Christmas markets river cruises 2023 infos and tips

[notamermaid]

Cruisecritic's own Adam Coulter has been on a Christmas market river cruise. 🙂 His first one. Here is his experience. I think you can guess what happened - his cruise was impacted by the high levels of the Rhine:

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/just-back-from-tui-skyla-a-christmas-markets-cruise-on-the-rhine

 

I love the gingerbread houses on the ship.

 

notamermaid

 

[Pushka]

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Cruisecritic's own Adam Coulter has been on a Christmas market river cruise. 🙂 His first one. Here is his experience. I think you can guess what happened - his cruise was impacted by the high levels of the Rhine:

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/just-back-from-tui-skyla-a-christmas-markets-cruise-on-the-rhine

 

I love the gingerbread houses on the ship.

 

notamermaid

 

I'd have been happy with just missing one port.  Didn't seem to bad at all compared with most impacted ones. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Pushka

[notamermaid]

1 minute ago, Pushka said:

I'd have been happy with just missing one port.  Didn't seem to bad at all compared with most impacted ones. 

Yes, you could almost call him lucky. I am really sorry your holiday turned into what it was. You travelled such a long way to get to Europe and were disappointed.

 

Re-routing through a different airport is somewhat easy when coming from the UK and overall the logistics are a bit easier than for other travellers. Still, I think your itinerary could have been handled better. I hope there is a financial easing of your disappointment coming from the company. And I do not mean a "take our voucher and try again" e-mail...

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

With the last ships sailing adorned with Christmas decoration and the lights soon coming down in towns along the rivers, I would like to look back on the season now.

 

It has not been an easy and straightforward November and December. Too much rain, the almost complete absence of snow and the flooding on the Danube, Moselle and Rhine have caused many disruptions and disappointments. Let me tell you, the situation was far from normal and something we could not expect in October that it would happen. So before we get to the good bits, would any of you like to share your experiences. Were you happy with the communication from your river cruise line? How did short notice itinerary changes work? Did you yourself even cancel? Did you go on a route not affected by the flooding? We hear little of France for example during this time of year.

 

Sometimes the unexpected leads to a good experience. Any nice surprises while you were rerouted for example?

 

notamermaid

 

[hbbae]

For me, this was a nice surprise: On a Rhine River cruise (originally Düsseldorf to Basel) on the Amadeus Imperial (diverted to Nierstein rather than sailing from Mannheim/Heidelberg to Strasbourg, due to the December high water levels/flooding), we had the option of a very long bus ride to Strasbourg (only to spend a couple of hours there), or almost a full day in Mainz (not on the original itinerary).  As much as I had originally wanted to visit Strasbourg, I chose to go to Mainz, so as not to be rushed - and it turned out to be my favorite day of the whole cruise.  Maybe it was because it was someplace I hadn’t planned on visiting.  But there was so much to see and experience - I wasn’t able to do it all.  The Christmas market was a very nice one, it was lively but not overly crowded/packed that day. I also shopped in some very lovely stores, and accomplished a fair amount of holiday shopping in that one city.  Churches, museums … just a really good day overall.

 

Amadeus got us through 2/3 of the regular itinerary before we had to turn around and shift into bus tour mode. I think we had a very experienced captain, and I wonder if that might have made a difference in our ability to continue sailing and docking when other ships were starting to turn around or pause. Communications about changes in itinerary/plans were good.  We spent the last night in a nice hotel, and I was impressed that the arrangements came together pretty smoothly.  (Can’t imagine how stressful it must have been behind the scenes.  But what I saw was competence in the face of challenging circumstances.)

 

Oh, and the Amadeus crew went to unbelievable lengths, sloshing around in the river water, to construct a ramp so that guests could safely go ashore when docked in Nierstein.  Kudos to them -

 

 

[steamboats]

For those on their way back home through Munich airport - the market is still open til Jan 7th.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

18 hours ago, hbbae said:

Oh, and the Amadeus crew went to unbelievable lengths, sloshing around in the river water, to construct a ramp so that guests could safely go ashore when docked in Nierstein.  Kudos to them -

Great to read that.

 

Guess what I found online: https://www.fotocommunity.de/photo/amadeus-imperial-ralf-m-b/47948862

and: https://www.fotocommunity.de/photo/kreuzfahrtschiff-beim-hochwasser-ralf-m-b/47944826

 

notamermaid

 

[hbbae]

Thank you!! Brings back memories - 

 

This is my first attempt to upload photo on CC, let’s see if this works. Note water level relative to bench -

[Canal archive]

👍

[notamermaid]

 

8 minutes ago, hbbae said:

This is my first attempt to upload photo on CC, let’s see if this works.

Works! And great photo, too, for illustrating flooding.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

3 hours ago, hbbae said:

Thank you!! Brings back memories - 

 

This is my first attempt to upload photo on CC, let’s see if this works. Note water level relative to bench -

Great place for a pedicure!  Soak those feet until their nice and tender...

[sjde]

We did a Viking Christmas markets cruise from Prague to Paris (Main & Moselle) right after Thanksgiving. Luckily we didn't have to do a ship swap or bussing due to high water levels. But the first half of the cruise the Christmas markets weren't open yet and many passengers were very upset about that.

[notamermaid]

On 1/14/2024 at 3:24 AM, sjde said:

But the first half of the cruise the Christmas markets weren't open yet and many passengers were very upset about that.

Thank you to mention that. I still think Viking does not have this quite right with the marketing. Or somehow at least it does not come across that markets are not open everywhere from 20 November or so.

 

This past season we have also a mention in the Rhine thread that the Christmas market in Cochem on the Moselle closed on 17th December and Viking had the visit scheduled for the 20th (it was then cancelled at short notice). I enquired with Cochem tourism information centre and was assured that this was a one-off and 2024 will see the regular dates again (do check online in summer). I still think though that Viking could have been more vigilant and checked the early closure, which had been published online by Cochem.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Here is a Christmas market that is off the beaten track for river cruisers, but it is on a navigable river, the Neckar in Germany. Stuttgart is a large city with an international airport: https://www.stuttgarter-weihnachtsmarkt.de/en/home/

 

I have enjoyed Stuttgart in another season. The Christmas market has been recommended to me.

 

notamermaid