Yes, there is a link somewhere but forgotten how to look for it. I had to leave before the end of the Ambrosiana talk today, I’d like to see the rest of it. It was what I would describe as very High brow and I wonder if everyone enjoyed it or it was too much. We went to that museum last year.
Tauck_Emily
July 24 edited July 24
Hi Everyone
Thank you so much for your interest in our presentations.
All of our Zoom presentations are recorded, edited, and posted to our Taucker Blog. You can find them here:
My last installment on this thread as I come to our 2019 Budapest-Amsterdam river cruise. I'd rate this as our favorite river cruise except that our first cruise 6 yrs ago on the Rhone retains a very fond memory in part because it launched all our Tauck tours. It's been interesting to see how river cruising has evolved and improved over that time. Dress has become more casual especially on board the ship, the ship board menus really reflect the food and culture of the area you're in, and daily excursions have more options/flexibility. The ships have improved technologically with on demand TV programming, more electrical outlets, and bigger staterooms. The later is more important the longer the cruise you're on. Security has also improved with a crew member specifically for that and digital security cards that let you open doors, sign you on/off the ship, etc. I'm sure all this will just improve with time.
For us, Vienna and Melk were not great days - but not because those aren't good stops. It was very hot then and extra time touring wasn't something I really wanted to do. We did love the dinner at the palace in Vienna and Melk was interesting. Regensburg was an interesting place though the Thurn and Taxis Palace is a miss in my book. Not that interesting architecturally and most of the family's story seemed to be myth. Would have rather had sausages at the riverside sausage restaurant or tour the cathedral.
As for unexpected delights. They mainly came because of the incident with the Main lock being closed (long story told in my review wrt a Viking ship that damaged a lock). Woke up on morning 8 stuck in Kelheim. The TD's worked around it by busing us to Nurnberg. Then on day 9 we got a bonus boat ride up the Danube Gorge, a tour of Weltenberg Abbey and a photo op at the Liberation Monument. After that, we backtracked down the Danube to position the ship to off load us and our luggage for the ship swap. We did see all the rest of our itinerary and instead of a full day cruising got to see both Wurzburg and Rothenburg rather than having to choose. In Rothenburg there was an annual celebration with people dressed in costume and canons going off. The same thing happened in Rudesheim where we were treated to tickets to ride the gondola up to the monument and more canons as the locals re-created a famous battle.
Hopefully touring is back to something like normal next year and we can enjoy more Tauck tours.
We were looking at the Douro last night as a possible follow-on to our Switzerland tour but don't think we can make the dates line up. Same for the Spain/Portugal land tour. Looking at a Rick Steves Loire/South of France tour instead but their dates/prices aren't out yet.
Savoring French is basically the same as our first cruise - French Waterways which is gone now. Loved it because so many of the places the ship docked close to the action.
Here is the list of stops and where we docked. Keep in mind the whole Main lock issue screwed some of that up for us.
Budapest - a short walk from the Great Market hall and the tram that goes along the Danube - they bused us from the Intercontinental
Bratislava - a short walk to the old town
Vienna - quite a ways away - docked in an area with about a dozen slips - most of those with 2-3 river cruise ships side by side - there was another Tauck ship there at the same time and they ran shuttles between the ships and town about every half hour
Durnstein - tiny little hamlet, docked right there
Melk - supposedly close enough to walk but we were taken in a bus to it and you could walk back - never quite figured out the route though
Passau - yep, docked right in the old town
Regensburg - a bigger town so though we were docked close to the action it was still a bit of a walk to get to the palace tour then down hill back to the ship
Nurnburg - no idea since we got bused from Kelheim - but I believe based on what others have said you aren't docked close even on a normal tour - we did the medieval tour which involved some bus time and the WWII group had even more
Bamberg - again, not sure because we were bused
Rothenburg - for sure not close - even in the itinerary it says there is a drive
Wurzburg - is where we boarded out new ship to continue the cruise and the bus drove us to where it was docked - just as well as we'd spent about a hour drinking wine in the palace cellar
Rudesheim - yes, docked close - you kind of cross some RR tracks and a road, then a little trolley train picks you up and drives you uphill to the museum - we walked back to the ship after lunch
Cologne - docked pretty close - right next to the Lindt Chocolate museum - it's a bit pricey but has an excellent chocolate store
Amsterdam - learned on this cruise that Tauck uses 2 different docks both super close to the central train station - on our Rhine cruise on the Inspire it was just east of the station - for this cruise we finished on the Espirit which is shorter and we docked slightly west of the station
A different ship from inside the Cologne Chocolate museum but we were parked in the same spot that day.
Comments
Are the Zoom presentations available to view again? Today’s was wonderful and I would love to see it again
Yes, there is a link somewhere but forgotten how to look for it. I had to leave before the end of the Ambrosiana talk today, I’d like to see the rest of it. It was what I would describe as very High brow and I wonder if everyone enjoyed it or it was too much. We went to that museum last year.
Here is what Emily said:
https://blog.tauck.com/?categ=inside-tauck
My last installment on this thread as I come to our 2019 Budapest-Amsterdam river cruise. I'd rate this as our favorite river cruise except that our first cruise 6 yrs ago on the Rhone retains a very fond memory in part because it launched all our Tauck tours. It's been interesting to see how river cruising has evolved and improved over that time. Dress has become more casual especially on board the ship, the ship board menus really reflect the food and culture of the area you're in, and daily excursions have more options/flexibility. The ships have improved technologically with on demand TV programming, more electrical outlets, and bigger staterooms. The later is more important the longer the cruise you're on. Security has also improved with a crew member specifically for that and digital security cards that let you open doors, sign you on/off the ship, etc. I'm sure all this will just improve with time.
For us, Vienna and Melk were not great days - but not because those aren't good stops. It was very hot then and extra time touring wasn't something I really wanted to do. We did love the dinner at the palace in Vienna and Melk was interesting. Regensburg was an interesting place though the Thurn and Taxis Palace is a miss in my book. Not that interesting architecturally and most of the family's story seemed to be myth. Would have rather had sausages at the riverside sausage restaurant or tour the cathedral.
As for unexpected delights. They mainly came because of the incident with the Main lock being closed (long story told in my review wrt a Viking ship that damaged a lock). Woke up on morning 8 stuck in Kelheim. The TD's worked around it by busing us to Nurnberg. Then on day 9 we got a bonus boat ride up the Danube Gorge, a tour of Weltenberg Abbey and a photo op at the Liberation Monument. After that, we backtracked down the Danube to position the ship to off load us and our luggage for the ship swap. We did see all the rest of our itinerary and instead of a full day cruising got to see both Wurzburg and Rothenburg rather than having to choose. In Rothenburg there was an annual celebration with people dressed in costume and canons going off. The same thing happened in Rudesheim where we were treated to tickets to ride the gondola up to the monument and more canons as the locals re-created a famous battle.
Hopefully touring is back to something like normal next year and we can enjoy more Tauck tours.
We were looking at the Douro last night as a possible follow-on to our Switzerland tour but don't think we can make the dates line up. Same for the Spain/Portugal land tour. Looking at a Rick Steves Loire/South of France tour instead but their dates/prices aren't out yet.
Savoring French is basically the same as our first cruise - French Waterways which is gone now. Loved it because so many of the places the ship docked close to the action.
Here is the list of stops and where we docked. Keep in mind the whole Main lock issue screwed some of that up for us.
Budapest - a short walk from the Great Market hall and the tram that goes along the Danube - they bused us from the Intercontinental
Bratislava - a short walk to the old town
Vienna - quite a ways away - docked in an area with about a dozen slips - most of those with 2-3 river cruise ships side by side - there was another Tauck ship there at the same time and they ran shuttles between the ships and town about every half hour
Durnstein - tiny little hamlet, docked right there
Melk - supposedly close enough to walk but we were taken in a bus to it and you could walk back - never quite figured out the route though
Passau - yep, docked right in the old town
Regensburg - a bigger town so though we were docked close to the action it was still a bit of a walk to get to the palace tour then down hill back to the ship
Nurnburg - no idea since we got bused from Kelheim - but I believe based on what others have said you aren't docked close even on a normal tour - we did the medieval tour which involved some bus time and the WWII group had even more
Bamberg - again, not sure because we were bused
Rothenburg - for sure not close - even in the itinerary it says there is a drive
Wurzburg - is where we boarded out new ship to continue the cruise and the bus drove us to where it was docked - just as well as we'd spent about a hour drinking wine in the palace cellar
Rudesheim - yes, docked close - you kind of cross some RR tracks and a road, then a little trolley train picks you up and drives you uphill to the museum - we walked back to the ship after lunch
Cologne - docked pretty close - right next to the Lindt Chocolate museum - it's a bit pricey but has an excellent chocolate store
Amsterdam - learned on this cruise that Tauck uses 2 different docks both super close to the central train station - on our Rhine cruise on the Inspire it was just east of the station - for this cruise we finished on the Espirit which is shorter and we docked slightly west of the station
A different ship from inside the Cologne Chocolate museum but we were parked in the same spot that day.