River cruise lines are charging ahead despite the flooding of the Seine River in France. Only a small number of itineraries and ships have been impacted by the severe floods which even shut Paris’ Lourve.
Lines like Scenic, Viking River Cruises, Avalon and AmaWaterways have had to either move embarkation ports or reschedule itineraries.
Damien Thomas, the Chief Operating Officer at Scenic told Cruise Passenger that the line is contacting guests and travel agents as the weather conditions change.
“Cruises are operating as scheduled throughout mainland Europe, with minor variations currently impacting the Seine and Saône rivers.
“Our team in Europe is monitoring the situation and if there is any change or impact to sailing itineraries we will contact guests and travel agents directly giving them the option to alter their current travel arrangements to an alternative or later sailing. River conditions and navigation ability changes rapidly there we only cancel a cruise if, prior to embarkation, we are aware that more that the cruise will be significantly impacted”
In a statement on Viking’s website, the line said it is anticipating its June 10th cruise on the Viking Kadlin and its June 12th Paris & the Heart of Normandy on the Viking Rolf to be affected.
The statement said, “The Seine River has experienced an exceptionally rapid increase in water levels in a very short amount of time. Water levels peaked over the weekend and are now receding. The full effect of the conditions on upcoming cruises cannot be determined until closer to departure, but potential effects may entail changes in embarkation/disembarkation ports, abbreviated sailing portions and certain itinerary destinations being visited by motorcoach.”
AmaWaterways co-founder and president Rudi Schreiner told Travel Weekly the biggest issue for the river vessels is the accessibility to dock in Paris. Instead, lines are docking at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine which is around 32 kilometres upriver from the French capital.
Avalon Waterways said its river cruise itineraries were unaffected.
