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Romantic RHINE RIVER CRUISE
We will be taking a river cruise in May 2019, on the Rhine. We start in Amsterdam, and have added a pre-night to our trip. Has anyone been on this cruise, and if so, will one extra night in Amsterdam be enough? It doesn't seem that Tauck will be doing much sightseeing in Amsterdam.
Thanks,
Cheri
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Alternatively, you can plan to have a vacation just to Amsterdam in the off season when prices are cheaper and enjoy a more relaxed time site seeing on your own terms when you have already briefly visited the city and are nore confident about being there unescorted. Amsterdam is an easy city and I would think it’s easy to get flights there from just about any city in the US
Interestingly I was reading through our detailed "My Trip" itinerary and it had the line
"If you are extending your trip with one or more additional nights in Amsterdam, you will receive complimentary transportation to the airport or train station regardless of your day of departure. Please see your Tauck Cruise Director to confirm these arrangements prior to the conclusion of your Tauck itinerary."
It doesn't specify staying at their hotel. We had already made arrangements so not sure if we'll need it or not.
I've seen some flexibility from them on this but not sure of the official policy. Will have an answer in June when we get back.
We decided that was way too much trouble, so we are spending an extra day in Lucerne. We can take a little day tour to Zurich if we want, or just explore more of Lucerne.
The last touring day of our trip is a Sunday, making Monday the day the “trip ends with transfer to Zurich”. By adding a day and flying home on Tuesday, we saved $2000 on our Business Class tickets. Worth staying an extra day in the Tauck hotel we thougnt.
The Devil is always in the details, so we have learned to read the fine print and pay careful attention to travel plans.
We usually have taken the easy route as well, but since we're on a river cruise, the last night with Tauck is the ship so no matter what we were going to have to move hotels. The post-tour price at the 2 Tauck hotels runs about $900-1000 a night. Did alot of shopping around looking for alternatives last summer for a tour ending Jun this year. The hotels were already starting to fill up even that far out. One of our group working through his travel agent found the Kimpton De Witt. Looks great online and is very well located near Damrak and Central Station. Total for 3 nights - Fri-Sun $987. That's almost $1700 savings. The agent has arranged our car service to the airport. If Tauck won't take us to the hotel it isn't that far - less than a mile. Would be nice if they would arrange that or at least call us a cab. Just did a check and it looks like a van to take 6 of us would cost around 25 euros.
The reason I say it's confusing is the same friend who has the travel agent got Tauck to take them to their cheaper hotel in London after our Seine cruise (or to the airport I can't remember which one). Initially the TD said no, but Tauck had made the commitment to the agent and they did take care of it. Same trip they took us to Kings Cross train station even though that wasn't on the list. On the other hand, they wouldn't pick up my sister at her Air B&B in Paris but were willing to pick them up at Gare de Nord.
When we get back in June I'll post what happened.
Like I said, things may be different, depending on tour, hotel, etc. In their literature, Tauck clearly spells out what transportation they will provide, e.g. "A transfer is included from Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern to Zurich Airport." The Zurich Airport is on the far side of Zurich (7.5 mi. NE of the city center) and most easily accessible from Lucerne via a highway and belt highway that goes around the NW side of the city and avoids the Zurich downtown and city streets. Tauck transportation to/from airports is often shared with other Tauck travelers. Requesting such a time-consuming deviation into the city might require a special trip just for you.
I personally think expecting Tauck to provide or arrange different/custom transportation is a bit much. Just think what would happen if a significant number or if everyone (60 couples+/- (?) on a cruise or 22 couples on a land tour) made unique transportation requests. It is no easy task to coordinate transportation to the designated location. If Tauck HQ authorizes, or a particular TD provides, a slight deviation, the traveler should consider themselves extremely lucky. I know it happens but believe is is rare, however. There may be some situations where deviations could possibly be accommodated- dropping a traveler off at some other location that is close to the route to the departure point- a location that requires no extra time/distance. But again, we don't know what the contract with the transport provider says.
It never hurts to ask Tauck. If enough people on multiple departures request the same alternate pickup or drop-off, Tauck might make a change for future departures.
They have several hotels they will stop at but not all. I would call Tauck as they really try their best to help.
For Alan, I'm not sure its all that hard to arrange. Tauck feeds the car service company the list of passengers, destinations and timing then basically leave it to them to figure out. Although even that can be changed. They had us leaving 3 hours before our train to Edinburgh i.e. the time Tauck thought was required on a Sat morning to go from the Savoy to Kingscross. Thankfully, the concierge said that was too much and he worked with the car service to arrange a more reasonable time so we could at least have breakfast at the hotel.
On our first river cruise, there was over 20 different departure "groups" leaving the ship. I know this because they used to give you special numbered tags for your luggage indicating which group you were in. And the same for beginnings of cruises where people are coming in at all different times and places. Since the transfer cost has already been included in our tour price, I don't feel too bad about requesting a slight change in location.
I think the bottom line of my post which got lost in my verbosity was- Tauck publishes transfer info, call and ask them about deviations, it doesn't hurt to try, but don't be upset if they won't arrange it.
Originally, we had planned to arrive at Vic Falls airport (Zimbabwe) instead of Livingstone airport (Zambia), the normal pickup spot for the Botswana, SA, Zambia tour. I called Tauck to see about alternate pickup- they wouldn't do it. I fully understood- normal arrival is provided/arranged by the Royal Livingstone hotel and involves car and river boat transport. While Vic falls airport is only slightly farther away, the trip requires a border crossing.
With our Amsterdam plans -we'll work with Tauck and our friends travel agent to come up with a plan that's doable.