Kenster

15 minutes ago, adkturn said:

Board at Regensburg on Sept. 29.

I truly believe your cruise will be unaffected. I would definitely go. You’ll be two weeks behind the flood crest. The river will be back close to normal. No worries about LOW water!!!  You’ll have beautiful, mild Autumn weather. (A little chilly at night) Mostly sunny days, and very low chances of rain. Maybe a little shower here and there. 

Sounds perfect to me!  
Have wonderful time! 
 

8 minutes ago, adkturn said:

We're booked to leave week from today for Munich-to-Budapest Danube cruise. News continues to be discouraging. Think it's time to activate Plan B (request refund, look at other destinations). ☹️   

Going Eastbound is improving pretty quickly. 
where do you actually board the ship?  And when?  The river seems to be open up to, but just short of, Vienna, so far. That stretch will likely be open this weekend. . You’re almost two weeks away from that point.  Should be smooth sailing all the way to Budapest by then. 

45 minutes ago, littlek26 said:

Hello  Leaving from Buffalo Ny today for Viking cruise from Budapest to Regensburg..been reading your updates...what are our chances that this crusie happens??😓 

Extremely doubtful it will happen as scheduled.The river is not draining very quickly. Not surprised that Viking has not been forthcoming with information. Most likely they will use the ship as a hotel at least for a couple of days, busing you to your next stop (Bratislava?) then bus you back to the hotel that night. But that should only work for Bratislava. Surely, even Viking would not do a day trip to Vienna and bus you back to Budapest. Maybe hotel in Vienna?  
 
Viking, historically, is not very passenger friendly, or communicative, in irregular ops. 

24 minutes ago, luv2trvlmep said:

That’s good to hear they are making plans and COMMUNICATING them, we don’t get onto our ship until the 24th in Passau. Just glad to see they are doing some communication as you get closer to the cruise date.

If you’re going eastbound on the 24th, you should be in good shape. 

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

Back in the day us Brits never trusted the Vikings either.

Can’t say as I blame you. Damn Dane law!! 

5 hours ago, JOR70 said:

Is there any way to find out where the Uniworld ships are now? We’re supposed to go from Budapest to Passau starting this Sunday. I’m assuming that’s not going to happen but wondering if they might be able to bus us to the ship a little farther up the river. 

That cruise is very unlikely to happen. 

1 hour ago, luv2trvlmep said:

We are doing a pre-cruise in Prague from 9/21-9/23 and are scheduled to board the Viking Ingvi in Passau on 9/24. According to the Viking WEB site everything is fine, I am looking forward to having a first hand view of the Viking magic and can’t wait to see how they make the flood disappear 🫠 I will continue to post as we arrive as I have appreciated all of the information that has been shared on this forum and would like to reciprocate.

Viking is infamous for lying to its passengers regarding irregular ops. Their typical MO is to tell pax that everything is good. Then the minute you step on board, they drop the hammer. 
They are currently stating there are no issues or cancellations when, in fact, their ships are dead in the water, like every other line. 
They should stop this culture of corporate disinformation and the general spreading of BS to their customers. 

20 minutes ago, jcruizer said:

We are on Travelmarvel in Budapest and it was cancelled late yesterday after noon. We are curious as to whether they would have known before we boarded Sunday or at least early Monday?

Not a lot of help. Just told contact your insurance company and your travel agent. It's a difficult situation I know. We are from. Australia and 4 more weeks of travel after this. Hoping Munich is OK as that's where we are flying to.

They surely knew of the overwhelming likelihood of this happening. 
 

I assure you, Munich is not being impacted by the flooding on the Danube. You should have nothing but sunshine over the next several days. 

9 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Hearing Avalon is cancelling some cruises, and if possible, moving them to other rivers if clients wish.

 

Yes, I have read that, also. Avalon is typically very proactive in irregular situations. 
Meanwhile, Viking is claiming their operations has been unaffected by this historic flood, according to a BBC report linked upthread.  To which I say, Balderdash!  No one is sailing the Danube at least in some sections where Austria has closed the river. It’s only going to get worse between Vienna and Budapest over the next few days.  
Typical Viking disinformation.  

34 minutes ago, Shoegazer said:

Thanks to everyone for the replies. 
 

We did buy trip insurance. I should have mentioned that. If we cancel at this point, it looks like we would be given a credit with Viking that would have to be used within a year. 

Which is a good reason to buy outside insurance. Like Allianz. You’re not forced to travel with Viking in the future, which, the way they treat customers in irregular operations, I’m not sure who would want to. Their corporate culture is to keep the customer in the dark. They are neither forthcoming or transparent.  They have a history of lying, telling the customers “oh. Everything’s fine. Get on the plane!” And the next day, when you step foot on the ship it’s “sorry! Unfortunately we’ll not be able to sail. We will bus you to all the sights and come back to the ship every night.”

Very different from two years ago this week when the Danube was very low. We were on Avalon, Budapest to Amsterdam, and were fortunate to be able to sail several days without incident. But at Passau, the water was just too low. So we did a ship swap and were bused about an hour to Vilshofen (I think). It was painless. Avalon did a fantastic job of handling everything. And by that afternoon, we had a $400 credit on our credit card for our very minor inconvenience.  

3 hours ago, Microman123 said:

Hey, RDVIK2016, were you a Submariner on that ride or working for EB or Supships on a sea trial? I and my family were EBers back in the 60’s. 

No… just watched “Up Periscope!” a million times when I was a kid. 🙂

7 hours ago, Izengolf said:

I learned from this forum last year that compared to the weight of the ship, the passengers and their belongings are not a significant weight contributor. As Canal Archive said, emptying / filling pools and water storage will have a bigger impact. 

On our second Avalon cruise in 2015 (Vienna to Amsterdam), the water was low at Passau. 
All passengers were given free optionals to either Salzburg or Cesky Krumlov in order to get everyone off the ship. I assume they blew the water ballast, too.  The ship sailed on without incident and picked up everyone upriver late that evening.  
 

I don’t know how significant removing 25-28 thousand pounds of humans was, but, apparently, every little bit helped.  
 

And we all got a free, all day excursion! 

1 hour ago, Lovely1234 said:

Hello fellow Texan!  Embarkation is 6/17 in Nuremburg.  Plans are to fly out 6/15 from Houston to Nuremburg, but hoping for a rebooking opportunity from Scenic.  This whole situation is stressing us out, as we have heard that Scenic is switching up trips to land and bus.  We got an email today without any real updates.  More wait-and-see uncertainty.

 

I totally understand the stress. But you’re five days out. I’m really thinking things should be okay by then. I guess Scenic is expecting that, too. Nearly everything is open now. Another day or two should be all it take's. Scenic doesn’t have a lot of ships, but, hopefully, they’ll be able to position your ship to Nuremberg in time.  
Let us know how things go. 
 

Flying into Munich?  We like Munich much better than Frankfurt. And United’s nonstop out of Houston makes it easy. 
 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 minutes ago, Lovely1234 said:

Same lack of communication from Scenic.  It's a shame.  We have limited mobility, and are very worried about changes to land and bus, and having to pack up and move every day.  It will wear us out, Im afraid.  Long bus shuttles werent what we paid for.  Hoping for last minute offer to rebook after flood recovery ends.

Lovely, when is your cruise? 

4 minutes ago, Lionel_Hutz said:

Thank you to everybody for contributions to this topic.  Very helpful information.

 

Does anybody have intel on how AMA Waterways/Adventures By Disney has been handling their Danube cruises?

 

We are booked for a Budapest to Vilshofen cruise on Adventures by Disney departing June 22.  No word from the companies on any delays or issues, although that date is coming up pretty quickly.

I would expect, barring another major deluge, things will be running quite nicely by the 22th. 
 

Keep an eye on the two week forecast for a few points along your way: Budapest, Vienna, Passau…

17 minutes ago, RDVIK2016 said:

CEST 05:45

Avalon Imagery II has left Kelheim - She had been stopped at Regensburg on 29 May on her way to Budapest. Cruise Mapper shows her next itinerary is 4 June from Budapest to 18 Jun Amsterdam and should be in Roth 11 June. Well she will be there. I wonder how the passengers on this B to A itinerary got from Budapest to Kelheim to meet the ship or it that cruise was canceled and Avalon just wants to get the boat to Amsterdam for its next cruise.

 

Avalon Impression is still at Kelheim.

 

I posted about this just a little up thread today. 
The group spent their allotted time in Budapest then were bused to Vienna, skipping Bratislava. They were lodged in Vienna and did their scheduled amount of time there. Yesterday, they were bused to Kelheim where they finally boarded Imagery II. They should now be able to complete their itinerary and end up in Amsterdam as scheduled.  

4 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

It’s a bit of a technicality as a pilot usually has expertise in a particular stretch or area of water.

That’s my understanding.  And that a pilot comes onboard for a short period of time and is not an employee of the ship company. 

1 hour ago, steamboats said:

 

Pilot is the person steering the ship. Actually on rivers there is no "captain". Usually the head pilot is called master. Usually a river cruise ship has at least one master and two pilots.

 

steamboats

We’ve been on five river cruises so far. In all cases the ship master was called Captain and his assistants were introduced as Second Captain. I’ve never heard or read of a river cruise captain being referred to as a pilot. 

1 hour ago, papa B me said:

We have been given the green light to leave Bratislava on the Uniworld Maria Teresa and are now sailing up river.  Not sure where we will end up.  Couldnt leave the ship today as the captain wanted to be able to leave as soon as allowed.  Will be interesting how the rest of today and tomorrow plays out.  Hoping we have some kind of excursion tomorrow.  It sounds like we are unlikely to make it to Passau so expecting a longer bus tide to Munich for flight home on Sunday.  Today seems to be the first day patience is running thin with some.  Have seen a few leave the ship for alternative transportation home.  Not an ideal trip and disappointing but I am overall happy with Uniworld and dealing with this mess.

Passau was down a meter early yesterday. (Thursday). Hopefully it has continued to recede. I have no idea how far down the wave has made it. 
Good luck on the rest of your cruise. 

1 minute ago, goksucats said:

Ditto in the USA.  

Between a fog and a drizzle. 

13 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Kitzingen on the Main river? That is quite a distance then. Happy to read that you were satisfied with Avalon's performance. Experienced crews can make these ship swaps really seamless. It is a good idea to do them. I give Viking credit for coming up with the idea unless anyone proves to me that a company did it before them. 

 

notamermaid

 

Well, you got me to thinking.., it was Deggendorf, not Kitzingen.  

55 minutes ago, LabMom57 said:

@KensterThey could. There is a ship upriver. I'm assuming that all of their ships are booked up but I might be assuming incorrectly,

 

It would be a swap. People on the ship coming east bound swap with people on a west bound who couldn’t get down river.   You’d be bused around the point that is non navigable.  
We had to do that in 2022 due to low water west of Passau. One hour bus ride from Passau to Kitzingen. The east bounders were bused from Kitzingen to Passau. Other than packing and unpacking an extra time, it was painless. Avalon was spectacular in handling it. 

2 minutes ago, LabMom57 said:

 

@AHMIowa I just called my TA. She's calling Avalon now to find out what our options are and hopefully find out what they have planned. Since the ship is in Vienna until the 12th, that does seem to indicate it won't be available for us to board on the 12th in Vilshofen!

 

But they could use another ship that is already upriver. 

24 minutes ago, goksucats said:

Especially when you can't even read them or have a clue what they say.🤣 I'm fortunate that outside of a little caution with anything that causes .. ahem.. gas related issues (and I'm eating Sauerkraut in Germany so my stomach is just going to have to deal), I don't have any real food allergies that I know of.  

If it’s a group meal, I’m sure Avalon will require menus in English. Sometimes, they will just give everyone a bunch of cash and you go out on your own. Many places will have menus in English. A phone translator app can be very useful.