Low river water levels

Ask the cruise company you are planning to use?

A few years ago on a Viking cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg the water levels were very low and we changed boats half way through. The passengers on our boat went to a different Viking boat and its passengers came to our boat. The transfer went smoothly, but we had to get to know the new crew. The second half of the cruise didn’t seem nearly as fun.

It is quite bad right now. The large barges are not able to navigate if they are full as the water level is only about 1.3-1.4m. We have a double barge in Frankfurt that has been stuck here for over 2 weeks. Some of the cruise ships are not able to navigate either. Recently some of the cruises have had to leave the ships in Passau and continue their "cruise" with buses to Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rüdesheim.

Check the forums on Cruise Critic.

That should be an understood risk of river cruising. And in the Spring it can be too much water. Even in the summer a potential problem. We were on a river cruise in Sept when thunderstorms hit an area to the north very hard. A day later we could not get under one bridge because of high water. No one can provide an accurate answer so call the cruise line. It is going to vary day by day.

Didn't they just have a problem with high water along the Main between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg last winter?

yah, rivers do that. So difficult.