Low water levels on sections of Europe's Rhine and Danube Rivers
caused by a late-season drought are threatening to turn upcoming Christmas
markets cruises into bus tours.
The Christmas markets season, which began in earnest over the end of November,
saw river lines from Avalon Waterways to Viking reporting impacts to
itineraries.
For example, on two earlier sailings, Avalon was forced to transfer passengers
onto ships with smaller drafts so the cruises could continue uninterrupted.
With the port of Budapest closed, AMAWATERWAYS ships turning
around there have been required to stop an hour short of the city. An AMA
spokeswoman said it's been using the Sofitel Budapest to gather guests before
transferring them to the ship's location outside of Budapest.
Lines are being proactive about the possibility of dealing with more disruptions
during the popular Christmas markets stretch, which focuses on visits to the
region's sometimes snow-covered medieval Advent markets. "At this time, we plan
to operate all of our Christmastime sailings as scheduled, without alterations,"
said Patrick Clark, managing director of Avalon Waterways. "We are, however,
also working with our nautical advisors to outline numerous strategies to
address low water level problems, if needed. For instance, we will consider
lightening the ship's load during this stretch, including carrying as little
fuel as possible until we get to the other side. Another option, of course, is
to transfer our travelers by coach, over [impacted] stretches."
Spokespeople from AMAWATERWAYS and Viking said their lines had similar
contingency plans in place for dealing with the low water levels. Viking's
strategy of having sister ships simultaneously sailing the same itinerary in
opposite directions means the line can bypass some off-limits stretches of the
river by transferring passengers overland from one ship to another.
Still, if a potential make-shift Christmas markets cruise is unacceptable, at
least one line is allowing guests to rebook.
"Passengers do have the option to cancel for any reason [for future cruise
credit], but the vast majority are continuing travels since we're trying to
provide as close to the original product as possible," said Richard Marnell,
Viking's senior vice president of marketing. "We're not required to offer the
cancellation option, but we do understand that people want their cruise to be
perfect." We've e-mailed representatives from Uniworld, Avalon and AMA to see if
their lines will also offer the option to cancel upcoming cruises.
River cruise line passenger ticket contracts clearly address the possibility of
river levels impacting itineraries. Lines are obligated to provide passengers a
like product, even if that means bussing them between ports and putting them up
in hotels. Over the course of the season, it's somewhat likely that river levels
-- both high (spring melt from the Alps) and low (late-season dryness) -- will
affect cruises. "We plan for it as an eventuality," said Marnell.
Insurance-wise, there's not a great deal potentially impacted passengers can do
at this time. Like a hurricane that's already formed, the current low river
levels are a known quantity.
Regardless, river cruisers wouldn't be covered for a change in itinerary caused
by low water levels anyway -- unless they have a "cancel for any reason" policy,
which can be prohibitively expensive. Whether the individual line chooses to
offer some form of compensation for an altered itinerary is up to them. Still,
it never hurts to see what lines will provide.
"With many instances like this, we always encourage our customers to call their
supplier first to see if they are willing to make a trip change for a later
cruise so they can experience the trip they originally planned," said Carol
Mueller, a spokeswoman for Travel Guard.
Viking River Cruises posted the following on "Cruise Critic's"
message boards, "The magnitude of this late-season drought was not immediately
apparent, but we have made adjustments each day in an effort to continually
provide you with our very best. For each of the Danube and Rhine sailings that
are affected in December, we are providing shipboard credit, complimentary
optional excursions, and credit to use on a future cruise. Should you decide
instead to not join us, we will provide you with a credit for 100 percent of
your cruise fare towards a future cruise." The line is also addressing the
concerns of travelers whose November cruises were impacted and will be sending
them credit for a future cruise, as well.
Uniworld allowed passengers to cancel and receive a full refund on one Rhine
cruise, but does not have a blanket policy allowing cancellations. Company
president Guy Young told Cruise Critic in an e-mail that "we are assessing the
cruises on a case by case basis and certainly if we expect to be able to operate
the cruise as per the normal itinerary we will not allow clients to cancel and
receive a full refund."
Spokespeople at Avalon Waterways, AMAWATERWAYS, Tauck River Cruises and Scenic
Tours issued updates on their cruises and news of any compensation packages.
Two lines are posting updates about itinerary changes on their Web sites: Viking
and AMAWATERWAYS.
And just to make things more interesting for travelers, the low water levels
have revealed unexploded World War II bombs in the Rhine River. Nearly half of
the population of Koblenz, Germany, was evacuated today while the bombs were
defused.
Issues with water levels -- too low in the winter making passage impossible, too
high in the spring preventing ships from going under low-lying bridges -- is a
unique challenge to river cruises. Unlike on ocean cruises, where a ship can
simply divert to another port, river ships that can't proceed must send their
passengers onto buses or, in some cases, another river boat. Though the lines
are covered in their fine print regarding making necessary diversions, most
river travelers, especially experienced ocean cruisers, aren't expecting to have
to pack up their stuff and move to a hotel. Not only are the river lines not
delivering the experience customers expect, but as it costs more to take a river
cruise than a bus tour, they're also not necessarily getting what they paid for.
Sources are telling us that cruise lines are expressing optimism that the
current situation, which is admittedly fluid, may well be looking up and
re-routings may not be necessary after this week. We'll keep you posted. |
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