LIVE Tauck: Amsterdam to Budapest 6/29/19-7/15/19

[Daisi]

15 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Thank you for the information and the well wishes.

What was the name of the outside restaurant (in your attached photo) where you enjoyed your breakfast on the morning before Embarkation.

 

We are cruising on September 5, so we are hoping that the water levels are still adequate.

 

Do you recall the site name where we can monitor the river levels.

 

i appreciate that you are taking time to,answer my questions.

 

Here is the link for the thread here for water levels : 

 

 

It's usually up near the top, as they update it quite often.  Amsterdam is quite walkable, and public transit is fantastic.  We stayed a bit out of town for our cruise (our choice), and grabbed an OV Chip card at the airport, and used it for the tram to get down to the centre of the town.  Next time we go, we probably will get the hop on hop off canal cruise, as we did enjoy the one we took with our tour.  

 

Have a great cruise, hope you have good water levels & weather.

[HBCcruiser]

5 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Thank you for the information and the well wishes.

What was the name of the outside restaurant (in your attached photo) where you enjoyed your breakfast on the morning before Embarkation.

 

We are cruising on September 5, so we are hoping that the water levels are still adequate.

 

Do you recall the site name where we can monitor the river levels.

 

i appreciate that you are taking time to,answer my questions.

 

It was the free (if Tauck passenger) restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel! So nice and peaceful.

[jagoffee]

6 hours ago, Daisi said:

 

Here is the link for the thread here for water levels : 

 

 

It's usually up near the top, as they update it quite often.  Amsterdam is quite walkable, and public transit is fantastic.  We stayed a bit out of town for our cruise (our choice), and grabbed an OV Chip card at the airport, and used it for the tram to get down to the centre of the town.  Next time we go, we probably will get the hop on hop off canal cruise, as we did enjoy the one we took with our tour.  

 

Have a great cruise, hope you have good water levels & weather.

 

Thank you for the link and and the well wishes.

 

1 hour ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

It was the free (if Tauck passenger) restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel! So nice and peaceful.

Awesome.  Thank you.

[jagoffee]

Me, again.

HBCcruisers, you have been so helpful.

 

We are leaving tomorrow on the same cruise as you.  We are flying nonstop from ORD to  AMS on KLM. 

We are finding packaging challenging as we usually bring one suitcase each and a suitor  to share.  We know that Tauck only allows us one suitcase each, thus eliminating the suitor.  They also state that the luggage should not weigh more than 50 pounds each. Do you think the 50 pound limit is enforced?  Do they weigh the luggage?  We are flying Business Class, so the airlines is not an issue.  Do you normally put some clothes in a carryon?

 

We are considering visiting the market/restaurant area on our arrival day.  We know that the Tauck itinerary includes a canal cruise sight seeing and lunch on our first full cruise day. If we use the Hop on Hop off canal  boat on our arrival day, do you think that it would be repetitive?  We recall that you did something similar.

 

Thank you in advance. Your thread as feed our excitement.

 

[HBCcruiser]

10 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Me, again.

HBCcruisers, you have been so helpful.

 

We are leaving tomorrow on the same cruise as you.  We are flying nonstop from ORD to  AMS on KLM. 

We are finding packaging challenging as we usually bring one suitcase each and a suitor  to share.  We know that Tauck only allows us one suitcase each, thus eliminating the suitor.  They also state that the luggage should not weigh more than 50 pounds each. Do you think the 50 pound limit is enforced?  Do they weigh the luggage?  We are flying Business Class, so the airlines is not an issue.  Do you normally put some clothes in a carryon?

 

We are considering visiting the market/restaurant area on our arrival day.  We know that the Tauck itinerary includes a canal cruise sight seeing and lunch on our first full cruise day. If we use the Hop on Hop off canal  boat on our arrival day, do you think that it would be repetitive?  We recall that you did something similar.

 

Thank you in advance. Your thread as feed our excitement.

 

 

I had a large suitcase, a small carryon roller and a backpack. Tauck does not care, the airline does. They just don’t want too many overweight large bags because it’s hard on staff. We checked our large bags and carried on the rest. Because you are flying business, you should be allowed more bags. I was under the 50 lb going but NOT coming back!🤣 Tauck gives you lots of  goodies plus I bought a lot of great stuff! 

 

Enjoy your cruise! You will LOVE it I’m sure! Wave to my daughter who is doing a semester abroad in Vienna!🤗

[HBCcruiser]

10 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Me, again.

HBCcruisers, you have been so helpful.

 

We are leaving tomorrow on the same cruise as you.  We are flying nonstop from ORD to  AMS on KLM. 

We are finding packaging challenging as we usually bring one suitcase each and a suitor  to share.  We know that Tauck only allows us one suitcase each, thus eliminating the suitor.  They also state that the luggage should not weigh more than 50 pounds each. Do you think the 50 pound limit is enforced?  Do they weigh the luggage?  We are flying Business Class, so the airlines is not an issue.  Do you normally put some clothes in a carryon?

 

We are considering visiting the market/restaurant area on our arrival day.  We know that the Tauck itinerary includes a canal cruise sight seeing and lunch on our first full cruise day. If we use the Hop on Hop off canal  boat on our arrival day, do you think that it would be repetitive?  We recall that you did something similar.

 

Thank you in advance. Your thread as feed our excitement.

 

 

Not repetitive doing hop on hop off if you use it to get on and off. So pretty! We loved cruising the canals.

[jagoffee]

44 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

I had a large suitcase, a small carryon roller and a backpack. Tauck does not care, the airline does. They just don’t want too many overweight large bags because it’s hard on staff. We checked our large bags and carried on the rest. Because you are flying business, you should be allowed more bags. I was under the 50 lb going but NOT coming back!🤣 Tauck gives you lots of  goodies plus I bought a lot of great stuff! 

 

Enjoy your cruise! You will LOVE it I’m sure! Wave to my daughter who is doing a semester abroad in Vienna!🤗

 

As you say, I would not think that Tauck would care, but that is what my documents say. (One check piece per person).  Are you suggesting that we could check three pieces for the two of us without any issue?  (I know that I am OK on the airline).  It would be one suitor and two regular pieces of luggage.

 

I will wave and I am confident that I will enjoy the experience.

 

43 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

Not repetitive doing hop on hop off if you use it to get on and off. So pretty! We loved cruising the canals.

Thank you.

[HBCcruiser]

6 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

 

As you say, I would not think that Tauck would care, but that is what my documents say. (One check piece per person).  Are you suggesting that we could check three pieces for the two of us without any issue?  (I know that I am OK on the airline).  It would be one suitor and two regular pieces of luggage.

 

I will wave and I am confident that I will enjoy the experience.

 

Thank you.

 

If you check the ONE large bag EACH with Tauck, and carry on the rest, they won’t care. They will tell you to leave ALL luggage in your hotel room prior to boarding unless you DO want to carry it all day. I kept my backpack but let them take my large bag AND roller carryon bag.

 

Tauck is VERY accommodating. Please don’t worry. Make sure you have the Tauck Tags on ALL of your luggage. It helps. I just photocopied it and put it in those plastic tags. 

 

Hope that helps.

[HBCcruiser]

Photo of all my luggage - all the blue. I carried on the small blue bag and backpack. Checked the large bag. Tauck Tags on all. My mom had separate luggage.

[jagoffee]

3 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

If you check the ONE large bag EACH with Tauck, and carry on the rest, they won’t care. They will tell you to leave ALL luggage in your hotel room prior to boarding unless you DO want to carry it all day. I kept my backpack but let them take my large bag AND roller carryon bag.

 

Tauck is VERY accommodating. Please don’t worry. Make sure you have the Tauck Tags on ALL of your luggage. It helps. I just photocopied it and put it in those plastic tags. 

 

Hope that helps.

Thank you for your quick clarification.

 

One more question.  Was I suppose to receive Tauck Luggage tags or do I get them at the hotel?

[HBCcruiser]

2 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Thank you for your quick clarification.

 

One more question.  Was I suppose to receive Tauck Luggage tags or do I get them at the hotel?

 

They should have mailed you a booklet of all the itinerary and such a while ago. The tags are in the back of that TAke thatvwith you!

[jagoffee]

7 minutes ago, HBCcruiser said:

 

They should have mailed you a booklet of all the itinerary and such a while ago. The tags are in the back of that TAke thatvwith you!

Thanks, again. I received the book some time ago.  Perhaps I missed placed the tags as I do not recall.  I will search for them tomorrow.  I am sure they will have extras at the hotel.  

I will plan to tag my carry on as well.

 

 

[HBCcruiser]

27 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Thanks, again. I received the book some time ago.  Perhaps I missed placed the tags as I do not recall.  I will search for them tomorrow.  I am sure they will have extras at the hotel.  

I will plan to tag my carry on as well.

 

 

 

Yes, they will. You’ll see the Tauck rep table. Can’t miss it. 

[HBCcruiser]

Tauck desk - see the middle left in photo.

Edited September 3, 2019 by HBCcruiser

[jagoffee]

HBCcruisers,

I just wanted to stop by and thank you, again, for all the great information. My wife, two friends, and I had an amazing time on the September 5 version of your exact cruise.

The  information that you provided and the answered to my question were much appreciated and helpful.  I do not have one bad thing to say about the experience.  My expectations were exceeded and I was very surprised about the quality of the dining experience.  The soups were amazing as were many other dishes.

This was our first River Boat experience and with only 82 passengers it seemed like a large yacht.  We all loved cruising along the rivers with the amazing scenery and everything else about the experience.

 

Thanks.

Jim

P.S.  Do you know if the Tauck Air department is run by a subcontractor or Tauck employees?

[s35flyer]

I appreciate your comments.  I see lots of folks asking questions but they don’t come back and tell us how it was, mostly.  We did a river cruise last spring and we had so

much fun we are already signed up for this exact cruise but in 2021.  Wife said we had to take a year off and go to Italy.  Whatever, she is in charge but I made our 2021 deposit and reservations.

 

again thanks for the review.

[jagoffee]

7 minutes ago, s35flyer said:

I appreciate your comments.  I see lots of folks asking questions but they don’t come back and tell us how it was, mostly.  We did a river cruise last spring and we had so

much fun we are already signed up for this exact cruise but in 2021.  Wife said we had to take a year off and go to Italy.  Whatever, she is in charge but I made our 2021 deposit and reservations.

 

again thanks for the review.

You are most welcome.  Enjoy your 2021 redo.  We would do another Tauck River cruise, but a different itinerary, since we found a lot of the experience was the varied ports.  We have so many places that we have not visited. (Although we have been to a lot of places).  

In the meantime we have booked the 14 day Tauck land tour for Ireland and Great Britain for June 2020.

[s35flyer]

Yes our Italy trip is a Tauck land tour as well, fingers crossed hope it goes well 

[jagoffee]

3 hours ago, s35flyer said:

Yes our Italy trip is a Tauck land tour as well, fingers crossed hope it goes well 

Our friends who joined us on the River Cruise have done two Tauck Tours in Italy and also only have good things to say about their land tours.

 

We  did a three week Australia/New Zealand tour about 10 years ago and it was also fabulous.  

 

Enjoy

[HBCcruiser]

7 hours ago, jagoffee said:

HBCcruisers,

I just wanted to stop by and thank you, again, for all the great information. My wife, two friends, and I had an amazing time on the September 5 version of your exact cruise.

The  information that you provided and the answered to my question were much appreciated and helpful.  I do not have one bad thing to say about the experience.  My expectations were exceeded and I was very surprised about the quality of the dining experience.  The soups were amazing as were many other dishes.

This was our first River Boat experience and with only 82 passengers it seemed like a large yacht.  We all loved cruising along the rivers with the amazing scenery and everything else about the experience.

 

Thanks.

Jim

P.S.  Do you know if the Tauck Air department is run by a subcontractor or Tauck employees?

I am so glad I was of some help and that you had a great time! I’m not sure about the air travel but I would guess that it is part of Tauck. I say that because they sent Tauck employees to meet us at the airport. Also, they asked me which airline I preferred, flight times, etc.. top notch service. 

[jagoffee]

3 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

I am so glad I was of some help and that you had a great time! I’m not sure about the air travel but I would guess that it is part of Tauck. I say that because they sent Tauck employees to meet us at the airport. Also, they asked me which airline I preferred, flight times, etc.. top notch service. 

Thank you.  I confirmed today that they are Tauck employees.