Some Deja Vu
For those travelers that have been with Tauck for a while I'm sure you remember the Trip Reviews and how they had 1-5 star ratings from the tour travelers. Well ( and before you laugh too much, yes I'm an engineer ) back when I put together a spreadsheet (so BKMD that means its real 
) that capture for several tours the days of the tour, the cost range of the tour (2019 prices), the average star rating for each tour (based on the 2017-2018 reviews), and the number of reviews used to generate the average.
The bottom part of the spreadsheet is the tours that I've been on, the date of the tour, my ranking of those tours, as well as the reviews rating of those tours. It contains my two ill-fated 2020 tours as well.
Just thought this might be fun or at least provide some deja vu for the old Trip Reviews.
Comments
Well that confirms it. There are people out there who are more OCD than I am!!!
Ok, he has spreadsheets down! But is he a Power Point Ranger?
To steal a phrase from Spock, "fascinating" . 🖖
AlanS - Admit it, you probably have the same exact data in some form or another.
Claudia - No where near as capable with Power Point (generally a manager/presentation tool) as with Excel (more valuable to an engineer tool).
The old Tour Reviews, I believe, with the stars, were more valuable that the current tour reviews. The current reviews contain a general comment and a Most Memorable Moment. I liked the stars.
Sam, PowerPoint Ranger is a military action officer title. Ten years in DC with the Navy. Building presentations for numerous briefings. I was also an analyst for a lot of my career so Excel fluent (but rusty) too.
Naw, I don't care much what others think, especially the old reviews- tours change too much. I have a spread sheet of our Tauck tours- completed and active bookings followed by a wish list in rank order, that I use to list and track all costs, including air, and all payments and due dates. I collapse the completed trips and update the data of future trips on a random basis.
AlanS - I’m amazed by your statement, “I don’t care much what others think”. So if 100% of people taking a Specific tour said it was the worst Tour ever, knowing that these reviews covered multiple tours, dates, tour directors, you wouldn’t care? I doubt that. That is the definition of insanity, expecting a different result in the presence of overwhelming data to the contrary.
I get your point about tours changing, etc. That’s why the results I presented would be updated on a rolling wave approach to ensure only current and relevant data is used. That’s why the number of data points for each tour varied and some, like Egypt had no rating because there was no data.
You must be going under the assumption that there is no bad Tauck tour, therefore the opinions in the reviews don’t matter to you.
Reviews can be useful as long as you take them with a grain of salt. I find the Memorable Moments the most useful. You never know if an itinerary item will live up to its billing before hand (several of ours haven't) but with multiple people say that was the highlight then you figure its likely to be so.
I've never thought of the spread sheet strategy. For each tour I have clear plastic envelopes that I keep all documents together for a trip and then cull it afterwards for essentials and add any keepsakes like the guest lists, menus, etc. I do build Word documents for each trip with various bits of info I think we'll want on the trip - mostly for the time on our own. Restaurants that sound good near the hotel, sites to see, admission prices/hours, public transport details, etc. It keeps getting refined in the months prior as I do research. I had Switzerland mostly done before covid struck. Will likely need to do some updating assuming we'll go next year. Sigh.
I make my own full color brochure using a customized Tauck itinerary and photos from the web of places we are scheduled to visit. I modify it with pre- and post-tour excursions and any special on-tour activities that we plan to squeeze in.
First of all, I would not know how you went about posting one of those reviews that used to be able to be available. .i used to read them but I assume there was a limit on what you can write so they were of limited value.
Everyone has different expectations for a tour, so a tour you like, I might not like and visa versa. It must be almost impossible to please everyone. Some tours we have been on, people did not like the things we liked the most. We find it odd that many put hotels at the top of their list for being important over pretty much anything else. For us, it’s where we are and we assume Tauck has found the best accommodations but that may be all that is available. We also find it odd that people are anxious to find ‘good’ restaurant because there is so much food on Tauck tours, we sometimes only need to grab a snack when we have to find a meal on our own and we would rather spend the time doing extra site seeing.
My least favorite tour was purely because we had the only Tour Director we ever had who was lazy and passed his sell by date. We actually let Tauck know as we were not the only ones on the tour who thought so. Then we met a couple on a tour several months later who had had the same TD three years before and they could not believe he was still around because newbies on their tour said they would never travel with Tauck again because of him. So you see, it’s not always the tour that is the problem. Sometimes it can also be your companions. I mean, just imagine having Sam and Alan on your tour, it would make you feel so inadequate and unprepared 😀😀😀🤪🤪🤪
I do something similar to what AlanS does for the tours that I take, adding in pictures from the web for both items on the tour and items I might like to visit during tour free time. I call it my augmented itinerary. In that augmented itinerary, might be things similar to what Claudia describes, things of importance for our 'on our own' time - restaurants (one example was for the Manta Ray in Tel Aviv), directions to and admission prices for non-tour items (one example was for the Dubrovnik Cable Car). After the tour, we create a photo book (through Costco, Shutterfly, etc.) and place somethings we want to keep, that aren't easily photographed in a pouch in the book cover. I will simply photograph things like guest lists, etc.
British - Too funny. But think of AlanS and my pleasure being on a tour with you - a well known Tauck small ship swimming pool model!!!
😂😂😂😂😂😂 I’ll be having a swim very shortly, as soon as the HVAC guy has been to service things. I don’t want him getting excited this early in the morning.
Well, I resemble that remark.
(my wife nodded her head as I read it to her
)
Alan, quite impressive. My docs are much more slimmed down in part so I don't have to print and carry as much. Then again I sometimes being a color travel guide so your idea would be a lighter alternative.
British, I agree that mostly Tauck over feeds and not much need for extra. I mostly look for restaurants to cover the days pre or post tour when on our own. I weigh lots of factors like convenience, price, quality, whether it reflects local cuisine, etc. For our Switzerland tour planned this year the one pre tour day we arrive late afternoon so just need something light that evening before crashing then a bit of lunch the day it starts knowing we'll have a big welcome dinner that night. At the end we planned to stay several.days in Zurich so planned mostly inexpensive options (bakery sandwiches, takeout from grocery stores, etc) but maybe one last sit down dinner.
I make a print a full color copy when it is time to make the pitch and "sell" my wife on the tour.
I also put a copy on my iPad which I take on our trips. The iPad also contains a folder with photos from each of our completed trips. When the storage is full will it be time to retire from traveling? We'll see what the neurosurgeon has to say on Monday.
We put low consideration on hotels. As far as food, we actually prefer when most or all are provided by Tauck. We don't like to waste time researching or hunting down places to eat. I remember on our Ultimate Alps tour a number of us decided to grab a bite to eat in Davos. We were tired but too early for dinner so most had burgers and such- a burger, fries and coke = $85 e.a.!!
We also take into account opportunities to go beyond the Tauck itinerary. Obviously there are big differences in tours and the need/desire/availability of pre-, post-, and on-tour "extras" but even on K&T we did a pre-tour excursion to Arusha Nat'l Park. We probably loaded Classic Italy with extras more than any other tour, although looking back, we added a bit of stuff to our very first tour, E,S,W.
AlanS - I also have all my photos on my iPad, but I solved the memory problem. I pay Google a small amount each year for 100 GB of storage (called a Google Drive) just for trip photos and videos. I'm at 79 GB used. If I reach all 100 used, I'll probably just pay a bit more to get additional storage. I can access them anywhere there is internet. It also makes it a very easy way to share photos with family and friends.
In addition, if you have an Amazon Prime account (which my wife uses extensively) you get unlimited storage for photos (limited storage for movies). That is another way to be able to recall old travel photos from anywhere you have internet. Amazon photos makes an attempt at using facial recognition in your photos and keeps a count/index of people that show up in lots of photos (like myself, my wife, our travel companions, family, etc.). The facial recognition does only a so-so job. Oftentimes it will call out a feature of a building, or part of a tree, etc. as a person. It allows you to correct those, but it is an endless job to eliminate all of those mis-identifications. Perhaps over time their software will get better. Still it's fun sometimes to show a person all of the pictures you have of them by simply accessing their 'index'.
If Alan and/or Sam were on your trip, the bus seating chart would be a spreadsheet
BKMD - And you would be on a bike following behind the bus!
Only true believers would be allowed onboard!
Funny, Sam! On one of my trips (Scandinavia, I believe), the TD/bus was kind enough to drop me off on the way back to the hotel after the morning activities, as I scheduled a bike tour with a group for a free afternoon and we were a bit late in getting back.
Actually, I love organized people, you know that they never let you down and are always on time etc etc
I don't use the cloud though I could since we have Prime. Internet availability is the gotcha!!
My iPad has 128 GB of storage and I've only used 96 GB (83 GB for photos) so at this rate I should be able to store photos for another 4 trips. By that time I may get a new iPad with 256 GB of storage- enough to get me to the point were we are no longer traveling.
AlanS - Almost all Tauck hotels have internet so that isn’t an issue. Hard to share your iPad photos with family and friends if you don’t use internet. Amazon’s unlimited photos would allow you to travel forever, not just while iPad capacity is sufficient. I bet every Tauck trip you’ve been on you’ve used the internet at least once. If you say you have NEVER used the internet on a Tauck trip, then you can put your response in red, bold font. Having internet is not the red, bold font issue you make it out to be. It’s not like you’re looking at your iPad photos from the back of a camel. Your iPad approach works, but the reason it works isn’t because it is an internet free approach.
I'm sure you guys know this, but unless you're printing out posters, the default resolution of most cameras (and phone cameras) is way too high for "normal" use and consumes a lot of memory.
I have my phone set for 2880x2160 (6.2 MP). The default was 12 MP. My pics are 2-3 MB per pic and are more than sufficient for online viewing and printing.
I hate to bring up operating systems, because it's a bit like arguing religion, but Android devices do have some distinct advantages for the traveler. If you're a loyal acolyte of St. Steve Jobs, no need to flame me, I get that you're happy with your device and I understand that it has advantages, as well (particularly timely OS updates for the life of the device).
However, one of the big advantages of Android is that most Android devices allow you to add a microSD card for additional storage (up to 1TB in some recent models). MicroSD memory is way cheaper than a paying for additional native storage on your device. While you can't use the SD storage for additional apps, it is great for storing media files like photos, movies and music. So you can snap pictures to your hearts content and the highest resolution and still have plenty of storage. It also means large amounts of movies and music can be stored on your tablet and are still accessible when access to the internet is slow or unavailable (busses, planes, boats). In addition, you can add even more storage by plugging a thumb drive into the USB port.
Au contraire! most have "internet," but many do not have decent enough bandwidth to upload or download photos. There have been many times during long bus rides when I have shared my photos- the only place we had internet on a bus was during a portion of Classic Italy. Even then our TD and driver had to contact the bus company to increase our allotment- which didn't last long before it ran out and never worked again.
True- However, I don't post photos to FB until I get somewhere with good, reliable bandwidth. On the Botswana trip that was Livinstone at the start and Cape Town at the end!
Pretty close. How about from a safari vehicle or during brunch in the bush in the middle of the Serengeti? Sure there are various alternatives and work-arounds that may appeal to some folks, but the issue is, I want them when I want them how I want them- the fastest and easiest is local storage. You guys sound like Apple- "do it our way or else." I want them when I want them, I don't want to re-size or store them in reduced resolution (I also use the iPad as back-up storage and down load from my camera each day). Sure, I could carry another piece of gear- portable/external SSD/harddrive/dongle, but why?
???? yes, but it is an internet free approach which is my point. As far as online viewing- mostly pretty crappy even at the highest resolution possible (Facebook automatically resizes)- if that were my main criteria I would just use a phone or 8 MP point and shoot camera to take my photos.
We do a Shutterfly album for every trip. A little pricey but so what. The trips are all pricey, are all amazing and need to be captured properly. It takes time but is so worth it for memories for the kids and grand kids. Our books for Israel and Jordan (2,400 photos taken) and Kenya and Tanzania (2,700 photos taken) maxed out at 110 pages each which is the maximum page limit Shutterfly allows. You can do a second book if you'd like with additional pages. Our Best of Ireland trip finished at 65 pages and Spotlight on Australia was close to that. We also did albums for all our other trips including a 36 day, 22 state, 12 National Park, 7,200 mile cross country drive in 2015. In addition we put together a binder with all keepsakes from the trip like the group photo etc. Lots of good memories to share.
I started a Shutterfly book, but just couldn't get into it- I'm not artsyfarsty enough. We should let our daughter-in-law do it- she does a great job with those kinds of things. I had about 40 photos enlarged to various sizes and printed on canvas, for three trips- Ultimate Alps & Dolomites, K&T, and Botswana, SA, Zambia. I've commandeered one whole wall of our great room.
With both projects, my biggest problem was an inability to whittle down the number of photos.
AlanS - You’ve got it down to a science. I might have to be on the bike behind the bus with BKMD looking at the real scenery vs. your iPad sharing of photos, ditto for being in a different safari vehicle. When touring, tour and enjoy the scenery and experiences around you, not transferring and looking at pictures on an iPad in a safari vehicle.
The epitome of your approach, you can save even more time by, just using the iPad as your camera. A one stop, iPad, local storage solution! The ultimate solution.
Only when appropriate- when most are nodding out on long stretches of more of the same. I don't force anyone to look, only if they want. It could be at breakfast. I don't spend my time seeing the scenery through a view finder, and rarely take or if I take rarely use binoculars.
But, hey, I likes what I likes. I was really upset when they stopped supporting Netscape 20+ years ago and don't get me started about Win10 (I loved Win7) or anything Apple for that matter- why does my iPad assign new file names to my photos and not transfer all the metadata?!?! Why do some photos not want to rotate or stay rotated?
AlanS - I hear you. Just like the probably 6 versions of different photo editing software on my computer.