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

For our Scenic cruise, we were given this link in order to find the location of any Scenic ship. Perhaps there is a similar one available for Viking.

www.anyoverip.de/scenic

My question is 'does anyone know which Viking ships are 'out of place' on the Danube because of the low water especially between Bucharest and Budapest?'

You can track the ships here: http://www.marinetraffic.com

'out of place' is a bit harder to determine as the ships will get reassigned to different cruises depending on where they are and where they can reach for embarkation dates when there are water level issues.

For our Scenic cruise, we were given this link in order to find the location of any Scenic ship. Perhaps there is a similar one available for Viking.

www.anyoverip.de/scenic

Thanks Karen,

This is a very informative website.

On Scenic Amber mid Sept - hoping for lots of rain between now and then :-) but feeling sad for the folks who are being impacted by the low water levels now.

hoping for lots of rain between now and then :-)

We're crusiing on Avalon this friday from Budapest to Nuremburg, our boat (Impression) was not able to get past Regensburg, so Avalon has changed our boat.

Question, It seems the boats were not able to get from Deggendorf to Regensburg, is that sitll true? Has there been any rain to improve the situations? Thanks!

Thought I might show you a graph on the situation on the Danube at Pfelling, which is in the stretch that is not navigable. This screenshot shows the official levels for the last 31 days as taken from the official website pegel online: https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/5986c0c5-4fab-46b5-96b6-84e6cdb89717.png

The link works for 14 days, I think. You can see how consistently low it has been. MNW means mean low water (a statistical value), NW low water (a stastical value), NNW the lowest known water level. It seems to suggest that Pfelling got itself a new low level record on 12 August. Sad...

Now, I do not know how high it needs to be there to give all ships the chance to sail through the whole stretch but to me it does not look promising for the next few days. I hope the lower temperatures and some rain soon will help. It is currently raining in Bavaria but temperatures are forecast to rise again tomorrow with little to no rain forecast.

notamermaid

We are cruising Passau to Budapest return - Bike Barge. Lots of trips are getting changed, half by barge half by bus. Do not fancy doing the Danube by bus.

Anyone know if it is likey to be low mid September or is it no idea? Too hard to predict weather or will not change.

Appreciate any insight.

We are currently in Vienna, so nearing the end of our Amsterdam to Budapest cruise. It has been amazing and we feel very fortunate, especially keeping in mind the current conditions. A week before we left Australia we were told we would change ships at Nuremberg, from AmaVenita to AmaReina. On our changeover day every passenger received 25 euros for lunch. Everything else has been according to timetable - with a drive to and from Regensburg offered - or a Passau tour and a tour of Trappist Abbey at Engelhartszell, where we were moored. I cannot fault APT in any way.

We are cruising Passau to Budapest return - Bike Barge. Lots of trips are getting changed, half by barge half by bus. Do not fancy doing the Danube by bus.

 

Anyone know if it is likey to be low mid September or is it no idea? Too hard to predict weather or will not change.

 

Appreciate any insight.

No one knows or can predict how the weather and river levels will be.

We are currently in Vienna, so nearing the end of our Amsterdam to Budapest cruise. It has been amazing and we feel very fortunate, especially keeping in mind the current conditions. A week before we left Australia we were told we would change ships at Nuremberg, from AmaVenita to AmaReina. On our changeover day every passenger received 25 euros for lunch. Everything else has been according to timetable - with a drive to and from Regensburg offered - or a Passau tour and a tour of Trappist Abbey at Engelhartszell, where we were moored. I cannot fault APT in any way.

Did you do the Abbey tour? The monks make great schnapps and beer?

I visit once a month to stock up on beer.

I sure did! We were all given a little bottle of Scnapps at the end of the tour - and my husband bought one of the beers. He enjoyed it! The Abbey was such a lovely bonus - gorgeous village, wonderful history, beautiful grounds and three river replica - and Harry the giant sturgeon as a true welcome! The Abbey itself was very special. Without low water levels we wouldn't have visited - swings and roundabouts, as they say!

Thanks to posters with the updates on the Danube sailings - staying optimistic for our mid Sept cruise Nuremberg to Budapest

I sure did! We were all given a little bottle of Scnapps at the end of the tour - and my husband bought one of the beers. He enjoyed it! The Abbey was such a lovely bonus - gorgeous village, wonderful history, beautiful grounds and three river replica - and Harry the giant sturgeon as a true welcome! The Abbey itself was very special. Without low water levels we wouldn't have visited - swings and roundabouts, as they say!

ohmuriel,

Thank you for the update. I must say, AmaWaterways seem to have been doing a really good job. And the Abbey at Engelhartszell is getting more attractive the more I read about it. When I first came across, I thought "this sounds like a bit of a hidden gem, it should be checked out by river cruise lines as a potential excursion." :)

Now onto the somewhat bad news. As I correctly interpreted day before yesterday Pfelling has got a new low water record. It is official: https://binnenschifffahrt-online.de/2018/08/haefen-wasserstrassen/4444/donau-pegel-so-tief-wie-nie/ The new record is 2.28m which means that the navigation channel is 1.38m deep. According to the authorities in Regensburg the river cruise ships have a draft of between 1.4m and 1.9m. They run into problems with sailing when the depth falls under 2.0m. Below 1.50m it effectively also stops barges and results in the stretch between Straubing and Deggendorf not being navigable for large river cruise ships and barges.

Since then there has been a rise and Pfelling gauging station currently shows 2.41m.

notamermaid

Anybody out there on the Scenic Amber, Budapest to Nuremberg, Oct.11 this year?

ohmuriel,

 

Thank you for the update. I must say, AmaWaterways seem to have been doing a really good job. And the Abbey at Engelhartszell is getting more attractive the more I read about it. When I first came across, I thought "this sounds like a bit of a hidden gem, it should be checked out by river cruise lines as a potential excursion." :)

 

notamermaid

Noooooo! We locals want to keep some secrets and not have them over run.:)

Local press is reporting that the Danube has the shalllowest water levels in 70 years, with no change in sight. Luckily we haven't reached the stage of things being rationed as in WWII:

"We were only allowed 5 inches of bath water per family once a week so we had to share the same bath water. Also only one toilet roll was allowed per family per week. Coal was almost non-existent and we were officially only allowed 1 gas-ring for cooking dinner."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/98/a2756298.shtml

Hi all

We've been tracking Viking Aegir's progress and it appears to be stationary at Mohaks. Is there a problem with the Danube towards the Black Sea as well as near Passau? We are due to board in Bucharest on September 6th and keeping our fingers crossed for sailing.

It is my understanding that Viking ships can't get to Budapest from Vienna. There are buses taking people part of the way.

Travelling Budapest to Linz and back on Sunday 19th August with Riviera. Two days time.

We have then booked three days extension in Budapest.

Just got a phone call - No water in the Danube, so.....

First two nights are in Budapest on a different boat

Then transfer to another boat that is moored somewhere on Third day

Then up to Linz and back somewhere to transfer to another boat in Budapest (sixth day?).

No point unpacking!

So our 10 day holiday will be 5 days in Budapest.

(If I wanted 5 days in Budapest I would have booked a hotel there!)

Lack of water happens and I'm grumpy BUT

Why cant Riviera tell me what the new itinerary is, what will be done to compensate for the upheaval and bussing everywhere. For goodness sake we are off in two days !!!

There are 6 of us, cost 14,000 GBP doesn't look good!

I'm thankful that I don't work for a river cruise line. I'm thinking that it's been a very bad year for riverboat crewmen. Paris in February had too much water. Over on the Rhine River blog I just read about a cruise that was canceled completely!

I'm assuming cruise lines have a wealth of experience with the flukes of weather patterns and know how long they have to wait before making itinerary changes. It would be really irritating to be traveling on buses while watching rain pour down alongside a flooded river.

we are also on the Sept 20 Scenic Amber so trying to monitor situation.

Travelling Budapest to Linz and back on Sunday 19th August with Riviera. Two days time.

 

We have then booked three days extension in Budapest.

 

Just got a phone call - No water in the Danube, so.....

 

First two nights are in Budapest on a different boat

Then transfer to another boat that is moored somewhere on Third day

Then up to Linz and back somewhere to transfer to another boat in Budapest (sixth day?).

No point unpacking!

 

So our 10 day holiday will be 5 days in Budapest.

(If I wanted 5 days in Budapest I would have booked a hotel there!)

 

Lack of water happens and I'm grumpy BUT

Why cant Riviera tell me what the new itinerary is, what will be done to compensate for the upheaval and bussing everywhere. For goodness sake we are off in two days !!!

 

There are 6 of us, cost 14,000 GBP doesn't look good!

Wow, I feel your pain. What cruise line are you with, sorry I am unfamiliar with Riviera, except the Oceania Riviera. We are booked on a Scenic river cruise on the Danube in October and based on what is happening, it will probably be our last.

It is very iffy with high and low water levels.

Hope things turn out fine for you and your party!

Noooooo! We locals want to keep some secrets and not have them over run.:)

 

 

Local press is reporting that the Danube has the shalllowest water levels in 70 years, with no change in sight. Luckily we haven't reached the stage of things being rationed as in WWII:

 

"We were only allowed 5 inches of bath water per family once a week so we had to share the same bath water. Also only one toilet roll was allowed per family per week. Coal was almost non-existent and we were officially only allowed 1 gas-ring for cooking dinner."

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/98/a2756298.shtml

Well,a very timely wake up call. We are so spoiled! We have never lacked for anything. So a low water lever in the Danube won’t kill us!

Thanks

We leave on Monday on Scenic. It's suppose to be the Pearl but I'm guessing that it won't be. We haven't heard anything from Scenic yet about changes. I'll post if or when I do.

It is both disappointing and expensive to not have the holiday experience you pay for.

Not just in terms of money many chose river cruising over bus trips for reasons around health/welfare and are disadvantaged by changes.

During the floods in 2013 some spent 20 hour days moving from ships to ships. Some had 3 ship swaps.

These experiences were well documented in the cases of 13 cruises that were impacted in the class action that involved scenic but other lines and passengers also suffered, as did the local people.

it is really important for these issues to be disclosed when purchasing and have a back up plan, as well as knowing the exact consequences around compensation or lack of.