Best Of
Re: Halong Bay 1 day excursion Nov. 30, 2023
I was woken up by a woman’s voice in a boat outside of my cabin’s window calling ‘Mommy, Mommy’. It took me a few moments to realize it was from a woman selling her wares - not my children calling out to me!!
Re: We're booked! Christmas Markets Danube - Dec 6-13, 2023 aboard ms Savor
@Kathy0529 - how exciting! You know it's getting close when you start thinking about packing.
Re: The fine print
I don't think the TA is the issue in this case. My understanding is that this is their standing policy for all cruises. You have a relatively narrow window of time (10 days, maybe) to modify a reservation and after that it is locked in. I had a similar situation in which I inquired about transferring a deposit from a river cruise to a small ship cruise and was also denied. This may not be the case for land tours. The "Call for Details" message simply means that they do not have pricing finalized yet, but can put people on a "waiting list" for the tour (they call it a waiting list, but it is essentially a booking and they do take a deposit). Once prices are finalized and published, you have 2 weeks to cancel and have your deposit refunded if you wish to do so.
Also, just because you use a TA does not mean that you can't call Tauck directly with any questions you may have. I go through a TA as well and do that all the time.
Re: The fine print
Ah, if it is a small ship cruise, then they have to adhere to Ponant's rules.
Re: We're booked! Christmas Markets Danube - Dec 6-13, 2023 aboard ms Savor
bobbette - I'm on the cruise the week before you and can't wait! I just pulled out my travel adapters and some travel size containers. Wish I could pack now! :-) I'm in double digits!!
Re: Tipping the TD
Crumbs BKMD, not $100 bills, They are often difficult to change anywhere, even banks in other countries due to fake ones. But let’s not keep this going too long😃
Re: Tipping the TD
Mfrancis, get your point now. Most of the tours we take with Tauck would not have us anywhere near an ATM at the end of a tour.
Could someone call Tauck to verify this Venmo suggestion. My husband uses Venmo occasionally to give our kids money if we owe them for a purchase or whatever, It’s not what we would do, we don’t keep much money in our regular bank account, we only deposit it there when we have a bill to pay, otherwise we have it in accounts with interest and it’s safer. Just can’t see it being viable if everyone did it at the farewell dinner, lining up to verify the transfer etc.
We are about to take two separate three week tours where the suggested tip is $12 a day each. Do that math. Yes, it’s a concern carrying all the cash and that’s why we keep cash for buying things on tour to a minimum and mainly use credit cards. It will get worse when Tauck increases the suggested tip amount and I think they will soon.
Re: The fine print
This is one issue with using a TA. For any questions related to off-nominal situations you have to go through a middle man. If you had booked directly then you could call Tauck directly and have a discussion in real time, changing the discussion path based on the answers you receive. That is very had to do through a middle man, your TA.
Perhaps your TA would allow you to sit with them, in a speakerphone situation, when they called Tauck. Then, in essence you could have a direct discussion with Tauck and get the reasons for everything in more detail beyond the short response provided by the TA that says it is non-refundable.
Is the April 2025 tour that you are trying to switch to bookable yet? If it isn't, then Tauck couldn't simply do the switch, they would have to give you a refund (which isn't allowed). Again, if you could speak with Tauck directly you could get answers to these types of questions.
When I looked at the website it looks like the 2025 tours for Treasures of Spain and Portugal aren't completely bookable yet. It says Call for Details. It doesn't say that for the 2024 tours. This is likely why Tauck can't do (at this time) what you are requesting. Again, if you could speak with Tauck directly it would be easy to find all of this out.
Re: Cell phone service
The app “Signal” is very similar to WhatsApp and not owned by Google.
Re: The fine print
About 9 months ago, I cancelled one trip I had a deposit on and had it applied to a different trip/different date. I used a TA. I was still eligible for GoT, as well. No problems.