Low Water: Elbe Cruises Disrupted

[HDS]

Bitterly disappointed that, because of low water, our 7 day cruise Prague to Berlin on the Elbe with Viking was a 6 day bus trip with one day’s cruising. The cruising, with 5cm of water to spare, showed the captain’s skill but was through the least spectacular part of the river. The low river caused by little snow in winter followed by an evaporative June heatwave, is beyond Viking’s control. It’s unlikely Elbe cruises will sail until there is a heavy dump of rain in the catchment in Germany and Czech Republic.

We were bussed from Prague to the Viking Fontane in Dresden with long bus trips from there to some of the intended ports. If one is stuck in a port, Dresden was a beautiful port to be stuck in. Part way through the “non-cruise” we were bussed to the sister ship, Viking Schumann at Wittenburg.

Viking crew were unfailingly upbeat, cheerful, courteous, charming and accepting of the extra work created by changing passengers part way through the “non-voyage”. The food was delicious and plentiful; included wines at meals were very acceptable and unstinted. Our local guides were somewhere between excellent and brilliant.

Viking’s handling of the situation to maximise our use of time in the towns where we were moored could have been better. We were moored in Dresden for two uneventful days before we were given information about the town’s attractions. By then it was too late to book into those that ran only by guided tour.

There were (shallow draft) tourist boats making day trips from Dresden. Possibly through a misunderstanding, Viking staff didn’t get us the information about these cruises that we had requested when we arrived in Dresden. By the time we fronted the booking office on our final day there, the daily cruise upstream through Saxon Switzerland (the most scenic part of the Elbe) had just departed. Making this option available to its passengers would have won Viking many friends. Facilitating it as a pay your own way option would have been good for us.

All passengers have been promised that Viking head office will contact them about compensation for the non-cruise. Nothing has come to our email and we do not return to our home till next month to read our snail mail.

A word of warning about cabins. We thought cabin 110 on Viking Fontane was a tad noisy when we walked in. When we went to bed a vibration in the walls transferred through the mattress and pillows to our ears, creating a shattering, deafening, nauseating noise that made sleep impossible. We were moved to 111 on the other side of the ship which had no vibrations. Other passengers complained of noise in cabins on both decks.

I will post full a review to the reviews section ASAP.

[NC Garden Traveler]

HDS,

 

Thanks for the information. Sorry to hear that the river level is so low. Predicting rainfall is difficult, but your comments about the Viking crew and the day boat cruise option upriver from Dresden are much appreciated.

 

Do you have any idea about how the draft on the Fontane compares to the draft on Viking's two new Elbe River ships (Astrild and Bestla)?

 

NC Garden Traveler

[steamboats]

NC Garden Traveler,

 

The Elbe river requires ships with a shallower draft. The Viking Astrild and Belya - which are coming next year - are no longships but smaller with a capacity of only 49 cabins/98 passengers. They are designed for the Elbe river. So are the Viking Schuhmann and Viking Fontane.

 

Anyway the Elbe river is one of the shallowest navigable rivers in Germany. There are no locks and dams on the German side which could control the pool and channel. The Czech side has locks and dams.

 

HDS,

 

I´m sorry that Viking did not provide any information about the historic sidewheel steamboats of the Sächsische Dampfschifffahrt

 

https://www.saechsische-dampfschiffahrt.de/en/

 

This is the largest fleet of steamboats with nine sidewheel steamboats. One - the Diesbar - is still coal fired. The oldest - Stadt Wehlen - is built in 1879 (no this is no typo!). They are doing day excursions upriver through Saxonian Switzerland til Bad Schandau (close to the Czech border) and downriver to Seusslitz (including Meissen). This is just a perfect way to experience the Elbe river.

 

BTW my Elbe river cruise should have gone from Dresden to Bad Schandau and then downriver to Hamburg. Due to low water we couldn´t go upriver through the Saxonian Switzerland (the ship could, but then the river channel would have been too small to turn around). We also missed one port on the downriver part as it was too shallow to dock there. That was back in 2006.

 

steamboats

[Viking Cruises]

Bitterly disappointed that, because of low water, our 7 day cruise Prague to Berlin on the Elbe with Viking was a 6 day bus trip with one day’s cruising. The cruising, with 5cm of water to spare, showed the captain’s skill but was through the least spectacular part of the river. The low river caused by little snow in winter followed by an evaporative June heatwave, is beyond Viking’s control. It’s unlikely Elbe cruises will sail until there is a heavy dump of rain in the catchment in Germany and Czech Republic.

We were bussed from Prague to the Viking Fontane in Dresden with long bus trips from there to some of the intended ports. If one is stuck in a port, Dresden was a beautiful port to be stuck in. Part way through the “non-cruise” we were bussed to the sister ship, Viking Schumann at Wittenburg.

Viking crew were unfailingly upbeat, cheerful, courteous, charming and accepting of the extra work created by changing passengers part way through the “non-voyage”. The food was delicious and plentiful; included wines at meals were very acceptable and unstinted. Our local guides were somewhere between excellent and brilliant.

Viking’s handling of the situation to maximise our use of time in the towns where we were moored could have been better. We were moored in Dresden for two uneventful days before we were given information about the town’s attractions. By then it was too late to book into those that ran only by guided tour.

There were (shallow draft) tourist boats making day trips from Dresden. Possibly through a misunderstanding, Viking staff didn’t get us the information about these cruises that we had requested when we arrived in Dresden. By the time we fronted the booking office on our final day there, the daily cruise upstream through Saxon Switzerland (the most scenic part of the Elbe) had just departed. Making this option available to its passengers would have won Viking many friends. Facilitating it as a pay your own way option would have been good for us.

All passengers have been promised that Viking head office will contact them about compensation for the non-cruise. Nothing has come to our email and we do not return to our home till next month to read our snail mail.

A word of warning about cabins. We thought cabin 110 on Viking Fontane was a tad noisy when we walked in. When we went to bed a vibration in the walls transferred through the mattress and pillows to our ears, creating a shattering, deafening, nauseating noise that made sleep impossible. We were moved to 111 on the other side of the ship which had no vibrations. Other passengers complained of noise in cabins on both decks.

I will post full a review to the reviews section ASAP.

 

Dear HDS,

 

We’re very sorry to hear of your disappointment. We passed your comments along to our Customer Relations team and have asked them to contact you to discuss your particular experience. All passengers will indeed be contacted by Customer Relations regarding the ways in which the river levels impacted your itinerary. As your cruise just ended, it may be a couple of days before that initial email arrives; we sincerely appreciate your patience. In the meantime, if there’s anything you’d like to bring to our attention, please know we would welcome hearing from you again at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

 

Wishing you safe and happy travels for the remainder of your trip.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

[CPT Trips]

Steamboats,

Totally off topic. I see the link for the shallower draft side paddles only has 2 "f"s in schiffahrt, but should it be 3 schiff+fahrt? :p

[steamboats]

CPT Trips,

 

Yes, 3 "f" is the new spelling, 2 "f" is the way I learned it at school :rolleyes:. The rule used to be "if there´s a vocal in front and after the consonants then it´s only 2 consonants for the combined word". They wanted to make it easier... so now the rule is gone and the correct spelling is Schifffahrt. They didn´t change the domain name but when you go on the Website they use

 

Dampf

Schiff

Fahrt

 

How about this:

 

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän :D

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

Hello steamboats,

 

aahh, the German spelling rules. Study them for 10 years and then they change them... I get mixed up like so many people. One of my old favourites, we used to claim that Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüssel is the longest word in the German language. :D I doubt it. ;)

 

As I have mentioned in another thread, I think some thoughts could go into trying to incorporate local companies into the issue of missing stretches of river due to low water. It would be possible on the Danube and Rhine in some parts.

 

It is a great pity that Viking has not - perhaps has not been able to - offered something for their passengers on the recent cruises. I did not know that there is still a real steam paddler on the Elbe. Wow.

 

notamermaid

[steamboats]

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüssel

 

Never heard this before, but I can top it:

 

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger ;)!

 

steamboats

Edited July 1, 2014 by steamboats
Sorry, I don´t have a clue why there´s a "space" in this short word... doesn´t show up when I type it.

[jpalbny]

Never heard this before, but I can top it:

 

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger ;)!

 

steamboats

 

Mehr, bitte!

 

 

Apparently CC's text editor will automatically insert a space after 50 letters when displaying. I will type a series of longer words; watch what happens (I put no space in any of these):

 

dampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

udampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

audampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

naudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

onaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger

 

 

Someone has to fix the programming otherwise we won't be able to use these long words! I am really enjoying all of the commentary from our German friends. :)

[steamboats]

JP,

 

I think you´re right. Not more than 50 letters in one word :D!

 

I´m trying to give a translation of this nice word:

 

Danube river steamboat company captain´s cabin keychain

 

I think I have to lengthen it a bit:

 

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger ;)

 

Hey, we do leave out the word "river", Danube is just enough for us :D.

 

steamboats

[CPT Trips]

And now we know why German's, and Austrians too, do not play Scrabble! :D

[purduemom1]

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajütenschlüsselanhänger ;)

 

Now there's an idea for a password that would be hard to crack:)

[steamboats]

You would need several Scrabble boards to lay this word :D!

 

steamboats

[gentlemancruiser]

good luck HRS. Please come back and keep us posted.

 

As Viking has said I'm sure Customer Relations will contact you to tell you the ways in which the river levels impacted your itinerary

[HDS]

TellUs at Viking,

 

I have emailed you directly, again. I hope you will acknowledge my email this time.

[Viking Cruises]

TellUs at Viking,

 

I have emailed you directly, again. I hope you will acknowledge my email this time.

 

Dear HDS,

 

Thank you for reaching out to us. We received your e-mail and have asked our team in Australia to contact you to discuss your cruise. If you do not hear from them over the next 1-2 business days, please let us know.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises