With low water on parts of the Danube and Rhine disrupting river cruises, it has been a trying year for river lines and travel agents who sell the cruises.
“You know, we have to talk about it,” said Ken Shapiro, Northstar Travel Group’s editorial director, who co-moderated a panel on river cruising at CruiseWorld 2026.
“How are you managing those operational risks and communicating them to advisors and guests?” Shapiro asked the panel.
Camille Olivere, chief sales officer for the Globus family of brands, responded with gallows humour.
“Yeah, thanks for the really fun question,” said Olivere, eliciting laughter from the audience.
Before answering the question, Olivere characterised the situation as “really bad, extreme and tough on all of us”. Globus’ Avalon brand operates European cruises.
“We are really trying to be as transparent as possible and communicate,” Olivere said. “It’s good to set guest expectations. We’re trying to communicate as far out as possible, but also with the understanding that things can change very quickly up until the day before departure.”
She added that if just one part of the river is impassable, Avalon will do a ship swap. If the low water is more pervasive on the itinerary, Globus, as a tour operator, will lean on its relationships with hotel partners to act quickly and secure accommodation at the destination.
But sometimes, the itinerary can’t be salvaged “at an acceptable level”, Olivere said. In that case, Globus will offer guests the ability to cancel with a full refund, protecting travel agents’ commissions.
From left: Viva Cruises vice president of sales and marketing for North America Nasim Ghannadian, AmaWaterways senior vice president of marketing Michal Maguire, Globus family of brands chief sales officer Camille Olivere, Antara Cruises chief inspiration officer Arjun Sinsinwar and Amadeus River Cruises vice president of sales Hannah Westerdoll. Credit: Generikal Design
‘It’s all about communication’
Hannah Westerdoll, Amadeus River Cruises’ vice president of sales, said she has been “proud of the way we’ve handled it this year”.
“It’s all about communication in these situations,” Westerdoll said. “We do our best to decide a week in advance what a cruise is going to look like. The situation does change. It can change quickly. Once we decide, we communicate the options to advisors, whether we’re giving a credit [for modified itineraries], whether we’re giving a refund. Each situation is different.”
Westerdoll added that Amadeus relies on its years of expertise to avoid disruptions as best as possible. For example, Amadeus hasn’t been cruising the route between Passau and Nuremberg, Germany.
“Nuremberg is great, but a lot of times, if there’s low water on the Danube River, it’s going to be between Passau and Nuremberg,” she said.
The low water situation persists this autumn on the Danube and Rhine, reports Travel Weekly sister publication TravelPulse. There was a brief improvement in late October, but water levels have again fallen, and little meaningful rainfall is expected over the next week.
Source: Travel Weekly