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Once and future river cruise
13 August 2026 06:38 pmOur next planned itinerary was a river cruise on the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. We would have flown to Luxembourg two days ago, and would now be aboard our ship sailing from Trier, Germany to Antwerp, Belgium, passing through southern Netherlands along the way. We booked this cruise because of a promotional discounted price, but the itinerary looked interesting, and included several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We were looking forward to a relaxing week of cruising and sightseeing.
Unfortunately, the weather in Europe has not been kind to the river cruise industry this summer. I was already aware that the Danube is approaching (or possibly even beyond) the lowest levels ever recorded. I had also heard that the levels on the Rhine were getting low as well, so it wasn't a complete shock when we received an e-mail a week ago (just five days before our scheduled departure) informing us that our cruise was canceled.
That e-mail offered us some options. We could just cancel the trip and receive a full refund, which is what we ultimately did. But they also offered an option to rebook on another trip and receive credit towards future travel. Unfortunately, as we explored those options, it became clear that we couldn't rebook any trip using a promotional price. This meant that rebooking would cost us more than the credits they were offering, so we just took our refund.
The next problem was our airfare. We had booked our own flights, and cancelling involved a cancelation fee, with the remainder of the ticket price returned to us as an online credit towards future flights. Luckily, our annual travel insurance policy is covering the cancelation fee, and we've already used more than half of the credit for our skiing trip this coming winter.
So, it was disappointing that our cruise was canceled, but in the end, it seems that everything will work out fine.
Unfortunately, the weather in Europe has not been kind to the river cruise industry this summer. I was already aware that the Danube is approaching (or possibly even beyond) the lowest levels ever recorded. I had also heard that the levels on the Rhine were getting low as well, so it wasn't a complete shock when we received an e-mail a week ago (just five days before our scheduled departure) informing us that our cruise was canceled.
That e-mail offered us some options. We could just cancel the trip and receive a full refund, which is what we ultimately did. But they also offered an option to rebook on another trip and receive credit towards future travel. Unfortunately, as we explored those options, it became clear that we couldn't rebook any trip using a promotional price. This meant that rebooking would cost us more than the credits they were offering, so we just took our refund.
The next problem was our airfare. We had booked our own flights, and cancelling involved a cancelation fee, with the remainder of the ticket price returned to us as an online credit towards future flights. Luckily, our annual travel insurance policy is covering the cancelation fee, and we've already used more than half of the credit for our skiing trip this coming winter.
So, it was disappointing that our cruise was canceled, but in the end, it seems that everything will work out fine.
