French balconies
We have done the Danube on Tauck & this time looking to do the Rhine & Moselle but want a balcony to sit & watch the castles go by with our wine or coffee. The french balconies have the size to put small chairs there. Has anyone been able to do that? Quite a loss not to have that capability. It is a selling point to other riverboat lines.
Appreciate any input. Thank you.
Gail
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Sorry, the closest you can get on a Tauck river cruise are the loft cabins on the longer ships - Inspire, Grace, Savor and Joy category 3 cabins. The cat 4-7 cabins have large windows you can pull up your chairs to.
I believe the balcony is 75” x 95” with a sliding door. Should be able to handle some small chairs on the deck.
75 x 95 may be the size of the sliding door, but the balcony is barely deep enough to stick your toes out. By definition, a french balcony has no room for furniture. It is basically an open door with a railing. There is no deck to speak of.
I was on the Grace in a category 5. I believe that I could open the slider, but agree with Ken that there's no room to bring chairs out there. However, you can pull your chairs up to the open slider and have almost the same experience.
For a visual, here's an image of a Tauck stateroom, you can see the sliding door and railing at the bottom. Due to space limitation, very few riverboats (and none from Tauck that I know of) have real balconies.
If you want to view the castles, you will be much better off not being in your room. Don’t forget there are castles on either side of the river, so you will potentially miss some entirely if you stay in your room. If the weather is good, be out obn the top deck, if not, view from the lounges.
Ken from Vegas is correct. None of Tauck's river boats has outdoor balconies. And, yes, the best place to see the middle Rhine castles is on the top deck. Great resolution on the photos, British!
On the big boats like Grace and Savor the Cat 7 staterooms are very spacious and have big French balconies and walk in closets. Our friends had one of those on Savor. We had a Cat 3 loft which I liked better. Ironically, on our Rhine cruise in 2022 all they had left was the Cat 3 loft … it is even bigger than some of the higher category rooms. We got our first Cat 3 by accident because we were on a waitlist … this time we chose it … but I did not know that it was the only choice left.
Gail, we've done the Rhine twice (once as part of this cruise) and most of it isn't that scenic other than the Upper Middle section which are the pictures British posted. You'll miss half of the castles if you're in your room (even if it had a true balcony). Also a fair amount of cruising time takes place overnight or dinner time. The Moselle is a lovely little river with vineyards on both sides and a few castles. But again, I don't remember much daylight cruising.
Balconies aren't that much use in general on river cruises for the reasons above but also the fact that ships are often docked side by side and you may find your view completely blocked. The Danube was the worst for that but we've had it happen at least once on every cruise (4 and counting).
We were on the Rhine Cruise Amsterdam to Basel in 2018 and the best place to view the castles is definitely on the top deck. There is plenty of room to roam around and get great pictures from both sides. The Tauck Director announced this segment as "Castle Ping Pong" which I thought was a very apt name as you are constantly look from one side to another while cruising down the river.
Sealord, I agree with you about the Cat 3 Loft rooms. That is the room we chose due to the wonderful elevated platform with table and chairs and windows that opened on the top. The cabin was so well laid out and very roomy. I would definitely choose that room again if available.