Lock Closure at Regensburg

[steamboats]

Mike,

 

Yes, I think it´s because of the weather conditions. In March it´s most likely that the spring floods cause high water and repairs won´t be possible then.

 

The river cruise ship season starts by the end of March ususally.

 

steamboats

[steamboats]

And another problem on the Danube river:

 

The lock at Gabcikovo (downriver of Bratislava and the last lock prior to Budapest) has technical problems and is closed since last Wednesday. They are expected to open on Apr 17. There´s only one lock chamber.

 

A passenger who just returned from a Danube river cruise informed me about this. He got trapped in Budapest and was bussed to Vienna. Some cruise companies who have ships downriver and upriver of the lock are changing ships.

 

steamboats

[Steamboatin]

Hi Steamboats,

 

Thanks for the information on the yearly lock maintenance in April. Good information to know for future scheduling of European river cruises.

 

This year will be our first European river cruise. It will be on Uniworld's River Ambassador from Amsterdam upriver to Basel, Switzerland on the Rhine River. We have five cruises on the US rivers.

 

So from my looking at your posts we should have no currently known lock problems.

 

We will be taking a transatlantic cruise on the Carnival Freedom from Miami, Florida to the port serving Rome. Next morning fly from Rome to Amsterdam to board Uniworld's River Ambassador. The transatlantic cruise is from April 26 to May 10. Uniworld's Castles along the Rhine cruise is from May 11 to May 18. Sort of a different version of back to back cruising.

 

So will there be any anticipated river problems for us on the Rhine River?

[steamboats]

Hi Steamboatin,

 

No lock closures on the Rhine river which affect the itineraries (there are some but the locks do have two chambers).

 

Looks like you are coming to Germany whilst we are cruising the Med :D !

 

A TA cruise plus a river cruise sounds like a good way to "save" money on a TA flight :D (o.k., actually you won´t "save" any money).

 

Have a wonderful time over here in my neck of the woods!!

 

steamboats