How is Avalon dealing with low water situation?

[jbeuks]

We're booked on Avalon's Amsterdam-to-Budapest cruise aboard Avalon Expression, sailing September 21. I've been watching these boards for a month now, and so I know that Expression hasn't been farther west than Passau during that entire time (and it now appears to be stalled in Vienna). So I'm wondering and worrying about what is likely to happen on our cruise. Avalon customer service is willing to give me only the most general of assurances.

 

As they say in the stock market, "past performance is no guarantee of future results," but still, it's a better indication of what's likely to happen than nothing at all. So I'd be VERY interested to hear from folks who've actually sailed with Avalon during the current low-water situation and who can tell me about what they've actually done to deal with it. For example, there was an August 10 sailing of the same Amsterdam-to-Budapest itinerary that we're booked on in about a month, and it would be most helpful to know what ship was used out of Amsterdam (not the Expression, as advertised, because it is stuck on the Danube); which ports,if any, were skipped; where, if at all, buses had to be used; where the ship swap (assuming there was one) occurred; etc., etc.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

[PaulS]

We were supposed to fly to Budapest on August 14 for two days before getting on the Avalon Impression for a cruise to Nuremberg and then finishing up with 3 days in Prague. On August 12, we received an email from Avalon advising that because of low water, they could not get the Impression to Budapest and would have to do the cruise on the smaller Avalon Luminary. They offered the option of continuing on the Luminary with a refund of $200.00 per person or cancelling the trip with a full refund. We chose to cancel the trip because we felt that a major portion might have to be by bus instead of ship, and we received a full refund to our credit card several days later.

 

I have been following the Progress of the Luminary on the cruisemapper website and it appears that the ship made it up to Vilshofen which is quite a way from Nuremberg, so I guess that many of the tours may have been by bus.

 

Because of the way that Avalon handled the situation and provided the option for a refund, we rebooked the same trip for late October. Although the weather may not be very warm then, hopefully the water levels will be higher. We were lucky that we booked air through them and were able to get a refund or we would have had to go on the original trip.

 

Best of luck on your trip.

[jbeuks]

Thanks, Paul S. Whatever happens on our cruise, I hope we get more than the two days' notice you got, as we're planning to be in Amsterdam for a few days before our embarkation -- which pretty much eliminates the option of cancelling entirely.

[PaulS]

The date that I typed was actually wrong. Avalon notified us on Friday, August 10, which was 4 days before we were to leave. Sorry for the mistake

[BarkLessWagMore]

We were supposed to fly to Budapest on August 14 for two days before getting on the Avalon Impression for a cruise to Nuremberg and then finishing up with 3 days in Prague. On August 12, we received an email from Avalon advising that because of low water, they could not get the Impression to Budapest and would have to do the cruise on the smaller Avalon Luminary. They offered the option of continuing on the Luminary with a refund of $200.00 per person or cancelling the trip with a full refund. We chose to cancel the trip because we felt that a major portion might have to be by bus instead of ship, and we received a full refund to our credit card several days later.

 

I have been following the Progress of the Luminary on the cruisemapper website and it appears that the ship made it up to Vilshofen which is quite a way from Nuremberg, so I guess that many of the tours may have been by bus.

 

Because of the way that Avalon handled the situation and provided the option for a refund, we rebooked the same trip for late October. Although the weather may not be very warm then, hopefully the water levels will be higher. We were lucky that we booked air through them and were able to get a refund or we would have had to go on the original trip.

 

Best of luck on your trip.

 

Paul -- very interesting post. We were booked on the Impression sailing reverse from Nuremburg to Budapest after 3 days in Prague. We were called late Tuesday the 14th prior to our 8/20 flights. Significant itinerary changes and a smaller ship with smaller rooms. Scant details from customer service too. The probability of a glorified bus trip for half of the sail portion sealed it for us. Like you we ended up canceling and re-booking however we chose to book for next May. Unlike you we had booked our own flights and that has proven to be very costly as it was an extra $600 per person for next year's flights. Avalon has been mostly OK to deal with but once they had our decision that we were not still coming I feel they have put us to the bottom of the pile. Still waiting for the final credits on our flights that they promised. All in all we are out an additional $400 for next year's trip but it is one day shorter than this one would have been.

 

Disappointed but hoping for the trip as advertised next year. I really appreciate these forums as it really helped last week in making our decision under fairly stressful circumstances.