I am scheduled to take this tour later this year, and just received an email from Tauck asking me to select my preferred shore excursion for Day 2 of the trip.
Option 1 (the "Tauck Classic" excursion) involves driving form the riverboat to Kriens (1.5 hours by bus) to ride a gondola to the top of Mt. Pilatus for a view of Lake Lucerne. After descending from the mountain by cable car, we will make our way to Lucerne and receive an informational tour of the area. The return trip to the riverboat will take 2 hours by bus (since it will be docked in a different location than it was when we depart in the morning). They also mention that the views from the top of the mountain may be obstructed due to inclement weather. The total time allotted for this excursion is 9 hours (3.5 hours of which would be spent on a bus).
Option 2 includes a walking tour of Old Town Basel and time to peruse the Christmas Markets there. We would then return to the ship for lunch and spend the remainder of the afternoon sailing along the Rhine. The time allotted for this excursion is 3 hours.
Questions:
1) For those of you that have taken this tour and selected Option 1, would you please provide a little more detail on exactly what is involved and included? I would imagine there is more than simply what is stated in the description above, which was paraphrased from the Tauck website. Do we all have lunch together on this excursion, or is that on our own during some free time that we will be given? Overall, was the 3.5 hours on the bus justified by what you experienced at the various locations?
2) For those who selected Option 2, are the Basel Christmas Markets meaningfully distinct from some of the other markets that we will see on this trip? Was there anything of significance worth noting in Old Town Basel?
Thanks in advance.
