Crystal Low-Water-Level Schedule Changes/Cancellations

[Kwaj girl]

15 hours ago, Mangiantini said:

I use a website called cruisemapper   www.cruisemapper.com   There is a search box and you type in the name of the vessel and it locates it on a map.  Ravel is currently docked at Linz.

Thank you.  Have looked at this site about 2 weeks ago - it still has the vessel in the same location - "Wismar" which appears to be Germany!  Says "Last report 3/28/18, 1438 UTC" so I don't know what's going on with that.

[Mangiantini]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

Thank you.  Have looked at this site about 2 weeks ago - it still has the vessel in the same location - "Wismar" which appears to be Germany!  Says "Last report 3/28/18, 1438 UTC" so I don't know what's going on with that.

You are absolutely right!  I'm brain dead.  I was having the same issue with cruisemapper and found a better site  www.marinetraffic.com  and that one has up to date info!  You will have to put in vessel name, then do a few more clicks.  On the left side of the page, it gives current location with other data points as well!   Sorry I led you to the wrong place!

[Kwaj girl]

5 minutes ago, Mangiantini said:

You are absolutely right!  I'm brain dead.  I was having the same issue with cruisemapper and found a better site  www.marinetraffic.com  and that one has up to date info!  You will have to put in vessel name, then do a few more clicks.  On the left side of the page, it gives current location with other data points as well!   Sorry I led you to the wrong place!

 

Ah, yes!  Linz it is!  Will keep watch on this.  Have not received any email update from Crystal as to any itinerary update for our 13 Dec voyage.  Will be departing the U.S. a week from today so hopefully they will have firm plans in place so that we'll at least know where to go if they change the embarkation point.  Thank you for the website detail.

[Mangiantini]

3 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

 

Ah, yes!  Linz it is!  Will keep watch on this.  Have not received any email update from Crystal as to any itinerary update for our 13 Dec voyage.  Will be departing the U.S. a week from today so hopefully they will have firm plans in place so that we'll at least know where to go if they change the embarkation point.  Thank you for the website detail.

One more great site about Danube river information (water levels) that are updated every 24 hours called DoRIS.  http://www.doris.bmvit.gv.at   There has been a fairly big improvement over the last 24 hours, some spots as much as 70 centimeters. Look at the very last column. I haven't seen increases like this for the last 2 months. It could all go away again, but one can hope!  The names on the left correspond to different measuring stations along the Austrian Danube (not Germany or Hungary).  You'll have to play around on the site to figure things out.

Pegel	11-28		11-29		11-30		12-01		12-02		12-03		24h		48h		72h
	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-	cm	+/-
Achleiten	250	-2	244	-6	246	+2	242	-4	241	-1	256	+15	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wilhering	259	+2	244	-15	240	-4	241	+1	244	+3	277	+33	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mauthausen	425	+1	424	-1	424	0	424	0	425	+1	436	+11	-	-	-	-	-	-
Grein	708	+1	705	-3	704	-1	704	0	705	+1	716	+11	-	-	-	-	-	-
Kienstock	155	+3	142	-13	139	-3	132	-7	132	0	202	+70	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dürnstein	294	0	290	-4	287	-3	289	+2	287	-2	313	+26	-	-	-	-	-	-
Korneuburg	197	+5	191	-6	192	+1	182	-10	184	+2	219	+35	-	-	-	-	-	-
Schwedenbrücke	288	-2	287	-1	286	-1	287	+1	287	0	289	+2	-	-	-	-	-	-
Wildungsmauer	143	+14	127	-16	120	-7	109	-11	112	+3	150	+38	-	-	-	-	-	-
Thebnerstraßl	124	+15	107	-17	96	-11	86	-10	90	+4	122	+32	-	-	-	-	-	-

 

[Netta7]

Mangiantini - I am envious you were able to get on the Ravel.  You are lucky!   Even though my agent responded quickly, I was told it was full.   Rebooking flights was complicated and added almost $2,000 to the trip cost because Crystal’s flight compensation will not be not enough to cover the changes with holiday airfare pricing.   We can’t arrive until 12/21 which shortens the trip, but on the Ravel we could have stayed longer!     

 

On the plus side, I am hopeful the rain keeps us out of hotels and we have experienced all of our disappointments up front.  I am looking forward to the good Crystal service I have heard so much about because so far this trip has been one giant stressor!  

[Mangiantini]

8 minutes ago, Netta7 said:

Mangiantini - I am envious you were able to get on the Ravel.  You are lucky!   Even though my agent responded quickly, I was told it was full.   Rebooking flights was complicated and added almost $2,000 to the trip cost because Crystal’s flight compensation will not be not enough to cover the changes with holiday airfare pricing.   We can’t arrive until 12/21 which shortens the trip, but on the Ravel we could have stayed longer!     

 

On the plus side, I am hopeful the rain keeps us out of hotels and we have experienced all of our disappointments up front.  I am looking forward to the good Crystal service I have heard so much about because so far this trip has been one giant stressor!  

Netta7 - I think we were on the phone with Crystal within 10 minutes of getting the email with our options.  I think there were 4 or 5 cabins available at that time on the Ravel.  We did not have to touch our international air, we kept the flights going into Budapest and we were returning from England in January. The only thing we had to do was arrange transportation from Budapest to Vienna by car to board the Ravel and then new tickets from Vienna to England instead of the ones we had from Nuremburg to England that were a total loss. Which voyage are you actually sailing on now?

[Netta7]

We thought we called Crystal immediately, but I guess we were not fast enough to get on the Ravel.  We are now on the 12/20 Mozart sailing.  Wonderful ship and cabins.  It has just been hard and expensive to sort the flights.  It’s done now and I am ready to sail!

[Coral]

12 minutes ago, Netta7 said:

We thought we called Crystal immediately, but I guess we were not fast enough to get on the Ravel.  We are now on the 12/20 Mozart sailing.  Wonderful ship and cabins.  It has just been hard and expensive to sort the flights.  It’s done now and I am ready to sail!

Having just returned from the Mozart - I can tell you you are in for a real treat! I loved that ship. It had the best crew and having an extra wide ship made it very spacious. I wish I was spending Christmas on that ship! Sorry about the flight issues. I hope the trip is extra special for you to make up for it!

[Mangiantini]

1 hour ago, Netta7 said:

We thought we called Crystal immediately, but I guess we were not fast enough to get on the Ravel.  We are now on the 12/20 Mozart sailing.  Wonderful ship and cabins.  It has just been hard and expensive to sort the flights.  It’s done now and I am ready to sail!

Agree with Coral.  We would have gladly taken the Mozart itinerary but we couldn't get to Vienna by the 20th due to vacation time, etc.  We sailed the Mozart summer of 2017 and it was the best trip we've ever taken.  Fell in love with Crystal on that trip!  We still are in touch with several of our fellow passengers from that trip and had a mini reunion in Chicago a year later!  You are going to have a fabulous time!  Happy Holidays!

[Kwaj girl]

After getting 2 weekly Monday emails from Crystal ("we are keeping an eye on the river water levels and planning for alternatives.....") we did not get any update email this week.  I called Tuesday and was advised that a decision would be made no later than Thursday and we would be notified at that point as to the status of our 12/13 Budapest to Vienna voyage on Crystal Ravel.  Nope...nothing.  I called today and after sitting on hold was advised that "as of now there are no itinerary changes planned." Also no info as to the docking position for the vessel though I had been previously advised that these assignments are usually made 7 days prior to arrival.  So we are still up in the air as to what will really happen as nothing seems very certain at this point.  We shall see!  Wish us luck......🙏🏻

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

Wish us luck......🙏🏻

Good luck! I hope wherever you go - it is wonderful.

[larryfromtexas]

The Mozart has arrived in Bratislava today (Saturday). We return to Vienna tomorrow in anticipation of leaving the ship on Monday. This region has received a fair amount of welcome rain this past week. I hope that bodes well for you with future bookings. 

[Coral]

While this has nothing to do with water levels.......

 

Many of us on our sailing had left over OBC and did not know how to spend it. If you are in the same situation - you can go to the front desk and request an additional tipping form. You can list the name and area of the person (if you don't know their last name) plus amount of tip you want to allocate to this person. 

 

I personally did not spend much of my OBC so I did this and shared my knowledge with a few others. I then was on the plane with someone who left several hundreds of dollars on their account of OBC as they also couldn't spend all of it. Might as well go to those who have taken good care of us during our cruise.

 

I do know tips are included. I am pointing this out for those who have extra OBC and can't figure out how to spend anymore of it.

[Coral]

6 hours ago, larryfromtexas said:

The Mozart has arrived in Bratislava today (Saturday). We return to Vienna tomorrow in anticipation of leaving the ship on Monday. This region has received a fair amount of welcome rain this past week. I hope that bodes well for you with future bookings. 

Great! We were bused. I am sure you noticed the building that caught on fire when you passed it near the one Christmas market.

Edited December 8, 2018 by Coral

[mlozam]

Just wanted to give an update re our cruise on Crystal Ravel.  We are currently on board and just left Krems after 2 days in Vienna.  We were in Vienna since Dec 3 and it has been raining slightly so hopefully we are able to reach Budapest.  When we met the officers on our first night, they mentioned that we may get lucky and reach Budapest. :-)  The boat is beautiful and the only problem we encountered was the lack of information re our docking pier in Vienna.  We were given the google coordinates which we copied for our Uber driver.  However, the information did not contain the actual pier number so we had to struggle with all our luggage in search of the actual pier.  Lucky. there were only 8 piers.  Hahaha!

[Kwaj girl]

Thank you, mlozam.  We are scheduled to board Crystal Ravel 13 December.  Can you see if they have a laundry service on board?  We are on a multi-week holiday and will need to have laundry done.  I think they have a guest laundry on the boat but I would rather not spend my time doing this task.  Thank you.

[Coral]

9 hours ago, Kwaj girl said:

Thank you, mlozam.  We are scheduled to board Crystal Ravel 13 December.  Can you see if they have a laundry service on board?  We are on a multi-week holiday and will need to have laundry done.  I think they have a guest laundry on the boat but I would rather not spend my time doing this task.  Thank you.

I know on the Mozart - I sent laundry out. It was 25 Euros to have 2 jeans, 1 pull over sweatshirt type shirt and 1 t-shirt. They also had self serve laundry with free detergent. Hopefully mlozam will confirm about the Ravel. They said it would take 48 hours but I had mine back in 24.

Edited December 9, 2018 by Coral

[Coral]

21 hours ago, mlozam said:

The boat is beautiful and the only problem we encountered was the lack of information re our docking pier in Vienna.  We were given the google coordinates which we copied for our Uber driver.  However, the information did not contain the actual pier number so we had to struggle with all our luggage in search of the actual pier.  Lucky. there were only 8 piers.  Hahaha!

I called a few days before we left and they sent me an email with the pier location. It did not include the pier either. My taxi turned left and the ship was not that direction. We turned right and it was the last ship on the right (we stayed to the right the entire time, even when we returned to Vienna). Thankfully the driver looked for the pier with me. It is a a pretty long road - I can't imagine dragging the luggage looking for the ship! You are a trooper!

[JohnKen3]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

I know on the Mozart - I sent laundry out. It was 25 Euros to have 2 jeans, 1 pull over sweatshirt type shirt and 1 t-shirt. They also had self serve laundry with free detergent. Hopefully mlozam will confirm about the Ravel. They said it would take 48 hours but I had mine back in 24.

 

Just a reminder that on the Mozart, the butler provide a free iron service. Useful to know after you use the self serve laundry. Suspect it is the same on the other river boats.

 

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, JohnKen3 said:

 

Just a reminder that on the Mozart, the butler provide a free iron service. Useful to know after you use the self serve laundry. Suspect it is the same on the other river boats.

 

Correct - I also had one more item in laundry now that I think about it.

 

I honestly think my butler was bored. He was always asking to help me! I eventually asked if he had bubble wrap when packing and he finally found something he could help me with. He did the best job at making sure my gifts were wrapped well for the trip home. 

[Kwaj girl]

Got an email fromthe river butler...Crystal Ravel is scheduled to dock in Budapest on schedule 12 December.  Marinetraffic website shows the boat in Bratislava today as per schedule so we are hoping all to go as planned.  Thank you all for your input and information!  On our way to Budapest today...

[mlozam]

On 12/9/2018 at 10:23 AM, Kwaj girl said:

Thank you, mlozam.  We are scheduled to board Crystal Ravel 13 December.  Can you see if they have a laundry service on board?  We are on a multi-week holiday and will need to have laundry done.  I think they have a guest laundry on the boat but I would rather not spend my time doing this task.  Thank you.

Yes, they definitely have laundry service on board.  We used the guest laundry on sailing days.  There are 2 sets of washers and dryers. Hope this helps. 

[mlozam]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

Got an email fromthe river butler...Crystal Ravel is scheduled to dock in Budapest on schedule 12 December.  Marinetraffic website shows the boat in Bratislava today as per schedule so we are hoping all to go as planned.  Thank you all for your input and information!  On our way to Budapest today...

We are in Bratislava today on the Ravel and it has been raining.  We are definitely arriving in Budapest tomorrow the 12th.

[mlozam]

On 12/9/2018 at 11:23 PM, Coral said:

Correct - I also had one more item in laundry now that I think about it.

 

I honestly think my butler was bored. He was always asking to help me! I eventually asked if he had bubble wrap when packing and he finally found something he could help me with. He did the best job at making sure my gifts were wrapped well for the trip home. 

Hahaha!  Feel the same way - that our butler was bored too. Finally agreed to have him serve us some canapes in our room. Our butler's name was Jose and he was excellent! 

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

Got an email fromthe river butler...Crystal Ravel is scheduled to dock in Budapest on schedule 12 December.  Marinetraffic website shows the boat in Bratislava today as per schedule so we are hoping all to go as planned.  Thank you all for your input and information!  On our way to Budapest today...

 

19 minutes ago, mlozam said:

We are in Bratislava today on the Ravel and it has been raining.  We are definitely arriving in Budapest tomorrow the 12th.

 

Great news!