We have a Rhine river cruise planned from Basel to Amsterdam on October 21 to October 28. I have a friend in Heidelberg who says, due to the drought, the Rhine is impassible for tour boats and barges in many places. The tour vendor and CrosiEurope, the boat company, says 'don't worry, everything is fine. It's raining there.' Of course, air reservations are made and the trip is non cancellable.
Has anyone had experience touring this area.
Posted by
Phoenix, Arizona
20 posts
The boards on Cruise Critic have pretty good threads on water levels on European rivers. I recommend you start following those if you're concerned. Whether your ship can get through is a complicated question; many ships have been unable to get through at a certain point on the Rhine (although some cruise companies have kept everything going through ship swaps), but the Rhine has never been completely unpassable. Ther's a new report on the Rhine water level thread about a cruise ship getting through the gorge earlier today, so there's some reason for optimism
Posted by
Faribault
211 posts
I cruised with Viking from Aug. 18 to Aug. 25, from Basel to Amsterdam. We were very lucky to make it all the way through. We didn't know until the night before we started the scenic section with the castles, that we would be able to continue. I talked to a person that day traveling from Amsterdam to Basel and they had to take buses and swap ships, so they missed the castle area. I think that we were the first ship that made it through during that time period. Viking did notify us before our trip that we may need to swap ships, as the river was so low. Fortunately, it rained when we first started cruising. Good luck, and have a great time on your cruise.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8439 posts
It seems like the cruise companies don't make decisions like this too far in advance. When we did it in 2017, they transferred us to a smaller (lighter) day cruiser boat for the scenic (and shallow) part - the Middle Rhein. Then bussed us to an identical ship past the shallow part, where we boarded and resumed the trip.