Goddess, I agree with your advice about when not to travel given all that nature can throw at us during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, assuming one has the flexibility on when to travel. Good luck to all with pending tours this summer.
Sometimes cancellation is the best scenario. It allows you to either change your airline ticket to another date or gives you a chance to plan an itinerary and book hotels and still make use of your airline tickets. You might start thinking now which option you would choose if your tour is cancelled. Trust me, nothing is worse than buying airline tickets and arrive in Prague to hear that the riverboat cruise will probably be cancelled.
British, you can transfer your insurance from a land tour to another tour (we did that once) but you don't get any credit of insurance paid on a riverboat cruise. In another area you wondered about getting reimbursed for your expensive hotel bill when going back home from an aborted tour. Aon would not reimburse us for our hotel stay at Schipol Airport. They said they never do that.
Roam - I was intrigued when I first heard about it. Then I realized that Tauck intended a different age group for this new venture than what I was in. I'm a bit shocked about the price and all of the free time. I'm interested, though, in reading a review.
In the meantime, I'm in the midst of planning a DIY trip to Europe this Fall.
The Moores, we will wait and see what AON say, Tauck told my husband it would be covered. There was an 18 hour delay and overnight for a family of nine of us.
We have only taken one river cruise with Tauck, so we are novices on that score.
We will wait and see what happens to the cruise we have booked in October but that is not with Tauck.
the moores - In the meantime, I'm in the midst of planning a DIY trip to Europe this Fall.
My wife and I used to do Europe trips on our own. With the rail system you can get anywhere in Europe at a decent price.
The only problem is that you must make all the arrangements yourself. We were traveling cheap so I used to book Bed and Breakfast places. And no one is waiting at the airport to take you to your hotel, so you must cab it. You need to research what to see in each city and buy tickets, if necessary. Google maps helps you see the relationship of a B&B to what you want to see (how far you have to walk or cab).
Learning the train system and how to purchase tickets is not that difficult. Also, many of the rail stations in Europe are set up where you go down under the rails and then walk up stairs to the platform. Not hard unless you're lugging a heavy bag. Warning, the train often only stops at a station for a very short time. You have to hustle to get on or off. Sometimes difficult with luggage. If you get trapped on a train by slow people getting off, don't panic. Go to the next station and take the next train back. The trains run often.
But if you can deal with those issues, you can travel Europe at a very reasonable price.
As we got older, we started going on organized tours just so somebody else would take care of most of those things.
Ah, bit Tauck gives you so much ‘free time’ that you have to start looking up things to see and do, get tickets and then hope Tauck doesn’t change some of the itinerary. So it’s almost like doing independent travel again. Not everyone needs to rest in the free time.
For me, the biggest problem with Tauck's recent trend for more free time is exactly what British wrote - planning activities and getting timed tickets that you have to hope the schedule doesn't change. If Tauck's new thing is more free time, I suggest they make an entire day free, so the scheduling issues are unlikely to be a problem.
. . . Learning the train system and how to purchase tickets is not that difficult. Also, many of the rail stations in Europe are set up where you go down under the rails and then walk up stairs to the platform. Not hard unless you're lugging a heavy bag. Warning, the train often only stops at a station for a very short time. You have to hustle to get on or off. Sometimes difficult with luggage. If you get trapped on a train by slow people getting off, don't panic. Go to the next station and take the next train back. The trains run often.
But if you can deal with those issues, you can travel Europe at a very reasonable price.
As we got older, we started going on organized tours just so somebody else would take care of most of those things.
After XMAS Mkts on the Rhine we took a train from Dusseldorf to Hamburg. With the help of the Man in Seat 61 I had every thing worked out, or so I thought. So we wouldn't need to run and could easily access our carriage which was one behind the "head" of the train which I assumed was the engine, I figured out where to stand on the platform. (I'm a guy, we don't ask for directions! ) Unfortunately I missed that the train pulled out of the Dusseldorf station in the opposite direction (headed back the way it came) so the "head" was now at the other end as was our carriage (the train has an engine at each end!!) We had to roll our bags the full length of the moving train (11 carriages) to our seats. Thank goodness I had replaced the wheels before this trip!
Lots of different threads here.
Our insurance claim was not for an aborted tour it was for a delayed flight of 18 hours which caused us to find hotel access at 11pm at night. got a call from AON today to say we will be reimbursed for our hotel stay, will wait to see if it appears, it was almost $1000 for the nine of us, actually way way less than the insurance premium we paid.
Two river cruise ships had accidents on the Danube in the last couple of days -- a Viking ship in Romania and a Scylla ship (charted by a German company near Vienna). Sounds like Tauck is being aware of safety issues and challenges due to the low water levels. Bucharest to Amsterdam would be a very long bus tour.
@DoreenC - We were just noticed by Tauck that our August 6th Grand European Cruise (Bucharest to Amsterdam) was cancelled due to the low water levels.
Looks like they gave you about a weeks notice. Please let us know how the refund goes - if you get all your money back, including airfare and what you paid for insurance (if you took insurance).
I guess when Tauck cancels you're better off without insurance.
@MikeHenderson - just got off the phone with Tauck. They immediately refunded me the cost of the tour to include airfare. I had booked airfare through Tauck. They also provided a voucher (in my account) to cover the full cost of Tauck insurance. The voucher can be used as payment toward any other trips. I have other upcoming trips on the books so just used the voucher toward the next upcoming trip.
Just received a call from Tauck that the 8/5/26 Blue Danube departure Budapest to Prague has been cancelled. Full refund. Couldn't have been nicer. Good luck to everyone in making fun alternative plans!
Thanks for the link to the story. From what I read, it looks like the wheelman fell asleep.
[I'm fairly sure that there are requirements that there be two people on the bridge at all times, just because the wheelman could fall asleep or have a medical emergency. But boredom, complacency, and fatigue might cause the two people to agree to allow one of them to sleep while the other works. Then the one who is awake falls asleep or has a medical issue.]
We have friends who were scheduled to embark on the Blue Danube cruise on August 5. On July 30 they were told the cruise was cancelled. We are scheduled to take the same cruise on August 28. Things are not looking good. I am hoping Tauck starts giving more lead time on cancellations.
It must be hard for Tauck. They realize most people don’t want their vacations canceled so they don’t pull the plug early incase things improve nearer the time. But having said that, I would be upset and probably angry if I was going to the airport or already arrived at the destination when I found out.
Mike, I hear you about those trains. If we need to do a connection then we hire a driver. We had a really easy trip in France last Fall. We took three non-stop direct trains but hired drivers for the rest of the time. Hotels are really great at arranging that or getting a taxi to take you to the hotel. On our own we hired a great driver for three days in the Dordogne. I was going to take the Tauck trip there but they didn't go to some of the places I've wanted to see so it became a DIY trip. One driver took us from Paris to our hotel in the Loire Valley but stopped at Chambord for over an hour so that we could revisit that castle. I'm doing the same for this year's trip to Italy - the only problem is the cost, probably due to the high gas prices for the drivers.
Here is a link to our photos (scroll down - might want to change the size from 100% to 150%) from that very easy trip: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10APLiy835z51bGP62lufaLPnMlTwyHOt/view?usp=sharing
@the moores - thanks for sharing your pictures and story. Those photos are great - you have a wonderful artistic eye. I'm envious of your skill.
Yes, we were much younger when we did cheap travel in Europe. Now, we would do the same as you - hire someone to drive us.
[Added note: As British has said many times, I think any adventurous young people can do the same as we did and travel through Europe at a much lower cost than using a tour company - and it's likely they will. Maybe even easier now with the Internet and AI. I would encourage them to do so. As I’ve often said about Paris, you see a different Paris when you’re in your 20’s than you do when you’re in your 70’s.]
From The Independent (UK): "In Budapest, Hungary's capital, the national water authority measured the Danube's water level at 23 centimeters (9 inches) on Wednesday morning, well below the previous all-time low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) set in 2018."
If our trip at the end of August is in jeopardy I would sure prefer to know sooner rather than later so other plans can be made. This 3-4 day notice is for the birds
From what I have been reading, the low water levels go far beyond the inconvenience of a canceled or rerouted river cruise. Some towns are unable to properly power their plants without the river water, tourism (inns, restaurants, shops) along the rivers are affected, cargo ships unable to transport goods and supplies, fisheries decimated, wildlife dying—to name just a few repercussions.
This has the potential of having a lasting and devastating effect on the environment and the infrastructure that depends on the rivers for its livelihood.
To further illustrate how serious this is, three (3) Nazi warships have been found in what was once the bottom of the Danube near, I think, Serbia.
We are scheduled for the Bavaria to Budapest cruise on October 4th. Water levels are a big worry at the moment. Does anyone know what the minimum level is for the Budapest measuring station? Today, I'm seeing 8cm at the reference point.
Comments
Goddess, I agree with your advice about when not to travel given all that nature can throw at us during the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, assuming one has the flexibility on when to travel. Good luck to all with pending tours this summer.
Sometimes cancellation is the best scenario. It allows you to either change your airline ticket to another date or gives you a chance to plan an itinerary and book hotels and still make use of your airline tickets. You might start thinking now which option you would choose if your tour is cancelled. Trust me, nothing is worse than buying airline tickets and arrive in Prague to hear that the riverboat cruise will probably be cancelled.
British, you can transfer your insurance from a land tour to another tour (we did that once) but you don't get any credit of insurance paid on a riverboat cruise. In another area you wondered about getting reimbursed for your expensive hotel bill when going back home from an aborted tour. Aon would not reimburse us for our hotel stay at Schipol Airport. They said they never do that.
Roam - I was intrigued when I first heard about it. Then I realized that Tauck intended a different age group for this new venture than what I was in. I'm a bit shocked about the price and all of the free time. I'm interested, though, in reading a review.
In the meantime, I'm in the midst of planning a DIY trip to Europe this Fall.
The Moores, we will wait and see what AON say, Tauck told my husband it would be covered. There was an 18 hour delay and overnight for a family of nine of us.
We have only taken one river cruise with Tauck, so we are novices on that score.
We will wait and see what happens to the cruise we have booked in October but that is not with Tauck.
My wife and I used to do Europe trips on our own. With the rail system you can get anywhere in Europe at a decent price.
The only problem is that you must make all the arrangements yourself. We were traveling cheap so I used to book Bed and Breakfast places. And no one is waiting at the airport to take you to your hotel, so you must cab it. You need to research what to see in each city and buy tickets, if necessary. Google maps helps you see the relationship of a B&B to what you want to see (how far you have to walk or cab).
Learning the train system and how to purchase tickets is not that difficult. Also, many of the rail stations in Europe are set up where you go down under the rails and then walk up stairs to the platform. Not hard unless you're lugging a heavy bag. Warning, the train often only stops at a station for a very short time. You have to hustle to get on or off. Sometimes difficult with luggage. If you get trapped on a train by slow people getting off, don't panic. Go to the next station and take the next train back. The trains run often.
But if you can deal with those issues, you can travel Europe at a very reasonable price.
As we got older, we started going on organized tours just so somebody else would take care of most of those things.
Ah, bit Tauck gives you so much ‘free time’ that you have to start looking up things to see and do, get tickets and then hope Tauck doesn’t change some of the itinerary. So it’s almost like doing independent travel again. Not everyone needs to rest in the free time.
For me, the biggest problem with Tauck's recent trend for more free time is exactly what British wrote - planning activities and getting timed tickets that you have to hope the schedule doesn't change. If Tauck's new thing is more free time, I suggest they make an entire day free, so the scheduling issues are unlikely to be a problem.
After XMAS Mkts on the Rhine we took a train from Dusseldorf to Hamburg. With the help of the Man in Seat 61 I had every thing worked out, or so I thought. So we wouldn't need to run and could easily access our carriage which was one behind the "head" of the train which I assumed was the engine, I figured out where to stand on the platform. (I'm a guy, we don't ask for directions!
) Unfortunately I missed that the train pulled out of the Dusseldorf station in the opposite direction (headed back the way it came) so the "head" was now at the other end as was our carriage (the train has an engine at each end!!) We had to roll our bags the full length of the moving train (11 carriages) to our seats. Thank goodness I had replaced the wheels before this trip!
Lots of different threads here.
Our insurance claim was not for an aborted tour it was for a delayed flight of 18 hours which caused us to find hotel access at 11pm at night. got a call from AON today to say we will be reimbursed for our hotel stay, will wait to see if it appears, it was almost $1000 for the nine of us, actually way way less than the insurance premium we paid.
Susanlb, leaving from Tampa on 8/2
https://amsterdamexperiences.nl/rhine-river-cruise-water-levels/
Found this site, helps explain the water levels on the Rhine
We were just noticed by Tauck that our August 6th Grand European Cruise (Bucharest to Amsterdam) was cancelled due to the low water levels.
Two river cruise ships had accidents on the Danube in the last couple of days -- a Viking ship in Romania and a Scylla ship (charted by a German company near Vienna). Sounds like Tauck is being aware of safety issues and challenges due to the low water levels. Bucharest to Amsterdam would be a very long bus tour.
Looks like they gave you about a weeks notice. Please let us know how the refund goes - if you get all your money back, including airfare and what you paid for insurance (if you took insurance).
I guess when Tauck cancels you're better off without insurance.
@MikeHenderson - just got off the phone with Tauck. They immediately refunded me the cost of the tour to include airfare. I had booked airfare through Tauck. They also provided a voucher (in my account) to cover the full cost of Tauck insurance. The voucher can be used as payment toward any other trips. I have other upcoming trips on the books so just used the voucher toward the next upcoming trip.
Just received a call from Tauck that the 8/5/26 Blue Danube departure Budapest to Prague has been cancelled. Full refund. Couldn't have been nicer. Good luck to everyone in making fun alternative plans!
@DoreenC - Thanks. I'm scheduled for that same trip - but going east - in a month or so. I'm starting to bet that it will be cancelled, also.
Here is a link to a story about the Scylla accident mentioned by @CruiserBob: https://www.cruisehive.com/14-injured-as-river-cruise-ship-crashes-near-vienna/213789
Thanks for the link to the story. From what I read, it looks like the wheelman fell asleep.
[I'm fairly sure that there are requirements that there be two people on the bridge at all times, just because the wheelman could fall asleep or have a medical emergency. But boredom, complacency, and fatigue might cause the two people to agree to allow one of them to sleep while the other works. Then the one who is awake falls asleep or has a medical issue.]
We have friends who were scheduled to embark on the Blue Danube cruise on August 5. On July 30 they were told the cruise was cancelled. We are scheduled to take the same cruise on August 28. Things are not looking good. I am hoping Tauck starts giving more lead time on cancellations.
It must be hard for Tauck. They realize most people don’t want their vacations canceled so they don’t pull the plug early incase things improve nearer the time. But having said that, I would be upset and probably angry if I was going to the airport or already arrived at the destination when I found out.
Mike, I hear you about those trains. If we need to do a connection then we hire a driver. We had a really easy trip in France last Fall. We took three non-stop direct trains but hired drivers for the rest of the time. Hotels are really great at arranging that or getting a taxi to take you to the hotel. On our own we hired a great driver for three days in the Dordogne. I was going to take the Tauck trip there but they didn't go to some of the places I've wanted to see so it became a DIY trip. One driver took us from Paris to our hotel in the Loire Valley but stopped at Chambord for over an hour so that we could revisit that castle. I'm doing the same for this year's trip to Italy - the only problem is the cost, probably due to the high gas prices for the drivers.
Here is a link to our photos (scroll down - might want to change the size from 100% to 150%) from that very easy trip:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10APLiy835z51bGP62lufaLPnMlTwyHOt/view?usp=sharing
@the moores - thanks for sharing your pictures and story. Those photos are great - you have a wonderful artistic eye. I'm envious of your skill.
Yes, we were much younger when we did cheap travel in Europe. Now, we would do the same as you - hire someone to drive us.
[Added note: As British has said many times, I think any adventurous young people can do the same as we did and travel through Europe at a much lower cost than using a tour company - and it's likely they will. Maybe even easier now with the Internet and AI. I would encourage them to do so. As I’ve often said about Paris, you see a different Paris when you’re in your 20’s than you do when you’re in your 70’s.]
Stunning photos!
It’s over thirty years since we used to go to France every summer. We saw most of those sites. Ahhhh!
From The Independent (UK): "In Budapest, Hungary's capital, the national water authority measured the Danube's water level at 23 centimeters (9 inches) on Wednesday morning, well below the previous all-time low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) set in 2018."
If our trip at the end of August is in jeopardy I would sure prefer to know sooner rather than later so other plans can be made. This 3-4 day notice is for the birds
From what I have been reading, the low water levels go far beyond the inconvenience of a canceled or rerouted river cruise. Some towns are unable to properly power their plants without the river water, tourism (inns, restaurants, shops) along the rivers are affected, cargo ships unable to transport goods and supplies, fisheries decimated, wildlife dying—to name just a few repercussions.
This has the potential of having a lasting and devastating effect on the environment and the infrastructure that depends on the rivers for its livelihood.
To further illustrate how serious this is, three (3) Nazi warships have been found in what was once the bottom of the Danube near, I think, Serbia.
We are scheduled for the Bavaria to Budapest cruise on October 4th. Water levels are a big worry at the moment. Does anyone know what the minimum level is for the Budapest measuring station? Today, I'm seeing 8cm at the reference point.
October is a very long way off in terms of river water levels. We just have to wait it out unfortunately.