Sandman, I sure do agree. I wish Tauck would just put us out of our misery and say something. I was really looking forward to this, but 9 days out, it's looking oh so grim!!
Margaret, what itinerary has you boarding the MS Inspire on 9/20? We have been discussing the 9/20 Budapest to Amsterdam trip on the MS Treasures. MS Inspire is also currently in and around Amsterdam.
That makes more sense and is what I was seeing for the MS Inspire. We do both have the same difficulty with the Rhine Gorge/Kaub choke point that currently prevents our ship from getting from Amsterdam to the Main and Danube rivers, and prevents your ship from passing through on the Rhine.
I’m sure you all just received the Tauck letter via email overnight. As speculated they do indicate two hotel nights in Budapest and then motor coach to Bratislava to board the MS Esprit instead of MS Treasures (they must be confident they can float her off the sand and get it to Bratislava).
Letter gets vague at day 7 where they indicate a 2 hour coach from Regensburg to embark on the MS Treasures (which somehow magically gets past Kaub and to the Main River?) and continues on to Amsterdam. Very unclear as to how this happens and if we visit Nurnberg, Bamberg, Wurzburg, and cruising the Main. They say it could also possibly be a 5 hour coach ride to meet the MS Treasures, which probably means somewhere on the Rhine north of Kaub.
Lots of questions that operations team cannot answer yet as of a call this morning. I suspect more changes to come as you consider the viability.
I got the letter as well. I am told if I elect to cancel I lose my insurance payment. If Tauck eventually cancels the cruise does the insurance money get refunded or can it be used on another cruise?
If I cancel now, Tauck said I lose the insurance, but if they cancel the cruise, then i will get a voucher for future use. I called to cancel but decided to hold off to see if they will cancel the trip entirely, For the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise, they did give the voucher to those that cancelled after the letter was received, but before the full cancellation. They would not guarantee this to me, so I will hold off until the last minute to cancel.
My fear of holding out and waiting until the 17th to see if Tauck then decides to cancel….is that by then I am already connecting through Paris CGD to Budapest and too late to cancel those flights:(
RandallJay1960, I can hold off cancelling as I am using my BOA flight on the 18th to London to start a trip to Morocco. I am cancelling the London to Budapest connection now. Not sure how you are ticketed, but it may make sense to cancel your flights now and just wait on the Tauck cancellation. Not sure if the number of cancellations they receive now will affect their decision to cancel the tour.
Sandman, we are holding off on any confirmation or cancellations with Tauck now and probably until the 17th. We are likely to go to Budapest anyways and extend our stay if Tauck cancels, before heading to Amsterdam and then Iceland where we have hotels booked and ready to pivot to.
Hello fellow Budapest to Amsterdam travelers on Sep 20th. As I would assume all of you have received the Tauck letter early this morning. Mine at 12:14am CDT. It was an interesting letter about the revised itinerary. We use to fly missions in VietNam with less "Ifs" than in the revised routing.
If the Danube rises enough to float the MS Espirit off of the sandbar?
"If river conditions are permitting", the first 6 days of the new itinerary, the cruise portion will begins on Day 3, hopefully in Bratislava. Then on to Vienna, Durstein, Melk and Passau "if river conditions permitting". That portion of the trip has a higher probability than the portion that will begin on Saturday, Day 7.
Remember the old movie named "The Longest Day"?
Day 7 begins after breakfast on the Espirit and ends somewhere in western Europe that night on MS Treasure. As you all have noticed on Cruise Mapper, the Treasure has not gone eest of Nijmegan Holland for a month. This is a whole lot of German and Dutch autobahns from Passau. And there is also going to be at least an hour tour of Regensburg along the way.
For those of us who have been wondering about the Treasure spending its time in the Rhine river delta, we probably know why. I assume that Nuremberg, Bamburg, Wurzburg, Rudeshein, and Koln, are being exchanged for Rotterdam, Antwerp and Utrecht for a week. That use to be marketed as a Holland Cruise for 7 days.
My wife and I were like you, looking forward to unpacking once in Budapest and watching the beautiful countryside along the Danube, Main and Rhine rivers for the next 14 days. This revised literary is obviously no ones fault but it is certainly also not a reasonable modification of the routing.
A "simple ship swap" should not entail crossing all of Germany from the southeast corner, one mile from Austria, to the Rhine river delta of Holland on a motor coach. This trip should be canceled by Tauck today, September 11th, and not Sep 17th when, I'm assuming, most if not all of the passengers and will probably do it.
But apparently Tauck has been informing those calling today that they will only refund the cruise portion but not the insurance because "WE" are chosing to cancel….NOT TAUCK!
I believe that through this summer every cross Europe Tauck cruise as in the Grand European and at least 3 Amsterdam/Budapest cruises have all been completely canceled. Probably so will this one because sadly the rivers are continuing to recede. Kaub at 21cm today.
I think Tauck monitors this Forum.
I feel it's time for Tauck to continue to do the honorable thing and as of today allow our sailing group to move the insurance money to a future Tauck cruises as they have done, from other passengers testimonials during the last two months.
I wish we could have all gathered for a nice simple two week cruise… but not this year. See you all on a future cruise. Tauck/Scylia do run pleasant experiences when the river is nice…
Tauck does not routinely monitor the forum but maybe they are at the moment.
A big disadvantage is Tauck don’t have that many river boats compared to Viking who can easily swap boats. Plus, Tauck ship accommodations vary and I don’t think other company ships do, so that limits boat swaps even more.
Unfortunately, Tauck are within their rights to not refund for a tour that does go ahead. Especially as this is one of those occasions they mention as unpresidented and I guess they might even have to start just issuing vouchers instead of giving any money back.
Meanwhile, they are turning away customers on the Roam tours because they deem anyone over the age of 50 not fit for those tours.
I hope management are having some serious conversations. A simple banner on the website could have put many more at ease.
I'm not sure holding up on my cancellation Tauck may think they have enough interest of go forward with this tortured itinerary. This trip sounds like a disaster and I would think most of us would rather cancel than accept a 50% cruise at a 100% price. Hope Tauck steps up soon. They are loosing a lot of goodwill amongst their most loyal customers.
Comments
Mfrancis, we're supposed to board the MS Inspire on 9/20. Hope,hope,hope!!!
Sandman, I sure do agree. I wish Tauck would just put us out of our misery and say something. I was really looking forward to this, but 9 days out, it's looking oh so grim!!
Margaret, what itinerary has you boarding the MS Inspire on 9/20? We have been discussing the 9/20 Budapest to Amsterdam trip on the MS Treasures. MS Inspire is also currently in and around Amsterdam.
There’s a 9/21 from Basel to Amsterdam (9 days) and a 9/30 from Amsterdam to Basel (14 days).
We are on the latter trip. I will start a thread for those routes.
That makes more sense and is what I was seeing for the MS Inspire. We do both have the same difficulty with the Rhine Gorge/Kaub choke point that currently prevents our ship from getting from Amsterdam to the Main and Danube rivers, and prevents your ship from passing through on the Rhine.
Yes, Howard…you're right. I was a day off. We board the MS Inspire on 9/21, Basel to Amsterdam. Thanks!
Margaret,
Glad to be of help. If you learn more about your trip, please post it here:
I’m sure you all just received the Tauck letter via email overnight. As speculated they do indicate two hotel nights in Budapest and then motor coach to Bratislava to board the MS Esprit instead of MS Treasures (they must be confident they can float her off the sand and get it to Bratislava).
Letter gets vague at day 7 where they indicate a 2 hour coach from Regensburg to embark on the MS Treasures (which somehow magically gets past Kaub and to the Main River?) and continues on to Amsterdam. Very unclear as to how this happens and if we visit Nurnberg, Bamberg, Wurzburg, and cruising the Main. They say it could also possibly be a 5 hour coach ride to meet the MS Treasures, which probably means somewhere on the Rhine north of Kaub.
Lots of questions that operations team cannot answer yet as of a call this morning. I suspect more changes to come as you consider the viability.
I got the letter as well. I am told if I elect to cancel I lose my insurance payment. If Tauck eventually cancels the cruise does the insurance money get refunded or can it be used on another cruise?
it can be used for another trip as long as it booked in a certain time period, that’s why I think you should all hold out!
If I cancel now, Tauck said I lose the insurance, but if they cancel the cruise, then i will get a voucher for future use. I called to cancel but decided to hold off to see if they will cancel the trip entirely, For the Amsterdam to Budapest cruise, they did give the voucher to those that cancelled after the letter was received, but before the full cancellation. They would not guarantee this to me, so I will hold off until the last minute to cancel.
My fear of holding out and waiting until the 17th to see if Tauck then decides to cancel….is that by then I am already connecting through Paris CGD to Budapest and too late to cancel those flights:(
sept 20, Budapest toAmsterdam is on w ship transfer and modifications
RandallJay1960, I can hold off cancelling as I am using my BOA flight on the 18th to London to start a trip to Morocco. I am cancelling the London to Budapest connection now. Not sure how you are ticketed, but it may make sense to cancel your flights now and just wait on the Tauck cancellation. Not sure if the number of cancellations they receive now will affect their decision to cancel the tour.
Sandman,
You'll love Morocco!
Happy travels!
Sandman, we are holding off on any confirmation or cancellations with Tauck now and probably until the 17th. We are likely to go to Budapest anyways and extend our stay if Tauck cancels, before heading to Amsterdam and then Iceland where we have hotels booked and ready to pivot to.
Hello fellow Budapest to Amsterdam travelers on Sep 20th. As I would assume all of you have received the Tauck letter early this morning. Mine at 12:14am CDT. It was an interesting letter about the revised itinerary. We use to fly missions in VietNam with less "Ifs" than in the revised routing.
If the Danube rises enough to float the MS Espirit off of the sandbar?
"If river conditions are permitting", the first 6 days of the new itinerary, the cruise portion will begins on Day 3, hopefully in Bratislava. Then on to Vienna, Durstein, Melk and Passau "if river conditions permitting". That portion of the trip has a higher probability than the portion that will begin on Saturday, Day 7.
Remember the old movie named "The Longest Day"?
Day 7 begins after breakfast on the Espirit and ends somewhere in western Europe that night on MS Treasure. As you all have noticed on Cruise Mapper, the Treasure has not gone eest of Nijmegan Holland for a month. This is a whole lot of German and Dutch autobahns from Passau. And there is also going to be at least an hour tour of Regensburg along the way.
For those of us who have been wondering about the Treasure spending its time in the Rhine river delta, we probably know why. I assume that Nuremberg, Bamburg, Wurzburg, Rudeshein, and Koln, are being exchanged for Rotterdam, Antwerp and Utrecht for a week. That use to be marketed as a Holland Cruise for 7 days.
My wife and I were like you, looking forward to unpacking once in Budapest and watching the beautiful countryside along the Danube, Main and Rhine rivers for the next 14 days. This revised literary is obviously no ones fault but it is certainly also not a reasonable modification of the routing.
A "simple ship swap" should not entail crossing all of Germany from the southeast corner, one mile from Austria, to the Rhine river delta of Holland on a motor coach. This trip should be canceled by Tauck today, September 11th, and not Sep 17th when, I'm assuming, most if not all of the passengers and will probably do it.
But apparently Tauck has been informing those calling today that they will only refund the cruise portion but not the insurance because "WE" are chosing to cancel….NOT TAUCK!
I believe that through this summer every cross Europe Tauck cruise as in the Grand European and at least 3 Amsterdam/Budapest cruises have all been completely canceled. Probably so will this one because sadly the rivers are continuing to recede. Kaub at 21cm today.
I think Tauck monitors this Forum.
I feel it's time for Tauck to continue to do the honorable thing and as of today allow our sailing group to move the insurance money to a future Tauck cruises as they have done, from other passengers testimonials during the last two months.
I wish we could have all gathered for a nice simple two week cruise… but not this year. See you all on a future cruise. Tauck/Scylia do run pleasant experiences when the river is nice…
Tauck does not routinely monitor the forum but maybe they are at the moment.
A big disadvantage is Tauck don’t have that many river boats compared to Viking who can easily swap boats. Plus, Tauck ship accommodations vary and I don’t think other company ships do, so that limits boat swaps even more.
Unfortunately, Tauck are within their rights to not refund for a tour that does go ahead. Especially as this is one of those occasions they mention as unpresidented and I guess they might even have to start just issuing vouchers instead of giving any money back.
Meanwhile, they are turning away customers on the Roam tours because they deem anyone over the age of 50 not fit for those tours.
I hope management are having some serious conversations. A simple banner on the website could have put many more at ease.
I'm not sure holding up on my cancellation Tauck may think they have enough interest of go forward with this tortured itinerary. This trip sounds like a disaster and I would think most of us would rather cancel than accept a 50% cruise at a 100% price. Hope Tauck steps up soon. They are loosing a lot of goodwill amongst their most loyal customers.