Tag Archives: Paris

Doing some water-level damage control

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By Michelle Baran

Any river cruise enthusiasts who saw the images of France’s Seine River creeping towards the tops of Paris’ elegant bridges last week probably had the same thought I did — this can’t be good for the river cruise business.
River cruise lines admit that the Nov. 13 terror attacks in Paris dealt a pretty harsh blow to their 2016 France bookings and that the March attacks in Brussels didn’t help either. But slowly, sales were coming back.
And then the rains came, pushing the Seine so high last week that iconic institutions such as the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay museums in Paris temporarily closed.
Obviously, no river cruise vessels were able to sail under those Paris bridges for a time.
But as it turns out, the flooding was relatively short-lived and the water levels are receding. The Louvre reopened on Wednesday, and the river cruise lines reported minimal disruptions and anticipated that sailings would return to normal in line with the receding water levels.
What was likely more disruptive were the images of the floodwaters in Paris, which isn’t the kind of marketing the river cruise industry — especially in France where bookings are still fragile — needs right now.
But river cruise lines have been learning how to cope. Over the past several years they have taken a fair amount of flak for a lack of transparency and clear communication about water level issues, and they are working on being much more open about exactly how high and low waters are impacting their sailings.
Viking, for example, now how has a dedicated page on its website where travel agents and passengers can see all updates on disruptions, no matter how big or small. Because the Viking fleet is so large and its operations so vast, this page can actually serve as a comprehensive resource for anyone with concerns about water levels that wants to check up on a river they plan to sail.
A river cruise tour guide has also put together a website documenting water levels in Europe throughout the season. Though by no means a comprehensive or official source, this is another good place for concerned passengers and travel sellers to check.
But ultimately, river cruise lines themselves should be and increasingly are the go-to source for questions about high and low waters and specific changes to itineraries, as each line has different contingency plans in place. The good news is that while water levels will always be a nagging problem on rivers, at least river cruise lines are learning how to do more and better damage control, which will ultimately mean smoother sailing through the issue than in the past.

River cruise lines report few disruptions due to Seine flooding

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River Seine flooded.
River cruise lines said that only a small number of their departures have been impacted by the severe flooding of France’s Seine River.

Due to heavier than usual rainfall, the Seine overflowed last week, forcing the Louvre in Paris to close for several days — the iconic art museum reopened on Wednesday.

The high waters have impacted at least three Viking river cruises: the June 8 Paris & the Heart of Normandy sailing aboard the Viking Rinda; the June 10 Paris & the Heart of Normandy sailing aboard the Viking Kadlin; and the June 12 Paris & the Heart of Normandy sailing aboard the Viking Rolf.

Viking said in a statement on its website that the potential effects on these cruises could entail changes in embarkation and/or disembarkation ports, abbreviated sailing portions and certain destinations being visited by motorcoach.

According to AmaWaterways co-founder and president Rudi Schreiner, the biggest issue for river cruise vessels has been the inability to get into and out of Paris to dock. Many Seine river itineraries have instead been docking in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a little more than 20 miles upriver from Paris and river cruise lines were then bussing passengers into the French capital for sightseeing.

AmaWaterways has had two cruises impacted by the high waters and has given those passengers a future cruise credit to compensate for the inconvenience.

Patrick Clark, managing director of Avalon Waterways said that while the rains in France have created higher-than-normal waters on its rivers, the company has not had any cancellations due to the rain. “All cruises have operated but we have had to make some alternate disembarkation and embarkation arrangements where conditions necessitate for a handful of cruises.”

Added Clark, “Water levels are receding and expected to continue to improve and normalize this week. The Louvre is open, as is Giverny [the location of French artist Claude Monet’s famous gardens].”

Why Paris is of concern to the river cruise industry, too

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It just so happens that France has been on the rise in the river cruising world. The Seine River and cruises on the Rhone and Saone rivers in the south of France have been gaining popularity in recent years, and last year Bordeaux became a new river cruise region that lines have since jumped on with new capacity.

So, in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Paris earlier this month, river cruise lines also have a lot to potentially lose if travelers become nervous about upcoming sailings in France — or in the rest of Europe for that matter.

Michelle Baran

Michelle Baran

Having been on an AmaWaterways river cruise on the Rhine River in Strasbourg at the time of the attacks, I spoke with Ama’s executive vice president and co-owner Kristin Karst in their immediate aftermath.

The company had a river vessel sailing the Seine back towards Paris several days after the attacks and decided to disembark passengers in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a bit further up the Seine from Paris, given the uncertainty in the capital as events unfolded there. Karst noted that AmaWaterways offers a two-night post-river cruise program in Paris, and gave the guests the option to continue with their plans or fly home.

“We had one very large group [and] they wanted to continue and do the two nights in Paris,” said Karst.

AmaWaterways had two more Rhone cruises this month, on Nov. 19 and Nov. 26, and did have some cancellations on those cruises, for which the line offered a 100% future cruise credit. While the news is concerning, Karst noted that an agent had emailed the company several days after the attacks to open up a group booking request for a cruise in Bordeaux, which she found hopeful.

The Paris attacks come at the tail end of what was a challenging 2015 for travel in Europe between the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris at the start of the year, and the migrant crisis that remained in the media spotlight throughout the summer. River cruise lines had the added challenge of low water levels, a nagging problem in Europe since July.

After several years of boom times for the river cruise industry, there is now a large amount of inventory sailing through Europe, and a lot of hype and investment on the line. Like other sectors of the travel industry, the river cruise segment is likely watching closely and hoping this all blows over before the selling season gets under way after the start of the new year. Either way, they’re probably well aware that the Paris attacks will pose some challenges, however short or long-lived.