notamermaid

There has been rain in the Rhine valley and it is cooler now. Relief for nature for sure. Reaction of the river levels will follow soon. For now, Kaub is still going down slowly. 103cm this lunchtime. Prospective level for Monday 91cm. Seems a bit low to me, but it could just mean that we need to wait for the high volume of water further up in the Upper Rhine valley to get to the Rhine Gorge. notamermaid

After the half decent plateau yesterday, the level at Pfelling has gone down to 278cm. I dunno, would it be better to go for smaller ships again, like 125m or shorter? The few centimetres advantage in draught that may give makes the difference between sailing and no sailing in these conditions. Just wondering... Remember, there used to be ships of varying lengths, before they became standard hulls of 135m basically. 95, 105, 110, 123, 126.7 ("my" ship the MS Belvedere) are all measurements you can read in the fleets built before 2020. The modern ships of 135m are claimed by the companies to have adjusted hulls, but in the end they still struggle. Will get back to some statistics on the old ships another day. notamermaid

Trotting the unbeaten path in Westphalia part 1 They say there are 25,000 castles (including tiny ruins) in Germany. So naturally I have been to one, just cannot avoid those things in the landscape, too many of them. Seriously, I did seek out the area for the fact that it had a) unusual castles, b) a brewery, c) a palace built an architect I like and d) I have never been to that area as far as I know. Well, in the end it was too little time would have liked to stay longer. Westphalia is somewhat in the Middle of Germany and relatively rural where I went. Look on the map for Kassel and Paderborn, it lurks between the two towns. The palace is explained in short, Bad Arolsen. Did not manage to book a guided tour in the time slot I needed so I was left with seeing the outside and believe me the wow-factor when you come along the road and that "thing" appears in your vision is great: https://www.bad-arolsen.de/de/tourismus/kontakt-und-information/uebersetzung/englisch/residenzschloss-en.php More on another day. notamermaid

Yes, website says she is 361 feet. An elegant ship to watch sailing by on the river. It is not a guarantee but the shorter length should be favourable for her draught. Your captain and crew can tell you more about this if you are interested. notamermaid

As regards the levels: in 2018 river cruise ships still sailed - the old (and relatively new) small ones. Last year the 135m ships failed to make the passage on some days in August. Apart from one - the MS Alisa. She was only a hull taken by a barge alongside it to the Netherlands for completion and sailed the Grand European journey when no other 135m river cruise ship could. notamermaid

Correct, Kaub is the bottleneck, the weakest link. Procedure is (example Viking): Viking X leaves on 1st August in Amsterdam, Viking Y leaves on same day in Basel. X goes to Koblenz, Y goes to Rüdesheim. Passengers travel by coach. X returns to Amsterdam with passengers of Y, Y returns to Basel with passengers of X. Usually works smoothly. Bigger problems arise when the level falls too far. The stretch of river you can sail becomes much shorter. This then involves tedious to's and fro's in order not to miss visiting ports, and/or long coach rides. For a discussion of this topic see also my conversation with a poster in last year's thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/2827571-rhine-water-levels-2022-and-similar-topics/page/33/ Some companies may of course cancel a cruise rather than do a swap (not all have the logistics to do that procedure to bridge the Rhine Gorge) or take people by coach to other ports. notamermaid

In other news, actually I forgot to mention this last week. The hull of the Amina sailing for Phoenix Reisen from 2024 has been transported to the Netherlands. Another ship for the ever growing fleet of river cruise ships. Weird fact: there is a ship called Ocean Diva Original sailing the Rhine! She looks unusual. All grey and a bit "out of this realm". So guess what, I have checked and turn out not to be far off with my comment as she is an event location ship that had been built as a Russian river cruise ship. The ship was never completed, the hull then altered and much later completed to become the largest event river ship in Europe (according to Wikipedia). https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceandiva_Original notamermaid

These are behind a "give me your details" wall, so I am not going to access them. Sorry. I like the design and graphs of the website but I prefer elwis, managed by the authorities. Kaub gauge going down very slowly now, Sunday into Monday should see the drop below 100cm. Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest should see a rise again. notamermaid

A slightly longer answer now. Pfelling has the shallowest navigation channel upstream from Budapest so that is where the problems first occur. Other sections of the river are free-flowing, too but are not or hardly ever or only sometimes affected. The Danube knee - the pronounced bend in the river before Budapest - is a potential problem area. This results in ships stopping in Komarno and not sailing into Budapest (downstream direction). Not sure what it is like coming into Budapest upstream. Here are the free-flowing and the impounded sections in a drawing: https://www.viadonau.org/en/economy/the-danube-transport-axis/navigability Here is the graph for Budapest again: Taken from: https://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/hidelo/hidelo_graf_duna.html notamermaid

Thank you for your detailed review. Great to read you had a good time on Viking. As you say, you have learnt that the company is not the best fit for you. Glad you are not giving up after this one, you are right that with another company and the options now available as regards itineraries and level of activity younger folk like you will find another river cruise that they can thoroughly enjoy. I was among the youngest on my first river there were a few that were clearly younger than forty, i.e. just a little below my age range. This was a German company and they tend to have some younger people that put the average age lower than with some other lines. You can still find this on the line Arosa (Flussreisen), which also caters to families. As you prefer to not go all-inclusive you may want to look into Viva Cruises, a relatively new line that is based in Germany but can be booked from the US. notamermaid

I see on the website that the info is taken partly from the German authorities directly (see tiny captions, the abbreviation WSV). Will look into it again later. Kaub gauge at 104cm. notamermaid

Definitely up, now at 288cm: notamermaid

Low water and sandbanks are also a problem for ferries. The "Amt Neuhaus" near Lüneburg is now out of service. Dredging is needed and the authorities hope that this will be completed in two and a half weeks. A problem for commuters and tourists as a nearby bridge is being renovated. Berlin has a very different problem right now and it is a "spree" - not the Spree river. What is assumed is a lioness has gone for a walk in the suburbs of Berlin and noone knows where she has escaped from. Police are searching for the wild cat: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-suspected-lioness-on-the-loose-outside-berlin/a-66291669 notamermaid

Not too worry, the website looks interesting and accurate I would say. Elwis has just a different and more detailed way of showing it, i.e. it shows a range and probability chart as well as the standard forecast table. Thanks for mentioning that site. notamermaid

A bit of statistics following my comment in post #369 about the long low water period at Kaub. According to contargo.net in 2016 there were 23 days with figures lower than 80cm. In 2018, I have counted the days shown in the historical files (a different website). There were 113 days with a level of 80cm or lower! In 2020, the same website shows only one day. In 2022, according to contargo.net, there were 43 days with a level of 80cm or longer. And in that year of the bad flooding, 2013? The level did not fall below 100cm for a single day. notamermaid

Not sure where you looked. From what I can see on the long range forecast on "Elwis", the probability for 80cm is there but very low, i.e. the level is most likely to stay between 88cm and 91cm on the 24th. From the 27th the situation looks to improve well. notamermaid

You are right, Kaub is not a river cruise port as such. It is a small place that does have an excursion boat landing stage that is suitable for river cruise ships I think. Kaub gauge is the marker for the shipping industry meaning it gives the river traffic the info how deep the navigation channel is in that area of the Rhine (there is a calculation that refers to another gauge but that is beside the point for our purposes here). On the "pegel online" map it looks like this: The area has the shallowest navigation channel of the Rhine. I need to clarify that the Rhine Gorge is not that shallow in its whole stretch and the shallow channel actually starts before Rüdesheim. Sorry, I was not precise enough. At Mainz it is 210cm, at Kaub it is 190cm, at Koblenz it is 210cm. That is the basis for the calculation for river traffic. notamermaid

Oh good. 🙂 I find the website relatively straight forward with all the icons making it somewhat easier when one does not speak German much. If one can bear all the adds about loosing tummy fat, etc. (not sure what you get in the US with your cookies). 😉 notamermaid

Pfelling gauge at 265cm. In other news: the Danube water has warmed up a lot. When this happens for a long period it puts a strain on fish. For now, the problem that has arisen is at the nuclear power plants in Budapest. The water is too warm for cooling the plant so electricity generation has been reduced. notamermaid

Yes, all in all this works from what we have read on CC in the past. I remember the odd case when people worried about not being able to get a notification as they would be on a week long land trip before the cruise. But that is not a typical scenario of course. I would say that in this day and age of technology it is very wise to keep an eye on what may happen at the embarkation port and have the ship's phone number ready at all times if one has not arranged a transfer to the ship with the river cruise company - or indeed the river cruise company contact number. Easy to do. Forgot to mention in the previous post that if you do the Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary you may have to go through the ship swap twice, the Danube one involves Straubing and Vilshofen, or Regensburg and Passau or a different combination of the towns on either side of the shallow stretch in which is the Pfelling gauge. Kaub gauge at 109cm. notamermaid

Found the webpage again - "squat" and all the other terms: https://www.viadonau.org/en/economy/online-services/calculation-of-the-draught-loaded/ notamermaid

Just a brief addition to the topic of ship swaps for those new to this. Standard swap is normally Rüdesheim and Koblenz, meaning the ships remain in those ports for the hours needed to complete the swap. The section of river between those two is basically the Rhine Gorge. It is considered the most scenic part of the river. This area during a ship swap you will either see from a coach or on an excursion boat hired or part-hired (then you share with other tourists) by your cruise company. notamermaid

Viva Cruises new ship named "Viva Enjoy" will come in September 2024: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/Viva-Cruises-introduce-Enjoy-September-2024?ct=river notamermaid

Not sure that it matters to people, some will adjust faster than others, should not be a big deal. I admit it is not the best example. Ships sailing that are meant to swap if the need arises are almost identical when looking at the Viking fleet - fun quote on CC is "all that differs is the painting in the lobby" - and most likely very similar if not almost identical with other companies' fleets. You will of course deal with a different captain and his (maritime) crew but as you do not know the employees on your original ship this should not matter to you either. Unless you are unlucky or unhappy with something and start wondering what could have been... notamermaid

Welcome to Cruisecritic. What a pity. I hope you will have a great time this autumn. The floods of 2013 were worse on the Danube and Elbe than on the Rhine. Still, it was bad enough here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_European_floods Around Maxau river traffic was halted for several days. At Kaub subsequently for a similar length of time. notamermaid