Danube water levels 2023 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[Canal archive]

Research, research, research 🧐 Notamermaid you’d make a brilliant archivist.

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

Research, research, research 🧐 Notamermaid you’d make a brilliant archivist.

Thank you Canal archive. Much praise from our British canal archivist.

 

When I discovered on google books that you can search and find lots of old scanned books and documents the treasure trove opened and there was this light that shone brightly and I was hooked. 😁

 

@Host Jazzbeau

Thank you very much.

 

As a short speech I need to say this: This would not have been possible without the most amazing compilation of data that some people in an office in Bavaria must have got together and put into software. Praise for the IT people there as well.

 

If you want to go where I have been - and be careful, it is a compelling place for those who like figures - this is the path to follow: https://www.gkd.bayern.de/en/rivers/waterlevel/bayern/pfelling-10078000/year-figures?zr=jahr&addhr=hr_w_hw&beginn=01.01.2022&ende=31.12.2022

the line "previous time period" is the Tardis that takes you back in time.

 

notamermaid

 

[Axelrod21]

I’ve been following this post getting ready for a Danube cruise. A lot of good comments.  We boarded in Budapest yesterday and the levels are up enough where our cruise will run uninterrupted! No ship swaps or bussing. 

[notamermaid]

Right, back to work. As indicated by steamboats this rain was not of the substantial kind and the deficit in the ground may well cause problems in trying to sustain a decent level at Pfelling. We will need to see if the situation along the Upper Danube is good enough to help Pfelling into November. Pfelling gauge shows 310cm this morning so that is still good but you can see the decline. A dry day today with pleasant temperatures. There will be much rain tomorrow; it looks to focus on the Southern tributaries of the Danube. Could be good to some extent, the Isar will rise but that river has its mouth downstream from Pfelling. Hopefully the Lech river and the Danube will get enough rain. But for now, all good.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

10 minutes ago, Axelrod21 said:

I’ve been following this post getting ready for a Danube cruise. A lot of good comments.  We boarded in Budapest yesterday and the levels are up enough where our cruise will run uninterrupted! No ship swaps or bussing. 

Thank you for saying hello from your cruise. Good to hear that things in Hungary are back to normal as well.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Kristal Blade]

We are at the airport, ready to fly to Budapest

I’m hoping ship wifi is good enough to let me share some pictures as we sail to and from Bucharest.

Thank you notamermaid for all the updates. I really think you should be promoted to truemermaid or queenmermaid 

Edited October 30, 2023 by Kristal Blade
Wrong city

[notamermaid]

Thank you Kristal Blade.

3 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

We are at the airport, ready to fly to Budapest

Have a good flight and a great time exploring Budapest and the downstream countries along the Danube.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

Kristal has escaped just as the downpour started the expression is ‘stair-rods’ and I mean really heavy rain mind you we had been warned.

[Tumbleweed1313]

Made it through on Viking from Bratislava to Budapest via Danube! Little bit of rain helped. 

[notamermaid]

Pfelling gauge at 296cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The river at Pfelling just about managed not to get too low early yesterday morning. From the already better 296cm the gauge now shows 304cm.

 

Recap of October coming soon. I can already say to no surprise of those following this thread that it was a bad month. And in the grand scheme of years it has been a bad year so far as regards low levels.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

Hull transport BN 663 is on the Danube, spotted in Austria. This will be the Amadeus Nova: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?116048-Amadeus-Nova-KFGS&p=464251#post464251

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The hull I mentioned a few days ago it has been confirmed by info I found from the company Scylla itself, is the Porto Mirante for the Douro. It will be finished in Hardingxveld, Netherlands. The pushing vessel has been changed at Regensburg, a standard procedure. The ship with hull is now on the Main river.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, notamermaid said:

The hull I mentioned a few days ago it has been confirmed by info I found from the company Scylla itself, is the Porto Mirante for the Douro. It will be finished in Hardingxveld, Netherlands. The pushing vessel has been changed at Regensburg, a standard procedure. The ship with hull is now on the Main river.

 

notamermaid

Do you know who it is being built for?

[notamermaid]

10 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Do you know who it is being built for?

It is Scylla. They will own the ship and she will go to both Phoenix Reisen and Riviera Travel in time charter.

https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/ships/ms-porto-mirante

 

Proud Scylla: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marc-brunger-40a5152a_ms-porto-mirante-activity-7123668969219059712-DgIh

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It is time to have a look how the river did at Pfelling:

In short: for 26 days the river was too low for the largest river cruise ships. And there was not much water for the smaller ones either. After the rise, towards the end of the month the gauge briefly showed 290cm but went straight back to a more pleasant level.

 

Sticking together September and October the situation looks like this:

It is not so easy to see so I will explain. After that massive drop September was wobbly, the level being either below or above 290cm for several days. then from 28 September till 26 October the level stayed under that crucial figure throughout the whole period. 29 consecutive days of the river being too low. Sounds a lot but in the grand scheme of years this is topped by other years of this century both in lowest figures and in numbers of days.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by notamermaid
correction in last sentence

[TriMomma]

On 10/27/2023 at 8:18 AM, Racr said:

Hi, we are doing A to B and started on Scenic Opal and supposed to change to Emerald Sky at Nuremburg. Currently we are in Bamburg and sailing to Nuremburg tonight.

After our day excursion in Nuremburg tomorrow, we bus to Regensburg to pick up Emerald Sky, Overnight in Regensburg, then do our daily excursions the next day before heading off again.

Interested to know if you were bused to Passau?   I got off the Emerald Sky on Oct 27th in Passau and had to be bused to Regensburg to pick up my rental car.   

 

We also missed Budapest.   Emerald had us at an industrial dock an hour outside of Budapest called Gonyu. 

[notamermaid]

The Danube at Pfelling continues to be at pleasant levels. 344cm this late morning.

 

notamermaid

 

[Axelrod21]

We just finished a Viking Cruise from Budapest to Regensburg on the Jarl.  We were able to board in Budapest on Oct 29 near the Chain Bridge and ended docked in the center of Regensburg!  Made all our stops and had an amazing time.  There was a little rain in Vienna and Passau but otherwise great weather.  We hope the rest of their season goes as well.

Already planning for the Douro River in the spring.

[HawaiiTraveler]

We arrived in Budapest on 10/21/23 to expecting to board Viking Skadi for the Grand European Tour cruise to Amsterdam…however, the water level was too low for the ship to get to Budapest, so we were bussed upriver to Komárom, where we boarded…Viking gave us the choice of being bussed back to Budapest that evening and the next day for excursions, or to receive credit/refund for those excursions if we did not want the 1-1/2 hour bus ride each way to Budapest and back…we chose to stay on board in Komárom and just walk around the town there, as three additional hours of bus rides the first two days didn’t sound good to us…the rest of the cruise was great, with enough rain in Austria and southern Germany to raise water levels further upriver in the Rhein-Main Danube Canal, and Main and Rhein rivers, so that we did not have to deal with a ship swap, which we were very thankful for…other than having our luggage not arriving in Budapest when we did and finally catching up with us in Passau a full week later, the cruise was great…the temperatures were cool and the rain was not heavy, which made the excursions very comfortable…we did run into high winds at Cologne which persisted all the way to Amsterdam, but didn’t cause any major problems with the cruise…the crew on Viking Skadi were great, took really good care of us and made the cruise wonderful…we are now looking ahead to November/December next year when we will do the same Grand European Tour cruise again, but starting in Amsterdam this time…until then, Aloha all…🙂

[SnowshoeCat]

Two weeks out and we already have a ship change. Gate 1 has a nice 5-night cruise between Vienna and Regensburg which I'll be taking at the end of November. Yesterday we received an e-mail that because our scheduled ship (Monarch Empress) couldn't sail between Regensburg and Passau, we will now be using the Monarch Queen, a slightly larger ship.  No big deal to me, but the funny thing is I've already been on this ship. I'm 99% certain it used to be Vantage's River Voyager (if the photos are accurate), and my one and only Vantage cruise was on the RV.   I was in a tiny, single aquarium cabin last time, and looking forward to enjoying the larger, French balcony cabin this time.

Edited November 8, 2023 by SnowshoeCat

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, SnowshoeCat said:

I'm 99% certain it used to be Vantage's River Voyager (if the photos are accurate), and my one and only Vantage cruise was on the RV.  

You are right. The Monarch Empress is 110m long, the Monarch Queen almost the standard 135m and is the ex-River Voyager. Here are some details: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?112886-Monarch-Queen-KFGS-02336621

 

What an odd coincidence.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[CruiseIreland]

Indeed, the ship plan/schematic in the hallway just off reception states River Voyager. Nice ship and great crew. You will enjoy it. Ken 

[notamermaid]

The river at Pfelling fluctuates daily with the amount of rain falling. It is cool and grey, with light rain over many areas of Germany. The current level is 322cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[SnowshoeCat]

On 11/8/2023 at 12:39 PM, notamermaid said:

You are right. The Monarch Empress is 110m long, the Monarch Queen almost the standard 135m and is the ex-River Voyager. Here are some details: https://www.binnenschifferforum.de/showthread.php?112886-Monarch-Queen-KFGS-02336621

 

What an odd coincidence.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

On 11/8/2023 at 4:31 PM, CruiseIreland said:

Indeed, the ship plan/schematic in the hallway just off reception states River Voyager. Nice ship and great crew. You will enjoy it. Ken 

 

Thank you. I'm looking forward to it, and your review answered a few questions. I read it when it was liveish, but at the time, I was supposed to be on a different ship.

 

Because the Queen is a larger ship, I looked to see if it was still "sold out". The website is updated and bookings are open with the extra cabins. It seems like they're staying on top of it.

Edited November 10, 2023 by SnowshoeCat