Danube water levels 2018 and similar topics - plus tips and info

I would think many cruisers are curious about water levels in December, especially with the Christmas markets in full swing. Because of our crazy weather patterns recently, noone can predict what conditions will be.

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing certain would be that Passau - Vienna would be cruiseable, because it is controlled by locks, is not normally impacted by low river levels, high levels then things stop all together.

 

 

 

Book it and enjoy all the goodies in the Christmas markets.:wine-glass::beer-toast:

Thanks for responding. We really want to do this cruise to enjoy the markets and the libations [emoji57]. We have done two other river cruises and lucked out with no issues with the water.

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Oktoberfest! Yes, it is the time of year again to indulge in the festivities. Me being on the Rhine I tend to celebrate with the young wine (actually my health will not allow it at the moment, but that is beside the point and I can always switch to regional beer in the beer garden) but September (the Oktoberfest start was moved to September some years ago) is the time to lift those Maßkrüge and wear Lederhosen. I hope the known-wearers and non-drinkers of the other Bavarian regions will forgive me for feeding the stereotype:

https://www.dw.com/en/lederhosen-everything-you-need-to-know-about-oktoberfests-favorite-leather-shorts/a-40492182

notamermaid

Oktoberfest! Yes, it is the time of year again to indulge in the festivities. Me being on the Rhine I tend to celebrate with the young wine (actually my health will not allow it at the moment, but that is beside the point and I can always switch to regional beer in the beer garden) but September (the Oktoberfest start was moved to September some years ago) is the time to lift those Maßkrüge and wear Lederhosen. I hope the known-wearers and non-drinkers of the other Bavarian regions will forgive me for feeding the stereotype:

https://www.dw.com/en/lederhosen-everything-you-need-to-know-about-oktoberfests-favorite-leather-shorts/a-40492182

notamermaid

I have never understood why visitors / foreign have to dress in Lederhose / Dirndl, just to get drunk at the Oktoberfest or trying to blend in with the locals.

Or even worst, celebrating Oktoberfest abroad, with pseudo German Brass Bands with skiiny legs sticking out of plastic lederhose and dirndl without the necessary Holz vor der Hütte. They look stupid, an insult to Bavaria.

I'll dress up for carnival / fasching but not the Oktoberfest - I'll stick to my beer and jeans.

Our luck we are starting our river cruise in Budapest with rain. Our Captain was delighted as we were right at the tolerance levels last night. Not seen any Viking boats (but lots of their buses) but Ama is business as usual

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Our luck we are starting our river cruise in Budapest with rain. Our Captain was delighted as we were right at the tolerance levels last night. Not seen any Viking boats (but lots of their buses) but Ama is business as usual

 

 

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Great news!! Will be boarding the AmaCerto next week and I'm obsessed with the Danube's water levels. My business partner's sailing on the same cruise was modified a couple of weeks ago. They missed the Illumination cruise out of Budapest and couldn't make it all the way to Nuremberg. Looking forward to your reports. Have a great cruise!

We left Amsterdam on the Emerald Sky on the 19th and got as far as Koln. They bused us to a local tour ship so we could sail the middle Rhine past all the castles. Spoke to a Viking cruise director who said they got through but their ship was scraping the bottom and the levels in the middle Rhine are still dropping so ships cannot now really get upsteam of Koblenz. Therefore they can not reach the Main where the levels are fine. The upper Danube is having the same problems upstream of Passau, where we are joining the Emerald Star for the rest of the trip down to Budapest.

Emerald have been fantastic coping with these difficult conditions and we have still done all the land tours and locations as per the original itinerary, put us in 5 star accommodations throughout and fed us at every turn, as well as giving us all a generous refund. If your company does as well as Emerald you will be delighted.

Overall the tour is great and the Tour companies can't control these low water conditions. You will have a great time - the only thing missing is that you can't just unpack once and forget it.

Update along the way of our Avalon Expression bus/ship cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest: We're now at Hilton Hotel in Bonn, after two nights at Hotel Jakarta in Amsterdam and bus today, with stop in Cologne. We had heavy rain off and on all day, but I fear we're too far down river to help the water level at critical points on the Rhine or, of course, the Danube. Tomorrow we bus to a town in the Rhine Gorge, where we'll take a three-hour tour on a local steamer to Rudesheim; after touring there, we'll bus to Frankfurt for one night at Marriott. Then bus to Passau -- and our ship! -- after a short tour in Nuremberg. (We'll be aboard the ship a day earlier than the first revised itinerary, by the way.) Avalon has added some extra stops in Upper Austria to make up for missing the entire Main River. Avalon is taking very good care of us. (See my previous post about the financial adjustment.) It's not exactly what we bargained for, but it's hard to complain, unless you either truly hate a few days on a bus or just enjoy complaining.

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jbeuks: Very interesting! Thanks for the information and your upbeat attitude. You seem to be making a lot of lemonade out of lemons. I'm under the impression that the rain will help the Rhine but not the Danube. I hope your ship can reach Budapest.

We left Amsterdam on the Emerald Sky on the 19th and got as far as Koln. They bused us to a local tour ship so we could sail the middle Rhine past all the castles. Spoke to a Viking cruise director who said they got through but their ship was scraping the bottom and the levels in the middle Rhine are still dropping so ships cannot now really get upsteam of Koblenz. Therefore they can not reach the Main where the levels are fine. The upper Danube is having the same problems upstream of Passau, where we are joining the Emerald Star for the rest of the trip down to Budapest.

 

Emerald have been fantastic coping with these difficult conditions and we have still done all the land tours and locations as per the original itinerary, put us in 5 star accommodations throughout and fed us at every turn, as well as giving us all a generous refund. If your company does as well as Emerald you will be delighted.

 

Overall the tour is great and the Tour companies can't control these low water conditions. You will have a great time - the only thing missing is that you can't just unpack once and forget it.

Just completed our emerald cruise in Saturday in Amsterdam. We were on a bus tour from Passau to cologne. Glad you were in five star hotels. We were in the Sheraton airport in Frankfort which had us walking very long distance to buses through the airport. Definitely not a five star experience.

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With have had two days of rain, mostly drizzle, it seems that there are been very little run off into the Danube and it's tributaries. The river levels on Danube have either remained constant r have slightly fallen. The rain must be topping up our ground water.

Now for the good news for some and bad for others. For tonight and tomorrow, a severe weather warning has been issued. A really heavy storm front will pass over Bavaria in a roughly south west to north east direction, with hurrican force winds in the higher elevations. Heavy thunder stroms and torrential rain, with warnings that streams and small rivers bursting their banks and causing flooding.

We'll see in 12 and 24 hours if the rain makes a difference to the river levels, as too the amount and if it will last. As after Monday we are expecting 4 days of sunny weather.

Stay safe.

Update along the way of our Avalon Expression bus/ship cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest: We're now at Hilton Hotel in Bonn, after two nights at Hotel Jakarta in Amsterdam and bus today, with stop in Cologne. We had heavy rain off and on all day, but I fear we're too far down river to help the water level at critical points on the Rhine or, of course, the Danube. Tomorrow we bus to a town in the Rhine Gorge, where we'll take a three-hour tour on a local steamer to Rudesheim; after touring there, we'll bus to Frankfurt for one night at Marriott. Then bus to Passau -- and our ship! -- after a short tour in Nuremberg. (We'll be aboard the ship a day earlier than the first revised itinerary, by the way.) Avalon has added some extra stops in Upper Austria to make up for missing the entire Main River. Avalon is taking very good care of us. (See my previous post about the financial adjustment.) It's not exactly what we bargained for, but it's hard to complain, unless you either truly hate a few days on a bus or just enjoy complaining.

We will be boarding Avalon Expression on October 5 so are following your trip with great interest. Fingers crossed that you will be cruising from Passau to Budapest!

Love all of the updates! We as well will be getting on the Expression on the 5th! Doing my rain dance! Hope all stay safe though with the weather warnings.

Bavaria got blitzed during the night with very strong winds and rain (which didn't fall mainly on the Spanish plain).

The Danube's two main tributaries (both below the shallows :() Isar by deggendorf and Inn by Passau (also Danube) are both carrying a lot more water than they have recently, so tis should have a positive effect on the Bratislava - Budapeest stretch of the river.

The two shallow areas, Pfelling and Straubing, the reiver levels have and are rising :). It looks like that there maybe (repeat maybe) a window opening up where this stretch of river could be passable (depending on the boat's draft). If it does happen, there is way to say how long it will last, as we are due for at least 4 sunny days now.

So fingers crossed and you dancers keep jigging away.

We are in Nuremburg and were supposed to rejoin our ship (Emerald Star) in Passau tomorrow night but because the water levels are up in the Danube we are joining it higher up stream at Regensburg early tomorrow afternoon.

ukgolfer,

good to hear. And this the reason it is looking a little better on the Danube: https://screenshots.firefox.com/Vwrr6YYid0NPuAxH/pegelonline.wsv.de The gauge at Pfelling has risen 25cm in 24 hours. At the time of the screenshot on the right-hand side you can see that from 17:00 hours to 17:15 hours today there has been a drop of 5cm. Is this an exception or has the level already peaked again? If so, I think river cruise ships need to make a dash to get through... But hopefully the water from the Upper Danube will help tomorrow and the day after.

notamermaid

We are in Nuremburg and were supposed to rejoin our ship (Emerald Star) in Passau tomorrow night but because the water levels are up in the Danube we are joining it higher up stream at Regensburg early tomorrow afternoon.

Thats exciting, thanks for the update. We leave in 2 weeks for Prague!!

The two shallow areas, Pfelling and Straubing, the reiver levels have and are rising :). It looks like that there maybe (repeat maybe) a window opening up where this stretch of river could be passable (depending on the boat's draft).

So it looks like my prediction that the Danube would be passable has come true (at least for now).

Watching this thread with interest. We enjoyed a Rhine cruise in October 2016 with Avalon. We liked being able to ‘do our own thing’ and wander independently rather than just go on organised excursions. I think we only did 3 half day organised excursions in the week long cruise which suited us.

We are booked on Avalon Expression Budapest to Prague leaving 17 October. I know that is 3 weeks away but the forecast looks sunny in Central Europe for the next week at least.

I am worried that if the Danube isn’t navigable that we will end up in hotels & long bus journeys and forced to do the organised tours.

I was looking forward to a relatively relaxing time on board ship as life has been stressful lately (caring for elderly parent) & I don’t want to be packing & moving every day. In fact one of my happiest memories of our last cruise was being on board ship when most other passengers were away. My friend & I relaxed in the hot tub & felt like we were millionaires on our own private yacht!

If rain doesn’t arrive will we be allowed to cancel or rebook for a different date? I would be disappointed but would prefer that to an exhausting bus tour.

Watching this thread with interest. We enjoyed a Rhine cruise in October 2016 with Avalon. We liked being able to ‘do our own thing’ and wander independently rather than just go on organised excursions. I think we only did 3 half day organised excursions in the week long cruise which suited us.

 

 

 

We are booked on Avalon Expression Budapest to Prague leaving 17 October. I know that is 3 weeks away but the forecast looks sunny in Central Europe for the next week at least.

 

 

 

I am worried that if the Danube isn’t navigable that we will end up in hotels & long bus journeys and forced to do the organised tours.

 

I was looking forward to a relatively relaxing time on board ship as life has been stressful lately (caring for elderly parent) & I don’t want to be packing & moving every day. In fact one of my happiest memories of our last cruise was being on board ship when most other passengers were away. My friend & I relaxed in the hot tub & felt like we were millionaires on our own private yacht!

 

 

 

If rain doesn’t arrive will we be allowed to cancel or rebook for a different date? I would be disappointed but would prefer that to an exhausting bus tour.

Good question. From what I have read in the threads Avalon has been generous and accommodating. Many have been offered full refunds or compensation for the disruption.

On the downside, it may not come until the last minute.

For myself I am looking at a Plan B, an on my own trip. I have been stressed for a few weeks now, and have decided to go with the flow. On their site they advise to contact your TA or them directly.

So no one knows.

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We are now on the Avalon Illumination from Nuremberg to Budapest next week. Maybe.

We booked the Passion July, 2017 and Avalon made the switch about four weeks ago due to the low river on the Danube. Obviously we were expecting a relaxing river cruise and not the busyness that goes with luggage, bussing, and uncertainty.

This is our first European trip and river cruise and we are disappointed that it is not going as planned. Yet.

So we will make lemonade and take lots of sugar cookies and enjoy this unexpected adventure trusting God for the plan he has for us and this trip.

Thank you all for the comments, ideas, and great links to find out what’s what on the Danube.

Was your trip on the Avalon Passion July, 2017 last year cancelled? What ship were you on this year that was switched about four weeks? We're leaving the 2nd week in October & hoping for lots of rain!

After two wonderful, but cool, days in Budapest, we are on board the Avalon Panorama, heading towards Vienna. The captain in cautiously optimistic that we will make it to Nuremberg. We will wait to see what the next week brings.

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Just received an e-mail from Viking letting us know our cruise itinerary will possibly change. Our ship out of Budapest has been changed since our scheduled ship can’t get up to Budapest. Sounds like the stretch between Passau and Regensburg is experiencing very low water levels. We are to depart Budapest on the 28th of Sep and disembark on 6 Oct in Nuremburg. Thank goodness we purchased the Silver Spirits liquor package. We will probably neeed it:D

Today, was a suny cool day along the Danube, this weater is expected to continue for the next several days.

The river levels at Straubing and Pfeling are expected to peak tonight and start falling over the next two days. It is too early to define how much the river level fall will be.

At least boats can move between Passau and Regensburg over the next day or so.

More rain dancing please.