therapyphd

[therapyphd]

My wife and I are going on the Viking cruise from Budapest on the Danube on November 20th. We are hearing about the water levels on the Danube and are concerned that the boat will not be able to go the entire trip. Any help we can get would be appreciated.

[capriccio]

My wife and I are going on the Viking cruise from Budapest on the Danube on November 20th. We are hearing about the water levels on the Danube and are concerned that the boat will not be able to go the entire trip. Any help we can get would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to cruise critic! Go to the River Cruising Forum at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=191. There are a number of threads regarding the Danube water levels with local contributors and passengers on board right now. Start with this one (the most current) http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2098866 but make sure you take a look at others - some are specifically about Viking I think.

Edited November 3, 2015 by capriccio

[therapyphd]

Thank you for the links. We are nervous about what the low water levels mean and whether we will end up spending a lot of time on a bus instead of on the boat. We were looking forward to a relaxing trip where we could unpack and enjoy the ride and tours for the whole trip. These water level issues put that whole thought in question. Just what does transferring boats involve? Is it really bad to have to take a bus. It sort of defeats the whole idea of a 'river cruise'!?

[capriccio]

Thank you for the links. We are nervous about what the low water levels mean and whether we will end up spending a lot of time on a bus instead of on the boat. We were looking forward to a relaxing trip where we could unpack and enjoy the ride and tours for the whole trip. These water level issues put that whole thought in question. Just what does transferring boats involve? Is it really bad to have to take a bus. It sort of defeats the whole idea of a 'river cruise'!?

 

Given that the low water has been an issue since July, I would think that most river cruise lines have the ship swap process down pat by now.The specific thread link I gave has lots of current info from Viking cruisers. Just read the last couple of pages.

 

I will tell you our experience this August on a Uniworld Budapest to Amsterdam cruise. We were notified 2 days before departure (we were actually in the airport for our flight to Budapest) that a ship swap would be needed and for our inconvenience Uniworld would give us $1000 credit each to be used by the end of 2017. The swap itself was between sister ships and our wonderful cruise director went with us. We had a morning in Melk Abby as planned, then a catered lunch at a lovely restaurant (since we had left the ship) and then a 4 hour or so (was longer than it should have been due to heavy traffic and 2 accidents on the autobahn) ride to Regensburg and boarded our new ship. Our next day was in Regensburg and the following day we were due to be in Passau. We had to bus there (about 1 hour and 15 minutes if I remember correctly) and back to Regensburg so our day for Passau was longer than originally anticipated. Uniworld gave everyone 20 Euros for 'lunch money' since we didn't have the option of lunch on the ship. After Passau the itinerary continued without any timing issues.

 

This has been a particularly brutal summer (and now fall) for the region. On our 15 day cruise we had 11 days of temps in the mid 90s in an area that doesn't have air conditioning in most homes. The corn was stunted and yellowed and obviously tourism on the river was impacted. I feel really sorry for the residents of the area.