Logistics
Just reserved the May 25, 2024 Southbound for Treasures of the Med Isles. Understand 160 Tauck guests are signed up for that staying at 2 hotels. I’m use to much smaller Tauck trips 25 to 40 people. Appreciate input on how the logistics went with that many guests. Such as, taking longer to board buses for excursions, length of time for the excursions, receptions, waiting to be served meals. Last year did the Wind Star Treasures of the Aegean with about 40 Tauck guests which was fantastic. Just concerned with servicing that many Tauck guests.
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Comments
There are several TD’s aboard. The shore trips are staggered on the different buses.. My only complaint when we did a similar tour was that we were always the last group to go.
There are no issues with meals being served except that you can’t reserve tables for two which we found was really annoying, we don’t always want to sit with others especially when we want a quick meal. On one ship ,it was our wedding anniversary and we tried to get a reservation in the morning for that evening, they would not make an exception even for a special occasion.
British: great comments. Really appreciate the feedback. Like you don’t like being told I have to eat with other people. Yes, times when you want to be alone. I’m going with my gut and look at a different trip. 25 to 40 guests is just right.
We just returned from that tour and it was no problem at all. Excursion buses were never completely full and times are staggered. You may have a different Tauck director for the day tours with the local guides but that is no problem either.
Which hotels did you choose? Were you happy with the selection?
We did the Treasures (Southbound) a couple years ago. I guess there are some slow trips, but we have never done a ‘boat’ trip with only thirty or forty. That would be one tour director. There is one TD for each forty people, the departures from the ship are staggered, the bus departures are staggered, and you normally all go to the same places but at different times. So each bus is like a separate tour. You seldom all dine at the same time except for the special dinners which are always a bit slow. Most of the time it is open seating so everyone eats when they please, but most eat when the restaurant opens. There is normally a local guide for each group of twenty or so.
We are also booked on May 25, '24 Treasures of the Med Isles too so hope to meet you then! This will be our first smaller ship cruise, but we have done riverboat cruises (have another one planned on the Douro for this August,) and have never had issues with the number of guests/tours, although the riverboat only has about 90 people vs. 160. I assume Tauck has the appropriate number of tour directors for the guests.
I am booked on this tour in October and looking forward to it on the Le Cartier Ponant ship. I am staying in France prior to meeting the group in Marsielle and tsking the TGV train to Marsielle. I read the post from Refdmd twice and the items that he/she thought were “not so good” would not have bothered me in the slightest. However, I do have an issue when dining at all the spectacular venues such palaces, castles, etc and the food experience being long drawn out and horrible. Oftentimes music is so loud, one can’t hear what the person next to you is saying. This has happened more than I would like to experience. Plus, at that point in a tour, everyone is very exhausted.
We did this trip in October 2022. The entire Ponant ship were Tauck passengers. Didn't have any issues with excursions or being too crowded during meal times. Only little problem was that our friends who were on the trip were in a different hotel both in Malta and in Marseille. We did think the food was just mediocre. It really was a very nice trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it.