Rhine docking side by side

[bobpell]

Any cruise company on the Rhine have its own dock in each town or do they all dock side by side ?

Thanks

Bob

[notamermaid]

Hello Bob,

 

the answer, I am afraid, is not a straightforward one. Viking does have their own docks on the Rhine in some towns that they of course regularly use. At those docks they also dock side by side as they now have so many ships on the Rhine. Taken from a tripadvisor review, here is a photo of the situation in Koblenz: https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/10/f1/34/cf/koblenz-cable-ride-1.jpg

 

This does not apply to all stops and definitely not to Viking in Amsterdam and less and less in Cologne. Technically Amsterdam is not on the Rhine or anywhere near it, but as it is the usual embarkation port I include it here. Amsterdam has got increasingly busy with Viking cruisers here having complained about docking far away from any sights. In Cologne people have recently reported being quite far out from the town centre although the company has places closer to the Cathedral. You can see the situation in Cologne and just how many docks there are (for both excursion boats and river cruise ships) on this map by the German company 1AVista Reisen: https://www.1avista.de/media/pdf/1AVista_Karte_Anleger_2015-185-2.pdf

 

At least three docking places have been built in recent years by local authorities in collaboration (i.e. also think: money) with river cruise companies. The arrangements for using those docks will differ from place to place.

 

Generally speaking unless a dock is private the place is allocated by the harbour master and no river cruise company in those places has a say in who they dock with. That is down to the day of the week, special occasion, popularity of a port, etc. Ports that have only been established as destinations in the last four years (and some minor ones of less popularity) do not see that much double-docking. A few docks are not allowed for double-docking, these of course tend to be older technical structures.

 

So, who you travel with, how long you stay in a port and how busy it is, determines the likelihood of docking side by side (also called rafting) and these days you are more likely to encounter it than not at least once on a Rhine cruise in eight days. Unless you go on the first cruise of the season or in a bleak November week.

 

notamermaid

[HenrysAunt]

I didn't travel with Viking, but certainly noticed more Viking boats rafted than any others. While they may have their own docks, they have so many boats on the rivers now, it looked to me like they need more docks. I couldn't tell you if they raft overnight as our boat mainly sailed through the night. However, they rafted at least 4 across in Vienna overnight, and I saw them rafted again overnight in Budapest. The only time we rafted was during the day and I found it quite interesting passing through the other boat to get ashore. Never more than one to pass through though.