Logistics of a ship swap? Transition to hotel-based tour?

[arabrab]

We are looking at doing our first river cruise (Perhaps Basel to Amsterdam?)  in May of 2020. From the helpful river cruise info stickied at the top of the forum, I learned that water levels sometimes cause rearrangement of cruises involving either a ship swap or (hopefully not) relocation to hotels with associated bus tours, or starting a cruise in a different port 

 

Is there any information on the frequency with which this happens?  Logistically, how does the cruise line handle a ship swap? If you get moved to a hotel, does the cruise line then cover all associated meals? Do they move you from hotel to hotel? (Ugh.)  Does trip insurance (privately purchased) come into play for this?  (We are planning on doing a weeklong hiking trip pre-cruise, so we will already be in Germany before the cruise.) Do some cruiselines do a better job handling issues like this?  (That is certainly the case with airlines!)

[Roz]

I can attempt to answer some of your questions.  If you end up staying in hotels rather than on the ship, the cruise line will move you between hotels via bus.  Trip insurance doesn't cover you, as the river cruise lines clearly indicate on their websites and in their contracts that river levels or other factors can cause itineraries to be altered and that other forms of transportation besides a ship may be used to complete the itinerary.

 

If you're going to river cruise, you literally need to go with the flow.  Hope for the best but be prepared for changes.

 

Roz

[3rdCoastFan]

Last fall, many rivers experienced historic lows. From reports I read on CC, it seems like Viking handled things really well. They have a ton of ships up and down the major rivers - it makes it much easier to move people between ships that way. In effect, though, the boat became your hotel for a few nights at a time. 

 

When purchasing insurance, consider 'cancel for any reason' coverage. It will likely add a significant premium, and I doubt you could recoup 100% of your fees, but it's one way to help mitigate significant changes to your trip. 

[AF-1]

which months does the water level affect the river cruise; spring or fall?  Thank you.  I have never been on a river cruise and am looking at booking one

[notamermaid]

16 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

which months does the water level affect the river cruise; spring or fall?  Thank you.  I have never been on a river cruise and am looking at booking one

In Spring flooding, in autumn low water (drought). That is the basic formula. With variation thrown in looking at the various rivers in detail and from year to year.

 

19 hours ago, arabrab said:

Is there any information on the frequency with which this happens? 

I think there is no record that would give you frequency in an easy graph or text, but there is such data issued by authorities. Just a bit awkward to find and not so accessible as regards reading for us laymen.

It varies from year to year and even when having the statistics readily lying in front of you a particular river will decide otherwise...

 

Generally speaking, a canalized river section is not as prone to low water as a free-flowing section. That is about as much as one can reliably say in my opinion.

 

notamermaid

 

[AF-1]

notamermaid,   thank you for your reply.  i was just reading your other thread about the Rhine River.  We are looking to book Amawaterway on the Rhine next spring.  Have a great afternoon

[Coral]

18 hours ago, 3rdCoastFan said:

Last fall, many rivers experienced historic lows. From reports I read on CC, it seems like Viking handled things really well. They have a ton of ships up and down the major rivers - it makes it much easier to move people between ships that way. In effect, though, the boat became your hotel for a few nights at a time. 

 

When purchasing insurance, consider 'cancel for any reason' coverage. It will likely add a significant premium, and I doubt you could recoup 100% of your fees, but it's one way to help mitigate significant changes to your trip. 

In theory it sounds like they may have handled it well. In reality - I heard the opposite. I had several friends who went with Viking and was affected by this. They thought the opposite. They hated all the busing plus the ship swaps. They felt like it was a bus ride where they slept on a ship. Many times they spent even more time in route to where their "sleeping ship was" and missed time in ports. They wish they would have done a land trip or had it cancelled. They heard other lines put people up in a hotel and would have preferred that (as opposed to driving out of their way to the ship and then back to port and then back to the ship for sleeping with packing every day.

[3rdCoastFan]

23 minutes ago, Coral said:

In theory it sounds like they may have handled it well. In reality - I heard the opposite. I had several friends who went with Viking and was affected by this. They thought the opposite. They hated all the busing plus the ship swaps. They felt like it was a bus ride where they slept on a ship. Many times they spent even more time in route to where their "sleeping ship was" and missed time in ports. They wish they would have done a land trip or had it cancelled. They heard other lines put people up in a hotel and would have preferred that (as opposed to driving out of their way to the ship and then back to port and then back to the ship for sleeping with packing every day.

That's fair - and perhaps I should have said "well enough" instead. I don't think any cruise line came from last fall looking great. Good point, though, about other companies sticking people in a hotel rather than treating the moored Viking ships as a series of hotels, used for a night or two at a time. 

[Coral]

34 minutes ago, 3rdCoastFan said:

That's fair - and perhaps I should have said "well enough" instead. I don't think any cruise line came from last fall looking great. Good point, though, about other companies sticking people in a hotel rather than treating the moored Viking ships as a series of hotels, used for a night or two at a time. 

I agree - it was a tough year for all.

[gnome12]

34 minutes ago, 3rdCoastFan said:

That's fair - and perhaps I should have said "well enough" instead. I don't think any cruise line came from last fall looking great. Good point, though, about other companies sticking people in a hotel rather than treating the moored Viking ships as a series of hotels, used for a night or two at a time. 

Last year was unusual in that there were fairly long stretches where ships couldn't sail. This does cause the dilemma of making use of the ship as a hotel with longer bus rides, or making the rest of the trip a bus ride. The logistics of finding hotels and transportation for all those people are very complicated.

 

In a "normal" situation, there are a few points that can't be traversed; a ship swap then moves your possessions from one ship to another (hopefully with a fairly short bus ride) and then you continue sailing on the new ship according to your original schedule.

 

 

[Coral]

I can't find the thread but I found a hilarious video that someone from this board posted about their Viking cruise. Here is the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=4cLeOSceVT0  

 

Sorry I can't find the original post to give the guy credit.

[AF-1]

Coral,  you mean you have to take buses from one boat to the other.  I thought this was supposed to be a river cruise?  Seems like if the water is too high or low you have to get on a bus to the next city.  I loved the above youtube video

[Host Jazzbeau]

I've been researching land tours for Sicily [no navigable rivers...].  The better itineraries stay a couple of days in a city, doing sightseeing excursions in a fairly small circle – then on the way to the next base city they include a farther site – then repeat the multi-day stay with short excursions.  This minimizes time spent on buses and maximizes time spent sightseeing.  Not-so-good land itineraries tout how they stay in the same hotel for 4+ nights, but the downside is that the daily sightseeing involves a much larger circle so more bus time and less site time.  The complaint is that some of last year's river cruise alterations were like the latter – so a good land tour would actually have had more sightseeing than these river-hotel trips.  But last year was record-breaking so we can hope: (a) it won't be repeated this year, and (b) the cruise lines have learned from last year and have better ideas for next time.

[AF-1]

It sort of scares me to spend a lot of money and end up riding a bus all over Europe; when the main reason to book a river cruise is to sail on the river.  so we shall see what happens; no one can predict the weather or the rising river tides

[Daisi]

AF-1, last year was unusual, but I do remember when we did our research, they had massive flooding one year, and drought another.  I think (like I'm doing now) I was looking for a good 2 - 3 years before we booked, as I wanted to really make sure the cruise we chose fit us.  Most lines cruise the same areas, so other than one or two stops, they stop at the same places...hey, there are only so many places on the rivers that can accommodate the boats coming in - docking & being able to handle the tourists etc., so it was the line itself that we were looking at.  We went the beginning of May and had great weather...just managed to miss the rain by a couple of hours most days from what we were hearing from other boats.  Water was just a touch on the high side, but no problems.  You have to go with the flow, (pun intended) and just hope that the timing of your cruise is ok. 

 

Don't forget, on the Rhine, you really only have 1 morning (we left Amsterdam during dinner, arrived in Köln  around lunch, and then the 2 or so hours you toured the Rhine Valley with all the castles.  Most of the sailing is done at night, your days are spent in port.

[sharkster77]

One has to keep in mind that no company, even Viking (cue Darth Vader's Imperial March) can control the weather and river levels.  River cruisers need to be flexible and go with the flow (or lack of flow).

[gnome12]

54 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

It sort of scares me to spend a lot of money and end up riding a bus all over Europe; when the main reason to book a river cruise is to sail on the river.  so we shall see what happens; no one can predict the weather or the rising river tides

I'm going to politely disagree. Since almost all your sailing is done at night, sailing on the river is NOT the main reason. The main reason is that the rivers (generally) get you close to the places that you want to see, and do it without making you pack up your things every day. And, unlike a land based tour, they generally travel at night which doesn't cut into your touring time (although it frequently limits your evening time in port).

[AF-1]

gnome12, I get what you are saying;  I think that when you spend a lot of money to go down a river; and the river does not cooperate; thus making you switch to riding a bus instead of being on the river;  that's all.  

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, AF-1 said:

It sort of scares me to spend a lot of money and end up riding a bus all over Europe; when the main reason to book a river cruise is to sail on the river.  so we shall see what happens; no one can predict the weather or the rising river tides

I agree (of course) with the previous posters as regards last year being exceptional. On an Amsterdam to Budapest cruise you have two shallow sections, one on the Rhine being about 60 to 100km, on the Danube a bit more (will leave the detailed geography over there to G.M.T.). In times of low water on the Danube the general rule is to sail to Passau, go for sightseeing, then join the coach to get you to Regensburg. A coach ride of just a few hours and - voila - you are on the other boat. The passengers on the other ship do the same - resulting in a ship swap. If this happens on the Rhine, it works in a similar way, the exception being that everyone wants to see the scenic stretch, so you will be on a small boat that can still navigate (local ones) or be bussed through the valley, the result is a ship swap. Last year threw these relatively easily to accomplish logistics out the window as both the Rhine and Danube where not navigable in far longer stretches. We had a record drought with very low water for more than two months.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[AF-1]

notamermaid;  thank you for the explanation

[Coral]

3 hours ago, AF-1 said:

gnome12, I get what you are saying;  I think that when you spend a lot of money to go down a river; and the river does not cooperate; thus making you switch to riding a bus instead of being on the river;  that's all.  

Correct - according to some friends on Viking, their times in port were drastically changed by the busing situation. I don't think they will ever do another river cruise (though they do have a credit) due to their experience.

[Marjan1]

 

We were involved in a ship swap on our Budapest to Amsterdam cruise in September last year.  We sailed with Travelmarvel, so can only comment in one line.  

 

We were aware of low/high water issues before booking following a well-publicised court case here in Australia involving Scenic and the June 2013 (?) Danube  flood, when the river cruise turned into an alleged lengthy bus trip with sub-standard buses and hotels.  

We chose our cruise knowing that an identical sister ship left Amsterdam the same day we left Budapest, so would meet/cross somewhere in the middle.  Before we departed I followed the river level threads on Cruise Critic so I was fairly certain a ship swap would occur.  

 

Luckily we were able to depart from Budapest as planned, low water meant several cruises stopped at Bratislava.  Our trip went as planned till we approached Passau where we berthed for our town tour, then moved downstream for overnight at Aschach.  

 

Next day our our scheduled visit was to Regensburg.  As this would have involved 4-5 hours on a bus, we were instead taken to Linz, 25 minutes away.  Everyone thought this a good decision.  Another overnight at Aschach, a pretty little town.  

 

Following day was our ship swap.  Breakfast on board, bags outside door around 7.30am.  We boarded buses for a very pleasant three-four drive to Nuremburg.  We followed the Danube to Passau, then experienced the autobahn. Comfort stop with restroom access paid for us. 

 

Arrived at Nuremburg, time for lunch, each person given €25.  Town walking tour then bus around sights and visit to Zeppelin fields then taken to our new ship.  As the ships were identical, we were told to go straight to “our” room, where our suitcases and keys were waiting for us.  

 

We felt the situation was handled as well well as humanly possible, with very little alteration to our scheduled journey.  We “lost” Regensburg, but “gained” Linz.  Only one 3-4 hour bus trip.  The €25 each was generous to buy lunch, which most of us skipped as we had enjoyed a hearty breakfast.  

 

We were then then lucky enough to scrape (literally!) through the scenic Rhine Gorge, some ships could not make it, and continued to Amsterdam.  

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Marjan1

[pully8]

Some excellent details given about the ship/bus/hotel experiences.

the video was good too.

We have had various interruptions over the years high/low water and industrial disputes with delays or changes in ports.

Most of the appeal and marketing sells a relaxed premium experience with prices to match.

Unpack once and experience the places along the way.

It can be a trial for some to pack/unpack and travel on buses as many report.

Some have had 3 ship swaps on some trips.

Last year some did not know if their cruise was going ahead or with major changes until they arrived in Europe.

Yes go with the flow and expect the best but understand the risks and make informed decisions prior to booking.  

[Got2Cruise]

The only “informed” decision you can make before a River Cruise is to know for a fact that there is always the chance that the river won’t cooperate and it might turn into a bus tour. How the corporations respond is another aspect to research. 

 

A similar aspect holds true for ocean cruising. Cruises to Bermuda turn into a Canada cruise due to hurricanes or ports you had your heart set on are missed due to high winds or your long awaited cruise to Cuba is going to Freeport Bahamas. 

[pully8]

Agree with researching the cruise operators and their performance around interruptions.

This forum and reading the experiences of other travellers good/bad or ugly can assist.

Many spend thousands on air travel to get to their cruise destination and a similar amount for the cruise and associated costs. a big investment and one to enjoy.