{"id":12244,"date":"2026-08-05T00:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T00:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T00:02:10","slug":"cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/general\/cruises\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cruise passengers<\/a> in certain locations have had their vacations disrupted due to record-low water levels on high-traffic rivers in Europe \u2014 stranding vessels and switching up itineraries.<\/p>\n<p>The continent has experienced &#8220;above-average temperatures with an extensive and prolonged heatwave&#8221; in the first half of July, with drought conditions still persisting, according to the European Drought Observatory (EDO)&#8217;s website.<\/p>\n<p>The EDO&#8217;s latest map shows drought stretching across much of central and western Europe, with the most severe &#8220;alert&#8221; conditions concentrated in parts of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania and the Balkans.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/beloved-cruise-spot-off-limits-through-2027-safety-concerns-linger\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>BELOVED CRUISE SPOT WILL BE OFF LIMITS THROUGH 2027 AS SAFETY CONCERNS LINGER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The drought has impacted two of Europe&#8217;s major river routes: the Danube and the Rhine.<\/p>\n<p>Hungary&#8217;s Paks Nuclear Power Plant reported on July 27 that the Danube&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/great-outdoors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lowest water level<\/a> at Paks \u2014 minus 42 inches \u2014 broke all previous records.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, images of the Rhine show exposed sandbars and dried-up riverbanks as ships traveled through a shrunken waterway.<\/p>\n<p>Several river cruise operators, including Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways, have warned that low water levels on parts of both rivers may affect itineraries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/haunting-new-images-reveal-final-ship-where-explorer-sir-ernest-shackleton-died\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>HAUNTING NEW IMAGES REVEAL THE FINAL SHIP WHERE EXPLORER SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON DIED<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Danube, Europe&#8217;s second-longest river, flows from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/regions\/europe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Germany&#8217;s Black Forest<\/a> to the Black Sea, passing through or along the borders of 10 countries, including Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.<\/p>\n<p>The Rhine originates in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/vacation-destinations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Swiss Alps<\/a> and flows to the North Sea. The river goes through or along the borders of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>Both rivers are popular cruise routes, so the drought has <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/category\/travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">disrupted travel<\/a> for passengers. Some tourists have been bused to other ships farther down the river.<\/p>\n<p>One user writing on a social media thread expressed concern about her family members&#8217; trip on the Danube and Rhine rivers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/cruise-ship-hit-third-stomach-illness-outbreak-two-months-review-underway\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>CRUISE SHIP HIT WITH THIRD STOMACH ILLNESS OUTBREAK IN TWO MONTHS, REVIEW UNDERWAY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My elderly mom and aunt are going on the grand tour <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/hermetically-sealed-roman-sarcophagus-frozen-time-1700-years-opened-archaeologists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from Budapest<\/a> to Amsterdam in 10 days,&#8221; the person wrote on Reddit on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the water levels of the Danube and Rhine being what they are and only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/general\/travel-safety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hot weather<\/a> on the horizon, I fear they will be bussed many times on the trip. &#8230; I am unsure if they can really pack\/unpack and [be bused] multiple times without any help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A different Reddit user expressed disappointment after drought-driven low water levels forced changes to a Rhine river cruise.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters?cmpid=fnfirstnl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just got back home on Sunday. The &#8216;castle&#8217; part of the Rhine was too shallow to traverse,&#8221; the person wrote last week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our line did their best to overcome things [outside] their control, but it was disappointing, to say the least. \u2026 Not that I\u2019m blaming the company, they were amazing, but the entire point of the cruise was to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/jaw-dropping-medieval-castle-100-rooms-hits-market-nearly-1000-years-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">see the castles<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/lifestyle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE NEWS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another traveler described having to switch ships after low water levels made parts of the Rhine impassable, resulting in missed excursions and hours-long bus transfers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/lifestyle\/quizzes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We traveled by bus about 5 hours to [a] new ship. The bus ride was broken up, but we missed our [prepaid] excursions,&#8221; the commenter said.<\/p>\n<p>The person added, &#8220;I totally understand the water levels are what they are. We still had a great time with friends, but it was a slog to change ships! We had to pack everything up \u2014 unpack and organize again on [a] new ship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital reached out to Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> &#8211; FOX NEWS<\/p>\n<p>This article appeared on the website foxnews.com<br \/>\nThis article is taken based on Law no. 8\/1996 of Romania. News does not enjoy copyright, so they can be taken, this is our right to take news and information in its entirety and distribute them further. The content was made available to us through the rss mechanism<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/travel\/cruises-thrown-chaos-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\">Original Content<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cruise passengers in certain locations have had their vacations disrupted due to record-low water levels on high-traffic rivers in Europe \u2014 stranding vessels and switching up itineraries. The continent has experienced &#8220;above-average temperatures with an extensive and prolonged heatwave&#8221; in the first half of July, with drought conditions still persisting, according to the European Drought<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\"> [&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1150,1],"tags":[21,6712,12821,4248,198,1853,3673,12823,5625,12822,5846],"class_list":["post-12244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fox-news","category-news","tag-as","tag-chaos","tag-cruises","tag-drought","tag-into","tag-leaves","tag-passengers","tag-scrambling","tag-ships","tag-strands","tag-thrown"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cruise passengers in certain locations have had their vacations disrupted due to record-low water levels on high-traffic rivers in Europe \u2014 stranding vessels and switching up itineraries. The continent has experienced &#8220;above-average temperatures with an extensive and prolonged heatwave&#8221; in the first half of July, with drought conditions still persisting, according to the European Drought [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T00:02:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Misu Videan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Misu Videan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\",\"name\":\"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-05T00:02:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-05T00:02:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Prima pagin\u0103\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"Euro TV News Agency\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69\",\"name\":\"Misu Videan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Misu Videan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.ziaruldebanat.ro\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/author\/mihai_vidjean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling - News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/cruises-thrown-into-chaos-as-drought-strands-ships-leaves-passengers-scrambling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cruises thrown into chaos as drought strands ships, leaves passengers scrambling - News","og_description":"Cruise passengers in certain locations have had their vacations disrupted due to record-low water levels on high-traffic rivers in Europe \u2014 stranding vessels and switching up itineraries. 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