First of all, I want to thank everyone for their previous posts as they are always helpful in our planning.
We flew Delta RT MCO-JFK-BRU, AMS-JFK-MCO. We used AMEX for our tickets as they had the best price
at the time compared to Tauck pricing. We found their business class to be good, not outstanding. Our flight home
was delayed by 1.5 hours which caused us to miss our JFK connection and they also lost a bag which we recovered yesterday.
Tauck transfers were excellent on both sides. We did not stay an extra night before the tour start like we usually do and that
was a mistake.
The MS Grace was in very good condition. We stayed in a Category 3 "loft" cabin and it was enough room for us and the
windows in the loft area were awesome. We looked at the smaller cabins and that would not have worked for us, and we looked
at the largest cabins and they were nice with a walk-in closet. Our friends on the top deck in the large cabin heard noise from
the deck at night due to the weather (see next paragraph). The service was excellent, the food good to very good. Our only disappointment
is how close the tables were in Compass Rose, it was very noisy in many of the tables. Arthur's was open and we went there several times.
IMHO, one of the best things about cruising is not having to pack/unpack everyday! There was a cruise director and three tour directors. The tour directors were all excellent and helpful.
The weather was DREADFUL!!!! As a point of reference we live in southwest Florida, it was 35-45F almost everyday, weather rapidly changed from rain, sleet, tiny bit of sun, very high winds. I did not expect needing a winter hat for a couple of days. The wind blew deck furniture around causing the noise I mentioned above. They said they couldn't tie it down enough in that level of wind. I wouldn't change when we went just sharing how crummy the weather was.......
Everyday we received a Daily Program sheet in our cabin mailbox the previous night. The first evening they also gave us a sheet with the excursion choices with more detail than we had when we signed up. Allowing us to make changes if we wanted to. When we were trying to arrange a private tour before we left, I called Tauck reservations and they had more detailed excursion information so I could plan around that.
I would suggest they provide that for when you are planning from home.
Excursion highlight-Keukenhof. Seven million tulips and other plantings. I was skeptical about spending five hours looking at flowers (my wife wasn't). It was awesome, however the place was packed with thousands of people. In our opinion the Northbound was the best direction as we ended the tour with Keukenhof and then Amsterdam. If you want to see the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh museum make sure you purchase the tickets in advance. They sell out very quickly. These were the highlights for us. Our local guides were generally very good. The brief tour of the Mauritshuis museum and dinner at Hague was very well done and we really enjoyed it. There had been questions in previous posts about the dress for the special events. I would guess two-thirds of the men had jackets, one-quarter had ties. The rest wore long sleeve shirts and slacks with a sweater. Men were also requested to wear a jacket for the ship farewell dinner. The suggested dress for the ladies previously posted was just right.
I don't have the skills that many of you have to do detailed reviews with pictures, etc. but I am happy to answer any questions. We haven't decided whether we want to go on another river cruise. I don't think Tauck could have done a better job overall, it's whether this is a "product" that we enjoy as much as ocean cruising and land tours......
