Not an exclusive ship charter

Just received guest documents for Southbound beginning Sept 21. On page 3 is the following statement: "We will not have an exclusive ship charter and may share the ship with non-Tauck guests." We are curious as to how that is going to affect dining, briefings, entertainment and other aspects of the on board experience.

Comments

  • We took this trip four years ago and had the same concern about the logistics on the Wind Spirit with about 40 Taucktourians and 90 others. Surprisingly, it worked very well! The first day, while cruising through the Dardanelles, our TD (former history prof from USC...terrific TD) gave us a talk about the area, on deck, ranging from mythology through the battles at Gallipoli. We noticed that more and more people kept joining the group as others were quite fascinated by his talk. Many thought he was with the cruise line. That was the only instance where others joined in, and it was not a problem that time. Most often our group met somewhere (dining room, lounge, etc.) for briefings and to gather to depart for our tours. While the ship seemed to offer some shore excursions to some of the same places, we always departed first, had our own bus and local guides (as well as the TD), and were handled as a Tauck group like any other land tour. As far as dining, you may dine alone, or with anyone else you wish to dine with (with the tour or not). There was no assigned seating. The entertainment on the ship is for everyone, but we never had a feeling of being crowded out. We even had a very special dining surprise that included everyone in our group (had our own bus and tables) and some others from the ship (they had their own bus and tables) who must have selected it as a shore excursion. In short, you are still on an exclusive Tauck tour and all listed activities (in your itinerary) are done with just your tour group. It's a great trip!!
  • We took this tour in May 2012 and our documents also showed we may share the ship with non-Tauck guests. Our Tauck group of 80 had the entire ship. Our tour directors did tell us the only inconvenience on tours they've worked where they did share the ship was all the ship announcements were made in English and in French.
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