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

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Glen Lismore said:

Also do you know if the barge has been removed from the lock as yet ? 

According to the report I linked to above it should be removed tomorrow. If today's planning has been successful.

 

BR, that is Bayerischer Rundfunk, the regional broadcaster, are really on the ball with this, so I expect them to report quickly when all has gone well.

 

Interestingly, the Federal Waterway website originally put a date of the beginning of April for the end of maintenance, but recent reports including the authorities themselves all say that work is supposed to end on 1 or 2 April at the latest. This is the link for the press releases: https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/SSP_2023.html?nn=1714704

It says 11 March till 31 March.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[reeves35]

11 hours ago, Glen Lismore said:

We are leaving Budapest on Scenic Crystal tonight 28/03 heading to Amsterdam on what was supposed to be 15 nights and have now been informed our actual ship time will end in Regensberg as they apparently can't get through the lock and we will have to travel the rest of the way by bus. Very disappointed to say the least.  

That is incredibly disappointing; Regensberg is not even halfway to Amsterdam so your holiday can hardly be called a river cruise at all.  I do not understand how Scenic cannot organise an alternative ship to meet you up further up-river to resume your cruise onboard as you would have thought they have a similar issue with ships heading towards Budapest.  I would be demanding a substantial portion of your cruise cost to be refunded.

[notamermaid]

8 minutes ago, reeves35 said:

I would be demanding a substantial portion of your cruise cost to be refunded.

It is something to be considered. I would definitely see how things go on the ship, take note of any conversations and timing, as well as official data from the Federal Waterways authorities. As I said, I am a little puzzled by the time line. There may have been a delay at the locks due to the strike, but one report from BR states that the rescue operation of the "Achim" has not been affected by a strike action delay.

 

We will see how it goes tomorrow at Geisling lock.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Glen Lismore]

7 hours ago, reeves35 said:

That is incredibly disappointing; Regensberg is not even halfway to Amsterdam so your holiday can hardly be called a river cruise at all.  I do not understand how Scenic cannot organise an alternative ship to meet you up further up-river to resume your cruise onboard as you would have thought they have a similar issue with ships heading towards Budapest.  I would be demanding a substantial portion of your cruise cost to be refunded.

They are saying they have no ships coming back this was as they are all in the North at the moment,  we will be trying for a substantial refund but our preference would be to do the cruise that we travelled all the way to Europe from Australia to do, this was a holiday of a lifetime that Scenic seem very comfortable to just blow off with little regard for their customers.  

[Glen Lismore]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

It is something to be considered. I would definitely see how things go on the ship, take note of any conversations and timing, as well as official data from the Federal Waterways authorities. As I said, I am a little puzzled by the time line. There may have been a delay at the locks due to the strike, but one report from BR states that the rescue operation of the "Achim" has not been affected by a strike action delay.

 

We will see how it goes tomorrow at Geisling lock.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Thanks again for the update, any information about the progress at the lock would be appreciated. 

[Glen Lismore]

Just had a further conversation with the cruise director and he is saying the reason behind the ship stopping in Regensberg and putting us onto buses from there is all the lock maintenance on the main danube canal has been delayed,  I am not familiar with any of this other than the fact we are ending our cruise 7 days into 15. 

[Canal archive]

Looking at ‘Marine Traffic’ the only passenger cruise vessels ahead of you are at least two Viking boats. It looks like that beyond Nuremberg the only vessels showing are police boats. It’s showing two Scenic vessels moored in Arnhem all the rest are behind your ship. Will keep a look out and fingers crossed everything works out well for you.

[Glen Lismore]

7 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

Looking at ‘Marine Traffic’ the only passenger cruise vessels ahead of you are at least two Viking boats. It looks like that beyond Nuremberg the only vessels showing are police boats. It’s showing two Scenic vessels moored in Arnhem all the rest are behind your ship. Will keep a look out and fingers crossed everything works out well for you.

Thanks for the update. Yep definitely fingers crossed here. 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Glen Lismore said:

Just had a further conversation with the cruise director and he is saying the reason behind the ship stopping in Regensberg and putting us onto buses from there is all the lock maintenance on the main danube canal has been delayed,  I am not familiar with any of this other than the fact we are ending our cruise 7 days into 15. 

Granted, I cannot know the details. But if I may be so bold, I have a niggling doubt from my position here on the Rhine. Will be interesting to see how this goes, I hope for you that something really positive happens.

 

Could a ship make time by skipping an excursion? Maybe, the Grand European is known at least with Viking for dropping passengers off and sailing while they are on an excursion to save time. So trying to do even more of that is a bit tricky. Theoretically possible, though. It all depends on how long one is stuck around Regensburg.

 

Anyway, this is theory. And this is the map of the European waterways which you can download: https://unece.org/where-navigate-network-inland-waterways-europe-and-its-parameters

 

The "Achim" has been pulled out of Geisling lock successfully! Proof? A live stream from the lock! https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/br24live-schiff-achim-wird-aus-schleuse-befreit,TZnjpyR

The barge was pulled out of the chamber alongside another ship and is now waiting in the upper approach to the lock for a ship that can take her to what may now be Hungary. It may be the Achim's final journey.

 

Geisling lock by the way has a wide chamber, that why it was possible to attach Achim to another ship to get her out. Other locks are narrower, like the one at Regensburg for example.

 

This does not mean that maintenance has finished but we will not see a bottleneck at Geisling when it has.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

It was the "Gau" that pulled "Achim" out of the lock.

 

The strike has affected maintenance work on the Main. There I have read confirmation that lock closure could continue over the weekend at a few locks, i.e. until 1 April or a couple of days longer.

 

notamermaid

 

[Glen Lismore]

9 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

It was the "Gau" that pulled "Achim" out of the lock.

 

The strike has affected maintenance work on the Main. There I have read confirmation that lock closure could continue over the weekend at a few locks, i.e. until 1 April or a couple of days longer.

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks Again for the information,  now it is a wait and see, I will let you know what happens after Regensberg but it appears now from our lunchtime briefing our time on the ship is ending day 7 of 15, one guest has suggested Scenic had taken a gamble with the early cruise date and appear to have been caught out by a minor maintenance delay. 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Glen Lismore said:

one guest has suggested Scenic had taken a gamble with the early cruise date and appear to have been caught out by a minor maintenance delay.

That is not an unreasonable suggestion in my opinion.

 

notamermaid

 

[CastleCritic]

2 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Could a ship make time by skipping an excursion? Maybe, the Grand European is known at least with Viking for dropping passengers off and sailing while they are on an excursion to save time. So trying to do even more of that is a bit tricky. Theoretically possible, though. It all depends on how long one is stuck around Regensburg.

 

notamermaid

 

In my experience when this has happened (and it was pretty much every day on the Main) the ship needed the entire excursion time to get to where it needed to be, and often set off again immediately as soon as we boarded so there really wasnt any time that could be made up that way.  There were a few times this wasnt true, but it really depends on itinerary.

[Canal archive]

Scenic has always done the drop, continue and collect from a different place. I wouldn’t like to be in the marketing persons shoes who suggested an early start though. Scenic’s been caught by a triple whammy - lock maintenance, which they should have been only to aware of - strikes not necessarily aware of and I suspect the Achim definitely not aware of, has had a knock on cause, i.e. equipment and experts. Seeing how they deal with it will be interesting and a lot of that I’m sorry to say is how strong the staff on board are. Get some of those desk drivers in Switzerland on board to answer the questions. ( this is also where the boss man lives, his name is Glen Moroney.

I’m  big fan of Scenic but as with all companies they do fall over at times, fingers crossed this one gets sorted. 

[Marissa617]

Any news Passau- East? How are water levels looking? Strikes? I have a hard time reading the charts so if someone well versed can let me know how they are currently. I see a lot of rain/snow in the forecast for the next week or two so curious if they might rise too high?

 

Thanks!

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Marissa617

[notamermaid]

4 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

In my experience when this has happened (and it was pretty much every day on the Main) the ship needed the entire excursion time to get to where it needed to be, and often set off again immediately as soon as we boarded so there really wasnt any time that could be made up that way.  There were a few times this wasnt true, but it really depends on itinerary.

Thank you for confirming this. It is not easy to make up time then. A few hours would surely work, but longer?

 

Wonder if any other ships are on the Grand European within the next three days and waiting to get through the lock at Regensburg?

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

1 hour ago, Marissa617 said:

Any news Passau- East? How are water levels looking? Strikes? I have a hard time reading the charts so if someone well versed can let me know how they are currently. I see a lot of rain/snow in the forecast for the next week or two so curious if they might rise too high?

 

Thanks!

 

Strikes in Germany where only for one day. Have no news about Austria at all. River levels okay. This is the website for the gauges in Upper Austria: https://hydro.ooe.gv.at/#/overview/Wasserstand?mode=map&selected=Wasserstand

For example Achleiten: https://hydro.ooe.gv.at/#/overview/Wasserstand/station/16664/Achleiten/Wasserstand?period=P7D

Line denotes end of levels and beginning of forecast. MW means mean water level. A rise coming for sure but does not look fast and much.

 

A rise due to rain is coming to the Danube in Germany, but modelling in the Upper Danube valley shows no real flooding.

 

Pfelling currently at 383cm.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Rosie_00]

BUDAPEST TO LINZ WATER LEVEL QUERY

 

Hi all, 

 

Thanks so much for the guidance and regular updates. Does anyone have any information on water levels from Budapest to Linz. I can't find any reliable current information (apart from here).

 

River cruise leaves Budapest mid next week but we're slightly concerned at the reliability of water levels. I know it can be unpredictable and it's the risk you take booking when water levels may be high. 

 

Thanks also for the marine traffic suggestion - I'm now deep in tracking ships movement and need to get out of that hole haha! 

[notamermaid]

Okay, I am willing to concede that Scenic has been hit at least partly by a mix of strike and additional delay because of lack of equipment at two locks. The locks were supposed to reopen on 30 March, but work will now take longer. This is the info which has been issued in addition to the official data sheet on the locks: https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/mvc/main_notemplate.php?modul=nfb&action=showPDF&nfbid=2840/2022

 

The data sheet with closures was updated on 27 March. I cannot recall what it said about Regensburg before that date but now says closure till 5 April, 1800 hours. This is a screenshot of Geisling and Regensburg:

 

 

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by notamermaid

[notamermaid]

13 minutes ago, Rosie_00 said:

Thanks so much for the guidance and regular updates. Does anyone have any information on water levels from Budapest to Linz. I can't find any reliable current information (apart from here).

Hello and welcome to CruiseCritic. This is the Danube from Achleiten all the way to Sulina: https://www.danubeportal.com/de/waterLevel

Just click on the gauge name you want to look at. I cannot say how the graphs and water levels relate to actual sailing. You would need to follow along and see how the situation develops.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[Canal archive]

Add this one to the list you’ll be even more caught up - Vessel Finder. It gets just a bit time consuming but interesting nevertheless. Notamermaids water level info is fascinating I wish I understood it more. You’ll love your cruise I’m sure.

[notamermaid]

I find marinetraffic and vesselfinder a good mix. Unfortunately, both give up in the Rhine Gorge. Just too many hills for terrestrial signals that work in other areas. Subscribing to the satellite version is rather expensive.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

I’m a cheapskate and get by on the for free versions, you’re right there are odd black spots and some captains switch off their locators at the oddest times and then leave them on when overwintering. Still it’s a bit of fun and it was interesting following the cargo vessel that blocked the Panama Canal.

[Daisi]

17 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I’m a cheapskate and get by on the for free versions, you’re right there are odd black spots and some captains switch off their locators at the oddest times and then leave them on when overwintering. Still it’s a bit of fun and it was interesting following the cargo vessel that blocked the Panama Canal.

 

I don't recall the Panama Canal ever being blocked... do you mean the Ever Given in the Suez Canal?

[notamermaid]

This is the official press release in German about the successful removal of the "Achim": https://www.wsa-donau-mdk.wsv.de/Webs/WSA/Donau-MDK/DE/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/PM6_SchlGeisling2023.html;jsessionid=76920FA3722A01622A0AF911895535E5.live21321

 

Geisling and Straubing locks have reopened as planned. River traffic can now flow again freely from Regensburg to the Black Sea.

 

notamermaid