel!

7. Could you please let us know what apps you are refering to?

8. Addendum: We have been at Marriott hotel in Cologne the last 2 nights and boarding the Viking Baldur in Frankfurt this afternoon. We will be be doing a scenic cruise through the Rhine gorge this afternoon from St. Goarshausen to Bingen with lunch on board a smaller boat, then bussing to Frankfurt.

9. We are due to board the Viking Baldur this afternoon, Wed 8/17, 72 hours after our originally scheduled embarkation in Amsterdam on Sunday, 8/14. During that time, we have spent 3 nights in hotels, and will have been bussed approximately 325 miles (without beer or wine on board, a friend points out). We did not sign up for this. Information from Viking has come only in 24 hour parcels, a single sheet outlining the day’s activities. There has been little else. Viking’s transparency is absent as has been echoed elsewhere.

10. Sorry you cancelled your trip. We head out in the Douro in September. What is the app you refer to? Thanks!

11. Really have appreciated yours and everyone else’s comments here. Yesterday we cancelled our Viking Grand European tour booked for Sep 9 from Amsterdam. Under their Risk Free Guarantee (which they no long offer) we received full refund via vouchers and were able to rebook same day for July 2023. Viking customer service was great and very understanding. There was limited availability in later September 2022, but the weather forecast just doesn’t look very promising for enough rain to make much difference. A huge appeal of this cruise is to only have to unpack once. Hopefully 2023 has better cruising weather.

12. Great info. Thank you.

13. Have you decided to go or cancel? We leave on similar cruise on Uniworld on Sept 3rd.

14. We just came back from the river cruise Budapest to Amsterdam on August 1-15, 2022, which was really a disaster. One third of the trip had to be on bus due to the water level, with poor quality food. The worst thing was Omicron virus spread on bus much easier than on ship. Directly related to your question, we had to take bus for transfer to a different ship from Passau to Nuremberg due to the closure of Main-Danube Canal and took bus all the way from Wertheim to Amsterdam due to the low water level of Rhine. I enjoyed the time on the ship, but feel huge loss on the bus while so many people got sick on bus. Really an unpleasant experience!

15. We just came back from the river cruise Budapest to Amsterdam on August 1-15, 2022, which was really a disaster. One third of the trip had to be on bus due to the water level, with poor quality food. The worst thing was Omicron virus spread on bus much easier than on ship. Directly related to your question, we had to take bus for transfer to a different ship from Passau to Nuremberg due to the closure of Main-Danube Canal and took bus all the way from Wertheim to Amsterdam due to the low water level of Rhine. I enjoyed the time on the ship, but feel huge loss on the bus while so many people got sick on bus. Really an unpleasant experience!

16. Thanks so much We are booked on the same trip departing on August 24. Our ship is suppose to the Pearl so will be interesting to see what we end up with re ship and itinerary. If you have time please update as we will be 3 days behind you. Hope it all goes well..

17. So, now it’s late evening at the Frankfurt Hilton, so will tell you about today. An early start from Strasbourg gathering at 8.20am for 8.30am departure from the boat. 2 hours to Heidelberg on the autobahn with no views, accompanied by a guide. Heidelberg was one of the original excursions out of Mainz – an all day one (we had chosen to do the short visit to the Gutenberg museum, which was in walking distance from the original ship’s docking location). All passengers on the cruise are now doing the same excursions today and tomorrow. After the (too) brief visit to the castle we went for a short walk around town with our guide prior to lunch in a local restaurant. We then had a couple of hours of free time in Heidelberg for sightseeing / shopping.

    At 3.30pm we all met back at buses to drive to Frankfurt, arriving at about 5pm. Dinner buffet style at the Hilton restaurant at 7pm. Other Avalon passengers joined us, possibly from the ship we are swapping with. Rooms nice enough, with decent WiFi, which is wonderful, and a pleasant change.

    Tomorrow another early start & on buses by 8.30am to depart for Rudesheim. From the itinerary this looks like an hour and 15 mins journey arriving at 9.45am. All passengers are going to the Siegfried’s Mechanical Instrument Museum, which had been our choice anyway. Passengers are also free to do their own thing. I suspect there will be some free time in town prior to lunch at 12.15.pm. At 1.45pm there is another ‘choo-choo train’ trip back to the bus, with departure to Cologne. The printed itinerary states that we ‘will drive along the Middle Rhein Gorge, so that you can discover the UNESCO World Heritage castles’. ‘Discover’ looks a stretch, maybe a glimpse as we speed past!

    Expected to arrive at the sister ship docked in Cologne at 5.30pm. I’m hoping we will be able to do our original planned excursions in Cologne on Thursday & continue overnight to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we have a full day with excursions on Friday, prior to disembarkation on Saturday. I will update if there are any changes from this plan.

    It has been operationally smooth, and I’ve not really heard anyone complaining. I suppose everyone is largely accepting & making the best of a difficult situation. Without doubt this is a significant increase in costs for the cruise lines after a difficult few years due to covid. It will be interesting to see if they continue to run trips over the next weeks & months unless there are significant amounts of rain.

    I’m not sure other lines are handling this any better having spoken to a Viking passenger in Strasberg yesterday. She also said no information being volunteered prior to departure, & minimal since. They had also been bussed & were a day off finishing a slightly different itinerary.

    Compensation offered is pretty minimal – $200 in whatever currency you originally paid in for ship swap & planned bussing out of Strasberg, followed by and additional 50% of the proportional nightly boat cost for the night spent in Frankfurt. Exactly how they will calculate this, I have no idea, as for many, the boat is part of a wider trip with airfares, add on nights in hotels, included tips, drinks etc. (They have included drinks with meals in restaurants & the hotel too, in line with Avalons ‘included’ policy on the boat).

    Good luck to all of you worried about your own trips. No doubt you’ll be continuing to check water levels at the critical point on the various rivers – it’s Kaub for this trip.

    Would I do another river cruise after this one is the question? I would think long and hard, as the planned easy days have become long days of travel, disruption & stress. I really didn’t think too much about river levels when I originally booked the cruise & it’s hard to predict the drought we are now in, & how quickly river levels have dropped and make sections of the river too shallow to navigate. Autumn would be the usual time for low levels, but with flooding also possible and high water levels also requiring bussing, it just seems to be a bit too risky. We live in UK, so an easy flight to get here.

18. We are suppose to leave Amsterdam on Aug 24 so hopefully Scenic will contact us and cancel us as we don’t want to do the Bus nightmare trip.

19. We are on the Viking Hlin that left Amsterdam on 8/14 with pretty much a full ship headed for Basel. We did indeed make it to Kinderdijk without issues. A deviation from normal is that we left Kinderdijk right after the morning excursion (about 10:30am) to compensate for the slower cruising due to low water. Nice thing about that was the extended daytime cruising, which I think is not typical.
    Morning of 8/16 we were dropped off in Zons for a 30 min bus ride into Cologne while the ship went the longer way on the river to Cologne industrial dock. We are staying docked here till the morning. Plan for tomorrow is:
    – early bus ride (about 1.5 hrs) to Koblenz)
    – About 4 hrs in Koblenz, including lunch on our own ($25 compensation per person)
    – 4.5hr bus ride to Strasbourg to get on the Viking Kara.
    – no afternoon or evening excursions in Koblenz/Rudesheim

    The bad part: the long bus rides.
    The good part: we get back on schedule on identical ship with no nights in hotels.

    I am not looking forward to the long rides tomorrow, but Viking has done a good job of keeping the disruption to a minimum.

20. Amanda we are on the Castles Along the Rhine with Uniworld that leaves Amsterdam Sunday Aug 21st. I called Uniworld and they told me they had canceled the cruises for Aug 7th and 14th but not ours at this time. The agent said they normally cancel 7 days out so not sure what to think. Like you we have waited 2 1/2 yes are for the cruise and would rather not spend it on a bus. I do plan to call again Thursday to see if there is an update. Good luck

21. Hello Diane: We too are booked on a Viking Danube Cruise, embarking on September 9, 2022, but going from Regensburg to Budapest. The reviews I’m reading here regarding the potential for a bus trip rather than a river trip have me very nervous, and I know I have to make a decision on whether or not to pull the plug in just a few days. Have you decided to go? Or not?

22. Danube River water level update August 15, 2022- “Hi Frank,
    So far, we are doing well, despite the ‘apocalyptic’ reports on the news. The stretch of the Danube that you will cruise on has been OK. (Passau to Budapest; Oct 18-23)
    We are lucky that many of our ships, the Douce France included, are relatively small compared to other lines. Even on the Rhine, our Amsterdam – Basel programs have been running as scheduled.
    Still, let’s hope for rain, for everyone’s sake.
    Best,
    Mike

    Michael DaCosta
    General Manager, North America
    Croisi River Cruises”
    ( Our boat has a draft or Keel depth of 1.6 m- shallower the many of the larger boats. Note that this company’s cruises are successfully operating on the Rhine river as well)

23. Danube River water level update August 15, 2022- “Hi Frank,
    So far, we are doing well, despite the ‘apocalyptic’ reports on the news. The stretch of the Danube that you will cruise on has been OK. (Passau to Budapest)
    We are lucky that many of our ships, the Douce France included, are relatively small compared to other lines. Even on the Rhine, our Amsterdam – Basel programs have been running as scheduled.
    Still, let’s hope for rain, for everyone’s sake.
    Best,
    Mike

    Michael DaCosta
    General Manager, North America
    Croisi River Cruises”
    (We have a whole ship charter departing Passau on October 18 into Budapest finishing the 25th. Our boat has a draft or Keel depth of 1.6 m- shallower the many of the larger boats. Note that this company’s cruises are successfully operating on the Rhine river as well)

24. Peter Have you been on the ship at all? Or are you just stuck in Amsterdam until further notice?

25. I so appreciate your comments. You have been most helpful!

26. Any news on Tauck Danube trip from Budapest to Prague 8/25. Saw levels today are at 55 centimeters! Does anyone know what level needs to be in order to declare Danube impassable?

    Thanks

27. We are on the Castles Along the Rhine that leaves Amsterdam on Sunday Aug 21st. We did call Uniworld and were told they cancelled the Aug 7th and 14th cruises but have not cancelled ours. The agent was nice but could not tell us what the drop dead date would be for Uniworld to cancel. Like you we really don’t want to end up the majority of the trip being on a bus. We do have a plan B but need to make hotel reservations.

28. We’re due to go on Rhine, Main and Moselle with Saga on 5/9 and cannot get any info or anyone to speak to. Today they sent email saying they had attempted to return our call but we were close to our phones all day and had no missed calls. Yesterday I had hung on for nearly an hour. We want to cancel but cannot do so unless they admit there will be changes to the itinerary, and I feel that’s their strategy. No info and you can’t cancel.

29. Good Afternoon. We are supposed to cruise 10/23-11/2/22 on the Rhine with Uniworld. I know this is two months out, but does anyone have enough familiarity with the Rhine to know if the river will ‘likely’ return to cruising levels by that time. I bought cancellation insurance and want to cancel if the cruise is not as advertised. Thank you for any comments or information.

30. I too would like to know the status of Tauck ships and whether they have enough boats for ship swaps. We travel the Rhine in early October.

31. I’m currently on Viking’s Grand European and we have had 2 ship swaps, over 3 hour bus ride and may end up in a hotel. I urge everyone who is travelling in the next month or so to cancel as this trip is not worth it. With the constant packing & unpacking my husband and I got very run down and now have bad colds. I’d go home now if I could.

32. Thanks so much Ellen! Can you please tell us which apps you used to track the water levels? Thanks!

33. Any suggestions and or comments are appreciated –
    We are booked on Viking City of Light tour Paris to Prague in late October, embarking in Trier and disembarking in Bamberg. Thank you

34. Maybe with all the cancellations it will become easier to find flights.? Heard airfares to Europe are going down as well. From $700 to $1100 RT.

35. My Rhine/Moselle river cruise was cancelled yesterday by Emerald/Scenic cruise lines. We were scheduled to depart Aug 22. So very sad. They said the water level is too low for sailing.

36. Thanks Peter for the update . We are booked on the same tour for later in the year .We are crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Your experience will be very helpful in deciding what to do . We had no advance information on low water levels in Europe but became curious when Europe’s record summer temperatures hit the news. A few simple searches then alerted us to the problem. The travel agent didn’t mention anything when we were in the planning stage and I don’t recall any of the river cruise websites mentioning anything about low water levels . So far none of the reports have been very encouraging . While you can’t blame the cruise lines for the low water levels , a little disclosure for what was already a longstanding problem would have been appreciated .

37. Ellen, thank you for this info about Viking. I’m sorry you had to cancel your cruise. Can you share what apps you were using for water levels? Hopefully you find another great cruise in the future!

38. We are booked for September 4 Amsterdam to Budapest on Tauck. Anyone traveling with Tauck, and if so, any word from them regarding the upcoming trips? All I can find is they are monitoring the river levels daily. Most of these comments are about Viking and others. Would love to hear if anyone is currently on a Tauck river cruise and how things are going.

39. Has anyone got news on Grand Circle cruises going from Amsterdam to Vienna 9/2. The ship we suppose to be on has been docked in Regensberg for at least a week.

40. We canceled our Amsterdam to Basel Viking cruise yesterday as did two other couples traveling with us. All due to the many low water disruptions and inconveniences described here. We were scheduled to depart Sept. 12. I’m thinking the cruise companies will be able to rent shorter buses for those that elect to keep their reservations.

41. This is disgraceful. We leave Australia on Friday for a Scenic Amsterdam to Budapest cruise next week. Scenic were ”Not Taking Calls” today when my travel agent tried to ring and find out what was going on. She too is reading these reports from travellers and is appalled that the cruises are going ahead.
    No-one paid for bus tours. Scenic have already been sued and lost regarding their behaviour when the rivers were too high. Looks like they haven’t learnt anything. Thank you for your updates.

42. This is disgraceful. We leave Australia on Friday for a Scenic Amsterdam to Budapest cruise next. Scenic we’re”Not Taking Calls” today when my travel agent tried to ring and find out what was going on. She too is reading these reports from travellers and is appalled that the cruises are going ahead.
    No-one paid for bus tours. Scenic have already been sued and lost regarding their behaviour when the rivers were too high. Looks like they haven’t learnt anything. Thank you for your updates.

43. Ditto, as we embark on the 06th at Basel too 🤞

44. Thanks Susie. Really great updates. I’m booked on a Basel to Amsterdam Viking cruise, starting 07th Sep. Keep us posted if possible please.

45. We cancelled our Aug. 30th Basil to Amsterdam Cruise on Thursday. I am actually surprised that we waited so long. We had been faithfully following the Rhine water levels (great apps available) for well over a month along with the news reports about the European heat wave and its effects. We had booked the cruise under Vikings Risk Free policy that permitted a cancellation with 14 days or more notice. Vikings Customer Relations agent was most cordial and efficient in cancelling our trip and issuing vouchers for the full amount paid. She throughly explained how the vouchers can be used. That information is also clearly listed on the Risk Free contract that we received when we booked. I am not sure if we will book another River Cruise in the spring when water levels are generally at their highest. We have taken two marvelous Viking ocean cruises and most likely go that route again.

46. My travel agent contacted Viking and they replied that if the cruise is cancelled so are airfares. This is very annoying as we were planning to do other travelling and flights are very difficult to get.

47. Anyone have any experience on a tauck cruise on the rhone River from Lyon,? My mom and I are going at the end of October. She’s elderly and getting onto busses would be very difficult. Thanks

48. This may be the real reason that the Viking Magni could not be boarded in Amsterdam on 8/14 for the Grand European Tour: it couldn’t get there. It was due to leave Budapest 7/31 for the northbound trip and arrive in Amsterdam by 8/13 to turn around and take us on 8/14 to Budapest. Low water levels scuttled that itinerary. The Viking Magni is in fact now (8/16 @ 0600 in Cologne) going up the Danube, approaching Bratislava. Meanwhile, Rhine water level was reported at 12.5 inches at Kaub, between Cologne and Koblenz.

49. I spoke with Viking about this today. It is very doubtful that they will cancel any of the cruises, but if they do, the entire trip would be cancelled.

50. I talked to Viking about this today as we are booked on the Amsterdam – Basel cruise departing 9/10, with Oberammagau and Munich add on. With Innsbruck, Oberammagau, and Munich accounting for 6 nights of our 14 day vacation, we do not plan to cancel. I doubt that Viking will cancel any of their cruises, and was definitely told that if there was a cancelation, the entire trip would be cancelled. The Viking “party line” is that they are constantly monitoring, but water levels change daily, and they can’t predict over the long term. Translation: They are not about to cancel cruises that are even a couple weeks out. Further, they have a lot of ships on the rivers that they can use as hotels, swapping with their sister ships. Again, the “party line” is that this process is seamless, with Viking handling the luggage transfers with little impact to the customers. Unfortunately, from the posts I’m seeing, the ship transfers aren’t the problem, it’s missing stops along the routes because the river is impassable from Cologne to Koblenz. Though a bus trip is certainly less than ideal, they should work on getting their ships positioned in each port, so the bus rides would be shorter and all the tours could go as scheduled. Or, they should put their guests in hotels in each city on the itinerary where they don’t have a ship available.
    Ironically, I received an e-mail from Karine Hagan, Executive Vice President of Viking, yesterday with packing tips. My favorite tip was:

    “I also make it a rule to unpack right away once I am on board. One of the great joys of exploring the world by ship is that you unpack only once, and the rest of the time you are left to enjoy the destinations to which you are traveling!”

    Haha, really Karine!

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