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Danube water levels 2019 and similar topics - plus tips and info


notamermaid
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The water experts tell us that they think the level at Pfelling will stay above 300cm into Tuesday morning. With rain falling in the Alps and all along the Upper Danube tomorrow this will likely make for pleasant sailing during next week - and possibly beyond. 🙂

 

notamermaid

 

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I called Viking last Friday to inquire about the daily schedule, as I wanted to know the actual hours we will be in each port. In Budapest, the ship is moving to Vizagrad, where we re-board. The same with Passau, as it moves to Vilshofen instead of Regensberg.  It shifts again in Kelheim and Roth. We get motor coached to these. I am a little confused, and am wondering if the changes are due to the Danube water levels. Any ideas?

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3 hours ago, MrsKMB said:

I called Viking last Friday to inquire about the daily schedule, as I wanted to know the actual hours we will be in each port. In Budapest, the ship is moving to Vizagrad, where we re-board. The same with Passau, as it moves to Vilshofen instead of Regensberg.  It shifts again in Kelheim and Roth. We get motor coached to these. I am a little confused, and am wondering if the changes are due to the Danube water levels. Any ideas?

What cruise are you referring to? I apologize if there is previous post that explains that.  If so I did not see it.

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4 hours ago, MrsKMB said:

I called Viking last Friday to inquire about the daily schedule, as I wanted to know the actual hours we will be in each port. In Budapest, the ship is moving to Vizagrad, where we re-board. The same with Passau, as it moves to Vilshofen instead of Regensberg.  It shifts again in Kelheim and Roth. We get motor coached to these. I am a little confused, and am wondering if the changes are due to the Danube water levels. Any ideas?

They did this on our Rhine cruise as well.  It was part of the itinerary and not due to water levels.  Probably it's easier/quicker for the bus to continue to the next port than to back track to the original port.

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Sorry if I wasn't clear. It's the Romantic Danube, starting in Budapest. After getting the times, I added an extra day to the beginning to the trip because our cruise doesn't allow for much time in Budapest. It was a costly last-minute add-on, but I don't know if I'll ever get back to Budapest.

 

Thanks for the reassurance, @The Other Tom. As long as it's nothing out of the ordinary, I'm fine with it.

 

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9 hours ago, MrsKMB said:

Sorry if I wasn't clear. It's the Romantic Danube, starting in Budapest. After getting the times, I added an extra day to the beginning to the trip because our cruise doesn't allow for much time in Budapest. It was a costly last-minute add-on, but I don't know if I'll ever get back to Budapest.

 

Thanks for the reassurance, @The Other Tom. As long as it's nothing out of the ordinary, I'm fine with it.

 

 

What are the sailing dates involved?

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3 hours ago, MrsKMB said:

The cruise begins September 15th in Budapest. 

Thanks Mrs KMB and good luck with the cruise.

 

It seems odd that they are doing that on a September sailing (and know it already) but not an Aug 31 one.   Still that does not seem like a water level issue since they could not know water levels this far in advance.

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Looking in disbelief at the river level at Pfelling today. Much rain was forecast of course, but I am surprised at the amount. The river has reacted with a sharp rise, just over 100cm in 24 hours!

 

The wave has just reached Passau but as of now the level there is 537cm which still leaves much headroom under the infamous bridge (the dreaded figure is 630cm).  The forecast suggests the level will stay under 600cm.

 

notamermaid

 

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On 8/11/2019 at 4:01 PM, MrsKMB said:

I called Viking last Friday to inquire about the daily schedule, as I wanted to know the actual hours we will be in each port. In Budapest, the ship is moving to Vizagrad, where we re-board. The same with Passau, as it moves to Vilshofen instead of Regensberg.  It shifts again in Kelheim and Roth. We get motor coached to these. I am a little confused, and am wondering if the changes are due to the Danube water levels. Any ideas?

That's pretty standard procedure.  You get get off the ship in the morning, do a guided tour of the area via motorcoach, then rejoin the ship up/down river later in the day.  The ship moves while you are out  exploring.  I'm sure there'll be times when you have a relaxing half day or so cruising aboard the ship.  My bride and I have done some repeats on the Rhine and Danube so, some days, we decide to sleep late, skip the guided tours and do our own thing, which may mean we stay aboard and have the ship to ourselves as we cruise, while everyone else is out sightseeing.   Have a great  cruise.  We leave on Aug 25 for our fourth Avalon in five years!

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19 hours ago, Shadeland Cruiser said:

It looks like more rain is coming to the Pfelling area in the next several days.   Things may not be as dire as many of us feeared.

Indeed. And the report of the BAfG authorities speaks of stagnating or only slightly falling levels for the coming seven days (counting from yesterday). Pfelling is currently at 352cm, a big drop which was to be expected after the high volume of water the Danube carried from rain in Bavaria and further upstream. Rain is forecast to start during tomorrow and increasing till Tuesday (some rain clouds have already swept over Bavaria today). So more water is coming down the tributaries and the Danube itself before the level has a chance to drop much further.

 

notamermaid

 

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Great news! Thank you for the on going updates! I hope this trend continues. Going on Viking's Grand European from Budapest on Sept 7. I'll keep checking for updates. Again, thanks for the information!.

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Finishing Amsterdam to Budapest cruise on Viking Gefjon on 8/19.  No changes due to water levels, some rain at nite, a short shower a day or two, hot in Vienna today, predicted hot on Budapest.  Wonderful cruise.

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Hello Telcom,

Thank you for the info. Glad to read you had a lovely time on the Gefjon.

 

It continues to look good as regards the river levels on the German Danube. Pfelling is now at 370cm and predicted to rise to over 400cm tomorrow afternoon.  As long as the rain does not make the passage difficult under the bridge at Passau all that water hopefully guarantees uninterrupted sailing for the remainder of August. Passau gauge may well rise to 490 tomorrow and more the day after but there is still much headroom (the bridge becomes a problem for some ships at 630cm, according to the authorities).

 

Germany will see a short hot spell without rain next weekend so looking ahead towards the first days of September we can expect the level to fall. By how much, the experts will calculate with their sophisticated computer programs on Friday and Saturday. Including Thursday, their figures look very good indeed. 🙂

 

notamermaid

 

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We will  be leaving Budapest on 8/31 on the Viking Gullveig.  It is a B to N Romantic Danube cruise.

 

Today i got the standard letter about water levels but it made it sound like the low water levels were only theoretical possibilities.  In any event I will let all know how things go.

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About a two week stretch of hot, dry weather on the Danube between Linz and Budapest.  Hoping that those water levels remain favorable.  We've been fortunate on our three previous Avalons, when many other cruise lines were busing pax between ships. 

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On 8/25/2019 at 12:02 AM, Kenster said:

About a two week stretch of hot, dry weather on the Danube between Linz and Budapest.  Hoping that those water levels remain favorable.  We've been fortunate on our three previous Avalons, when many other cruise lines were busing pax between ships. 

I hope the river level stays high enough to give all cruisers the holiday they are looking forward to. With hardly any rain forecast along the valley in Austria and Hungary one can get a bit nervous... As the stretch has the advantage of locks we should see few problems, if any, in the near future (meaning two to five days). However, details as always, we cannot know and can only hope that enough rain will fall along the German Danube. Here is the good news: a reasonable amount of rain spread over six days along the Danube and its tributaries coming from the Alps make me confident that we will not see a fast change for the worse - by that I mean a great drop - at Pfelling gauge. The experts predict relatively stable figures in the next 48 hours. Pfelling is currently at 320cm. I said I do not see a big drop happening in around the next six days, but with a figure of that we are not far from the figure of 290cm, i.e. a big drop is not necessary to get us near potential problems which according to officials can start at 290cm. See quite a few posts above.

 

Shadeland Cruiser, I can fully understand Viking sending out the "warning" e-mail.

 

As always, decisions during drought along the German Danube are made by the captains and the company, the authorities do not close the river to traffic. And I can only hint at a likely or less likely scenario...

 

Shadeland Cruiser, I hope all goes well and that you have a fantastic cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

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48 hours is a long time as regards forecasts...

 

Both weather and river show changes worthy of mentioning. First the bad news. The Danube in Germany has taken a turn for the worse faster than anticipated and is now at 296cm at Pfelling. Forecast now shows a fall to slightly under 290cm for tonight. Will it happen? If so then it should be short-lived as the river upstream from Pfelling is getting rain today. The weather forecast shows a higher volume of rain for today than was anticipated on the weather map on Tuesday. Could this mean narrowly avoiding problems for the large ships this weekend? If all goes well the river at Pfelling will rise again during Friday afternoon to a figure above 290cm.

 

If you are on the river right now or due to sail please keep us posted. Would love to hear from you. 🙂 

 

notamermaid

 

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Pfelling is at 290cm. If fell under that figure briefly in the early hours of this morning. Forecast shows a rise to just over 300 for this afternoon. We will have to wait and see if this will hold into Saturday and Sunday.

 

notamermaid

 

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