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Research to date shows least amount of low or high water problems in the spring.  Most amount  of troubles in the late summer and winter. Locks you are absolutely correct but Viking appears to be striking them much more often now that the line size has increased.  Number of locks and placement means I would prefer to travel where the least amount can be traversed to limit exposure to those chances no one can predict.  Cheers. 

Thanks, that is specifically the kind of information I am seeking. Do you know how many locks are involved going and coming from Basel on Avalon as that is the brand we are planning to travel.  Specifically not on the 14 day cruise but the 7 or 8 day cruise?  Still researching.  Wondering if the recent closed lock due to be closed for several weeks will impact Basel cruise? Cheers. 

Was planning on using Avalon.  Want to either start or end at Basel in order to do a week tour of Switzerland separately.  Still trying to decide how many days to be on River researching which parts of the river typically have problems such as the recent shutdown of wrecked locks.   Thinking currently that best bet to avoid low water and wrecked locks potential problems (don't want to deal with either) would be to take the 8 day one that starts closest to Basel assuming there is minimal locks involved. Have to do more research to find out.  Thanks for your good knowledge regarding Avalon.  Cheers

On 6/17/2019 at 10:25 AM, Daisi said:

We've only done the Rhine with Avalon, and only 2 towns required transport. Strasbourg was a canal cruise in, bus back to the boat, and Heidelberg was a bus ride as it's not on the Rhine.  I am looking at the Blue Danube Discovery cruise, and it looks like there is really only Vienna that requires a bus, the Nuremburg tour does, but you can stay in Roth for the tour there.  We are planning on going to Cesky Krumlov, so will miss Passau,  and I'm not sure how that port will be handled.

Does anyone know which River Cruise Line has the most center city docking locations? Interested in which line has locations where you can walk off the boat and be in the center of town. Or, do all lines have to transport you via bus from the location to downtown or historical district?  I am guessing with Vikings vast amount of ships that they tie up most of the best docking locations on the Rhine, Moselle and Danube? Thanks.    I am aware that of couple of lines actually have these locations for their brand on their websites.  

Additionally,  have any of you had decent look with any website or company in booking private tours consistently instead of using the ship's free ones? If so , which ones? Cheers. 

Is there one particular River Cruise line that substantially has more locations to dock in the center of the cities so that you don' t have to bus or taxi from their docking location and instead can just walk off the ship directly into the center of the town? I understand that the cruise lines do not have control of this aspect, but am curious if anyone has used one cruise line where this has happened a majority of the time? Thanks for your kind knowledge.  I also understand that a couple of the cruise lines have on their website docking locations subject to port authority changes and assignments.  Cheers