Welcome to Tauck’s Impressions from the Seine: Paris to Normandy Forum

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Welcome to Tauck’s Impressions from the Seine: Paris to Normandy Forum - Find the answers to your trip questions, answer questions posted by fellow travelers, plus share your Tauck experiences and stories. Stop by often and join in on the discussions.

MMD

I am very concerned about the water levels of the Seine. Everything I have read has said they are low. I have heard that customers are not advised of this problem until just days before the trip. We have taken several Tauck trips, loved them and have recommended them to friends. This and future trips depend upon an honest answer. Thank you.

Claudia Sails

MMD wrote:

I am very concerned about the water levels of the Seine. Everything I have read has said they are low. I have heard that customers are not advised of this problem until just days before the trip. We have taken several Tauck trips, loved them and have recommended them to friends. This and future trips depend upon an honest answer. Thank you.

You're not likely to get an answer from Tauck as they don't really monitor the forum except for spam. However, there's lot of experienced cruiser/travelers here.

Not sure where you are seeing that levels are low right now. Low levels aren't really a concern in the spring - in fact the opposite as winter run off can cause high levels making it difficult to get under bridges. Here is a link to a web site I use which currently reports all European river levels are fine:

http://www.rivercruiseinfo.com/content/river-levels

Even if a river is reported as low, it doesn't necessarily mean there is any impact to the river cruising. The ships need very little water below them to navigate. Late summer or fall is generally when rivers experience low levels that could impact cruising. We cruised the Moselle and Rhine in Oct a couple of years ago and while the water levels were low (mainly the Moselle which is small) it never impacted the trip The Danube generally is the worst, but the Rhine had low levels last fall as well.

Since you generally need to book a river cruise a year in advance, it's impossible to predict what you'll find. Part of why they can't warn you until days before is that one rainfall can change the situation enough to get the ships back underway.

From most of my reading, Tauck does the best job in the industry of dealing with the issue.

MMD

Just tried, but no info. Do you have to get the app to get the water levels? Thanks!

Claudia Sails

You don't need the app. I don't use it. No idea why the link didn't work but here's how to find it the longer way.

The website is:

www.rivercruiseinfo.com

I just type that into google. When the website opens select Geography from the toolbar

In the pulldown select River Levels.

AlanS

The original link worked for me.

MMD

I guess I just have a problem. The graph for the water levels remains empty and i don't know what Upstream KM refers to.
I have followed all instructions on Google. I get the site, just not the information, unless I am missing something!

Claudia Sails

I honestly have no idea what Upstream KM stands for.

When you get to the page with the River Levels there should be a series of blue boxes starting with the Danube, then Dordogne, etc etc. As of today, each blue box contains a green line that says "All reported waterlevels on this river are fine."

At times - later in the season with the river levels have some low spots - I've seen fuller listings that included more detail at different points in the river. It's not particularly useful info for us novices.

AlanS

Claudia Sails wrote:

I honestly have no idea what Upstream KM stands for.

When there are low water issues, this block will tell you where they are- how many kilometers "upstream" from the mouth of the river. Each river has reporting stations. If you follow this link and select "waterlevels" you'll see a list of reporting stations on the Danube from Ingolstadt Luitpoldstrasse which is 2458.3 kilometers (1528 miles) "upstream" from the river's outlet on the Black Sea. The first reporting point is Salina- 1 KM Upstream from the Black Sea. The graphs don't seem to work and I think you may only see waterlevels if there is a problem at one or more of the reporting stations, but it may also be due to a software issue with the River Cruise website.