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

notamermaid

By notamermaid,
in River Cruising

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Patliwva

Patliwva

Posted
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When were you notified? Were you given an option to opt out of cruise? We are scheduled to board the Amber on the 30th in Budapest but I’m not so sure that will happen — it’s been docked in Vienna for the last several days & it doesn’t look like there are any boats going to Budapest ( or much movement on the river)

 

We are on the Viking Atla in Vienna and are supposed to cruise to Budapest but are spending the night in Vienna and will be bussed to Budapest. From what we heard, ships can’t get in or out of Budapest due to low water.

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jwcsr

jwcsr

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I am currently on the Tauck Savor, Budapest to Prague. We were bused from Budapest to Vienna to our ship. We were bused from ship to Bratislava Slovakia for tour, then back to Vienna for 2 more days. Only an hour drive. We have not missed any ports and are right on schedule. The low water level on Danube prevented ship from going to Budapest. We r now in Passau and will be leaving ship tomorrow going to Regensburg, then to Prague for 2 days before departure for home, all included in Tauck itinerary. It has been a delightful trip. I understand that one of the cruises was completely cancelled.

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paysonfa

paysonfa

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AmaCerto is in Passau. Had to take a bus to the ship from Nuremberg. Tomorrow they are combining the 2 Nuremberg tours and making it an all day trip. Also option to stay on board for 2 hour river cruise to Engelhartszel and back. Then afternoon tour to Tittling for a tour of the village and the open air market.area.

Looks like we'll stay in Passau 2 nites and then, hopefully, stay on schedule for rest of trip. Still iffy between Batavia and Budapest.

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G.M.T.

G.M.T.

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AmaCerto is in Passau. Had to take a bus to the ship from Nuremberg. Tomorrow they are combining the 2 Nuremberg tours and making it an all day trip. Also option to stay on board for 2 hour river cruise to Engelhartszel and back. Then afternoon tour to Tittling for a tour of the village and the open air market.area.

Looks like we'll stay in Passau 2 nites and then, hopefully, stay on schedule for rest of trip. Still iffy between Batavia and Budapest.

 

Staying in Passau is probably the best choice, Passau - Nuremberg is at least a 2 1/2 hour drive, so 5 hours for the day.

 

Cruise down to Engelhartszell, takes you through some very picturesque scenery, if visiting the Abbey try their home made schapp and beer.

 

Tittling is about 30 minutes drive to the north of Passau, tomorrow is the Herbstkita (county fair) with people displaying and selling their products, open 09:00 - 16:00. There is also the 61st. Tittlinger Volksfest, like a Christmas Maket, but in summer, open until 24:00.

 

ALso worthwhile, if time is available is a visit to Bavarian Forest Museum Village, where old farm houses, barns, mills, brewery etc. have been rescued frombe scrapped and have been rerected into a village atmosphere:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavarian_Forest_Museum_Village

 

Have a great day, wave as you pass Ruderting on the B85.

 

Herbstkirta

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G.M.T.

G.M.T.

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It has been raining on and off along the Danube today, two critical points are Starubing and Pfelling, here both levels have risen by about 30 cm. Will now have to wait to see if these new levels can be maintained or even improved upon or if they will fall back.

 

 

Yesterday (Friday) there was torrential rain around Salzburg that caused severe flash flooding in some areas. This water will flow into the River Inn and then into the Danube in Passau. So this should help downstream from Passau, together with the local rain, things between Bratislava and Budapest could improve.

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Marjan1

Marjan1

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Thank you everyone for your updates. We are due to leave Budapest (?) on 3rd September heading for Amsterdam. At least we have a realistic idea of what to expect. Luckily we are doing a pre-cruise stay in Prague and will be transferred to the ship - wherever it is !

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mskaufman Great Review Rare

mskaufman

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We are on the Viking Atla in Vienna and are supposed to cruise to Budapest but are spending the night in Vienna and will be bussed to Budapest. From what we heard, ships can’t get in or out of Budapest due to low water.

 

We were on the Atla a couple of weeks ago. At that time they were able to get from Vienna to a place in Hungary about 60 miles outside of Budapest. I guess the benefit there was that the bus ride into Budapest was shorter.

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Paulchili

Paulchili

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I am seeing Viking longships well east of Budapest. (cruisemapper.com) Two appear to be docked in Komarno, which is only 60 road miles from Budapest. So perhaps things are improving for the moment.

 

Just for the sake of accuracy - Komarom, Hungary and Komarno, Slovakia (across the border) are both NW and not East of Budapest. :)

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steamboats Great Review Rare

steamboats

Posted
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It has been raining on and off along the Danube today, two critical points are Starubing and Pfelling, here both levels have risen by about 30 cm. Will now have to wait to see if these new levels can be maintained or even improved upon or if they will fall back.

 

Just a little rain here in Munich and the Isar river hasn´t risen more than half a centimeter. The local rain along the Danube river will not help much as it´ll be soon gone downriver. What´s needed is a lot of rain along the tributaries of the Danube river. And as I said we didn´t have much. Even the 30 cm rise at Pfelling did not get the level over the "low" mark but is still within the "very low".

 

Unfortunately the forecast has no rain for the next week.

 

 

steamboats

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YWW

YWW

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We just came back yesterday from Viking's Grand European 14-day voyage from Amsterdam to Budapest. The river levels in E urope especially some portions of Rhine and Danube are critically low forcing many cruise ships to do last minute ship swaps or itinerary changes or cancellations. We were supposed to board Viking Bragi in Amsterdam on Aug 11 but Bragi couldn't make it to Amsterdam due to low water levels so we went on another identical Viking Skadi which happened to be in Amsterdam instead. That went smoothly for about 6 days then we had to switch to Viking Bragi, our original river boat in Nuremburg since Skadi couldn't proceed further due to low water level. We went on by bus to continue our excursions and Viking took care of all our luggage and moved them to Bragi. We thought that was the end of the problem until we arrived Vienna. Danube water level was so low in some spots that Viking had to bus us from Vienna to Budapest instead and put us overnight in the local Ritz Carlton Hotel, Hilton, .... The bus ride from Vienna to Budapest was 3.5 hours but Viking did everything possible to make sure we didn't miss most of the planned excursions. We were hoping to see the grand Budapest Parliament building from a river boat while sailing pass it but couldn't do it due to the low water levels. While in Budapest, we did notice many river boats from various companies all "stranded" in the Danube river harbor. The Viking river boat captain told us the Danube river needs about 3 feet (about 100cm) of rain to bring the river level up to normal level. He is not very confident the river level will improve that much next few months. Weather has been extremely hot and dry in Europe. It was in the 90s throughout our sailing.

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Megpat

Megpat

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Sunday 26: We left Scenic Jade at Regensburg this morning and after bus trips today we were transferred to Scenic Pearl at Linz this afternoon.

Pearl was at Passau this morning before returning downstream to Linz. I understand that passengers from Pearl were transferred to Jade. I assume our luggage was loaded onto Pearl when it was in Passau.

Hoping we can get to Budapest! Doesn’t sound as though we will.

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Paulchili

Paulchili

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I have seen a lot of reports about low water levels requiring busing from Vienna to Budapest (and v.v.)

We are scheduled to cruise from Budapest to Bucharest in October. Any recent reports about water levels on that segment of Danube?

TIA

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taxare

taxare

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Sunday 26: We left Scenic Jade at Regensburg this morning and after bus trips today we were transferred to Scenic Pearl at Linz this afternoon.

Pearl was at Passau this morning before returning downstream to Linz. I understand that passengers from Pearl were transferred to Jade. I assume our luggage was loaded onto Pearl when it was in Passau.

Hoping we can get to Budapest! Doesn’t sound as though we will.

Megpat, thanks so much for the update. I'm still doing our rain dance! :)

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