eal7

My current day job is trying to help Danube cruisers with the very low river levels and if Passau - Regensburg is passable.

 

ummm, what happened to "I feel sorry for people who don't have a sense of humour". Oh! perhaps you are now on the politically correct cruise you spoke about?

Oh my goodness! I didn't realise anyone replied, I just came on to check about tipping. I didn't get any updates! Thank you for the helpful replies.My husband had a word with them that morning and the curtain was replaced with one from the dining room within the hour. They have really been good about fixing the problem, I just think that should have been done when the first one was taken down, just seemed a bit strange to ask us to go without for 2 days. We didn't feel comfortable nor could we sleep because of the light. To those of you who are ok with it, I wish you were on our cruise so we could have taken yours! lol ;) I am glad we didn't have to go without for another night. Viking has gone above and beyond trying to fix it, can't fault them. It was just very strange, especially being our first cruise, wasnt sure what to make of it.

this is my first cruise and dh and i booked a veranda suite. we came back to the room last night and found the blackout curtain in our bedroom is missing. called down to reception, found out someone had bled on the curtain so housekeeping took it away to clean. they did not put anything back up. all night there were light coming in the window, so i moved to the couch in the livingroom area. At 5am we were rafted to another boat and my husband woke to people staring at him. He moved to the floor in the living room. We just called down to complain and they said it would be another day till the curtain comes back and there is nothing they can do, we just have to make do or they can give us a room at the bottom of the ship. I dont know why they can't move the curtain in the living area to the bedroom or take a curtain from the dining area until ours is back. Is this standard Viking service? I am actually speechless at this.

Aurora1525 --

sorry I know you are travelling and I totally understand if you can't answer, but if you get a chance - did Viking offer to let you cancel with a full refund? or did they offer you any money back?

cruising denise - thank you for posting that! I have been so curious about what info Viking is sending out as they have not responded to any of my emails and my phone calls have been met with unhelpful people. Not their fault, I think they are sales people and don't have the information I am looking for.

With hot temperatures of 30 degrees and over in parts of the Rhine valley and no rain forecast for three days this situation is not going to improve really. A tentative prediction is for Maxau level rising again towards the end of the week with the rain that is forecast then. That would bring us back to where we were a week or two ago, I cannot see a substantial improvement coming soon. I hope the weather people and river experts with the sophisticated computer data - and eventually mother nature - will prove me wrong.

 

notamermaid

 

Thank you again, notamermaid, as alway most informative. I have been watching the precipitation forecast on dwd.de . it didn't look too promising. We have had nothing but rain here in Scotland, which we could send some your way!

(yn)(yn)(yn)(yn)(yn)Any updates on the forecast for Rhine Valley? Is there any rain expected in the coming weeks?

It IS close when rafted. Fortunately, Viking has prohibited their past custom of boarding, raiding and pillaging non_Viking ships.

:')IDK..i was under the impression it was just "frowned upon". 😁

I was sitting on my balcony of our Ama ship and snapped this pic of a Viking ship with no balconies, only sliding doors. This was a rare occurrence. It was on the Danube near Melk which gets very crowded because everyone stops there.

 

 

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Holy Cow! That is close! i guess it would be a bit weird if someone was on the other side. lol.

No question is stupid! Rafting only happens (occasionally) when you are moored. When you are sailing you have a great view from your balcony. You will want to be on top of the ship though when you sail through the Rhine Gorge to get picturesque views of the castles. This is a great cruise!

Cole

thank you for that! I knew what mooring was but everytime I googled rafting it just showed white water rafting. Will will go topside certain times, but being introverts we need our own space as well. I am looking forward to the cruise, really hoping it goes to near enough to plan. 😀

This is most likely a stupid question, but I will ask anyway! We will (hopefully) be cruising the Rhine river in Sept and I noted a few posts on here stating that cabin balconies can't always be used when moored as you may be right next to another ship & have no privacy or view. But is that true when you are sailing as well? People are posting about being 'rafted' to another ship? or not being able to sit on them at all. Just wondering what to expect. Cheers!

 

Consumer laws in Germany mean that under certain circumstance you can be granted money back on missed parts of your journey even though companies rule out low water situations in their terms and conditions. Details I have to leave out as they will be specific to each cruise (and should be handled by the TA or even a lawyer). How far this applies to your country as well or is part of the European consumer rights you could find out with ABTA probably. Perhaps this is helpful: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/l/cruises-and-ferries

notamermaid

Thank you so much for this very useful information! I hadn’t even thought oh the ATOL protection aspect, I thought it was only if the tour company went bankrupt. The which? Article is very helpful.

We just set sail from Amsterdam about 30 minutes ago on Viking Mani. In the briefing this evening nothing was said about changes in itinerary. I will be happy to post if there is a change. It rained quite heavily most of today in Amsterdam and a number of good showers yesterday as well.

i would be interested to hear about your progress! enjoy your journey.

I am following this post with great interest. Can someone tell me if there are official cruise line representitives that also use these boards? And if so, have any of them bothered to post on here with any info for us?

You really don't want the UK to follow the USA in regard to travel insurance, the UK policies are already much better in terms of the coverage they offer for the cost.

I don't know, I would feel a lot more comfortable rn if I had 'cancel for any reason' written on my policy! I would defo cancel and I would never do a coach tour. The thing I liked about he river tour was the on board experience and the short moring walking tours of the port city. Most of our exploring would be done on our own after that, back to the boat for dinner then relaxing sail to next port. If weather continues our trip will be entirely different than what we booked. This isnt just switching ports or swapping ships. £10,000 (12000usd) is criminal for a coach trip no matter how high end it is. I know we won't get a refund however I think we should. I am certain THEY also have insurance for this sort of thing.

UK will probably get it soon, we are usually a few years behind north america. Interesting idea tho.

i have never heard of cancel for any reason insurance. Is this an american thing? we have travel insurance, it covers up to £5000 but it is for illness etc. i have googled it for uk but haven't seen anything from a reputable website anyway.

OP- I feel for you - it sounds incredibly disappointing, all the time and money spent and you get something that is quite less than what you expected.. It sounds like they didn't handle it very well or even have a plan B.

 

Based on what the other posters are saying, how this comes with the territory of a river cruise, you would think the cruise lines would be much more adept at handling and communicating the changes. I mean if you are saying paying passengers have to go with the flow, the cruise lines should actually have contingency plans in place it allow that to facilitate it. A 6 hour round trip coach journey sounds horrible, especially if you paid for a premium cabin on the ship. Hardly like for like comparison.

KittyKat52 Thank you so much for replying! I have been trying to find out how the CL's are handling the situation, as this is our first cruise ever and have nothing to compare it to. I do understand there are bigger issue afoot, however this is the only one I have any influence over so it is the one I am trying my best to understand. I hope you enjoy your trip even with all the changes made and it seems as Crystal is trying to help.

 

Bon Voyage and thank you again for answering my question!

 

I am sure there are many anxious cruisers waiting for information from cruise lines who are scrambling to provide an enjoyable experience for their clients.

 

Hi there.anxious cruiser here,.just wondering if Crystal offered you any alternatives to travelling, such as rescheduling ot cancelling with a refund? We are travelling on Viking Rhine river beginning of Sept on our first cruise so not sure what to expect from such a significan change to plan.

We booked out stay in Lucern ourselves. The hotel Viking was offering us was not worth the price, IMO. we havent travelled yet but from previous experience we found Swiss trains easy to navigate and the people to be very helpful. Good luck!

Thanks for the replies. I was more interested in how Viking handles the situation, if they offer to switch dates for you or allow you to cancel without penalties if the itinerary has changed significantly.(for example: I was reading about people being put in hotels as a base and then a coach to the different cities/excursion, maybe 9 hours round trip. That just isn't what we signed up for.) We are keeping an eye on the weather and such, hope they get some much needed rain across all of Europe! (yn)(yn)(yn)(yn) I will check other threads as well, thanks for the roll call tip!

hi all..we are travelling with Viking from Basel to Amsterdam first week in Sept. Aware of all the water level issues just now, and wondering if anyone has experience with Viking giving you the chance to cancel or reschedule trip if it is going to be basically a river bus tour? I did call them but they told me it was too far out to discuss just yet. We really splurged on this trip for special occasion and would be gutted if we spent that amount just to sit on a bus or standard hotel. Any info would be appreciated. Eal