Tauck Cruises

[SheilaNC]

Keep the ideas/suggestions coming...you are such a wealth of info. It's a shame that more people aren't posting on River Cruises...

[pully8]

we are noticing tauck are being promoted by australian tour operators at present with good deals.

 

we have chosen to go with avalon in the past but are curious about tauck.

not easy to get objective info re cabins? size and position etc?

can anyone comment please or point us to where we can get more info?

 

we prefer the rooms with large windows not the ones near the water line.

also noticed lunch is sometimes not onboard?

[ddschur]

Have you looked on the Tauck web site?

 

All the questions you have are answered there.

 

Just choose the cruise you are interested in and you get everything you need and have asked for!

 

Below is an example:

 

http://www.tauck.com/tours/europe-tours/central-and-eastern-europe-tours/rhine-river-cruise-ran-2011

 

And, yes, sometimes you are out on an excursion during lunch and Tauck provides either the lunch or monies for lunch while out.

[pully8]

thank you. yes have looked at the website. three decks and 6 categories?

 

can anyone provide pictures of the cabins please?

 

as said we would not want a cabin with small windows. guess we could make that request before booking but it would be nice to have as much info prior.

 

the new ship looks very good.

[gnome12]

I've never been on Tauck but you can find information on the deck plans online

http://www.tauck.com/journeys/travel-type/river-cruising/taucks-riverboats/riverboat-deck-plans?n=1&tourCode=&tourYear=

It states that 85% of the cabins have floor-to-ceiling windows and French Balconies. By that I would assume that every cabin except Category 1 and 2 would be included in that group. Just book Category 3 or more.

[shoshona2]

to pully 8,

 

Just go to Tauck's website and hit on the River Boat video or go to youtube.com and put European river cruises in the search mode. When they come up, just hit on Tauck River Cruises and you will see what the cabins look like. The top two decks have French balconies so they have huge windows. I didn't go down to the bottom deck of cabins, but the windows are not big. You can tell from the photos of the outside of the ship.

 

Sheila

[Blitz]

We are going on the rhine and Moselle Southbound Cruise, Aug 13, 2011. Are you on that cruise? Blitz

 

After reading your comments I am certain that Tauck is the right choice for our Rhine/Moselle cruise this summer. We used Tauck several years ago for a tour of Sedona, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas and it was a wonderful experience.

We selected the 2 free hotel nights in Amsterdam at the beginning of the trip. I have been researching Amsterdam but would appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you for your input. Joan

[new england couple]

To Blitz,

We are doing the southern Rhine/Moselle in July. It sounds wonderful. I haven't begun to research the ports yet but that is half the fun of a trip like this.

At the moment, it is so cold here in CT (plus tons of snow and ice) we can't wait for our Carribean cruise in February. Joan

[Ozjohnno]

We're doing Tauck's Amsterdam - Budapest cruise starting on 6th September and the waiting is almost killing us. We'll start a roll call in a couple of months time but from the Tauck board we already know that 2 other couples are joining us. This is our first time in Europe so everything will be new for us.

[Don P]

to pully 8,

 

Just go to Tauck's website and hit on the River Boat video or go to youtube.com and put European river cruises in the search mode. When they come up, just hit on Tauck River Cruises and you will see what the cabins look like. The top two decks have French balconies so they have huge windows. I didn't go down to the bottom deck of cabins, but the windows are not big. You can tell from the photos of the outside of the ship.

 

Sheila

We were checking on our flights yesterday and discovered our flight from JFK to Budapest was cancelled for our May 2011 cruise. It was pure luck to have the carrier reroute us from Atlanta to Charles De Gaul a day earlier. Our stateside flights had been coach while our international flights were booked in business class. Due to the cancellation the carrier arranged all legs of the trip to be business class and gave us 5000 points on our account. We contacted Tauck yesterday and arranged for the additional night's stay in Budapest. Cost was $240 but worth it to us to get the extra day.

[shoshona2]

Hi Don,

 

What good news for you. Another day in Budapest is wonderful! It is indeed a beautiful city and Tauck will pick you up at the airport as long as you give them all the arrival info. We went in two days earlier to Basel and the picked us up. Which carrier was nice enough to change your tickets and give you 5000 mileage points? If it was Delta, then I'll take back whatever I ever said bad about them.

 

Sheila

[Don P]

Hi Don,

 

What good news for you. Another day in Budapest is wonderful! It is indeed a beautiful city and Tauck will pick you up at the airport as long as you give them all the arrival info. We went in two days earlier to Basel and the picked us up. Which carrier was nice enough to change your tickets and give you 5000 mileage points? If it was Delta, then I'll take back whatever I ever said bad about them.

 

Sheila

In the interest of not creating a message stream that deals with airline "felonies" and "misdemeanors" I'll refrain from naming the airline. What irks me more than anything though is that we used almost 300,000 points to get this trip initially. It is not unique to this airline that while they would like you to be loyal they feel no obligation to return the sentiment. If I hadn't called to confirm details I wonder when we would have been told of the cancellation.

[Don P]

On our hotel stay do all the rooms booked by Tauck have a river view or are the rooms assigned based upon the category status related to the cruise?

[SheilaNC]

Don,

Glad for you re: extra night in Budapest. We will be arriving on the 11th as well and staying at the Marriott for our extra night. If you want to meet up before the group meets on the 12th, let me know.

[shoshona2]

To Don,

 

All Tauck people are handled equally as VIP guests at the hotels. We always get a beautiful room with a view when we go with Tauck. It doesn't matter which category you are on the ship. If you don't like your room and the Tauck person isn't at the hotel, just go to the desk and ask them NICELY if they can do better for you. My favorite story is our Tauck trip to Jordan. We stayed at a five star Marriott at the Dead Sea and I complained nicely about the noise the night before. We ended up in a huge suite for two nights. I felt like a Princess.

 

Sheila

[Don P]

Don,

Glad for you re: extra night in Budapest. We will be arriving on the 11th as well and staying at the Marriott for our extra night. If you want to meet up before the group meets on the 12th, let me know.

My wife and I would be delighted to meet with you prior to the group meeting. I read somewhere that the Marriott is close to the Inter-Continental. Our e-mail address is don4135 at aol.com. The "at" of course is @. Sometimes these websites don't allow you display an e-mail address in the correct format.

 

Don and Carole P.

[Don P]

To Don,

 

All Tauck people are handled equally as VIP guests at the hotels. We always get a beautiful room with a view when we go with Tauck. It doesn't matter which category you are on the ship. If you don't like your room and the Tauck person isn't at the hotel, just go to the desk and ask them NICELY if they can do better for you. My favorite story is our Tauck trip to Jordan. We stayed at a five star Marriott at the Dead Sea and I complained nicely about the noise the night before. We ended up in a huge suite for two nights. I felt like a Princess.

 

Sheila[/quote

 

I would assume then that our room will face the Danube.

[ddschur]

My wife and I would be delighted to meet with you prior to the group meeting. I read somewhere that the Marriott is close to the Inter-Continental. Our e-mail address is don4135 at aol.com. The "at" of course is @. Sometimes these websites don't allow you display an e-mail address in the correct format.

 

Don and Carole P.

 

The Marriott is very close to the Intercontinental...easy walking distance.

 

We stayed at the Marriott prior to our cruise and then took our luggage to Intercontinental on departure day and Tauck took luggage (and us) to the boat and our luggage was in room by the time we got there.

[Don P]

The Marriott is very close to the Intercontinental...easy walking distance.

 

We stayed at the Marriott prior to our cruise and then took our luggage to Intercontinental on departure day and Tauck took luggage (and us) to the boat and our luggage was in room by the time we got there.

 

Sounds like a game plan. Let's keep in touch via e-mail prior to departure.

 

Don P.

[Don P]

As previously mentioned our airline carrier cancelled our original flight to Budapest. In rerouting us we had to leave a day earlier and lay over for 10 hours at Charles de Gaule in Paris. After accepting the new arrangement we started to think about the new arrangement and whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Since several days had passed we didn't think anything could be done without experiencing some kind of charge we called the carrier with some trepidation. The first customer service rep was rigid and unwilling to change the flight without a $300 fee. She said we should have made any changes when we first learned that the carrier had cancelled our original flight. I tried to explain that upon learning of that cancellation we were stressed and accepted the first replacement offered. We didn't want to incur the $300 change fee so we decided to accept our fate. Upon further reflection we called the carrier back and got a different customer service rep. Explaining the situation to her and telling her we were two senior citizens with walking difficulties she rearranged our flights so that we could spend a day and a half in Paris. We had enough travel points to pick up the hotel expense for the night and she waived the flight change fee. It pays to speak with more than one customer service rep.

 

The Marriott is very close to the Intercontinental...easy walking distance.

 

We stayed at the Marriott prior to our cruise and then took our luggage to Intercontinental on departure day and Tauck took luggage (and us) to the boat and our luggage was in room by the time we got there.

[shoshona2]

Hi Don,

 

So glad for you that you were able to change your flights without a fee. My husband has found out that if you don't get what you want from one agent, just call back until you reach a sympathetic one. Yesterday, we got some good news from our airline for our next trip to Europe and it took a very nice agent to fix our situation. We all hear about how difficult dealing with the airlines has become and it is so nice to hear a good story like yours. We always approach every situation we can with a soft approach and try to stay calm.

 

Have a great time. I know you will with Tauck. They will do their best to make this a memorable river cruise. We'll be on our 15th tour with them in July.

 

Sheila