May 18, 2013 Budapest to Amsterdam

BGdann

My husband and I are doing the May 18, 2013 cruise. As this is our first Tauck cruise we are not familiar with how it all works and we were wondering if we would receive a more detailed itinerary at some point before our trip.
We were hoping to do some bike riding in one of the towns and are wondering if and where that might be an option.

crackers54

yes on both. After final payment you recieve more info and there are bikes on board to borrow if you have time. In the catalogues there is a pic of one of the TD and some passengers waiting on some rocks with bikes in the background. He told me he and the passengers took the bikes along the river to see if they could beat the boat to the next stop. They won.

BGdann

We actually paid in full a few months ago and haven't received anything other than our receipt. We like to do a lot of research on each town and plan our day according to our length of stay. That's not possible until we know approximate arrival and departure times at each stop. Has anyone received anything for this trip yet? We actually sale on the 19th of May.

crackers54

You get the info so many days from the start of trip. I usually send last day and get very quickly. I don't think paying early means you will get it early.

CG

BGdann wrote:

My husband and I are doing the May 18, 2013 cruise. As this is our first Tauck cruise we are not familiar with how it all works and we were wondering if we would receive a more detailed itinerary at some point before our trip.
We were hoping to do some bike riding in one of the towns and are wondering if and where that might be an option.

My wife and I are on the 19 May 13 cruise as well. We're flying in to Budapest a day early to hopefully get a head start on the jet lag adjustment. We're really looking forward to this and will keep tabs on this forum to future posts by other who will be on this same cruise.

LoveBora

My husband and I will be on the May 19 cruise, as well. This will be our first river cruise after taking many ocean cruises. We will be spending two pre-cruise nights at the Le Meridien in Budapest.

Nick of Skara Brae

My wife and I are also on the May 19 departure and also arriving a day early. This will be our 3rd river cruise and our 16th Tauck tour. I expect the detailed packet about 60 days in advance - soon. One difference that we have noticed between ocean and river cruising is that the stops are much closer together (geographically and time-wise) on the latter. There is not as much time to lounge on the deck and watch the scenery go by as you might expect.

c5sandy

My husband and I are also on the May 19th cruise and this is our first river cruise. We are doing a 2 night post- cruise in Amsterdam and hope to do a day trip to Brughes on June 2nd. If anyone knows how close the boat docks
to the Central station, in Amsterdam, we would greatly appreciate the info. This is our 7th Tauck trip and are
sure it will be great.

Nick of Skara Brae

I expect that we will dock within walking distance of the Central Station based on our experience with Tauck's Belgium and Holland in the Spring cruise. If you view the Central Station on Google Earth or Apple Maps and look slightly downriver, you should see a riverboat dock just before you get to the (ocean-going) cruise ship terminal.

c5sandy

Thanks for the info, Nick. Look forward to meeting you and your wife on the trip.

Pat2Mike

any one go from Budapest to amsterdam is there any free time in amsterdam to look for anywindmills on your own or does Tauck add that to the tour I do not see that in highlights

NJ

BGdann wrote:

My husband and I are doing the May 18, 2013 cruise. As this is our first Tauck cruise we are not familiar with how it all works and we were wondering if we would receive a more detailed itinerary at some point before our trip.
We were hoping to do some bike riding in one of the towns and are wondering if and where that might be an option.

My husband and I will also be on this cruise. We have taken Tauck River Cruises in the past and found them to be excellent. We are arriving in Budapest a day early and will be at the Le Meridien. Maybe we could all meet for a glass of wine??

AEDowbekin

AEDowbekin, My husband and I are also on the May 19th trip. This is our first river cruise but not our first trip with Tauck. They did a wonderful job on our trip to Australia and New Zealand and that is why we wanted to go with them again. We will also be arriving a day early with a stay at Le Meridien. Would love to meet up with you all sometime before we board. We are from Houston by way of NJ.

sherry_schare

After final payment you recieve more info

The info you receive concerning the itinerary is exactly the same as the info in the travel catalog summarizing the trip. It is hardly sufficient to use if you want to plan activities pre and/or post trip that do not duplicate the guided portion of your trip. Some of our planned activities include making reservations or buying tickets to sites which we know we can do in our free time, but we do not know if these specific sites/activites are included. That is one of my chief criticisms of Taucks documentation.

sherry_schare

After final payment you recieve more info

The info you receive concerning the itinerary is exactly the same as the info in the travel catalog summarizing the trip. It is hardly sufficient to use if you want to plan activities pre and/or post trip that do not duplicate the guided portion of your trip. Some of our planned activities include making reservations or buying tickets to sites which we know we can do in our free time, but we do not know if these specific sites/activites are included. That is one of my chief criticisms of Taucks documentation.

Nick of Skara Brae

I have also felt some frustration with the difficulty in planning extra time before a tour so that I didn't duplicate anything that Tauck would show me later. However, I appreciate the benefits of allowing tour directors flexibility in planning some details around weather, local seasonal events, etc. in the rare cases of duplication in destination, the experience with Tauck has been very different than what I managed on my own. Despite sometimes fuzzy documentation, Tauck has not failed to entertain and educate.