Hidden Galapagos and Peru tours in may on Silver Origin May 2021
Has anyone heard if all tours to galapagos and Peru have been cancelled? I know Silversea has cancelled all their cruises through June 5, 2021. I have not heard from Tauck if our tour is cancelled yet. Nor has it been listed on the Tauck website that this tour has been cancelled. We are scheduled on the May 8, 2021 tour. Our final payment is due April 8, 2021. Will Tauck cancel this tour before final payment? If so, will they call me or do it via email? Or is there a possibility that Tauck will try to secure a different ship to run this tour?
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If you haven't heard from Tauck by April 5th, then I'd give them a call and ask. In the past I've gone right up to the final payment deadline without a call from Tauck, so I called and they said the tour was cancelled and that they were in the process of calling people. I know others, based on their forum posts, have received cancellation calls from Tauck in a more timely fashion. Seems like it might be just luck if you get the call or not (prior to the final payment date).
This tour is spectacular. It ranks just behind the Kenya and Tanzania tour as my favorite tour.
Just to add that Tauck has never so far used email for informing you the tour has canceled, partly because it would still need a phone call for discussion of options.
I assume they have less staff to deal with all this to save them money, but long phone lines make people feel really annoyed.
As far as being near the final payment date, just be sure you do not have the automatic payment in place on your account.
Have been to Galapagos twice with Tauck, obviously one of our favorites places. Would go again in a heartbeat
Yup, Tauck will call. They called to cancel our 20 May 2021 Treasures of the Aegean last week on 9 March. Like you. I had been tracking Windstar Cruises the owner/operator of our ship. They extended their no sail restriction into June, so I fully expected Tauck would call to cancel. To help reduce call volume, Tauck would rather you wait for their call, but you are getting closer that we were.
We had already planned to re-book for 2022, so went ahead and paid the balance on our 2021 trip. Since it was paid in full we qualified for the full amount of the re-booking discount on the price of the 2022 tour.
Also, in these times it is unlikely there will be any consequence if you decide to hold off making final payment. Tauck will call to cancel or remind you that you haven't paid and give you a little more time if it looks like the trip will go.
I doubt there are other vessels available. However unlikely, all things are possible.
Alan, you seem to be one of the fortunate ones that gets early cancellation calls. Perhaps it is because they know you as someone that sends register mail to Dan Mahar!!!
I haven't received a cancellation call for either of my two cancelled tours. I had to call, within one day of the final payment date.
They actually called about Treasures twice- the first time the agent said she was cleaning up the 2022 waitlists and wanted to know which of three waitlisted dates I want to book. She also asked if I wanted to cancel our 2021 trip. I said I would like to wait- I'd hate to cancel the 2021 trip and then find out it would go after all.
The next call, some weeks later, was to tell me the 2021 trip was officially cancelled. At that time they moved the money from the cancelled 2021 trip to the 2022 trip. The 2022 trip still hasn't been priced, but once it is, even if the cost goes up, I'll likely have excess money (2021 paid-in-full amount + 2022 deposit and Guest Protection) that we will dump into XMAS Mkts 2022.
Did you book your flights thru Tauck? I didn't, so that might be another reason I was called earlier.
AlanS - Look for another reason. I booked my own flights. I think I found the reason you were called earlier.
I'll get another data point likely, when they call or not for my June 30th Iceland tour.
Alan.... yes we are booking our flights through Tauck. I think I will try to give them a call in a few days. Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it._
72 days and counting. Today I was preparing for our final payments due on our May-June Tauck bookings for my family of 7. Last night I received an email from Tauck updating my families tour & airline reservations. This afternoon I got the call from Tauck cancelling our reservations due to host country travel restrictions in place and extended.
Sorry to hear that!
Have you re-booked for 2022?
AlanS
No, coordinating a family vacation is quite complicated with College and High School students and their parents availability for specific dates.
Tauck transfered all of the journey and protection plan deposits paid to my August 2021 Croatia tour balance due.
That’s interesting, Tauck explained to us that once you transfer money from one tour to another, and then that second tour gets cancelled, which in your Croatia tour, I think it will, the insurance cannot be used again, they told us to hold off adding any money to another tour until the last minute when it is certain the tour will go.
Our 2020 Croatia tour was canceled and we have not rebooked it.
I know how that goes! In the summer of 2019, we took a group of 10, my wife and I, our son, daughter and their families to Disney World for two days followed by a 4 day Disney cruise- that was tough! Our daughter's family was between State Department assignments so had a fairly narrow, but soft window. Trying to match up availability and booking early to ensure we would get park and cruises dates was tough. In many cases we just took a chance and hoped it would all work out in the end. Luckily it did, but just a day or so after the ship pulled in they headed to Buenos Aires for two years!
AlanS
Cancelling our family vacation was received with disappointment but our 17 and 18 year olds were really looking forward to the trip. They will be at our home for Easter and I suggested we look at options. Most likely it will be in the US and not international.
British
I spoke with Tauck this morning regarding the transfer of funds, credit balances and what if my August-September trips are cancelled.
Yes, my original credit card payment (Deposit & Guest Protection Plan) for each of my 7 reservations were transferred to my existing August 2021 Adriatic Treasures: Croatia-Venice balance due. Funds from 1 cancelled tour can only be transferred to 1 existing (or new) tour. This was the same process on all of my 5 cancelled tours for 2020 and 2021. When the transfer results in a credit balance the overpayment is refunded to the credit card used. For myself I will then do a credit card payment to my other tour balance due.
Regarding my 2021 tours I was told that if Tauck cancels my tours then I can again transfer the funds to my 2022 tours or receive a refund based on the current travel policies.
Regarding Tauck airline reservations they are ticketed on the balance due date not when paid in full prior to the balance due date.
I'm scheduled for the Hidden Galapagos tour leaving May 22nd. Considering Silverseas cancelled their May cruises over a month ago I'm not sure why Tauck has not contacted us yet. They should have contacted us already so we can make alternate plans. The fact we were supposed to enter Peru first made this trip impossible because a 14 day quarantine is still required upon entry. My plan was to cancel Tauck and go directly to Silverseas (I've traveled with them before and love them!) just for the Galapagos portion as I already had a cabin reserved, but their agent let me know over 2 months ago they would be cancelling their May cruises and even the June was in doubt. For anyone looking to book just Siverseas to Galapagos in June, entry into Ecuador and Galapagos is easier now that they will accept proof you have been fully vaccinated for Covid. I have trips planned with Tauck for Ireland in July and India at the end of September so I have a couple of options to transfer funds to and I'm hoping they will again add a bonus of either $250 or $500 to transfer money and not take any refund. Its the only reason I haven't cancelled with them already.
PS- They would not offer a different ship because Silverseas is a premium voyage. If they did they would have to dramatically lower pricing and I would have cancelled anyway. They have an option for Peru/Galapagos about $8,200 less expensive on the Isabella II. The Peru portion of this trip has really made it a tour stopper.
As far as transferring funds to another tour. I've had 5 Tauck tours cancelled in the last year: Peru-Bolivia (Twice), India, Ireland and a Panama Canal Cruise and I have continually moved the funds from one trip to another. This Peru-Galapagos tour will be my 6th cancellation in the last 14 months and they assured me I can transfer the funds again.
We have taken the Galápagos tour twice with Tauck on the Isabella 2, the itineraries were different apart from one day. We did not to go to Peru. That ship is basic but we loved it and you don’t spend much time on the ship during the day because you do two excursion a day unlike the other small ship tours do on the Panama Canal and Iceland where it’s one tour a day and you spend hours on the boat with little entertainment, unless you call origami and quizzes entertainment, so a bigger room is an advantage. I’d take the Galapagos tour again in a heartbeat, it’s fairly inexpensive too. We did not go to Peru because my hubby's body does not appear to like high elevation. Our tours were at different times of the year which made a different to what you saw.
I do think it is not good that Tauck has not over informed you of your cancellation. If you book with Silverseas, will you be able to get a cash refund like Tauck will give you if it cancels? We have taken cash deposits back from Tauck for some of our canceled tours.