Crystal River Cruising and low water levels

[USCAdventurer]

i will be taking my first crystal cruise on a rhine river cruise in november from basel to amsterdam.  i'm also new to this board and i wanted to ask and find out if anyone has experienced problems on their river cruises due to low water levels.  i've been reading about this issue.  i'm really looking forward to the river cruise sine i've never done one before and i think it will be a fabulous adventure!  i'm so positive about it, that even before i've take my first river cruise, i just booked a second crystal river cruise for december, 2020  which will be a danube christmas market cruise.  my first cruise will be on the crystal bach and the second will be on the crystal ravel, both are identical boats or ships or whatever you call them?

 

 

[caviargal]

I suggest you go to the river cruise boards which is where you will find this information.

 

I have been on 18 river cruises since my first in 2008 (8 on AMA, 2 on Uniworld, 2 on Scenic, 1 on Tauck, 3 on Avalon , 2 on Amadeus).  We had low water issues on 3 and high water on 4.  The others were without incident. 

Our river lines of choice are AMA and Uniworld, followed by Amadeus.  AMA handled the low water levels extremely well.  Their ships are designed with a shallower draft and they have far fewer issues than the other lines with low water due to this design feature. 

We also had high water on AMA and they were fabulous with handling that as well.   In Provence they reversed the itinerary and we saw everything as promised.  It was seamless and very impressive!

We experienced high water in Provence with Uniworld and they handled it by taking us to the scheduled ports in the day but returning us to Avignon for several overnights.  It was fine and we did not have any alterations to itinerary by day.

Avalon took off early on one of our cruises due to high water and about 40 passengers were still out in port.  The CM stayed in town and met everyone and they all returned by bus and then hopped on another boat that took them to meet us mid river. 

 

We have not tried Crystal river due to their very limited itineraries.

 

Edited January 6, 2019 by caviargal

[USCAdventurer]

caviargal,

thanks for your comments.  i didn't know there was a river cruise board.  i certainly will go there for more river cruise information.

[Roland4]

2 hours ago, USC Adventurer said:

i will be taking my first crystal cruise on a rhine river cruise in november from basel to amsterdam.  i'm also new to this board and i wanted to ask and find out if anyone has experienced problems on their river cruises due to low water levels.  i've been reading about this issue.  i'm really looking forward to the river cruise sine i've never done one before and i think it will be a fabulous adventure!  i'm so positive about it, that even before i've take my first river cruise, i just booked a second crystal river cruise for december, 2020  which will be a danube christmas market cruise.  my first cruise will be on the crystal bach and the second will be on the crystal ravel, both are identical boats or ships or whatever you call them?

 

 

 

This thread will be moved to the River Cruising board by the moderator anytime now. They don't allow us to "mix" river and ocean! 😁

 

This past summer and fall were extremely challenging on all of the rivers. At least two separate threads were maintained on the river cruise board by people living on the rivers that kept everyone abreast of what was happening to water levels in almost real time. I would suggest you go over and have a look.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, caviargal said:

 

We have not tried Crystal river due to their very limited itineraries.

 

Since they are only 2 years old with their river cruises, hopefully they expand in the coming years.

 

I remember sailing AMAwaterways in 2007 when they were 5 years old and they were pretty limited back then. Every company has to start somewhere. 

 

-----------------

 

There is limited info about Crystal on the Riverboat boards. It is too bad that people can't post on the Crystal board as I found more info here than there. 

Edited January 6, 2019 by Coral

[notamermaid]

USC Adventurer,

welcome to the river cruising board. Your thread has been moved, but I see that you have posted your question in a separate thread here as well.

 

First of all, let me recommend for reading the stickies at the top, they are excellent info threads by our host jazzbeau.

 

Due to the massive low water issues we had last year, several companies got separate threads by cruisers to help each other with info about their specific cruises, whether or not the sailings would go ahead, etc. Crystal has its own as well. Do not be alarmed, last year was exceptional.

For this year we all hope that such threads will not need to happen. 

 

Roland4 has mentioned the locals on the rivers. I am one of them and I am sure that I also speak for the others when I say that we will be happy to join the cruisers in conversation about their cruises, sharing the excitement, posting info and helping with questions about the water levels. Always hoping that the posts about water levels will be way fewer than last year.

 

There are now a few past cruisers on the river cruising board that have sailed with Crystal so if you have any specific questions ask away! 

 

notamermaid

 

[USCAdventurer]

caviargal,

thanks for your comments.  i didn't know there was a river cruise board.  i certainly will go there for more river cruise information.

[USCAdventurer]

notamermaid,

thank you so much for your comments.  i've got a lot of reading to do now on this board and if i do have any questions about river cruising, now i know where to ask and get answers,   thank you again!

[caripoo]

First.....Fight On!!!! Good to see a fellow Trojan....We are taking our first Crystal on the Rhine, Basel to Amsterdam in October.... This is not our first River cruise...Last year was an unusually bad season for the rivers....A few years back, they were hammered by TOO much water in the spring and early summer, so it really is a mother nature thing....The problem Chrystal will have is they do not have alot of ships.....We can't worry about it yet. We are spending 8 days prior in Switzerland and 3 extra in Amsterdam at the end........ENJOY