I wonder if they are doing some tweeking to due dates. Just noticed our 29 Aug 21 Switzerland tour has a final payment date of 30 Jul 21. Summary of Purchase from May 2020 had it due 6 Jul 21. Interestingly, our 12 Sep Normandy/Brittany tour (which Tauck announced they believe will happen) has a payment due date of 14 Jul 21. I'm assuming Tauck is giving the Swiss time to make up their minds and announce whether they will open to vaccinated Americans.
Do you remind when we completed the survey and one of the questions was about how soon or later would info about the tours being a go would be acceptable? Do you think that has a baring on the various timings of payment as well as countries not making up their minds.
Agree with Portolan. We spoke with our relatives in Ottawa this week. They are still on a strict lock down, even between provinces. At the beginning there were checkpoints on the bridges between Ottawa and Quebec. Because so many people cross for work resulting in massive backlogs, that has been eliminated. However, if they cross the river to Quebec, they cannot expect to eat in a restaurant. The owners are turning non-Quebec residents away.
Since US residents have not been able to go to Canada and don't expect to do so soon, the company that runs the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Banff/Jasper has been offering special packages to Canadian residents at great rates. Since they do not expect to be able to leave Canada our relatives are planning on taking that trip later this summer but are still concerned about it coming to fruition. As of today, they are not able to travel from Ontario to BC.
The vaccination program in Ontario has been different than in the US. They are following the model that has more people getting one shot rather than fewer people with two shots. Our relatives (both over 70) received their first shot in April and were not able to schedule the second shot until late July. Our 39 year of niece was receiving her first shot today.
Since Canada will not have a large portion of the population fully vaccinated until late summer or early fall, it's highly likely that the closure will last through the summer.
I'm on the Rocky Mountaineers email list and frequently get offers from them. All last year they were for 2021 but of course lately for 2022. They offer free meals, transfers, extra hotel nights. if I had any clue which trips I was taking next year i'd be tempted.
As much as I love Tauck if we ever do this train ride we'll book direct with Rocky Mountaineer since you have more options before and after the train ride. You can do the Tauck-like version with fancy hotels, bus tour, etc after the train ride or instead have more moderately priced hotels and a rental car to tour on your own time which I'd prefer. No desire to just sit around a 4/5 star hotel. I think Taucks Canadian Rocky tours have too much of that.
Rocky Mountaineer has added a US route, Denver to Moab. It looks good, but since we now live in Colorado, I think we’ll drive this one and wait for Canada. That’s on our 2023 list. The Tauck trip looks to me to be the better bang for the buck, but I’d happily do either one.
We have taken several of the Tauck Canada tours, but quite a while ago. The Rockies and Glacier National Park was awesome. One of the others was the one that includes arriving in Halifax and goes to Prince Edward Island etc. The hotels were what people might say were very down market for Tauck, several had full size beds, not even queen size and things like that but they were the best available for location. We just loved all the seafood. When we had oysters, they asked us which Bay we wanted them from. The poutine was to die for, literally!
I missed the beginning of the Canada presentation the other day, but it seemed to be focused on all the hotels and not the wonderful scenery. That was very odd to me. I have not looked at the itineraries for Canada for quite a while, so I had not looked into the detail of the Mountaineer train. I’ve seen a TV railway show about it. It looked great. The scenery in Canada is king, not the hotels If Canada would open up, I’d consider going to Canada again with Tauck, even maybe repeating a tour I’ve already taken. It would be a good choice for testing the water of a post Covid Tauck tour. At least we know the healthcare is good there if we needed emergency treatment, which is definitely a consideration while hospitals in other parts of the world are overwhelming with Covid patients.
Michelle, you might double check on the balance due date. Mine for Switzerland tour 29 Aug was moved by Tauck to 30 Jul instead of 6 Jul and I didn't know it until I was checking something else on our acct.
Claudia-
Good observation about the final payment date. I checked my September Canada tour and final payment is now due 45 days before the travel date. Apparently, they are fiddling with the dates for tours they hope will go.
I was just notified that my November "Essence of Japan" tour has been canceled. I was expecting this outcome given the low vaccination rate there, but am slightly surprised that they made the call this far in advance.
Thanks Claudia, I did check and they have changed the due date from today to July 4. We really would like to know prior to that. Our travel agent is trying to get more info, but as of now, there is nothing more than what we already know. I think Tauck is waiting to see if all the countries involved are on board with allowing us in.
There my assumption Michelle. I have back to back trips scheduled now -- Switzerland 29 Aug and France 12 Sep. Right now the final payment on France is 2 weeks before Switzerland since they have more info that France will open
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Michelle5555, we’re waiting to hear about our Rhine river cruise scheduled to depart August 11. Expecting an email this week.
I was informed that our final payment for Treasures of the Med is now 30 days out instead of 60.
I wonder if they are doing some tweeking to due dates. Just noticed our 29 Aug 21 Switzerland tour has a final payment date of 30 Jul 21. Summary of Purchase from May 2020 had it due 6 Jul 21. Interestingly, our 12 Sep Normandy/Brittany tour (which Tauck announced they believe will happen) has a payment due date of 14 Jul 21. I'm assuming Tauck is giving the Swiss time to make up their minds and announce whether they will open to vaccinated Americans.
Do you remind when we completed the survey and one of the questions was about how soon or later would info about the tours being a go would be acceptable? Do you think that has a baring on the various timings of payment as well as countries not making up their minds.
Someone told me this morning that Canada was opening up on June 21st but I haven’t seen that anywhere, does anyone know anything?
It appears that someone mistook an extension of the closure to 21 June as setting the end date. That doesn't appear to be the case:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/when-canada-us-border-reopen-1.6007645
Agree with Portolan. We spoke with our relatives in Ottawa this week. They are still on a strict lock down, even between provinces. At the beginning there were checkpoints on the bridges between Ottawa and Quebec. Because so many people cross for work resulting in massive backlogs, that has been eliminated. However, if they cross the river to Quebec, they cannot expect to eat in a restaurant. The owners are turning non-Quebec residents away.
Since US residents have not been able to go to Canada and don't expect to do so soon, the company that runs the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Banff/Jasper has been offering special packages to Canadian residents at great rates. Since they do not expect to be able to leave Canada our relatives are planning on taking that trip later this summer but are still concerned about it coming to fruition. As of today, they are not able to travel from Ontario to BC.
The vaccination program in Ontario has been different than in the US. They are following the model that has more people getting one shot rather than fewer people with two shots. Our relatives (both over 70) received their first shot in April and were not able to schedule the second shot until late July. Our 39 year of niece was receiving her first shot today.
Since Canada will not have a large portion of the population fully vaccinated until late summer or early fall, it's highly likely that the closure will last through the summer.
Thanks, Kathy M, for your informative post. I hope Canadian tours resume soon. Such a beautiful country!
I'm on the Rocky Mountaineers email list and frequently get offers from them. All last year they were for 2021 but of course lately for 2022. They offer free meals, transfers, extra hotel nights. if I had any clue which trips I was taking next year i'd be tempted.
We are scheduled to take the Rocky Mountaineer trip August 4th from Vancouver to Banff.. It was rescheduled from last year. We doubt we will be going.
As much as I love Tauck if we ever do this train ride we'll book direct with Rocky Mountaineer since you have more options before and after the train ride. You can do the Tauck-like version with fancy hotels, bus tour, etc after the train ride or instead have more moderately priced hotels and a rental car to tour on your own time which I'd prefer. No desire to just sit around a 4/5 star hotel. I think Taucks Canadian Rocky tours have too much of that.
Rocky Mountaineer has added a US route, Denver to Moab. It looks good, but since we now live in Colorado, I think we’ll drive this one and wait for Canada. That’s on our 2023 list. The Tauck trip looks to me to be the better bang for the buck, but I’d happily do either one.
We have taken several of the Tauck Canada tours, but quite a while ago. The Rockies and Glacier National Park was awesome. One of the others was the one that includes arriving in Halifax and goes to Prince Edward Island etc. The hotels were what people might say were very down market for Tauck, several had full size beds, not even queen size and things like that but they were the best available for location. We just loved all the seafood. When we had oysters, they asked us which Bay we wanted them from. The poutine was to die for, literally!
I missed the beginning of the Canada presentation the other day, but it seemed to be focused on all the hotels and not the wonderful scenery. That was very odd to me. I have not looked at the itineraries for Canada for quite a while, so I had not looked into the detail of the Mountaineer train. I’ve seen a TV railway show about it. It looked great. The scenery in Canada is king, not the hotels If Canada would open up, I’d consider going to Canada again with Tauck, even maybe repeating a tour I’ve already taken. It would be a good choice for testing the water of a post Covid Tauck tour. At least we know the healthcare is good there if we needed emergency treatment, which is definitely a consideration while hospitals in other parts of the world are overwhelming with Covid patients.
Michelle, you might double check on the balance due date. Mine for Switzerland tour 29 Aug was moved by Tauck to 30 Jul instead of 6 Jul and I didn't know it until I was checking something else on our acct.
Claudia-
Good observation about the final payment date. I checked my September Canada tour and final payment is now due 45 days before the travel date. Apparently, they are fiddling with the dates for tours they hope will go.
I was just notified that my November "Essence of Japan" tour has been canceled. I was expecting this outcome given the low vaccination rate there, but am slightly surprised that they made the call this far in advance.
Thanks Claudia, I did check and they have changed the due date from today to July 4. We really would like to know prior to that. Our travel agent is trying to get more info, but as of now, there is nothing more than what we already know. I think Tauck is waiting to see if all the countries involved are on board with allowing us in.
There my assumption Michelle. I have back to back trips scheduled now -- Switzerland 29 Aug and France 12 Sep. Right now the final payment on France is 2 weeks before Switzerland since they have more info that France will open