For the last couple of days, when I click on a thread link, it takes me to the top of the thread, rather than where I left off last time I opened it for new messages. I AM logged in.
I’ve noticed that since the CrowdStrike crash a number of websites I use are missing data or not running correctly. My Tauck account no longer shows the number of tours, and similar data is missing from my Windstar account. It could be something else, but the data went missing around the time of the crash.
My account right now shows neither the number of tours, nor what tours they were. I know that info because I have a photo album for each tour … I also have the paper for most tours stored in an old World Airways crew suitcase. On our last trip the TD knew that I had more tours than I thought I had. The Windstar website normally shows our Yacht Club status and the details, but all of that is missing. I think they got the ‘programs’ working up to a point, but a lot of the data is missing.
Last year, our tour director had the correct number. This year our tour director had us down for three less than that. When we started traveling with Tauck, I don’t think there were online photo books, it was just prints, so I did a few scrapbooks. I don’t often do photo books for European tours. We have a large double filing cabinet full of Tauck tour paperwork, too much effort to sort to count tours.
The one "benefit" we use comes from the fact that we are frequently the first to book a tour. Not the GOT (though that's nice) but being listed first on the roster and starting in what the TD thinks is the best position on the bus. Our family accompanying us on a recent Bridges tour overheard some others talking about how they always started in the best position on the bus...but not this time. It took a while for us to figure out why the roster wasn't alphabetic.
Of course, it's just the pole position the first day on the bus. Thereafter, we rotate like everyone else,,,a policy which we think is one of the better discriminators for Tauck over other land tour operators we've traveled with. No homesteading.
Agree with everyone you say about bus rotation. We have known for some time that when you are the first on the guest list, it means you signed up first.
Back to forum issues- On and off for the past few weeks, I have noticed that there appears to be a random problem with the bolding of titles of un-read posts on the forum home page listing.
When I start going through unread posts, once I read a post, and go back to the listing, the title no longer appears in bold type- that is normal and as expected. However, sometimes after having read only a few of the new (bolded) posts, the title of all remaining un-read posts lose their bold type. I and others observed this issue several months ago. I haven't contacted Tauck IT yet, because I am not certain that it is a forum software issue or a software (cookies, cash, etc.) issue with my ageing laptop. I suspect it is a forum software issue.
Has anyone else experienced this??
When (in what order) did you sign up for a trip? In general you can also generally tell by your reservation number . . . I posted this several years ago, but here it is again if anyone forgot.
Our reservation number for Normandy, Brittany, Paris, and Loire Valley tour last year was: NB3602018
NB = code Tauck assigned to this tour. Will often be three letters, e.g. GTA = Treasures of the Aegean or include extra # or additional characters, e.g. RCX2C06020 = 6 Dec 2022 departure for XMAS Mkts on the Rhine, 3602 = last digit of departure year, month, and day - 2023, June 2. 018 = order in which you booked. This is not absolute, since couples (and groups?) only get one reservation #. However, if your reservation number ends in 001, you can be certain you were the first to sign up. Over the years we were a "1" for K&T and Best of Ireland, and a "3*" for Classic Italy and J&E. *It is also possible for you to be first on the guest list if someone booked ahead of you but subsequently cancelled.
Alan - How do the reservation numbers work on small ship cruises where not all of the ship's passengers may not be Tauck tour people. Would the number just reflect the order you were to sign up for the Tauck tour, or would it include the non-Tauck guests as well?
I recently signed up for a 2026 South Africa: Elegant Adventure tour. We got two reservations, #1 and #2. For our upcoming Singapore/Bali tour we got #4.
I've been getting the same issue on the posts as you. When I first call up the Forum it will show all unread posts in bolded font. When I read the first one of the unread posts, the Forum software oftentimes un-bolds all of the posts, including the ones I hadn't read yet. To make it easier to accommodate this glitch I always start reading the oldest unread post first and work my way to the newest.
Re seeing the same posts over and over again, I may be wrong, but for now, it seems to be limited to British's K&T post. Or maybe she keeps reposting the same pics every day.
@Smiling Sam - "I recently signed up for a 2026 South Africa: Elegant Adventure tour. We got two reservations, #1 and #2. For our upcoming Singapore/Bali tour we got #4."
I didn't know you could see what your signup order was. How do you see that?
Mike Henderson - I used (and are trusting) the information Alan described in his post above.
Reservation is made up of a code (some letters), one number indicating year of tour start (4 - 2024, 5, 2025, 6 - 2026), next numbers indicate the start date of the tour, for example 528, would imply May 28th, the next numbers indicate the order of signup for the tour.
At least that is how I interpreted Alan’s information. It made sense for the 4 tours we have on the books.
Some of our older trips had different reservations numbers for each of us- one document for our 2016 Classic Italy (small group) had ITS 1605220003 for me and ITS 1605220004 for my wife. Some of the other Tauck correspondence for that trip showed ITS 1605220005 for both of us. Tauck may not have firmly settled on a numbering convention in 2015 when we booked.
AlanS: thanks for explaining the code...I never knew this. Looking at our 4 upcoming trips, the 2 Bridges tours booked as soon as they were available are 001s. Our other 2 calendar gap-fillers are much higher numbers.
Back to Alan and bugs, when I'm reading posts the only way I can get threads to show as read is to hit the Home button either at the top of that particular thread or back on the main page. If I just hit the Back arrow on the window it will show as unread. To clear it I have to hit the Forum Home button. If its a set of topics I'm not super interested in, I'll do the arrow thing several times then hit the Home button and they all show read. I kind of wish they'd have the option to mark a series of threads as read.
On the tour reservation number decoding, other than being number 1, you don't really know where you are on the list since later cancellations wouldn't affect your number. For our upcoming Canadian Maritimes, our reservation ends in 31 for a tour that is small group and that isn't sold out. Unless this is some horrible mistake.
You can also use "Home" at bottom where it says Home * General. That is helpful if it is a long threads, it saves you from scrolling to the top of the thread.
This is a follow up to AlanS' post about the booking number. It appears that they only use one character for the month so if you are on a tour departing in October, November or December, you will see the character A, B, or C.
This is similar to hexidecimal notation where 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 are represented by A, B, C, D, E, and F.
We had tours starting in Oct and Nov last year and yes the Oct tour had an A in the booking number and the Nov one had a B.
This morning I'm having an issue with the thread British started on her latest tour. No matter what I do it still shows are unread. Tried reading on two different devices. Tried using the Home buttons - both the one at the top and bottom of the page. Read lots of other threads and they all showed read just not that one. Weird.
Yup, British has a "will not die" thread! It may stay in bold, but if no one else posts, it should drift off the first screen as new threads are posted.
You are right, Claudia Sails. My post didn't show up on that thread but I was tired of seeing the yellow indicating unread so I put a post in to get rid of it. It wasn't much of an item--just thank you notes are a rarity these days and is probably worth framing.
Comments
I’ve noticed that since the CrowdStrike crash a number of websites I use are missing data or not running correctly. My Tauck account no longer shows the number of tours, and similar data is missing from my Windstar account. It could be something else, but the data went missing around the time of the crash.
I’ve never been able to see all my tours. It only goes back to 2016
My account right now shows neither the number of tours, nor what tours they were. I know that info because I have a photo album for each tour … I also have the paper for most tours stored in an old World Airways crew suitcase. On our last trip the TD knew that I had more tours than I thought I had. The Windstar website normally shows our Yacht Club status and the details, but all of that is missing. I think they got the ‘programs’ working up to a point, but a lot of the data is missing.
I can see all of my past tours. Maybe they fixed it.
My tours are all there.
Last year, our tour director had the correct number. This year our tour director had us down for three less than that. When we started traveling with Tauck, I don’t think there were online photo books, it was just prints, so I did a few scrapbooks. I don’t often do photo books for European tours. We have a large double filing cabinet full of Tauck tour paperwork, too much effort to sort to count tours.
@Sealord - Is that 15 or more, or more than 15?
Not sure what benefit you mean SeaLord, but I haven’t had it and I’ve taken way more than 15.
Likewise, over 15 with no perceived benefit.
The one "benefit" we use comes from the fact that we are frequently the first to book a tour. Not the GOT (though that's nice) but being listed first on the roster and starting in what the TD thinks is the best position on the bus. Our family accompanying us on a recent Bridges tour overheard some others talking about how they always started in the best position on the bus...but not this time. It took a while for us to figure out why the roster wasn't alphabetic.
Of course, it's just the pole position the first day on the bus. Thereafter, we rotate like everyone else,,,a policy which we think is one of the better discriminators for Tauck over other land tour operators we've traveled with. No homesteading.
Agree with everyone you say about bus rotation. We have known for some time that when you are the first on the guest list, it means you signed up first.
Back to forum issues- On and off for the past few weeks, I have noticed that there appears to be a random problem with the bolding of titles of un-read posts on the forum home page listing.
When I start going through unread posts, once I read a post, and go back to the listing, the title no longer appears in bold type- that is normal and as expected. However, sometimes after having read only a few of the new (bolded) posts, the title of all remaining un-read posts lose their bold type. I and others observed this issue several months ago. I haven't contacted Tauck IT yet, because I am not certain that it is a forum software issue or a software (cookies, cash, etc.) issue with my ageing laptop. I suspect it is a forum software issue.
Has anyone else experienced this??
When (in what order) did you sign up for a trip? In general you can also generally tell by your reservation number . . . I posted this several years ago, but here it is again if anyone forgot.
Our reservation number for Normandy, Brittany, Paris, and Loire Valley tour last year was: NB 3602018
NB = code Tauck assigned to this tour. Will often be three letters, e.g. GTA = Treasures of the Aegean or include extra # or additional characters, e.g. RCX2C06020 = 6 Dec 2022 departure for XMAS Mkts on the Rhine,
3602 = last digit of departure year, month, and day - 2023, June 2.
018 = order in which you booked. This is not absolute, since couples (and groups?) only get one reservation #. However, if your reservation number ends in 001, you can be certain you were the first to sign up. Over the years we were a "1" for K&T and Best of Ireland, and a "3*" for Classic Italy and J&E. *It is also possible for you to be first on the guest list if someone booked ahead of you but subsequently cancelled.
Alan, yes, I’ve been getting the issue with posts looking as if I’ve read them.
Alan - How do the reservation numbers work on small ship cruises where not all of the ship's passengers may not be Tauck tour people. Would the number just reflect the order you were to sign up for the Tauck tour, or would it include the non-Tauck guests as well?
I recently signed up for a 2026 South Africa: Elegant Adventure tour. We got two reservations, #1 and #2. For our upcoming Singapore/Bali tour we got #4.
I've been getting the same issue on the posts as you. When I first call up the Forum it will show all unread posts in bolded font. When I read the first one of the unread posts, the Forum software oftentimes un-bolds all of the posts, including the ones I hadn't read yet. To make it easier to accommodate this glitch I always start reading the oldest unread post first and work my way to the newest.
My tours are all there.
Re seeing the same posts over and over again, I may be wrong, but for now, it seems to be limited to British's K&T post. Or maybe she keeps reposting the same pics every day.
British, The past tours on our account also only show 2016 to date. The total number is correct though - 18 total beginning in 2006.
@Smiling Sam - "I recently signed up for a 2026 South Africa: Elegant Adventure tour. We got two reservations, #1 and #2. For our upcoming Singapore/Bali tour we got #4."
I didn't know you could see what your signup order was. How do you see that?
Mike Henderson - I used (and are trusting) the information Alan described in his post above.
Reservation is made up of a code (some letters), one number indicating year of tour start (4 - 2024, 5, 2025, 6 - 2026), next numbers indicate the start date of the tour, for example 528, would imply May 28th, the next numbers indicate the order of signup for the tour.
At least that is how I interpreted Alan’s information. It made sense for the 4 tours we have on the books.
Thanks. Guess I missed that in Alan's post.
Some of our older trips had different reservations numbers for each of us- one document for our 2016 Classic Italy (small group) had ITS 1605220003 for me and ITS 1605220004 for my wife. Some of the other Tauck correspondence for that trip showed ITS 1605220005 for both of us. Tauck may not have firmly settled on a numbering convention in 2015 when we booked.
AlanS: thanks for explaining the code...I never knew this. Looking at our 4 upcoming trips, the 2 Bridges tours booked as soon as they were available are 001s. Our other 2 calendar gap-fillers are much higher numbers.
Back to Alan and bugs, when I'm reading posts the only way I can get threads to show as read is to hit the Home button either at the top of that particular thread or back on the main page. If I just hit the Back arrow on the window it will show as unread. To clear it I have to hit the Forum Home button. If its a set of topics I'm not super interested in, I'll do the arrow thing several times then hit the Home button and they all show read. I kind of wish they'd have the option to mark a series of threads as read.
On the tour reservation number decoding, other than being number 1, you don't really know where you are on the list since later cancellations wouldn't affect your number. For our upcoming Canadian Maritimes, our reservation ends in 31 for a tour that is small group and that isn't sold out. Unless this is some horrible mistake.
You can also use "Home" at bottom where it says Home * General. That is helpful if it is a long threads, it saves you from scrolling to the top of the thread.
This is a follow up to AlanS' post about the booking number. It appears that they only use one character for the month so if you are on a tour departing in October, November or December, you will see the character A, B, or C.
This is similar to hexidecimal notation where 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 are represented by A, B, C, D, E, and F.
We had tours starting in Oct and Nov last year and yes the Oct tour had an A in the booking number and the Nov one had a B.
This morning I'm having an issue with the thread British started on her latest tour. No matter what I do it still shows are unread. Tried reading on two different devices. Tried using the Home buttons - both the one at the top and bottom of the page. Read lots of other threads and they all showed read just not that one. Weird.
Claudia - re: British’s thread-sane with me. Yes, weird!
Yup, British has a "will not die" thread!
It may stay in bold, but if no one else posts, it should drift off the first screen as new threads are posted.
Yes, ditto.
Is that what happens when you're above 15 trips - your posts stay on top forever?
(edited for typo)
To add to the weird, per the main page the last person who responded on the thread was voikk32. I couldn't find a single post by her on that thread.
You are right, Claudia Sails. My post didn't show up on that thread but I was tired of seeing the yellow indicating unread so I put a post in to get rid of it. It wasn't much of an item--just thank you notes are a rarity these days and is probably worth framing.