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Notice for Rhine River Day Cruise Passengers

Posted by (Paradise) on

Reduced water levels have temporarily made the east-bank dock in Lorch unusable, according to the notice below from the K-D website:

https://www.k-d.com/en/2026/06/niedrigwasser/

Right now, all other docks are still in service for most of the river trips. However, K-D's Goethe Paddlewheel ship, the last ship of the day traveling north from Ruedesheim and Bingen, cannot stop at the docks at these towns either: Assmannshausen, Kamp Bornhofen, and Oberlahnstein.

Most visitors should not be impacted by this situation since most do not hop off before reaching St Goar / St Goarshausen, the final stops for most northbound ships, and those who do hop off usually do so in Bacharach or Oberwesel on the WEST bank. Those changing ships in St Goar to cruise further north to Boppard or other towns will also be unaffected unless they have planned to hop off in Kamp Bornhofen or Oberlahnstein (both on the east bank.)

HOWEVER... If you are planning to cruise from July 7 onward, I encourage you to consult the K-D Latest News page. The river level forecasters have some degree of confidence that water levels will drop even lower at around this time, which may knock out other docks and possibly all cruising until such time as the river rises.

Posted by
36916 posts

I was driving along there Saturday a week ago and noticed the new collection of sandbanks along the east bank that I have never seen before.

Yes, water is low.

Posted by
10388 posts

I rode the KD boat from Ruedesheim to St Goar yesterday. The other thing to be aware of is the large volume of passengers at this time. Groups of river cruisers (like myself) taking an alternate tour since the cruise ship didn’t go past Boppard, tour groups, lots of school groups, and individual travelers filled all seats within the first two stops.

Later arrivals, visibly frustrated, could only stand. Predictably they stood in front of those seated and cut off their sight lines…. Be prepared for crowds and board early in the route if you want a seat.

Posted by
8256 posts

K-D cruises get the most attention on this forum, but a second operator - Bingen-Ruedesheimer - has cruises which also cover the same river trip to St Goar which Carol now cruised yesterday with K-D. I would look at the B-R option as well based on Carol now's comment that the multi-day cruise customers are now boarding the day-cruise boats. Perhaps B-R boats will have less crowding. At the link below, click on "Loreleyfahrt" to find the B-R schedules and prices for this route:

https://www.bingen-ruedesheimer.de/fahrplan/

B-R is also notifying its passengers of stops that are being skipped because of the low water levels - stops in bold print below, are currently being dropped:

"...aufgrund von Niedrigwasser können unsere Schiffe bis auf Weiteres
nicht in Niederheimbach, Trechtingshausen und St. Goarshausen anlegen."

Posted by
8256 posts

One more tip for cruising the Rhine when passenger numbers are high...

The standard advice is to cruise from south to north by boarding in Ruedesheim or Bingen and after the cruise to take the train back to your starting point; both of these moves will save time. If you reverse direction - with a St Goar > Bingen ticket, for example - you are cruising north to south and bucking the strong river current, which makes for a slower boat ride. But you will have a better chance at finding seating in this direction since many of the folks who cruised Bingen > St Goar are one-way passengers who will not be returning by boat; some will be spending time in St Goar or other west bank towns, then moving on to other towns later on or taking the train back to Bingen instead of the boat.

Posted by
9843 posts

Why I usually advise to get on the ship in Rüdesheim rather than in Bingen. The ships go to Bingen after Rüdesheim and many of the seats and tables are already full.

Posted by
8256 posts

Unfortunately, the "usual advice" for boarding Rhine cruises THIS summer doesn't fit the situation well. Normally, Ruedesheim is a good boarding point if you are coming from Frankfurt, and normally the direct train gets you there in 70 minutes. But 10 days from now, getting to Ruedesheim will become a longer journey; there will be no trains heading to Ruedesheim as the entire "right" (east-bank) Rhine railway is getting a makeover that will take months to complete. Day cruisers from Frankfurt will have to catch a train out of Frankfurt and then switch to a "train-replacement bus" to reach Ruedesheim, and the one-way trip will require nearly 2 hours. Double that if returning to Frankfurt after a round-trip cruise.

Bingen could be the better place to board for cruising south > north. Trains from Frankfurt cover the trip to Bingen Rhein Stadt station in 70 minutes and require one change of train in Mainz. Double that if returning to Frankfurt after a round-trip cruise.

Or cruisers might instead choose to travel further along the west-bank railway using a Frankfurt > St Goar train-only sequence, then take a north > south one-way cruise from St Goar to Bingen, as previously suggested; then it's "trains only" again for the return to Frankfurt.

Honestly, if you're thinking of Frankfurt as a base city for doing a Rhine Cruise this season, you might reconsider... Basing oneself in Mainz or Bingen or one of the other west-bank towns will be far more convenient.

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