Welcome to Tauck’s Treasures of Spain and Portugal - Westbound Forum

Tauck Emily

Welcome to Tauck’s Treasures of Spain and Portugal - Westbound Forum - Find the answers to your trip questions, answer questions posted by fellow travelers, plus share your Tauck experiences and stories. Stop by often and join in on the discussions.

PaulineM

We truly enjoyed our Danube River cruise a couple of years ago - and now are trying to get to gether a small herd (6-8) of cruisers we met, plus some home friends, to come with us on the Spain/Portugal cruise, in 2019. We see that the 2018 cruises sold out early - so WHEN should we plan on getting our deposits in for 2019?

Thanks,

Pauline

PaulineM

OK - we are on the Wish List as of today! at least the 2 of us - when this is released, our friends who expressed an interest are on their own! Hmm - too early to start the pre-cruise diet??

PaulineM

Although we were on the Wish List, before we received any call from Tauck, we got a card in the mail about 2019 trips, including this one. SO I went online - to find that although no prices and dates are posted, that the general category we had requested ALREADY had been taking reservations, and that this area was marked in yellow as having limited availability. ???? So we called, left a deposit - and are waiting to hear what happens next It seems that actual SHIP was changed, and cabin sizes are different. So we check every so often to see if there is any more info. Anybody know anything?

PaulineM

Hallooooo??? Still feeling lonely here. All prices, etc. are now out - we are good to go. Have a bunch of other places and things going on before this, but planning is part of the fun. Since some categories were already listed as *limited*, I thought that perhaps I would see another post here by now. Oh well - I will wait a while before I check again. For those that join this list- you at least know that there are 2 professional classical musicians from the NYC area on board. When we took the Danube cruise, with all its great performances, we felt like the on-board reference for some folks - and observant and interested amateurs ask the BEST questions - often things that pros wrestle with - heatedly! - for ages! All part of the fun!

Pauline and Peter

Sealord

I posted this on the Eastbound forum, but thought I would share it here also.
I have noticed whcih categories of cabins for 2019 are starting to fill up. I know that ‘cost’ is not a big factor with most Tauck guests, but since I’ve been on this ship, the Wind Surf, seven times I thought I would point out that until you get to the ‘suite’ category on deck three, all of the rooms on deck one and two are identical. If you have “motion” problems, the midship rooms might be more desireable. But the most foreward and the most aft rooms are closest to the elevators. In rough weather the water sometimes comes over the portholes on deck one, so that might bother some. In my experience the Mediteranean is mostly a lake except for the straits of Gibraltar. If you are not bothered by the items mentioned above, go for the forward or aft rooms on deck one. The aft rooms have better access to the Yacht Club, the foreward rooms have better access to the restaurants. We are aft on deck one. The Yacht Club is where you can get specialty coffees in the morning. They have room service of course, but lattes get cold quickly so I serve the princess a coffee in bed while it is still hot.

EXOKIE

We are looking forward to meeting our dear friends from Houston, and setting sail on the 6/27 Westbound trip. This will be our 5th Tauck adventure . . . but the very first on a sailing ship. Looks like a fun trip!

rwmayo

My wife and I are on the October 2018 westbound trip from Barcelona. According to Tauck there are alot of travelers in the Tauck group but I have seen no activity on this forum about this trip. Having traveled on past Tauck trips I found the forums useful to get information. Am I missing something? Should I be looking elsewhere in the forums regarding the October 2018 westbound trip? Any help appreciated.

AlanS

rwmayo wrote:

My wife and I are on the October 2018 westbound trip from Barcelona. According to Tauck there are alot of travelers in the Tauck group but I have seen no activity on this forum about this trip. Having traveled on past Tauck trips I found the forums useful to get information. Am I missing something? Should I be looking elsewhere in the forums regarding the October 2018 westbound trip? Any help appreciated.

There has not been a lot of activity on the Spain "Treasures" small ship cruising forums. Few people come back to provide feedback or answer questions on many forums, and it appears especially bad on these three. One problem (contrary to what it says) is the forum software does not send emails to participants when there is activity on a thread in which they participated. Another problem is there are only 3 departures per year per direction and this is only the third year for them.

There are three Spain sub-forums you should check out:


Treasures of Spain and Portugal - Eastbound Forum 6 topic threads

Treasures of Spain and Portugal - Westbound Forum 1 topic thread

Spain and Portugal Forum General Spain a Portugal forum, may not have anything applicable but you never know.

rwmayo

Thanks for the information!
A couple of negative comments about Star Breeze worry me some.

Sealord

Hakuna Matata. The 2019 trips are on the Wind Surf, not Star Breeze, which we have cruised on seven times. We love it. We have also cruised on Star Legend and Star Pride which we liked very much ... not as much as Wind Surf, but they are a very different experience. I am a bit skeptical about the critical remarks about Star Breeze since it is the same company, and the employees often rotate from ship to ship after their leave periods. With some folks one issue creates a Yelp experience. It is not a perfect world. In our fifty or so cruises, we have never had a ‘perfect’ one. But Windstar does a nice job, they have good food, and we have always been pleased with the service. And there is never a ‘need’ to stand in line for anything. Some folks also posted that they were annoyed by the fact that the people who booked directly with Windstar paid a lot less money. True. But, those folks did not have the all inclusive Tauck experience. We frequently book directly with Windstar. It is strictly a room and board deal. Everything else is extra.