Viking Low Water Changes to Itinerary 2018

I am wondering what schedule changes Viking has made to their cruises due to low water levels especially along the Rhine from Koblenz to Basel?

Edited August 19, 2018 by Norvig
Misspelling

Thank you for starting this thread.

 

We're supposed to travel from Bucharest to Amsterdam - so both Rhine & Danube - starting Oct 6. We're getting to Bucharest on Oct 1 so I hope we get enough notice for any changes. We don't really want a 23 day bus tour.

I hear you. We have done many bus tours with Contiki, Trafalgar & Insight, all excellent but now we want an easier travel experience & did not pay for a bus tour so fingers crossed for everyone. We did the Romantic Danube last year & it was great.

Following this thread ...we leave on Basel to Amsterdam on sept 22,2018 on Viking alruna and have been watching the water levels . It looks like the levels have increased a bit ... Praying for more rain... Thank you to fellow cruisers for any info

A friend of ours said their uncle lives near Koblenz & not to worry about the water level, it will go up in September, sure hope he’s right! Cheers!

I'm going on my first Viking River Cruise and I just got an email stating our Cities of Light itinerary has been changed:

 

This message is to update you regarding your itinerary and low water levels on the Rhine River.

 

We have now learned that water levels have receded further than anticipated. As a result, your ship will not be able to reach its regular embarkation port in Trier. In order to stay as close to your original itinerary as possible, following your two included nights in Paris, you will now overnight in a hotel on Day 3 in Trier. Your Viking Program Director in Paris will advise you of your hotel accommodations.

 

From there, we expect your itinerary will proceed as follows:

 

On Day 4, you will check out of your hotel and, following your shore excursions in Trier, transfer by motorcoach to embark your ship in Mainz (98 miles), visiting Bernkastel on the way. On Day 5 and Day 6, your shore excursions in Cochem (70 miles) and Koblenz (62 miles) will operate by motorcoach. On Day 7 you will resume your standard itinerary.

 

Anyone know if the longships dock in a nice part of Mainz? It would be great to see an extra city that wasn't even part of the itinerary.

I'm going on my first Viking River Cruise and I just got an email stating our Cities of Light itinerary has been changed

When is your cruise? How far in advance did you get the email?

 

I hope you have a wonderful time despite the changes.

Aurora1525: Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Does that mean that you embark the ship in Mainz and for the remaninder of the trip you will be traveling by boat only?

The statement about the shore excursions operating by motorcoach is also puzzling: don't many (most) excursions involve motorcoach anyway?

Thank you.

When is your cruise? How far in advance did you get the email?

 

I hope you have a wonderful time despite the changes.

 

We fly out tomorrow. We did get an e-mail a few days ago letting us know that there might be an itinerary change, but now 24 hours before we leave, Viking confirmed what those itinerary changes are. I'm still pretty excited because we might get to see two additional cities (Mainz and Bernkastel).

Aurora1525: Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Does that mean that you embark the ship in Mainz and for the remaninder of the trip you will be traveling by boat only?

The statement about the shore excursions operating by motorcoach is also puzzling: don't many (most) excursions involve motorcoach anyway?

Thank you.

 

Our longship cannot dock in Trier, Cochem, or Koblenz like it was supposed to. So now, our schedule is:

Day 1 - Paris

Day 2 - Paris

Day 3 - 4 hour bus ride from Paris to Trier. Hotel overnight in Trier.

Day 4 - Trier / 2 hour bus ride to Mainz to embark on ship

Day 5 - Ship stays in Mainz. Passengers are bussed by motorcoach for 1.5 hours to Cochem for touring. Then, they are bussed back to the ship.

Day 6 - Ship stays in Mainz. Passengers are bussed by motorcoach for 1 hour to Koblenz for touring. Then, they are bussed back to the ship.

Day 7 - Ship finally sails to Heidelberg...

Ahh, that makes sense! Thank you for your clear explanation.

And I assume that the rest of your trip will proceed by boat as originally intended.

All in all, considering the circumstances, I think you came out in great shape. Have a wonderful trip!

Our longship cannot dock in Trier, Cochem, or Koblenz like it was supposed to. So now, our schedule is:

Day 1 - Paris

....

Day 7 - Ship finally sails to Heidelberg...

There is no way I can put a good spin on this. Essentially you only have one day of sailing (Wurzberg to Bamberg). The rest is a bus tour using the boat as a hotel on a number of nights. Bernkastel was already on your itenerary - the boat was scheduled to stop there. Heidelberg is and always was a bus tour as it is on the Necker a river that Viking doesn’t sail. You miss sailing on the Moselle, probably my favorite river in Europe. You miss sailing through the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO Heritage site. You definitely are not getting what you paid for. IMO Mainz is an interesting city - if you can visit St Stephen’s for the Chagall windows and the Gutenberg museum; both should be walkable from the Mainz docks. You will still be going to a number of great places so enjoy what you do see.

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?

We received a letter from VIking last night that our longboat has been changed and that there will probably be differences in the trip we booked, Empires of the East. We are to board Friday in Bucharest and cruise for 7 nights to Budapest. Who knows?! Our friends were able to cancel due to the type of insurance they had. We are going in early so received the notice the night before we are leaving. Not much they can do. No offer of any type of compensation if we cancel. Fingers crossed for a good trip.

We received a letter from VIking last night that our longboat has been changed and that there will probably be differences in the trip we booked, Empires of the East. We are to board Friday in Bucharest and cruise for 7 nights to Budapest. Who knows?! Our friends were able to cancel due to the type of insurance they had. We are going in early so received the notice the night before we are leaving. Not much they can do. No offer of any type of compensation if we cancel. Fingers crossed for a good trip.

Thank you for posting. We are also leaving from Bucharest and yours is the first info we've seen on that port. We don't leave until Oct 6 but are arriving in Bucharest 5 days earlier. If you can report back after (or during) you trip we would really appreciate it.

Have a great trip!

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?

 

They are giving us 25% of what we paid for this cruise to put towards a future cruise (river or ocean).

Our longship cannot dock in Trier, Cochem, or Koblenz like it was supposed to. So now, our schedule is:

Day 1 - Paris

Day 2 - Paris

Day 3 - 4 hour bus ride from Paris to Trier. Hotel overnight in Trier.

Day 4 - Trier / 2 hour bus ride to Mainz to embark on ship

Day 5 - Ship stays in Mainz. Passengers are bussed by motorcoach for 1.5 hours to Cochem for touring. Then, they are bussed back to the ship.

Day 6 - Ship stays in Mainz. Passengers are bussed by motorcoach for 1 hour to Koblenz for touring. Then, they are bussed back to the ship.

Day 7 - Ship finally sails to Heidelberg...

 

I'm a little confused about why you can't dock on the Moselle as the water levels there seem to be ok. Maybe Viking can't get boats to the Moselle?

Suggest you all check out the thread titled All Viking Grand European Tour 2018. It’s been moved to the River Cruise Roll Call board. There are a number of people reporting in who are on cruises right now - namely Pepperwood.

 

Lots of info there

 

 

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Link to the Roll Call thread...https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2501828

Link to the Roll Call thread...https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2501828

 

 

 

Thanks! I have the worst time trying to copy CC threads on my iPad.

Have friends sailing the Danube departing Passau today? Tomorrow? for Budapest. And they have been told to expect buses and/or boat changes. They are hearing rumor of the 25% credit towards a future cruise that a PP mentioned.

 

Hate it for them. Glad our same cruise several years ago didn’t have water issues. We went in the early spring and were concerned about high water but lucky for us we didn’t have any issues.

We were on the Rhine cruise (Amsterdam to Basel) almost exactly a year ago (8/25 departure IIRC) and although we heard it had been one of the driest Summers, we had absolutely no river level issues. So sad to hear things are so much worse this year.

 

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I'm a little confused about why you can't dock on the Moselle as the water levels there seem to be ok. Maybe Viking can't get boats to the Moselle?

I’m still wondering if anyone has sailed lately from Trier to Koblenz. There seems to be a lack of information on the Moselle stretch. TIA.

We are leaving on September 29 for the Viking Rhine River Cruise......I'm very interested to follow any water level / changes of itinerary......we're hoping for a "cruise", not a "bus tour." Please keep all informed....

 

Thank you! :cool:

Good News!

Just heard from my friends sailing from Passau to Budapest (sorry not Sure which boat). They arrived there yesterday (8/28/18) and were told they were the first Viking boat in 3 weeks to cruise the entire river.

 

 

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