Rhine water levels 2019 and similar topics

[notamermaid]

The situation on the Rhine is developing positively. Rain on and off is helping the water levels. During the night the level at Kaub reached 110cm again and is now at 114cm. The forecast shows a further rise to 118cm tomorrow. For the rest of the week the levels are likely to stay relatively stable as moderate amounts of rain from today into Friday provide a good basis for doing so.

 

This more or less concludes September in which conditions are better than they were last year. For the first week of October we now have a small buffer of valuable centimetres.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

On 9/23/2019 at 4:21 PM, schda12 said:

Many thanks to Not a Mermaid for all your postings, especially to this thread.  I attempted a tribute to you at our bar on the Avalon Vista when we were at port in Koblenz.  Unfortunately, my choice of cocktail was not sufficiently distinctive to get the approval of the bartender.  One photo is at the bar and the other at our table in the lounge.

 

This was my first river cruise and a rare departure from independent travel.  I wasn't expecting to react well to the regimentation.  I gave into it with exceptionally early bedtimes and waking before dawn in order to particpate in the morning excursions well-rested and without racing throuigh my morning routine.  Other than confusion from the intense sequence of short tours, it worked very well for me.  I was amazed by the quality of the staff on board, which implied excellent leadership.  This contrasted with my endless annoyance at the communications from Avalon before the cruise.  They were inconsistant, misleading and poor preparaton for the cruise.  Internet service onboard was mediocre to non-existant.  Mobile phone service was not much better.

 

 

[Ooohouohhhh]* (moved, moist eyes) (speechless)

 

*represents the sound I make when I am moved to tears to see my neighbour's cats are sleeping peacefully side by side

 

notamermaid

 

[schda12]

18 hours ago, notamermaid said:

 

 

[Ooohouohhhh]* (moved, moist eyes) (speechless)

 

*represents the sound I make when I am moved to tears to see my neighbour's cats are sleeping peacefully side by side

 

notamermaid

 

 

[rileygirl12]

On 9/19/2019 at 10:01 PM, rileygirl12 said:

We are taking Scenic's "Treasures of the Rhine" Oct 2-9 Nuremberg to Amsterdam. This is an 8 day part of the 15 day "Jewels of Europe" departing from Budapest Sept 25. Today we were notified of a ship change due to "As a consequence of low water on the upper Danube river, we were earlier required to enact a ship schedule change". We are okay with the ship change just worried this is a preview of trouble ahead with the water levels of the Main and the Rhine. Any thoughts?

 

They have changed our boat again, but this is the one now since it has left Budapest on 9/25. We are now on the Scenic Jade.

[notamermaid]

24 minutes ago, rileygirl12 said:

They have changed our boat again, but this is the one now since it has left Budapest on 9/25. We are now on the Scenic Jade.

Hope you have a great time, now only a few days to go till your cruise. I like this itinerary, some great places to explore along the way (to my disappointment I still have only ever seen the train station of Nuremberg). What I do not get is why they call it "Treasures of the Rhine". Misleading geography there (notamermaid shakes a disapproving finger teacher-style). It should be "Treasures of the Main and Rhine".

 

It has been a warmer and drier day today in my area. Thankfully the river is not reacting with a big drop in levels. Should go down a bit over the weekend but most likely to stay above 104cm at Kaub.

 

Oh, and the leaves are changing colour, slowly but everyday a little more.

 

notamermaid

 

[Diane Rose]

10 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

 

Oh, and the leaves are changing colour, slowly but everyday a little more.

 

notamermaid

 

 

This is what I’m hoping for.  We leave October 7th from Budapest on the Jewels of Europe.  Looking forward to some beautiful colors.

 

BTW, thank you for the river level updates. So helpful.

 

Diane

[Smbruner]

7 minutes ago, Diane Rose said:

 

This is what I’m hoping for.  We leave October 7th from Budapest on the Jewels of Europe.  Looking forward to some beautiful colors.

 

BTW, thank you for the river level updates. So helpful.

 

Diane

What ship are you on? 

 

We're on the Opal and leave Amsterdam on October 9 so we'll probably pass each other along the way.  We arrive in Budapest on October 23.  Fingers crossed for good water levels along the way!

 

[Diane Rose]

33 minutes ago, Smbruner said:

What ship are you on? 

 

We're on the Opal and leave Amsterdam on October 9 so we'll probably pass each other along the way.  We arrive in Budapest on October 23.  Fingers crossed for good water levels along the way!

 

 

We’re supposed to be on the Ruby, but not sure that will happen.  Waiting to hear.  I agree about the water levels.  Praying for nightly rain!

 

Diane

[slewis7]

On the Viking Skirnir, docked in Cologne today.  Last night we were told the ship will move right after passengers leave for morning excursions and move a bit up river due to low water conditions.  Excursions will return to the new docking location and passengers will be able to visit Cologne later today via shuttle bus.

 

Weather reports do seem to show rain in the region over the next few days.

[notamermaid]

slewis7,

Thank you for the info. Hope you are having a great time in Cologne, a great city to explore (and a favourite place of mine for shopping).

 

All free-flowing parts of the river are indeed low, but other than Kaub the river downstream from Koblenz is deep, i.e. the navigation channel makes for easier sailing. At Cologne it is around 270cm to 280cm at the moment. There is a shallow part in Cologne, I know, but that is closer to another district of Cologne on the other river bank.

 

Viking moving the ship to their landing stage further downstream is a repeat of last year when several cruisers reported this. This sounds like their docking area close to the city centre is getting too low. In conditions of drought getting out of the navigation channel and close to the embankment can be tricky. Indeed this is happening along the Rhine right now at some docks for excursion ships. The areas are too shallow and while the ships can all sail - conditions are okay for them - they have to skip a few stops due to the shallows around or at the docks.

 

Enjoy sailing in the lower Rhine area and the Netherlands.

 

notamermaid

 

[Goxhilly23]

I am in dispute with my travel agent over a river cruise with 

A-Rosa last October from Passau to Budapest. The water levels were too low to go beyond Vienna and we were not told about this until we boarded the ship.

The operator argues that they did not know about the water levels and if they did they are not entitled to pay compensation.

Has anyone else experienced problems with low water levels and were they offered compensation for changing the itinerary.

Thanks

Steve

[GeorgaRambler]

Steve, 

We had our cruise cancelled last August because of low water 2 days before it sailed. We were already in France on another cruise in Bordeaux when Uniworld informed us of the situation. They offered a full refund or a swap to another cruise. We chose to swap to another cruise. Probably should have taken the refund and just stayed in Budapest and toured on our own as we were not reimbursed for our flights. We did enjoy the other cruise.

Last year seemed to have been the first time that many companies had to cancel or re-route and in reading boards about river cruising, it seems like all companies did not handle it in the same way. We have an excellent travel agent who worked with Uniworld to save our trip. This year we went in early July when there was plenty of water, tho it is more crowded on the rivers.

Good luck in getting a refund.

Georgia Rambler

[G.M.T.]

2 hours ago, Goxhilly23 said:

I am in dispute with my travel agent over a river cruise with 

A-Rosa last October from Passau to Budapest. The water levels were too low to go beyond Vienna and we were not told about this until we boarded the ship.

The operator argues that they did not know about the water levels and if they did they are not entitled to pay compensation.

Has anyone else experienced problems with low water levels and were they offered compensation for changing the itinerary.

Thanks

Steve

A-Rosa is a German cruise company, I would expect they would have excellent contacts to the German authorities. Although your cruise area was outside German control (Austria, Slowaki, Hungry), all countries along the Danube want to keep free navigation and so information is regulary exchanged under the auspices of:

 

https://www.danubecommission.org/dc/en/danube-commission/

 

Last year was a very dry year along the Danube, which started in early June thru to early November 2018, so many passengers were affected. Best to check out this same thread but for 2018 (very busy thread).

 

It has been proposed, in future, that in the case of low water levels each boat will carry a "Water Finder"

😇🍻

 

[rileygirl12]

22 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Hope you have a great time, now only a few days to go till your cruise. I like this itinerary, some great places to explore along the way (to my disappointment I still have only ever seen the train station of Nuremberg). What I do not get is why they call it "Treasures of the Rhine". Misleading geography there (notamermaid shakes a disapproving finger teacher-style). It should be "Treasures of the Main and Rhine".

 

It has been a warmer and drier day today in my area. Thankfully the river is not reacting with a big drop in levels. Should go down a bit over the weekend but most likely to stay above 104cm at Kaub.

 

Oh, and the leaves are changing colour, slowly but everyday a little more.

 

notamermaid

 

It's funny you say that because that was my thought as well "Treasure of the Main and Rhine". We have done the Danube starting with a stay in Prague for a few days and then boarding in Nuremberg to Budapest. This trip we again board in Nuremberg and once again will probably miss seeing Nuremberg depending on our timing. I have been watching Accuweather for our trip! We live in SW Florida and are in the active part of hurricane season so always watch the weather closely at this time of year. We were happy to see the current storms in the Atlantic were not going to affect us till I looked at Accuweather only to see "Lorenza" is going to effect us on our trip Oct. 4th with wind and rain. Obviously not a hurricane at that point but still not escaping it completely. Looking forward to the color change of the leaves. That is something we don't get in Florida. Well I guess I better start packing! Layer Layer Layer!

[slewis7]

It was easy to tell the Rhine is low on Cologne today by looking at the river bank.  Also, we walked by a structure which shows the current river level at that location, which is shown in the image I attached.

 

So our ship was moved as soon as we went out on tour this morning to a very industrial looking location.  It took about 20 minutes by bus to get back to the ship from downtown Cologne.

Edited September 28, 2019 by slewis7

[rileygirl12]

26 minutes ago, slewis7 said:

It was easy to tell the Rhine is low on Cologne today by looking at the river bank.  Also, we walked by a structure which shows the current river level at that location, which is shown in the image I attached.

 

So our ship was moved as soon as we went out on tour this morning to a very industrial looking location.  It took about 20 minutes by bus to get back to the ship from downtown Cologne.

The ladies in the picture look cold! I’m guessing it’s no longer shorts weather 😊 Any advice on what to pack?

[notamermaid]

slewis7,

Thank you for the photo. Yes, that is the gauge tower for Cologne at kilometre 688. This is what it looks like on the Cologne website - scroll down for the flooding photo: https://www.steb-koeln.de/hochwasser-und-ueberflutungsschutz/akutes-hochwasser/der-koelner-pegel/der-koelner-pegel.jsp

That tower needs some serious cleaning! Docking at the embankment in your photo are two excursion boats by KD.

I have tracked the Viking Skirnir on marinetraffic and you are further out than I thought - in the industrial (winter) harbour at Niehl, a downstream district of Cologne. A pity they could not dock in town.

 

notamermaid

 

[slewis7]

2 hours ago, rileygirl12 said:

The ladies in the picture look cold! I’m guessing it’s no longer shorts weather 😊 Any advice on what to pack?

I have been wearing jeans, short sleeve t-shirts and a light jacket and have been quite comfortable.  Today was a bit cooler at times then most ports have been.  Like everyone says, dress in layers.

[rileygirl12]

22 minutes ago, slewis7 said:

I have been wearing jeans, short sleeve t-shirts and a light jacket and have been quite comfortable.  Today was a bit cooler at times then most ports have been.  Like everyone says, dress in layers.

Thanks! Enjoy the rest of your trip!

[notamermaid]

rileygirl12,

Layers is best as slewis7 has written. Probably leave the sandals at home... too cold for the toes. I now wear a jacket in the morning everyday but often go out just in a long sleeve blouse in the afternoon. The wind feels cool sometimes. Could rain almost everyday in this current weather pattern. Hurricanes are rare with us but a couple of tornadoes have been confirmed today in Northern Germany. Much of Germany is on storm warning two for during the night, meaning wind speeds of 70 to 85km per hour. Should calm down by tomorrow evening.

 

Stay safe and have fun packing.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

A new week and a quick look at the situation on the Rhine. It has been a good weekend for the water levels. Rain on and off has kept the level at Kaub stable and it looks as if it could continue this week. Kaub gauge is now at 119cm and for tomorrow the forecast looks equally good. Now, I have to say though that 119cm is a low-ish figure and slewis7's post confirms that slight alterations could happen to your itinerary. But overall this is fine for sailing and with that knowledge I will leave you for a few days.

 

Rain is forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday.

 

notamermaid

 

[Senga]

Many thanks notamermaid for your helpful updates prior to our September 4th Scenic Opal Budapest to Amsterdam cruise.  SO thankful to say we had a wonderful trip with NO water level issues.  We were disappointed to have rain all day in Vienna but it turned out to be a blessing as we were just past Passau when they started doing bus tours and ship swaps.  With so many low bridges and locks it's easy to see this itinerary could be very problematic.  Glad we did it but with the high cost and anxiety over the water levels it's not something we'll repeat.

[Cruisin Wannabe]

On 9/27/2019 at 10:42 AM, Diane Rose said:

 

We’re supposed to be on the Ruby, but not sure that will happen.  Waiting to hear.  I agree about the water levels.  Praying for nightly rain!

 

Diane

Hi Diane, just wondering if you have heard anything. We are scheduled to be on the Jasper leaving Amsterdam on Oct 16th but they just emailed us we were being put on the Ruby instead. We are a little bummed because we had a better room on what seems to be a newer ship. They made no mention of water levels being the reason. Have you sailed the Ruby before? 

[Diane Rose]

58 minutes ago, Cruisin Wannabe said:

 

Hi Diane, Just wondering what you have heard about your ship. We were scheduled to be on the Jasper leaving Amsterdam on Oct 16th and they just let us know we will be switched to the Ruby. We preferred the Jasper as we had a better room and it was a newer ship but they did not tell us it was because of water levels. They just said they had to make the change.

 

 

We got an email yesterday morning that we will be on the Jade.  I think it may be a bit newer than the Ruby, but all ships were refurbished this year, so not sure it really matters.  I’m more concerned about not staying in a hotel.  Hoping with the little bit of rain that we will be OK.  If anything hope there is only one ship swap.

 

Diane

[Diane Rose]

57 minutes ago, Cruisin Wannabe said:

Hi Diane, just wondering if you have heard anything. We are scheduled to be on the Jasper leaving Amsterdam on Oct 16th but they just emailed us we were being put on the Ruby instead. We are a little bummed because we had a better room on what seems to be a newer ship. They made no mention of water levels being the reason. Have you sailed the Ruby before? 

 

We have never been on the Ruby, or any river cruise for that matter.  This is our first.  I would think water levels is definitely the reason.  Once ships get to a certain place and then water makes it impossible for them to pass back, it necessitates changing the schedule.  We have go be thankful that at least there are enough ships to do a swap.

 

Diane