Danube water levels 2024 and similar topics - plus tips and info

[ural guy]

Our November 22 cruise was supposed to start in Regensburg, high water pushed that start to Passau.  Vantage just ran the Regensburg tour the first day by bus.

 

I took one of the ships E-bikes and road about 30 kms up the Inn river bike trail.  I was lucky to have a fleece cap to put under helmet and gloves as it rained for awhile and was maybe 45f.  Had lunch at the Gasthof St Florian in Austria, picked merely because there was a Florian Geyer Gasthof in the town we were stationed near.

 

Great Cordon Bleu, Gulasch Soup, a weizen and coffee at the end.  I was all warmed up and ready to head back to ship.  One of my favorite days on the river.

 

Only point to my ramble, is that having an extra day in Passau can be a very good thing.  Regensburg is nice, but to us, Passau is really special, with the 3 rivers coming together. 

[notamermaid]

The recent rain has put the Inn river back on high levels with four gauges now showing flooding level I. This not good for Passau where three rivers merge. It is raining along the Southern tributaries tonight and the Danube itself is rising already. I am not sure how the following reading at the gauge relates to passage under the railway bridge at Bogen, but I will give you the figure and if you happen to be sailing there tonight you will know you which level has worked for you, so here is Straubing: 349cm at 22.15 local time. It will further rise tomorrow, 390cm are possible.

 

Passau gauge has risen to 653cm. This is potentially a bit problematic at the bridge for some ships. After a dip tomorrow, the level will likely go up again and could get a bit higher than it is now.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

10 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Another report talks of an accident on 19 June with a photo of a Viking river cruise ship. Again, clarification can only be had with advertising agreements.

I have been able to verify that this photo was fed into the the wrong report, the photo refers to an accident in a previous year.

 

So to the accident at Bad Abbach. This was a major deal and while it does thankfully not involve a river cruise ship with passengers on board it has hit a river cruise ship. Remember the photo in this article: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/rhine-and-danube-river-cruises-impacted-high-water-levels?stay=1&posfrom=1

It is the MS Insomnia with NB 212. After the delay due to the flooding the hull was moved to Schwabelweis (Regensburg) on 14 June. Well... yesterday the journey of the river-cruise-ship-to-be continued. It was pushed by the "Otto" with destination Hardinxveld in the Netherlands and left the lock at Bad Abbach when disaster struck. Here is the Otto:

 

Apparently the technical fault caused a major problem with navigation and the captain just managed to manoeuvre the transport so that it came to a halt at the soft bank in order not to cause further damage or danger. There was smoke in the engine room but no open fire. The local fire brigade has uploaded photos from the rescue operation and written a detailed report (in German): https://www.feuerwehr-bad-abbach.de/index.php/einsaetze/einsaetze-2024/einsatzbericht/2918

 

Anyone else think this ship is jinxed?

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Danube is rising quite a bit in its upper section where no river cruise ships can sail. That is not a major problem but it is noteworthy as that water may still have a small impact past Kelheim. The river still being relatively high it may be the difference between sailing under a bridge or not. So, to Straubing gauge: 371cm.

 

Passau gauge is at 642cm. Thankfully it has not got higher than yesterday after that dip.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Straubing gauge is at 410cm. Passau gauge is back down to 618cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[Suefromthenorth]

Not a mermaid

Your knowledge and level of detail are terrific. I am so impressed and thank you so much. Very much appreciated.

I totally respect your privacy but being a nosey northerner, I would love to know a little more about your background and how you became such an expert.

Sorry, I know it’s cheeky. My husband and I are sailing on the Ilvi July 23rd.

You can of course just tell me where to go and I would totally understand.

[Canal archive]

Can’t get much further north unless you cross the border and yes Notamermaid is definitely the font of all knowledge with regards to the two most used European rivers.

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Suefromthenorth said:

I totally respect your privacy but being a nosey northerner, I would love to know a little more about your background and how you became such an expert.

Well a big HELLO to Northumberland! 😊 Love the countryside - Hadrian's Wall and all that. Big cathedrals all over Europe and Carlisle Cathedral I have visited but Lanercost Priory is one of my favourite not-so-big churches. Or is that one just across the boundary in Cumbria? Forgotten. Not nosey - will give a few details later. A bit busy today with work and household.

 

Straubing at 397cm, so going down.

 

notamermaid

 

[Suefromthenorth]

11 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Well a big HELLO to Northumberland! 😊 Love the countryside - Hadrian's Wall and all that. Big cathedrals all over Europe and Carlisle Cathedral I have visited but Lanercost Priory is one of my favourite not-so-big churches. Or is that one just across the boundary in Cumbria? Forgotten. Not nosey - will give a few details later. A bit busy today with work and household.

 

Straubing at 397cm, so going down.

 

notamermaid

 

Thrilled to get a reply and to see that you know our county. Look forward to hearing from you later.

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, Suefromthenorth said:

Thrilled to get a reply and to see that you know our county.

Checked - Lanercost Priory is still in Cumbria. I stayed in the countryside of Northumberland in 2019 and had an amazing trip to Bamburgh Castle, which is among my favourite castles (and I have seen a few ).

 

 

A bit about me.

 

I live on the river Rhine, not far from its shores. My part-time job is in the tourism sector but has nothing to do with river cruising. I have travelled around Europe all my life but not so much in the last ten years. I had been interested in river cruising for some time but it was only in 2013 that I had the opportunity to try it out. See my signature for water related travels. Sometime in autumn of that year I found Cruisecritic more or less by chance and that is how it started. After some posts the topic came to weather and water levels and then I think people started asking me questions and I added some extra info on that in other posts, too. That turned into a thread for the Rhine in 2015 I think and then in later years for the Danube and Elbe. I am a complete laywoman and not a tech person but the internet is so full of great knowledge that I have been able to learn tons along the way in both German and English. That’s it really. I am a researcher at heart and together with the amazing feedback (and people happily prompting me to find out more with their questions) that passengers have provided coupled with some great advice from those with more technical knowledge, including an acquainted hydrologist, that has encouraged me to keep doing this here on Cruisecritic.

 

notamermaid

 

[Suefromthenorth]

That’s fantastic. Thank you so much. 
We know Bamburgh very well and agree the castle there is superb.
We live in another coastal village with a castle.

 I totally get the appeal of a small ancient church. My favourite is St Gregory the Great at Kirknewton which is tiny and out in the wilds of Northumberland. We were both part of a theatre group to perform there at Easter.

 I’m absolutely amazed that you have gained your astonishing depth of understanding and detailed knowledge in the way that you have and that you so generously use it to help others. I’ve followed you for ages and had imagined you were something like the river equivalent of a marine engineer or biologist or even the Captain of a riverboat. Big respect to you.

And thank you so much for all the help, information and reassurance you have given to hundreds of people like me. 

You’ll probably never know what a difference you’ve made!

[notamermaid]

13 hours ago, Suefromthenorth said:

St Gregory the Great at Kirknewton

We passed a sign to the village while in the area. I think it was on the way to the Flodden battlefield site which we enjoyed learning about.

 

Thank you very much for your praise. You are making me blush.

13 hours ago, Suefromthenorth said:

I’ve followed you for ages and had imagined you were something like the river equivalent of a marine engineer or biologist or even the Captain of a riverboat.

In that case it is good that you asked, I do not want to give the impression I am something that I am not.

 

Forgot to say this yesterday, sorry: Have a great cruise. 🙂

 

notamermaid

 

[Suefromthenorth]

18 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

We passed a sign to the village while in the area. I think it was on the way to the Flodden battlefield site which we enjoyed learning about.

 

Thank you very much for your praise. You are making me blush.

In that case it is good that you asked, I do not want to give the impression I am something that I am not.

 

Forgot to say this yesterday, sorry: Have a great cruise. 🙂

 

notamermaid

 

Well I really meant that your research means that you are as good if not better as those people!

Also your explanations are therefore clearer to other lay persons.

 In St Gregory’s there is a stone panel known as the kilted magi. Like here, it was once part of Scotland and the locals in the 11c assumed everyone wore kilts!

 I’ll be following water levels on the Danube, and especially looking out for your posts until our trip.

Kind regards 

Sue

[notamermaid]

3 hours ago, Suefromthenorth said:

Well I really meant that your research means that you are as good if not better as those people!

Also your explanations are therefore clearer to other lay persons.

Thank you. I just do not want anyone to just wonder "who is that woman spending hours posting weird figures and graphs?" So, I am glad you asked. Happy to give some background to my posts. I never knew how my river or any other waterway "worked" before I went on my river cruise, did not give it much thought. As some others do on their first river cruise, I got hooked as well and cannot get the topic out of my head.

 

To the river. Things are looking up on the German Danube. There are a few weather warnings in the Alps but overall the levels are down even further and Passau gauge has fallen to 610cm.

 

notamermaid

 

[Suefromthenorth]

10 minutes ago, notamermaid said:

Thank you. I just do not want anyone to just wonder "who is that woman spending hours posting weird figures and graphs?" So, I am glad you asked. Happy to give some background to my posts. I never knew how my river or any other waterway "worked" before I went on my river cruise, did not give it much thought. As some others do on their first river cruise, I got hooked as well and cannot get the topic out of my head.

 

To the river. Things are looking up on the German Danube. There are a few weather warnings in the Alps but overall the levels are down even further and Passau gauge has fallen to 610cm.

 

notamermaid

 

Great news. Thank you so much.👍

[tarheel423]

We leave a week from today for Bucharest and will be boarding our riverboat Jul 7 for a Black Sea to Amsterdam cruise. I haven't posted here for many, many years, but on behalf of all of us who read these threads but don't participate, a big thank you to not a mermaid for keeping us up to date on conditions on the Danube - and the Rhine. I imagine what started as a casual post has turned into a 2nd part-time job for you. All of us really appreciate your gift of time spent on this topic.

[BronxGuy421]

Hello all (or as we say in The Bronx,NY -- How are yoose guys?) -- I am sailing on Monarch Queen out of Budapest on July 7. I see lots of info here on ever changing water levels but I don't know what levels are good and bad? Is there a chart somewhere that I can use to see if the Danube is co-operating with me? And in general -- how is the river now?

Thanks in advance,

BronxGuy421

[notamermaid]

Welcome to Cruisecritic.

 

I will start with this question:

36 minutes ago, BronxGuy421 said:

And in general -- how is the river now?

Not too bad. The bad flooding has basically gone, i.e. it is close to the Black Sea or has drained into it already. For now, not too much water is coming from Germany. The river has still been a bit high but from what I have gathered is now closer to the long term mean. All in all looking pleasant, with a nice buffer for dry, hot days in July.

 

50 minutes ago, BronxGuy421 said:

Is there a chart somewhere that I can use to see if the Danube is co-operating with me?

There are several charts. Each country issues its own charts but for navigation also lists other countries' charts. It can get a lot to look at and a bit confusing, but I will happily provide them tomorrow. There is one website that lists them all.

 

You do not say which direction you are going in, but no problem. Listing in a downstream direction from Kelheim (beginning of the navigable Danube) you have a few problem spots:

near Straubing - low bridge in high water (depends on superstructure of your ship)

at Pfelling - shallow in low water (depends on draft of your ship)

at Passau - low bridge (depends on superstructure of your ship)

at Danube bend just before Budapest - shallow (depends on draft of your ship)

downstream from Budapest at a few stretches of the free-flowing river - shallows in low water that I have no details of (depends on draft of your ship)

 

As we go along during the year I will more or less regularly keep posting levels. As I have done so in the past it may be helpful (or confusing) to go back in the thread a little.

 

1 hour ago, BronxGuy421 said:

I see lots of info here on ever changing water levels but I don't know what levels are good and bad?

Apart from what the authorities stipulate as being too high for sailing (we are not close to these levels at all now) it is not easy to determine at times what is good for your ship or not.

 

For some more info and to perhaps find people on your itinerary (same date or not), you could join a roll call or create one. Access via this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/546-all-other-river-cruise-roll-calls/

 

Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[BronxGuy421]

Somehow I suspected that NotAMermaid was going to be my source of info -- I am glad it is you. You certainly are the most knowledgeable river expert I have ever seen.

I forget to mention my ship's direction. we are heading west from Budapest to Regensburg.

PS -- are you sure you are not a mermaid?

Mike

 

 

[notamermaid]

Thank you for saying hello and your kind words.

20 hours ago, tarheel423 said:

I imagine what started as a casual post has turned into a 2nd part-time job for you.

I think you may be right there. 😊 It is fun to inform and advise and learn myself at the same time. But I also enjoy my real job.

 

Have a great cruise traversing Europe.

 

notamermaid

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 11:58 AM by notamermaid

[notamermaid]

18 hours ago, BronxGuy421 said:

I see lots of info here on ever changing water levels but I don't know what levels are good and bad?

That as I have indicated above also depends on your specific ship. The easier measure in flooding is what the authorities determine to be too high for sailing for safety reasons. That includes avoiding damage to the embankments from the wash of the waves, i.e, the movement of river traffic causing this. This applies to all ships but is specific to a certain gauge and its section of river. This is a figure called HSW (höchster Schifffahrtswasserstand) for Germany and Austria, for example for Pfelling this is 620cm. This is its respective webpage: https://www.hnd.bayern.de/pegel/donau_bis_passau/pfelling-10078000/marken?

The level now is 450cm.

However, this is what the paper says, the authorities can in certain situations deviate from that. Skippers on the river are informed through notifications and radio.

 

With the two bridges in flooding it is not possible to say if a figure is okay. Figures can indicate it but I can never know. The indicator for Passau gauge is 630cm, but it appears to be a "careful" figure. From what we have learnt over the years and recently is that most ships can go under the bridge at 640cm and some above. Your captain will know perfectly what is possible.

 

Low water is again not easy to assess. There is no river traffic ban in Germany in low water. The most reliable marker is 290cm at Pfelling gauge. The authorities have given that as the figure that causes potentially problems for the river cruise ships with the deepest draft. Again this will depend then on your ship, its net weight, its weight when full and what "room to wiggle" your captain has with reducing the load (yes, this could mean having all the passengers off board, but mostly partly emptying water tanks). Also upstream and downstream directions have a small good or bad effect.

 

So much for now.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[BobMartha]

Was just notified that we have a ship swap for our sailing leaving Friday out of Regensburg on Emerald. We were on the Destiny but due to logistics with water levels we will now be on the Sky (same class of ship) doing the same itinerary. Whew! When you open your email first thing in the morning and see an email from your cruise line with the it starting out with due to.....

you can't help but think the worst! All good thankfully!

[notamermaid]

7 hours ago, BobMartha said:

We were on the Destiny but due to logistics with water levels we will now be on the Sky (same class of ship) doing the same itinerary.

The Destiny is currently on the Main river I see online. More ships will likely not be in the right place yet.

 

Glad it is working out for you. Have a great cruise.

 

notamermaid

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

7 hours ago, BobMartha said:

Was just notified that we have a ship swap for our sailing leaving Friday out of Regensburg on Emerald. We were on the Destiny but due to logistics with water levels we will now be on the Sky (same class of ship) doing the same itinerary. Whew! When you open your email first thing in the morning and see an email from your cruise line with the it starting out with due to.....

you can't help but think the worst! All good thankfully!

As long as the ships are identical, this is the easiest solution for the passengers.  Much better than a mid-cruise ship swap to get the names 'right.'  They may also have switched the staff over at the original swap, so their personal port-day expectations weren't upset.

[notamermaid]

On 6/25/2024 at 9:09 PM, notamermaid said:

There are several charts. Each country issues its own charts but for navigation also lists other countries' charts. It can get a lot to look at and a bit confusing, but I will happily provide them tomorrow. There is one website that lists them all.

So here are a few websites.

Passau, Germany:

https://www.hnd.bayern.de/pegel/donau_bis_passau/passau-10091008

Austria:

https://www.doris.bmk.gv.at/en/fairway-information/water-levels

Hungary:

https://www.hydroinfo.hu/en/hidinfo/hidinfo_graf_duna.html

Austria:

https://www.doris.bmk.gv.at/en/fairway-information/fairway-condition

 

Danube:

https://www.danubeportal.com/en/waterLevel

 

notamermaid