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Black Sea to Budapest
Hi everyone,
I am not sure if this is on another thread, sorry for the duplication if it is, but we are scheduled for this river cruise, officially leaving on Sept 17th. We are of course coming in a day early. I have been following all the other posts about the Danube, but has anyone received any communication from Tauck about this trip, not necessarily our specific time frame?
Thanks heaps!
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We are booked on this as well. I called yesterday and dealt with the most unpleasant person. I know they are probably sick of getting calls, but she was so rude. Insisted that the ships are all sailing and that plenty of rain was possible between now and the 17th, and that I was probably "worrying for nothing."
In reality, our particular river boat is still stuck where it ran aground last week, and the trip that was supposed to end with the Esprit in Bucharest to pick us up has been canceled.
She told me that we could expect no communication before 7 days out, so late next week. Very unfortunate as we fly out that weekend.
I feel like Tauck is in total denial about at least this trip, as the river gauges show that it's completely unpassable down that way. I also am having a hard time imagining there are hotels in Bulgaria and Serbia that would make a bus trip worth it. I know you pay your money and you take your chances, but I think Tauck is being awfully cavalier about this, and we are feeling rather frustrated.
I do understood your frustration, but it is too early. Right here at home, we have had tremendous amounts of rain in the past couple of days and it could happen there and make all the difference. For me, the worry part would be leaving several days early for pre tour things and having to sort that out, not the actual tour because that part is easy to cancel.
Unfortunately, with the state of air travel in the US, especially during hurricane season, flying in at least a couple of days early is a must. If the first flight gets delayed or canceled, it is often more than 24 or 48 hours before another one can be taken.
For me, the frustration is more that I wish there was some transparency around the decision making rubric. You know there must be one. If on day X, the water level at this gauge is Y, we will pivot to this Plan B. And I do think it should be possible to give a rough outline of what Plan B might entail.
I am curious, British, if the rain you are getting was correctly forecast? As most forecasts for the first part of this month in Romania are calling for continued heat and drought, it would be encouraging if one could hope they are wrong.
Yes correct. For Tauck, as situations change they can pivot, so it may be a waste of time to continually inform you of every little change to find it changes again. They are dealing with thousands of people. And even more difficult, as people continue to cancel their vacation, it is even more difficult for them. I have had similar situations that cause uncertainty and worry in the past. I have however learned how Tauck operates in these situations.
I hope those people who have continued with their changed vacations will report back here about how it all turned out.
Syllia is in charge, not Tauck. Rivers are managed by a version of the coast guard. It is heart breaking to plan a trip several months in advance and then. Poof. It goes up in smoke. Please be patient and give Tauck a chance.
I understand the pressures Tauck is under, but I am with Kristine_Lewis1, I fell like they could give us a heads up more than 7 days before the trip of possibilities. Oh well, patience is a virtue of which I am quickly running out of!
Too much in the future is too early, awful I know but weather is weather and you can't predict it too much in advance.
Thank you for posting about this particular itinerary. I am monitoring this from the perspective of a scheduled mid-October departure on the Esprit. If river conditions on the lower Danube remain challenged over the next several weeks, I am hoping there would be communications from Tauck around possible alternatives earlier than 7 days before tour departure. Some of us have requested vacation time from our employers, and if a tour isn’t happening, or if it’s likely to be substantially altered, it would be nice to have a decent amount of notice to enable alternative plans to be made, so that this “time off” isn’t wasted.
I can understand why the amount of notice earlier on in the summer was so short, because at that time the situation was new and fresh - but if the current situation in the Lower Danube continues as is for the next few weeks, why wait until the last minute to provide information regarding alternatives? More notice would signal a good faith effort to address customer concerns as best as possible.
So I got the infamous generic letter overnight stating that with the low levels on the Danube, modifications will probably need to be made and they will let us know more specifically as it gets closer, blah, blah blah. At least I know we are on their radar; I expect the decision letter middle of next week - that will be 7 days before, sigh…..
A look at cruisemapper shows that the Esprit is still sitting exactly where it ran aground weeks ago. Tauck has no riverboats further along the Danube towards Romania than this boat. In two places between the Esprit and where we are supposed to board her, there have been extreme measures taken to block the river and save nuclear reactors. From the Iron Gates easttward, river traffic is stopped. From Budapest to Novi Sad, river traffic is stopped.
But sure, let's pretend it all could right itself in the next few days and the Sept 17 trip will go with very few modifications. 😒
Each day that passes that they do not communicate brings more limitations into play for our alternatives. We originally thought we might just try to join a different Tauck land tour. Those have filled. We researched other European options on our own. Airfare booked a few days out is astronomically more expensive than booked in advance. At this point, we are just hoping they finally admit this can't go before we board the plane and are stranded in Romania.
Kristine_Lewis1, Thanks for all that info, as bad as it is! We fly out Tuesday, the 15th so we are not in as a time critical situation as you are. My expectation is that we will hear something Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how you count 7 days prior (gift of time pre cruise hotel). I can only hope they don't pull the modification letter and then a couple days letter send the cancellation letter as they have done on a couple of posts I've read. Just go straight to the cancellation and be done with it. I don't see how anything else is possible other than modify it to 100% bus tour throughout, frankly we should have never received the generic modification letter at all, but I guess it was system generated. After your experience with the rude customer service person I am not going to call since obviously it will do no good and only cause me even more stress!
Please post if you hear anything else and I will do the same!
There are still people out there who would be happy with a bus tour instead, I would, you always see more on land tours. I’m still convinced that is why Tauck are reluctant to just cancel a tour because some people will still go. It’s not just to preserve any profits.
I would not be happy with a 100% bus tour in lieu of a planned river cruise, but I agree we would see different sites, perhaps better in some cases. My heartburn over that scenario is having to pack and repack every couple of days going from hotel to hotel), losing the 24 hour free "beverage" perk (happy hour before dinner just doesn't cut it) and also probably the variety of menu selections in a hotel vs the boat. If that happens, I would hope we get a very decent credit because of those changes.
Taking a bus/land tour that simply replicates the itinerary of the river cruise would not be a good substitute in my opinion. For one day or part of a day fine. For the whole trip, no way.
The benefit of land tours is that you can drive to where the sites are, not constrained by the path of the river, or to sights within a short distance of the river. If you're simply replicating the path of the riverboat, to see the same sights, then the bus/land approach would be a significant downgrade in my opinion.
British, perhaps in other areas of Europe, a bus tour would be a fair substitute.
But for the parts of Bulgaria, Serbia, and to some extent, Romania, that this particular trip goes through, it simply is not the same. You cannot bus through the Iron Gates. For many of the areas in the countries, there is simply not the infrastructure to provide a luxury experience for 90 + guests. There are not hotels that can handle that many people showing up at once. There are not restaurants able to accommodate such a large group with many dietary preferences, and there are not even enough individual restaurants to split up the group.
This is why Tauck designed this as a river cruise. The ship IS the infrastructure for a large part of this tour. Logistically speaking, can you take a coach tour through these countries? Absolutely. Would it be the luxury experience we signed up for, with sights akin to what we'd see from the river? Absolutely not.
And yet. Given the closures along the river and the location of Tauck's boats, a coach tour would seem to be the only option at this point. So if that's what they are working on, why won't they just tell us that? None of us are rooting for this departure to fail. However, the frustration felt over the head-in-the-sand "pray for rain" attitude, and the lack of true communication, is fair, and has nothing to do with the fact that some people, traveling in other parts of Europe, might be just as happy on a bus.
I agree with your sentiment Kristine_Lewis1, well said! There is no happy solution to this trip; the next few days will bring some answers, hopefully sooner rather than later and before you board your flights next weekend! We at least have a couple of days after your flights…..
I understand your frustration. But if the tour goes ahead, it’s not going to be full. I haven’t taken it, I know Smiling Sam took it some years ago. We recently took a three week tour of the Baltic states and roads and hotels were fine. I don’t know whether where the Black Sea tour goes is similar but we were surprised how modern it all was. We did get within 100 feet of Russia.
I agree it won't be full and that is about the only factor to be happy about! At least we will get to know our fellow passengers a lot faster than on a normal trip…
British - In my opinion Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia are years behind the rest of Europe in terms of infrastructure, modern amenities, etc.
There is no comparison between the endpoint cities of this tour - Bucharest and Budapest. Budapest is a modern, vibrant city. Bucharest has some catching up to do.
I have also taken this tour a handful of years ago, and Smiling Sam is correct. I can’t remember anything spectacular or remarkable about Bucharest or Romania, maybe just Pele castle. Yes, passing through the Iron Gate is notable but if you’ve passed through any locks in Europe, you know what that would be like. The history if the Iron Gate is fascinating and can always be researched or viewed on YouTube. I truly understand that is not the same at all as the experience itself.
I just went on the website to see if they still showed the same trips in Oct, ours had been showing as sold out. Interesting enough, this trip now shows "Call for details" - obviously there have been cancellations, but I wonder what someone would be told if they "Called for details". Unfortunately when I tried my phone number pulled up as part of the current reservation and I got some gobbledy gook about already being booked by a recording.
I have found that when it says Call for details and not on a future trip a long way off, it means there is a problem like not enough people on the tour or possible cancellation.
With it being a little over a week out, we were already assuming it was converting to 100% bus or out and out cancellation. Hopefully they won't keep us hanging more than another day or two🤞
By any chance has anyone received a modification/cancellation letter in the last day or so (not the generic that came out days ago) with updates for this trip?
We are also scheduled for this trip and have been watching things closely. We have not received any information from Tauck since the generic letter last week. Really hope to see something before we fly on Monday!
We are to fly out Tuesday but I believe Kristine_Lewis1 is scheduled to fly out this weekend, so this is a real nail biter for them!
Monday for us. At this point it's Schrodenger's vacation lol. Today was final call for the tour we were hoping to pivot to, so we have had to let that opportunity go.
Other than its impact on our personal plans, this whole thing has been an interesting thought experiment. There are so few of us on these forums, and only a few for Tauck on the larger sites. I have to assume there are people scheduled on this departure that are happily oblivious. The letter we got last week was very similar to one we got a few weeks before our Tauck Australia land tour this year. I shrugged that one off, and it turned out to be that the big change was that we could not hold the koalas during the photo op. If I had brought that same level of not worrying about it to the river cruise, I'd be in for quite a shock whenever we do finally hear if this is cancelled or now a coach tour.
I wonder if the reactions to this unprecedented season will prompt Tauck to reconsider their standard protocols for communication. Previously, I'm sure waiting for rain was a viable option, and no matter what there would only be a small segment of a small portion of departures affected. It does seem like a lot of us are giving them some amount of grace. At the same time, many of us are becoming increasingly frustrated. I can't imagine that Tauck is not monitoring that, but it seems they are hamstrung in terms of being able to respond. I assume due to a communication map that was laid out in better times.
Meanwhile, I've been watching reports of how other lines are communicating. So far have been impressed with two other lines, Riviera and Scenic. We actually cheated on Tauck with Scenic this spring and had a lovely cruise, but were looking forward to being back with Tauck next week. At this point, I think we would wait a few years and monitor how they handle communication in future crisis before we would trust them again.
I am very appreciative that this thread got started. My sailing on this itinerary is a mid-October one, which I think would be the last of the season on this route. My personal opinion, I would have appreciated some Tauck communication (plus honesty and transparency) about the fact that my scheduled ship, the Esprit, has been marooned on a sandbar for a while, with resumption of its regular activities tbd. I am sure that is a worrisome development for the company, on top of the low water situation in general - but I believe Tauck should have an obligation to keep its customers and clients better informed, and to recognize that they too have financial and time considerations hanging in the balance.
It’s an unfortunate situation overall, on many levels beyond those that affect us personally.
A sincere thank you to everyone who has shared their frustrations about this situation in general, along with information about their communications with Tauck, and the extent of their planning around alternatives. This is helping me prepare for the next few weeks ahead - not the usual river cruise planning at all! - and it also helps to know there is a community of people who share some common concerns about how this has unfolded.
A friend of ours has just texted me to say that they are not emailing but calling passengers on this trip to say it has been cancelled! He got the call and was told that the travel ins credit will apply as long as you book a trip this year or next, but can be taken farther out, just needs to be booked. Also if independent air was booked they will pay up to $500 towards the penalty with showing of receipts.
Neither I or my traveling companion have gotten a call yet (it will probably take a while to work thru the list), so I am hesitant to act on anything until I hear from them myself, but I wanted to give the group a heads up!
Please post if anyone else gets the call and if the info is the same!
Can confirm that we got the call and took the refund. Full refund except travel protection, which will go on a voucher for use on future travel if booked by year end.