notamermaid

Jet propulsion correct. At least that is how I understood it. Don't really know where the ships are right now, not sailing in Summer. As for that museum, etc.. I pull this over to the water cooler. Just a sec... notamermaid

That's it. Now we just need contacting by Scenic or another river cruise line. notamermaid

For the 135m ships I will stick to those figures, seeing that 290cm is official from the mouth of a hydrology person. But a captain may attempt it when the level is at 278cm depending on direction they sail (there is a slight difference in the laws of physics between upstream and downstream sailing which I cannot explain, no navigation I can do .) Or even 276cm. I really have no way of knowing any more details. The shorter ships fare just a little bit better, but again I have no details. What you can do is follow ships on vesselfinder. See how the ships do in the next 48 hours. https://www.vesselfinder.com/ Right now I cannot see any ships sailing between Deggendorf and Straubing, but that may just be coincidence as tour operators will want to be in towns at this time still. I would start by following the Monarch Empress (110m) which has left Passau and is now in the lock direction Vilshofen. ETA Regensburg 27 July. August 12 is still a long way away in river level terms but I am a bit skeptical about the Danube returning to normal levels by then. Just no way of knowing before, right now I would say, a week before you cruise. and even then a full day of rain can make a big difference, a slight difference in level I mean, but the crucial difference as regards sailing or not. Let us see what tomorrow or rather the rain during the evening brings. Rain is sweeping over the Danube as I write. If you would like to follow the developments, you can do this here: https://www.dwd.de/DE/leistungen/radarbild_film/radarbild_film.html#buehneTop notamermaid

You have given me an idea there... On the Rhine we have a Burgenblogger, a gentleman or a lady is appointed to write articles on things relating to the area and put them online. For that purpose the person is given a room in a castle. Not sure how long the appointed period is. If a company gave me a room on a river cruise ship I would be happy to write stories along the way, you know, sailing up and down my river with an international crowd, listening to the stories of the US American ex-soldier meeting the retired British engineer, or the two lovely Australian ladies on their first visit to Germany, etc., etc. Oh, the stories are endless! Good that Scenic has been in touch with a letter. Sure helps to understand what has happened - it was obviously major, really major. notamermaid

Well, Harwich to Hoek van Holland still exists. But Dover to Ostend may be an idea. Talking of no fly cruises: I wonder what Viva Cruises will offer there, a Eurotunnel package should be in really. So easy to get to Cologne or Düsseldorf by train, errr, em, slight cough, normally. notamermaid

Viva Cruises want to increase their presence (and their market share) in the UK by publishing their first English-language catalogue: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/viva-cruises-looks-to-boost-uk-presence-with-release-of-first-english-brochure notamermaid

From travelmarket report: https://www.travelmarketreport.com/NicheLuxury/articles/River-Cruise-Lines-Prepare-to-Deal-with-Low-Water-Levels-on-the-Rhine So the Rhine and the Danube. Are they not preparing on the Elbe? Basically, they do not need to, or let us say, they have learnt the hard way on the Elbe and the tricky itineraries are not even scheduled for Summer anymore. But details of that can sporadically be found in the thread on the Elbe (this year and in past years). notamermaid

Article on CC: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/7042/?stay=1&posfrom=1 Rather than the so often dramatic context online news puts the low levels in, mostly because it is a valid concern for the transport of commodities on the Rhine and also on the Danube, here the context is river cruising. I like the fact that it quotes the agency: "Drought and high temperatures are straining Middle Europe's water balance," BfG said in a statement. "In many cases water yields in rivers are rather unusually low for July. As a consequence, navigation is facing increasing obstacles. While fairway depths are reduced at some stretches, Germany's complete waterway network is still navigable. ..." Text put into bold by me. The rivers are not drying up, not the navigable ones anyway. One note: Since the article was written we have learnt that a few itineraries on the Rhine have indeed been altered. notamermaid

Well, I understated the distance a bit, i.e. it is a little bit of a drive still from Basel but if you fancy a different pre-cruise or post-cruise experience you can go to Lake Constance and the Bavarian Riviera at Lindau: https://www.lindau.de/en/experience-lindau/parks-gardens/bavarian-riviera/ Unfortunately, a few excursion boats are now struggling with the low water at Lake Constance. The Lake is very deep, so the problems are obviously close to the shores. Most are still sailing but the level should not fall much further for them. The graph: 331cm is not officially low but it should be higher at this time of year. Hopefully the rain that is forecast for tonight will help. No impact, i.e. a rise at Maxau gauge, is forecast in the next 36 hours. Kaub gauge is at 69cm and following what happens upstream in the valley of course is not expected to rise either. Can the rain prove this wrong? I am skeptical but let us see tomorrow. notamermaid

Not much change at Pfelling: 242cm. Rain in Bavaria forecast for late evening and during the night. notamermaid

Welcome to "my" river. I can imagine that the temperature in Scotland is a bit less than along the Rhine were it can heat up so much and stay hot. Around Basel you are not far from the "Riviera", the Bavarian one . Basel is far away from me, but the waters will reach my area in a few days. So will you and I hope everything goes as planned. Sounds promising. I like the hull design and livery of the Scylla ships for Tauck. The Inspire, the Esprit, the Sapphire, etc. - they all look classic with nice elegance I find. Have a great cruise. notamermaid

True, true, you never know what Autumn will bring. Bickering divorcés . Still, as regards covid panic/madness/case counting I fear more for my country than for yours. Like one stallholder near me said the other day when I talked to him about tourism and events: "... and in autumn they will close all the events down again, I reckon". Most reasonable people are done with covid restrictions but fear the government could reintroduce them on a whim. It would be so bad for day trippers and of course also for those that want to come on a care-free holiday. As regards lack of funds in villages: money that has sustained businesses in the last 26 months here no longer flows I believe and those that struggle to pay back or return to full turnover may loose that struggle. I reckon that happened (although I am not sure) to a shop I used to go to and a restaurant where I used to eat a nice salad and schnitzel. The restaurant closed and for weeks the answering machine said they would reopen on such and such a day. They did not and closed down for good. Strong tourism can work wonders to get money back into a local economy. For some places, though, that is not enough. They have a different mix of clientele. People round where I live never see tourism crowds like at Koblenz. I see at work myself that more Germans do not leave their country to go on holiday and explore just other regions, like friends going to the North Sea Coast or a couple I met at work travelling by train along the Rhine for a week. Many people have always stayed in the country but more folks still choose to do so this year although much of the world is again open to them. Canal archive, hope your trip to Scotland is everything you want it to be. notamermaid

Apart from the zoo at my living room windows (last night it looked as if two bees were trying to establish a base camp or something next to the spiders) I have another thing that is keeping my brain busy: holiday in England or not? UK government tells me this: "The coming weeks are likely to see an increase in traffic between the UK and France on trains, planes, ferries and the Channel Tunnel, which could lead to delays at certain times. Industrial action in France and resource constraints of travel operators could also cause further disruption. Before travelling, you should check for the latest information with your travel operator or airline, including their advice on how early you should arrive at the terminal or airport to check in." Thank you helpful government for telling me I could be joining the queue at Dover if I go. I am not travelling alone so feel responsible for the enjoyment of us all. It looks as if one person will drop out: "I am not willing to follow the French rules" is a valid reason certainly and we others are not too happy potentially having to take an expensive test as the French are not willing to accept the great NHS. "Pi**ing off the unvaccinated" is one thing, declaring you unvaccinated after nine months and one day another... Will all this work and if we are delayed at Dover by six hours or 20 hours on the Eurotunnel will we miss the boat literally and figuratively because the Dover customs officer says: "No, youre teste iz no longger valide."? Such are my woes. Financially this would be a big trip for us all and spending 100 to 200 pounds extra per person would not be fun. Should I just "pi** off the French" and not visit zeir grate country? It would take the money away from the lovely restaurant we often frequent in the Calais area and nobody in snooty Paris would notice. Oh well, I will turn to Idstein and my day trip and seriously consider exploring Germany. So many places I have never been to in my fabulous country. Hope all your travel plans go ahead and have a good week. notamermaid

I am obviously not in the region but have just come across an alert from the British government. They have a link to the French regional authorities. Looks bad in the Gironde region. Two villages were blocked off or at least access was restricted and there is a red alert. I think they do not want you to go into forests: https://www.gironde.gouv.fr/ Some images: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/07/22/before-and-after-satellite-images-of-the-massive-fires-in-gironde-france_5991052_8.html One does wonder what the impact on river cruising may be. Hopefully a cruiser can supply some up-to-date info. notamermaid

Not sure why the article calls it a rumour that the Crystal Mozart has been sold. Several weeks ago we established here on CC with the help of spotting several articles (also in German language) that the Crystal Mozart is now the Mozart and is "owned" by a Hamburg company. Whether that means it actually has the ship in its possession or it kind of will operate it and the real owner in the background is a bank I do not know. But it is clear that there is someone looking after ship. Does the article mean a "proper" company that will operate the Mozart as an addition to its river cruise fleet? If so, I have not heard anything new. Neither have I read anything about the other river cruise ships. If people want to have an eye on the Mozart, perhaps the ship spotters will find out more in due course: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?110800-Mozart-KFGS-04805980&p=439899#post439899 But I would guess that media attention is as much (or as little) internationally as it is in Germany. notamermaid

Sounds a good way of running a cruise. I believe Tauck has something similar? Well, the river decided otherwise. The level has dropped to 72cm. That throws out the forecast for today and I will not say what they predict for tomorrow. Long range we can say that the river will stay low and the situation continue to be problematic as around this range of figures we can neither say that ships are likely to sail or unlikely to sail. We have seen that even Viking captains are making decisions to sail through the Rhine Gorge while others do not do the passage. Weather: hot today, the Rhine valley in parts again over 30 Celsius. Rain in Switzerland tomorrow, not substantial.. Tuesday rain that should feed the High Rhine and Lake Constance. Good for sustaining a higher river level rather than one coming from a run-off wave from heavy rain along two tributaries for example. If it will have any impact, though, remains to be seen. Long range forecast at Maxau gauge suggests only an insignificant one. On a more positive note: we still see no indication of a further drop that would get the river to a situation (by the 4th of August that is) that is similar to the autumn of 2018. It will still see a lot of river cruise ships making it through the Rhine Gorge. And (this is personal) there is no horror/panic scenario of the river drying up or being impossible to sail. I do not like those headlines in newspapers and online click bait stories! Excursion boats are sailing and they will continue to do so (depending on size) and there are barges that are small and shallow constantly transporting goods. If they continue to write such stuff I will personally put on my wellies and take a video of the water. Hah, you will see how deep the river still is!! notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 241cm. Forecast suggests a slight rise but not over 250cm. For those only just joining - it is so long ago now that the river was at a good level - we desperately need 280cm. Better would be 290cm. Large river cruise ships have problems with the passage from 290cm and lower, always depending on individual draft. Weather: rain coming in from the Alps tomorrow, not a lot. Tuesday could see substantial rain over West and Northwest Austria with some coming into Germany East of Lake Constance and also via the Lech river supplying water to the Danube. Little rain along the young Danube (West of Ulm). Substantial rain that may go into the Isar but, as mentioned before, only adds water to the Danube past Deggendorf. We have no long range hydrology forecast for the area. To me the outlook past Tuesday is unclear. Could the rain cause a rise at Pfelling that gets the level over 260cm? Will we see another drop before it happens, i.e. making it more unlikely? And what will August bring? The Lech river is important as it is the third longest tributary of the Danube in Germany, the two bigger ones being the Inn and the Isar, both of which have their mouth much further downstream. The Isar, as I said, near Deggendorf, the Inn you will know if you have been to Passau as it forms the amazing sight of the three rivers joining at the town, the others there being the Ilz and the Danube of course. https://tourism.passau.de/discover-passau/sights/dreifluesseeck-where-three-rivers-meet/ Passau has a nice webcam: https://www.feratel.com/webcams/deutschland/passau.html notamermaid

Yes, they have nice articles. I occasionally read this, informative stuff from the industry, but I mainly read the cruise articles and check the job offers. A pity I cannot read the article that features Phoenix. The magazine is not relevant enough for my line of work so we have no subscription at the office. I will ask the boss if there is money in the kitty... FVW is a German tourism magazine designed for those within the industry (and interested other parties): https://www.fvw.de/ They do have an international section, see top right of the page. notamermaid

Another ship! The Emerald Luna has been christened: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/emerald-cruises-christens-ninth-river-ship Safe travels to her always. notamermaid

Exactly a scenario that could apply to the River Harmony or any other ship of that size or larger. Thank you for pointing this out. There are logistics to consider beyond the low water as it presents itself today and captain and cruise director (and additional personnel in administration) I am sure will be well aware of the long range forecast for the rive levels that I have mentioned and partly quoted from a couple of times. notamermaid

You may be on the Viking Egdir German registration which is locked in 2021 as the ship was handed over and re-flagged Swiss. She can be found with a CH registration and as that is signalling. Her status as per ship page: From the page: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:6599609/mmsi:269057766/imo:0/vessel:VIKING_EGDIR For some unknown reason she is not registered on marinetraffic as a passenger vessel. So it appears you are right, they both went in their respective directions as planned and then double-backed. Yeaahh, sorry. I need to get some English graphics. As regards Pegel, that is the gauge that measures the river depth and as that is at the side of the river on a wall it is not the depth of the navigation channel and needs to be translated to be usable for navigation. So a Pegelstation with its gauge, which is much like ruler i.e. a visible thing on the wall, is a station and a Pegelhaus is a house or rather a building of sorts that these days normally contains an electronic measuring device in addition to the "ruler", if the standard ruler is in it. At Kaub the gauge with building looks like this: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegel_Kaub notamermaid

That is a real pity and I am surprised that they are doing this as the River Harmony is a 110m ship. But of course a captain and company can make that decision even on a smaller ship that for us would seem fine to sail. I see that the River Harmony was in Bernkastel-Kues on the Moselle today. I guess that means they end the cruise at Koblenz? I wonder if those switching a ship or ending the cruise get to see the Rhine Gorge on an excursion boat. It has been done in the past and is a fun experience but you do not have the luxury of your own ship of course. Thanks for the info and I hope your friends can enjoy the places they will visit after the long coach ride. notamermaid

Kaub gauge relatively stable, now at 77cm. No real change forecast for tomorrow, Monday may see a slight drop. Thankfully, outlook into next week shows no major change for the worse. For now, avoiding scenes of 2018? I am hopeful. notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 240cm, a slight rise since last night but nothing to write home about. There is one German online magazine that I quite like for the info on cruise travel. Not too expensive, I am considering subscribing. But generally, unfortunately, they are far above my budget. I can imagine Phoenix needing to re-route, for people's info: they only offer German language itineraries and have a mixed fleet of 135m and smaller ships. notamermaid

Data! Data! Data! she cried impatiently... ...and forgot to put the dishwasher on. Oops. I will be at work tomorrow so not sure when I can have a look at the water levels. Have a good evening. notamermaid