When all is said and done, there is no way to accurately predict whether your river cruise will be affected by low-water or high-water levels for river cruises in Europe. But in general, high water occurs in the spring while low water occurs in heat of the summer, usually August. The summer of 2018 saw record low water levels for river cruises in Europe on the Danube. However, contrary to the conventional wisdom, I saw record lows on the Rhine in November of 2015. While high or low water can impact your river cruise, in 50+ river cruises, I’ve never experienced a major disruption because of high water or low water. I should add that I did not river cruise in the summer of 2018. In the comments below, some readers say their dream vacations were disappointing because of low water levels for river cruises in Europe. Others had their trips scuttled altogether because the river cruise companies could not operate due to high or low water levels for river cruises in Europe. My hope is that this page will serve as a useful forum for sharing information about the conditions on the rivers and how the cruise companies are handling adverse water levels for river cruises in Europe.– Ralph Grizzle
Whether a river has high or low water levels is something you’re unlikely to consider when planning your river cruise – until it happens to you.
Unlike ocean cruising, river cruising is all about narrow margins. Low bridges make the air draft of a ship – how much of it sticks out of the water – critically important. Most river cruise ships have collapsible upper deck railings, removable furniture, and even navigation bridges that lower completely into the floor.
Being aware of water levels for river cruises in Europe can greatly enhance your travel experience.
Understanding water levels for river cruises in Europe is vital for ensuring a smooth and enjoyable journey.
Monitoring water levels for river cruises in Europe is essential for a trouble-free adventure.
What’s under the keel – or hull – of your river cruise ship also makes a difference. In some cases, there can be less than a foot of water under the keel. River cruise ships have incredibly shallow drafts to begin with, and river cruise operators construct their ships as efficiently as possible. They’re the high-performance sports cars of the cruising world.
Understanding Water Levels for River Cruises in Europe
Understanding the significance of water levels for river cruises in Europe can help travelers make informed decisions.
Unfortunately, low water and high water conditions can exist – and they can throw a real wrench into an otherwise flawless cruise.
For current updates from river cruisers currently on the rivers (or from those who have returned recently) be sure to see the comments at the bottom of this post.
In fact, keeping an eye on water levels for river cruises in Europe could save your trip.
The Rhine is perhaps the most dependable river when it comes to being able to continue navigation due to low water. I felt the boat scraping the bottom of the Rhine in Rudesheim in November of 2015, but we made it past. See Is AmaWaterways The Champion Of Low Water?
Water levels are unpredictable. In many cases, the cruise line may only find out on your actual sailing, or a few days beforehand, that a particular stretch of water isn’t navigable.
See related article: Low Water Levels Continue To Affect River Cruises; Plus Why This Happens In The First Place
Water levels aren’t uniform. That is to say, if there’s low water on the Danube, the entire Danube isn’t affected. In 2014, water levels were too low for many ships to pass between the German cities of Passau and Regensburg. In past years, the stretch heading across the Austria-Hungary border has been problematic.
History isn’t a good indicator of high or low water. In June of 2013, Passau was hit by the worst flooding – and the highest water levels – since the Middle Ages. In 2018, the Danube was so low that many cruise ships terminated their journeys in Passau.
What happens if high/low water levels affect my sailing? River cruise lines will typically attempt to keep your itinerary as operational as possible. Generally, when high/low water levels hit, three options are available to cruise lines:
- Continue the affected itinerary by having guests ‘swap ships’ – typically, being bussed from one town to the next, where you will embark a sister-ship or similar vessel to continue the rest of your journey. Read about our ship swap on Viking.
- Complete the itinerary as far as possible aboard your ship, and then transition to hotels (on the company’s expense) to complete the remainder of your itinerary.
- Outright cancellation. This is the rarest option, exercised when no other options are available.
I’m not sure if I should cancel my river cruise because of high/low water levels. What do I do?
Unless you have travel insurance that covers cancellation, do not cancel your river cruise over high/low water. Wait for the cruise line to either pull the plug or offer alternatives. If your sailing commences in a few weeks, cancelling your sailing will result in you losing all monies paid. If you wait for the cruise line to pull the plug, offers typically include the ability to switch to another sailing at no cost; the offer to complete your cruise as scheduled at a discount or rebate; or the offer to cancel with minimal or no penalties. Of course, such offers are determined by the cruise line, but typically favor the guest.
Curious as to what the current conditions on the rivers of Europe are? A reader has provided us with a map showing the water levels on rivers in Germany. From reader “Sabine” see this link: https://www.wetteronline.de/pegelstaende?gid=HES
We have found the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde (BFG) to be helpful. The organization published maps like the one below and forecasts. Find BFG’s 14-day water levels forecasts here and the six-week forecasts here.
It’s advisable to check the latest updates regarding water levels for river cruises in Europe before you travel.
To see what our readers had to say about how their trips were impacted by low water levels, click here.
Additionally, understanding how different seasons affect water levels for river cruises in Europe will enhance your planning.
In summary, staying informed about water levels for river cruises in Europe is crucial for a rewarding travel experience.
I have not received any notification from Viking of any specific change in itinerary nor any information concerning a cancellation. From what I am reading from others I believe Viking should cancel and give full refunds. In short, they cannot deliver on what was sold to us. Yes, we could get by with bus rides, and yes, we could begin the journey in the place we planned, we could end as planned in Amsterdam, but the experience looks like it will be substandard in my opinion. Not at all what we thought we were getting. Viking, Basel to Amsterdam 8/19.
Hi Rhonda – my advice would be hold off and don’t cancel yet, as Uniworld will do the right thing and cancel the trip anyway if there’s still significant disruption. I was due to travel on this coming Sunday with them and although it was close to the bone as they only contacted me yesterday to say the trip was off, they were waiting to see if the current rain would be enough. As soon as they saw it wasn’t they called me first thing yesterday morning and offered either a full refund or to rebook on any other date of my choice with price protection. I have rebooked today for the same trip in June next year and would have had to pay double the price if they hadn’t have price protected it, so I’m quite pleased. So you won’t lose anything if you wait and see, I’m sure they’ll do the right thing if there’s any chance of disruption nearer your sailing date.
We cancelled our Viking Grand European cruise a few days ago and we had our vouchers with 2 days. We rebooked that same day for same cruise next July with only a $50 deposit. Vouchers were automatically applied by day 3 and we have $800 in credits to apply towards excursions etc. I’m very happy with the service we received from Viking.
We are currently on the Viking river boat cruising from Passau to Budapest. Left on 8/16. We have had no low water level issues – through to Linz so far – and all looks great. Water is flowing and we are on time with all excursions going as planned. Boat is fully loaded with passengers who are enjoying the trip.
Sandra,
Our cruise with Avalon is scheduled later in September for Amsterdam to Luxembourg. Any feedback you can offer regarding your experience will be invaluable! Thank you!
Janet
Thanks for the reply Susie.
We are booked A-B on 9/23 and Athens to Bangkok on 10/25. Asked if canceling river could air plus one way sfo-ams in business be attached to ocean booking. Emphatic reply: no. All air fees credited to the voucher. We plan to cancel river. Have already booked new air with refundable miles.
Good to know about what date they are dealing with. We are sept 4th. We will try to make the best of it, but frustrating after dealing with Covid delays.
When you look at those sites and read the waterlevel measurements (Pegel) keep in mind that is not a measurement to the deepest point in the river at that location. The Pegel 0 point is a complicated location in the river bed. For example if you look at Emmerich the measure for August 18th reads -2cm. That looks like the water is lower than the bottom. At this measure the shipping lane still has about 190 centimeters of water. Hope that brightens you day a little. Now it depends on the draught of your boat if it can still navigate here and that can vary by the ships load factor.
Good luck!
Wow! I’m so sorry about the disruptions. What are they doing for meals? They should at least have open bar on the bus rides!
We are going with Riviera from Cologne to Budapest, 15 days, setting off on Monday 22 Aug. Heart of Europe cruise. Very anxious about water levels on Rhine and Danube.
Rang Riviera this morning and got through immediately to Tracy who said at present there are no alterations to our cruise on Emily Bronte .She said that one of their cruises had set off this am.
Told us that Riviera would contact us if any alterations were going to be made.
We asked that she record our feelings that a hotel and bus trips holiday was not acceptable to us. She has recorded our comments on our account and said that she quite understood as we had booked a river cruise not a hotel holiday .
Time will tell.
My wife and I were on the Berlin to Prague in April. She tested positive the 3rd day on the river. We were quarantined 1 night on the boat. They did upgrade our cabin for that night. Then we were taken to Berlin to a 5 star hotel where we spent the next 5 days in quarantine before testing negative and getting to fly home. Viking took care of all arrangements and provided a Viking host in Berlin that brought us anything we needed. We were charged for the hotel stay but reimbursed by travel insurance. Viking gave us vouchers for 50% of our trip. We are scheduled for Oct 7 for Amsterdam to Basel. We will wait until the last minute to cancel. We were very happy with how Viking took care of us.
Yesterday the long day from Frankfurt to Cologne went smoothly, and surprisingly provided an experience that proved to be the highlight of the cruise for many. After the Mechanical Music Museum (very brief visit), we had time to wander around Rudesheim before going for lunch. The venue selected was Breuer’s Rudesheimer Schloss. It was a magical place, with covered outdoor seating and vines overhead. They had laid on a band playing local music, there were unlimited bottles of wine, and a fabulous merry atmosphere. (Food ok, but irrelevant). Some passengers got up to dance. One of the shore excursions was to visit this place and try the local alcoholic coffee, and this was provided to all. We left a little late as a result.
Two guides got on the 3 coaches to talk about the castles as we drove through the gorges, & one coach got the tour director (we were unlucky)! It was a long drive to the ship and we were very tired & glad to get there.
Greeted at the new ship, but the vibe is now very different with the Italians on board, who talked through the english welcome & port talk. It’s now busy and noisy. Infuriated by the management team on board who spoke about first time cruises in different languages had been combined (not a plus for us), and how we should all be happy together now we were here – tone deaf after the disruptions.
Message to George: would we have cancelled had we known the river would cause such disruption? Well, having booked flights independently and fitting this trip within school holidays, we probably wouldn’t have cancelled. If we had flexible dates and could move it without penalty, then yes, I probably would have postponed, but always a lottery as to the weather you might get on your new date of course.
Which cruise line?
Interested in your experience with ship swaps and how scenic handles the whole river cruise. We are booked on the august 31 Budapest-Amsterdam cruise.
Thanks Susie for taking the time to keep those of us who are scheduled for future cruises informed of whats going on.
Oh, thanks for the info! I will definitely check them out. Good luck to you.
Linda, I should have said “sites”, not apps in my post. An excellent one is bafg.de. (There is no period after the de) You need to click on English. Then go to Water Levels. The levels will be shown on a map with the latest levels on selected stations on German rivers. They reflect daily changes.
Long range weather forecasts are available on several sites.
Unfortunately, I deleted my sites after I canceled our trip. I kept this blog open out of curiosity. Good luck to everyone!
I am considering a river cruise on the Rhone June 2023. How can I get information about predicting water level issues for that time period. I am having a hard time finding historical water levels for the Rhone river.
Thank you for all of this helpful information. We and another couple are scheduled on Viking Rhine River Getaway Basel to Amsterdam departing September 7. We are going to cancel under the 14 day no risk guarantee. It seems that too many of the recent trips have reverted to motor coach due to low water levels. A Viking rep with whom I spoke today indicated that they are having to do ship swaps and/or motor coach trips on recent sailings on the Rhine. Why pay for a river cruise and spend half or more of the time on the bus? That’s not what we signed up for—even if they do offer vouchers for future travel “for the inconvenience.”
Thanks for the update!
Thank you so much. My wife and I were wondering if you would have known how things would turn out, would you have cancelled the trip? You opinion matters.. we leave Amsterdam on the Aug. 25. Your posts have been the best!!!!😊😊😊😊😊😊
Excellent article, thanks Michael. Once again, Viking do not come out of it well. Their communication seems so poor.
From the “Cruise Critic”:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/7073/
Following. We are booked Amsterdam Budapest Oct 12 to 26
Hong, Thank you for taking the time to fill us in on current issues. I hadn’t even considered the Omicron/bus issue. I’m sure you are right, more exposure is not a good thing at this time.
Thank you so much for the update. All information is much appreciated.
Ok, here is an update on the Viking Hlin 8/14 trip from Amsterdam to Basel that I am on.
Today, 8/17 we did the bus trips from Cologne to Strasbourg that I described above. While it all went according to plan, it was not a pleasant experience. While we had an excellent guide for the Koblenz walking tour, it was disappointing have to leave Koblenz at 1:45. According to the original cruise itinerary, we would have had the whole day with the ship docked right off downtown. And then bus ride to Strasbourg was very tiring.
I need to correct a statement I made in the previous post: we are NOT now back on schedule. Tomorrow on day 5 we should be in Speyer, not Strasbourg. Viking’s solution is to bus passengers 1.5 hrs each way to Speyer. Not a pleasant thought after 7 hours on the bus today. My wife and I are leaning toward going into Strasbourg a day early. Viking is planning an afternoon shuttle service to accommodate that, as we are docked at the industrial port. The formal Strasbourg excursions will take place on day 6 when they have moved the ship to Kehl.
In summary, while Viking is probably doing the best they can under then circumstances, the cruise so far has not been the experience we hoped for.
I have been reading comments here for the past week – it has helped me so I will add my cruise to this discussion. We have decided to go ahead with our Viking Cruise, embarking Sept 3 in Basel on Alruna, arriving Sept 10 in Amsterdam (we are spending one night before in Basel, and two extra nights in Amsterdam at the end). My wife and I have been on five Viking river cruises, including Viking’s Rhine River cruise twice before (2015 and 2018) – so we know the various stops and most of the off-boat excursions on the Rhine. We are taking our adult daughter and a friend of hers (both age late 40s) on the cruise, and it’s their first trip ever to Europe. We have been planning this since March 2021. My daughter and her friend are very excited to be going to Europe – and they now understand what we may encounter in terms of river cruising vs. bussing – we have decided we will all make the best of the situation. Unfortunately, it sounds like we may miss most or all of the very scenic area with the castles in the Middle Rhine (although some earlier notes indicate maybe a “smaller boat” being used for part of this scenic castle area). I have experienced a full day of bussing before – in 2016 on the Danube River, when we missed almost all of Vienna due to a “bad lock” in the River – spent 5-6 hours on a bus that day. One earlier blog on this site suggested that Viking is doing only one day of bussing on the Rhine between Cologne and Strasbourg – that would be the least disruptive. My biggest problem the past few weeks has been getting Viking Air to finalize our air travel itinerary – lots of changes and we still have issues with finalizing our seat assignments on our return international flight. I will try to provide some updates as we go.
Hi Debbie, we are suppose to take the same Scenic cruise leaving Amsterdam on Sept 6. Can you please update if you do hear from Scenic. Good luck, hoping for a couple of big downpours.
based on your experience so far, should you have cancelled or is the experience still worth it.
We just had our Tauck cruise on the Rhine switched over to the Moselle due to the low water levels. The crew did their best but some of the highlights from the Rhine cruise just could not be matched. Also the last point on the Moselle is Trier where they dock at an asphalt dump. Not at all appealing.
How did Viking handle the folks with Covid? Were they isolated in their staterooms or isolated in hotels?
How did Viking handle the folks that got Covid? Were they isolated on the boat, or taken to hotels to isolate?
Thank please keep up up to date on how it goes this is helpful
@Frank. How do things look right now on the Danube below Budapest, i.e. from there to the Danube delta?
My boat has a (published) draft (Tiefgang) of 1.45m. Any problems with that?
Exactly! We have booked before with Uniworld and found them to be faultless – you do pay a bit more to cruise with them but they have such good customer service and it’s really a company with a solid reputation that I trust 100%!
I was on a Viking Rhine cruise in Oct 2018 with low water. They bused us the entire trip. Long bus rides in completely full buses. When I called prior to trip they were not transparent and could not tell me if they would bus us or switch boats or use hotels. Worst European trip ever. I will never travel Viking again.
Was it a Viking Cruise?
Susie, your reports are priceless. Thank you so much!
Scenic cancelled the August 22 Basel to Amsterdam via Mosell. They have us various options. We were allowed to transfer to a similar cruise in April 2023 at no additional cost. Hopefully river conditions will be better. We are relieved. Did not want a bus tour.
Brilliant updates Peter. We’re due to leave Basel Sep 06th. Just spoke to Rose at Viking and, honestly, think they will say anything they are told to. No help, claiming only minor disruptions
My wife and I were booked on the same Uniworld cruise. Because we had airfare booked and planned for another post cruise week in Switzerland and Italy, we scrambled for an alternative and am now booked on similar cruise with AMA leaving Amsterdam on 8/22. Fingers crossed that AMA’s more shallow hulls plus current rains allow this cruise to go as planned
Ellen Thanks for your update! What apps did you use to track the Rhine water levels?
I am on the same cruise on 28 Aug – suspect that might be cancelled as well! Are you getting a full refund or credit to use on another cruise?
How refreshing for an honest operator who puts their customers first after all the obfuscation of many other companies!
We are due on the Rhine on the 28th august we don’t want a coach holiday
Many thanks we are with Avalon on the Rhine on the 28th august they are only dealing with cruises up to the 21 st so we have to wait
We are the same
Many thanks we are with Avalon on the Rhine on the 28th august they are only dealing with cruises up to the 21 st so we have to wait