We booked a cruise from Prague to Vienna on Danube River never even thinking about river levels. We got reports that the river was low so I called the cruise line several days before our trip to see if there would be any change in our trip. They said it was to early to tell and that they were sure that our itinerary would go as scheduled, what they failed to tell us was that the river levels had been low for some time and that many cruises had to be taken by motor coach from one port to another to board a different ship to continue our journey or even on occasion cancelled all together. It wasn't like the river fell over night.

Our cruise was a 10 day package from Prague to Vienna. My fault for not reading closer, it was 2 nights in Prague and then a 4 hours, thats right 4 hour motor coach ride to Nuremberg to board the ship. The ride was to say the very least horrible. It was long, boring and a guide that talked way to much about nothing but the highway system. We spent a night on the ship & the next day toured Nuremberg with several hours on our own. 30 minutes would have been sufficient time to see all it had to offer. Cruised the river at night arriving late for a stop overnight in Regensburg which was an interesting town. That night at dinner the captain informed us we needed to re-pack and we would be bussed the next day to Passau to board the River Duchess. Another long day on motor coach and having to re-packing was not in our original plans. Although the River Duchess was an upgrade from the River Ambassador it was still a disappointment that the time wasn't spent cursing and that we had to pack and un-pack once more.

Oh I might add the country side from Nuremburg to Regnesburg is mostly industrial and certainly not what I would call scenic. From Passau to Vienna was much prettier but some of that time was cruising at night when you couldn't see anything. Read more