According to people who have posted here, you can’t cancel and convert a river cruise tour to a land tour. Do have a plan B if this is found to be correct.
Does anyone have any idea what the contingencies may be for this August 12th cruise? Looks like Inspire is stuck south of Kaub and there is no way to get to the Mosellle river from with direction.
We are also on the August 12th cruise and beyond frustrated with the lack of communication from Tauck. Clearly the rivers are not passable and with no rain in sight, the situation is not good. Our TA tried to get info to no avail. I can't even guess what would work as a contingency at this point. Ms Grace is in Amsterdam and is not moving right now and Ms Inspire, which is supposed to be our ship, is going from Basel to Strasburg. At this point, we would rather just book another date and be done with this. This is extremely frustrating.
It's probably too early for Tauck to know what will transpire ................that's 2 weeks away. A few years ago during the Jasper fires, I had already left for Calgary before the email came describing what actions Tauck was taking to make the Canadian Rockies/Glacier National Park tour doable.
Rileysmom03. We leave home for the trip in 9 days!!!! Our TA had the same interaction yours did. Tauck will lose a lot of revenue if they don’t come up with something. There is no boat we can swap with on the Moselle…you cant get to the Moselle from either direction. We are going to Amsterdam a few days early. Biggest fear is they cancel when we are on the way/or there…and you have no place to stay and a plane ticket home from Basel in16 days. We have friends who had this happen on one of the Danube cruises…it’s August in Europe. hotels are booked up and flights home are full. We are ‘old’ and cant do the land tour thing anymore. The boat is perfect for us and we love the atmosphere, knowing the staff, them knowing what we want, watching the world float by while we sip something wonderful. Not the same as crowded hotel bars and restaurants.and…our flights would need to be rebooked for a future date, before we leave the US..or we lose those also.
Hopefully the weather will break with cooler temps and much needed rain. This reminds be of the summer of 2021 waiting to hear if Europe would reopen after covid and then being worried that if we went and tested positive we would be stuck for 14 days. I am sure Tauck is looking at all of its options. The lowest or bottle neck area on the Rhine is the area south of Moselle confluence. Depending on where what ship is and when, then can transfer you to another ship that may not be on the same itinerary such as a Rhine/Moselle cruise with a ship on the Swiss Alps to Amsterdam. In addition the Moselle is very tortuous so if you have to bus say from Koblenz to Trier and stay docked in Koblenz, then its still doable. Best of luck.
Thanks, but we don’t want ‘doable’. We want the ship. We booked 25% for the ports (we have been to most of them on other shorter cruises) and 75% for the ‘14 days on the ship”. The Moselle is beautiful from the water. Not from a bus window.
BettyLou, I have to agree with you, doable is not going to cut it. I would think that they must have a pretty good idea right now what they can or can't do with our 15 day trip. A long number of days on buses or Hotel nights is not going to be the trip we've been planning for a year . I'm honestly not sure how they could pull this off without a significant change in the itinerary. I just wish they would communicate something to us. My biggest fear is the same as yours's , that they will cancel after we have flown over to Amsterdam. Let's hope they make a decision soon, so we can make changes if necessary. At least give us an idea what the alternative is.
Rileysmom03….great to have your support here. So many posters seem to think we should be happy to just go with the flow. But there is NO FLOW…just saw that ships ar having trouble docking even as far down as Düsseldorf….the river is so low they can’t get close enough to the port to dock. .we actually have several ‘at sea’ days on this cruise..pretty unusual for a river cruise. Can’t imagine what they will do with those. We were looking forward to relax on the deck days…not interested in ‘sit your hotel days’ or extra excursions.
My guess is they have so many other prior cruises to deal with, they haven’t even gotten to us yet to figure it out. They also have the fire/smoke issues on their FRench river cruise and still dealing with the Danube mess. There is a long tour, starting in Bern I think, that goes down the Rhine to Amsterdam that begins in the next few days. Haven’t heard anything about that one yet. I believe we were supposed to get on that ship the Inspire in Amsterdam. They have been able to wrap the Grace and the Inspire these past few2 weeks, but the Grace is supposed to be in Belgium when we leave Amsterdam.
My Ta called and said it sounds like they are making decisions about 3 days prior to the embarkation dates. We will already have left home by then.
BettyLou, From what I am seeing, looks like they are canceling some of the cruises at almost one week in advance. Right now, Grace is up by Amsterdam and sailing about to Cologne and then back to Amsterdam and Inspire is staying between Basel and Strasbourg. They don't seem to be going past those points. My husband is watching them on a marine website. So, it's pretty clear Inspire will not be in Amsterdam on the 12th. I just have no idea how this will end up at this point. Let's try to keep happy thoughts!
Rileysmon03…I’ve been tracking the ships also…Marinetracker and VesselFinder. Inspire and Grace have just been going back and forth as you mention. But I think Grace is due to go to Belgium now and wont be available to swap in the north side next week. And, there doesn’t see to be a ship on the Moselle to swap with. Just saw on the Tauck Forum page that folks cancelled for a Danube tour were already on their way when they found out. Their pre hotel stay was also cancelled, so they were effectively on their own upon arrival..no one to pick them up at the airport and no place to stay after their long flight!!! And the flights to get back home are all pretty booked up. Not nice.
We are on the August 3rd Swiss Alps and Rhine River and Amsterdam…as we were about to leave for the yesterday we found out that we will be ship swapping from the Inspire to the Grace this week..
Susan,
Since we are supposed to be boarding Inspire on 8/12 in Amsterdam, I would be very interested to know how and where you are doing the ship swap. I'm assuming you'll be on a bus to somewhere. We have heard nothing yet about our trip. Happy sailing! Diane
The Inspire is still stuck south at strasbourg and the Grace is in Dusseldorf. They will bus them north to the Grace and do some excursion along the way to break up the trip. They are just doing a straight Basel to Amsterdam Rhine Trip. We have heard there is no access to the Moselle…it is between where the 2 ships can travel.
I am finding the waiting for news of our trip extremely stressful. It takes so much prep and effort to get ready for one of these trips…. A trip we have planned on for 14 months….don’t know how Tauck will make lemonade out of this mess.
Morning everyone I can see where everybody is just as frustrated as my husband and I. We booked this cruise primarily to be on the Moselle, so I could show him the Germany I fell in love with 50 years ago, and now this part may not be available. SO FRUSTRATED, and we too have heard NOTHING from Tauck!! We have all fulfilled our part of the contract - paid in full, Tauck is collecting the interest on our payments, but when are th’ey going to fulfill THEIR apart of the contract - ie - communication!!!! Currently we are all between a Rock and a Hard Place!!! Not a happy person currently!! Nuf said!!
Tauck in my experience has always been very last minute about making decisions about whether to cancel tours or not for the various reasons that occur, war, pandemics, rivers that are too high or too low. We have even had a Tauck tour date changed because our tour date did not have enough people on it. In the main, their philosophy is to wait and see, because the majority of people still want to take the tour if they can. People might be just as frustrated if Tauck canceled and then things improved and the tour went ahead.
We had that happen just last year with another company. Our insurance only covered 70% for cancel for any reason. We canceled, the tour went ahead with no problems and we lost $5000 plus the price of the insurance. We were certainly stressed for the weeks coming up to that so I totally understand how crazy all this is.
I feel bad for all involved. I know what it takes to plan a trip from the passenger end of it. I can’t imagine what it’s like from the business owner end if it. There’s one thing for certain, no one at any time has control over Mother Nature, natural disasters, acts of G-d, etc etc. I hope the situation improves.
What really frustrates me is the total lack of communication. Yes, I'm sure they have been scrambling to work around the river problems, but really, not telling us anything is just going to result in a lot of very unhappy people. I'm so stressed at this point that I don't even want to go anymore. Obviously, if it isn't canceled I'll have no choice, which quite honestly, stinks. We have been left in a no win situation right now compounded by the lack of communication. I don't even know what type of trip to pack for. And to add insult to injury, yesterday I got both a text message and email from Tauck reconfirming the itinerary that we all know won't be possible. Guys, really?
For what it’s worth- you know the itinerary (tour) you signed up for isn’t going to be able to happen as planned for circumstances outside of everyone’s control. The choice is now yours (with imperfect information!) - are you interested to taking an adaptation or do you want to reschedule for a later date (much later potentially ) for the river cruise you originally booked?
We had a similar situation in 2023 with a planned trip to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt and made the decision to cancel and rebook later. The uncertainty of stability in the region was overwhelming the anticipation of the trip and it just felt better to reschedule. Of course- in our situation we rescheduled for this fall (minus Israel) so honestly the regional stability hasn’t improved much!
As others have said, it’s a crummy situation for all involved. If the uncertainty combined with knowing the trip isn’t how you want to experience the region, it may be time to pivot.
Tauck just cancelled the 9th and 12th cruises on the Danube…..slowly working their way to us. They have not cancelled any Rhine trips yet because they have been able to do a grace/Inspire swap. But the Moselle Rhine will be different. The grace is heading to Belgium and I dont seem and Tauck ships on the Moselle….let's hope they do something quickly before we all board planes for Amsterdam. We just found out we would have to use our tickets by October 16th (1 year since we bought them) or loose it all.). Unlikely we will be able to do that. Quite a mess.
Comments
According to people who have posted here, you can’t cancel and convert a river cruise tour to a land tour. Do have a plan B if this is found to be correct.
Does anyone have any idea what the contingencies may be for this August 12th cruise? Looks like Inspire is stuck south of Kaub and there is no way to get to the Mosellle river from with direction.
Tauck would be your best resource.
Goddess….Tauck has no information to offer. Not even a hint.
We are also on the August 12th cruise and beyond frustrated with the lack of communication from Tauck. Clearly the rivers are not passable and with no rain in sight, the situation is not good. Our TA tried to get info to no avail. I can't even guess what would work as a contingency at this point. Ms Grace is in Amsterdam and is not moving right now and Ms Inspire, which is supposed to be our ship, is going from Basel to Strasburg. At this point, we would rather just book another date and be done with this. This is extremely frustrating.
It's probably too early for Tauck to know what will transpire ................that's 2 weeks away. A few years ago during the Jasper fires, I had already left for Calgary before the email came describing what actions Tauck was taking to make the Canadian Rockies/Glacier National Park tour doable.
Rileysmom03. We leave home for the trip in 9 days!!!! Our TA had the same interaction yours did. Tauck will lose a lot of revenue if they don’t come up with something. There is no boat we can swap with on the Moselle…you cant get to the Moselle from either direction. We are going to Amsterdam a few days early. Biggest fear is they cancel when we are on the way/or there…and you have no place to stay and a plane ticket home from Basel in16 days. We have friends who had this happen on one of the Danube cruises…it’s August in Europe. hotels are booked up and flights home are full. We are ‘old’ and cant do the land tour thing anymore. The boat is perfect for us and we love the atmosphere, knowing the staff, them knowing what we want, watching the world float by while we sip something wonderful. Not the same as crowded hotel bars and restaurants.and…our flights would need to be rebooked for a future date, before we leave the US..or we lose those also.
Hopefully the weather will break with cooler temps and much needed rain. This reminds be of the summer of 2021 waiting to hear if Europe would reopen after covid and then being worried that if we went and tested positive we would be stuck for 14 days. I am sure Tauck is looking at all of its options. The lowest or bottle neck area on the Rhine is the area south of Moselle confluence. Depending on where what ship is and when, then can transfer you to another ship that may not be on the same itinerary such as a Rhine/Moselle cruise with a ship on the Swiss Alps to Amsterdam. In addition the Moselle is very tortuous so if you have to bus say from Koblenz to Trier and stay docked in Koblenz, then its still doable. Best of luck.
Maybe Tauck will start planning more tours for early spring and late fall months...........................................
Thanks, but we don’t want ‘doable’. We want the ship. We booked 25% for the ports (we have been to most of them on other shorter cruises) and 75% for the ‘14 days on the ship”. The Moselle is beautiful from the water. Not from a bus window.
BettyLou, I have to agree with you, doable is not going to cut it. I would think that they must have a pretty good idea right now what they can or can't do with our 15 day trip. A long number of days on buses or Hotel nights is not going to be the trip we've been planning for a year . I'm honestly not sure how they could pull this off without a significant change in the itinerary. I just wish they would communicate something to us. My biggest fear is the same as yours's , that they will cancel after we have flown over to Amsterdam. Let's hope they make a decision soon, so we can make changes if necessary. At least give us an idea what the alternative is.
Rileysmom03….great to have your support here. So many posters seem to think we should be happy to just go with the flow. But there is NO FLOW…just saw that ships ar having trouble docking even as far down as Düsseldorf….the river is so low they can’t get close enough to the port to dock. .we actually have several ‘at sea’ days on this cruise..pretty unusual for a river cruise. Can’t imagine what they will do with those. We were looking forward to relax on the deck days…not interested in ‘sit your hotel days’ or extra excursions.
My guess is they have so many other prior cruises to deal with, they haven’t even gotten to us yet to figure it out. They also have the fire/smoke issues on their FRench river cruise and still dealing with the Danube mess. There is a long tour, starting in Bern I think, that goes down the Rhine to Amsterdam that begins in the next few days. Haven’t heard anything about that one yet. I believe we were supposed to get on that ship the Inspire in Amsterdam. They have been able to wrap the Grace and the Inspire these past few2 weeks, but the Grace is supposed to be in Belgium when we leave Amsterdam.
My Ta called and said it sounds like they are making decisions about 3 days prior to the embarkation dates. We will already have left home by then.
BettyLou, From what I am seeing, looks like they are canceling some of the cruises at almost one week in advance. Right now, Grace is up by Amsterdam and sailing about to Cologne and then back to Amsterdam and Inspire is staying between Basel and Strasbourg. They don't seem to be going past those points. My husband is watching them on a marine website. So, it's pretty clear Inspire will not be in Amsterdam on the 12th. I just have no idea how this will end up at this point. Let's try to keep happy thoughts!
Rileysmon03…I’ve been tracking the ships also…Marinetracker and VesselFinder. Inspire and Grace have just been going back and forth as you mention. But I think Grace is due to go to Belgium now and wont be available to swap in the north side next week. And, there doesn’t see to be a ship on the Moselle to swap with. Just saw on the Tauck Forum page that folks cancelled for a Danube tour were already on their way when they found out. Their pre hotel stay was also cancelled, so they were effectively on their own upon arrival..no one to pick them up at the airport and no place to stay after their long flight!!! And the flights to get back home are all pretty booked up. Not nice.
We are on the August 3rd Swiss Alps and Rhine River and Amsterdam…as we were about to leave for the yesterday we found out that we will be ship swapping from the Inspire to the Grace this week..
Susan,
Since we are supposed to be boarding Inspire on 8/12 in Amsterdam, I would be very interested to know how and where you are doing the ship swap. I'm assuming you'll be on a bus to somewhere. We have heard nothing yet about our trip. Happy sailing! Diane
The Inspire is still stuck south at strasbourg and the Grace is in Dusseldorf. They will bus them north to the Grace and do some excursion along the way to break up the trip. They are just doing a straight Basel to Amsterdam Rhine Trip. We have heard there is no access to the Moselle…it is between where the 2 ships can travel.
I am finding the waiting for news of our trip extremely stressful. It takes so much prep and effort to get ready for one of these trips…. A trip we have planned on for 14 months….don’t know how Tauck will make lemonade out of this mess.
Morning everyone I can see where everybody is just as frustrated as my husband and I. We booked this cruise primarily to be on the Moselle, so I could show him the Germany I fell in love with 50 years ago, and now this part may not be available. SO FRUSTRATED, and we too have heard NOTHING from Tauck!! We have all fulfilled our part of the contract - paid in full, Tauck is collecting the interest on our payments, but when are th’ey going to fulfill THEIR apart of the contract - ie - communication!!!! Currently we are all between a Rock and a Hard Place!!! Not a happy person currently!! Nuf said!!
Tauck in my experience has always been very last minute about making decisions about whether to cancel tours or not for the various reasons that occur, war, pandemics, rivers that are too high or too low. We have even had a Tauck tour date changed because our tour date did not have enough people on it. In the main, their philosophy is to wait and see, because the majority of people still want to take the tour if they can. People might be just as frustrated if Tauck canceled and then things improved and the tour went ahead.
We had that happen just last year with another company. Our insurance only covered 70% for cancel for any reason. We canceled, the tour went ahead with no problems and we lost $5000 plus the price of the insurance. We were certainly stressed for the weeks coming up to that so I totally understand how crazy all this is.
I feel bad for all involved. I know what it takes to plan a trip from the passenger end of it. I can’t imagine what it’s like from the business owner end if it. There’s one thing for certain, no one at any time has control over Mother Nature, natural disasters, acts of G-d, etc etc. I hope the situation improves.
What really frustrates me is the total lack of communication. Yes, I'm sure they have been scrambling to work around the river problems, but really, not telling us anything is just going to result in a lot of very unhappy people. I'm so stressed at this point that I don't even want to go anymore. Obviously, if it isn't canceled I'll have no choice, which quite honestly, stinks. We have been left in a no win situation right now compounded by the lack of communication. I don't even know what type of trip to pack for. And to add insult to injury, yesterday I got both a text message and email from Tauck reconfirming the itinerary that we all know won't be possible. Guys, really?
Riley’s M. You know, there could be massive rainstorms before your tour date! Do a rain dance!
For what it’s worth- you know the itinerary (tour) you signed up for isn’t going to be able to happen as planned for circumstances outside of everyone’s control. The choice is now yours (with imperfect information!) - are you interested to taking an adaptation or do you want to reschedule for a later date (much later potentially ) for the river cruise you originally booked?
We had a similar situation in 2023 with a planned trip to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt and made the decision to cancel and rebook later. The uncertainty of stability in the region was overwhelming the anticipation of the trip and it just felt better to reschedule. Of course- in our situation we rescheduled for this fall (minus Israel) so honestly the regional stability hasn’t improved much!
As others have said, it’s a crummy situation for all involved. If the uncertainty combined with knowing the trip isn’t how you want to experience the region, it may be time to pivot.
How does one pivot here?
Tauck just cancelled the 9th and 12th cruises on the Danube…..slowly working their way to us. They have not cancelled any Rhine trips yet because they have been able to do a grace/Inspire swap. But the Moselle Rhine will be different. The grace is heading to Belgium and I dont seem and Tauck ships on the Moselle….let's hope they do something quickly before we all board planes for Amsterdam. We just found out we would have to use our tickets by October 16th (1 year since we bought them) or loose it all.). Unlikely we will be able to do that. Quite a mess.