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.
I am happy for everyone’s sake, whether for this cruise or for upcoming 9/27 and 10/4 Heart of the Danube trips using the Esprit that they did float it free and direct it towards Bratislava. Looks like it is currently sailing at 10 Kn west after making a quick loop to Komarno. Doesn’t really change my perception, but it is one “if” answered.
I decided to cancel and not wait to see if they cancel the cruise. Maybe if enough people elect to cancel, Tauck will cancel the cruise and I can get my insurance refunded or credited.
I’ll be doing the same shortly. Cancelling 9/17 Budapest flight and hotel and pivoting to 9/23 flight to Reykjavik for a week of adventure and then a week in Amsterdam. Completely different packing exercise!
Save the river cruise for when it can actually be a river cruise.
We are a party of four and my husband was the ONLY one who got today's notification that they are adding additional hotel stays after last weeks positive email. VERY irritating! Why is it that Tauck, doesn't communicate better! We had called after the last notification and rebooked "temporarily" for next year. After last week's letter we "cancelled" next year's trip and now we are stuck! VERY FRUSTRATING! We did not pay this price to get bussed from one location to another! Anyone else feel our frustration? We realize they have no control of the weather/river levels, but this is not brain surgery here! The communication has been very poor to say the least. Our friends have lost almost $4,000 on flights and hotels stays and we have lost half of that amount as our flights were at least credited back to us.
It has been disturbing; perhaps they may still cancel the cruise as the did the Amsterdam - Budapest last sailing which was to be our ship to board in Budapest. I too have lost a bunch of money on cancelled flights. Sorry.
You should be able to get the money back via your Tauck insurance for these flights and hotels. You don’t have to book the flights via Tauck for this..It’s cancel for any reason and the Tauck insurance is a very good price ….compared with any other travel insurance the cancel for any reason about doubles the basic price.
Yes Momma De, we also feel the frustration. The supplemental letter we received on Monday now stating Day 7-Day 11, 5 additional hotel nights, will be added to the first 2 hotel nights in Budapest, making half of the 14 nights cruise "not be on a riverboat". It also states the remaining 3 nights, finally on the MS Treasure, somewhere near Amsterdam may not have any boat movement?
Isn't this like going to a furniture store to buy a living room set, putting a deposit down for the store to order it, and then having a "kitchen set" delivered with the vendor saying "it's still furniture".
AND, you don't get your deposit back, (i.e. insurance)
None of us are canceling this cruise because we want to stay home and see a football game! We are canceling because this isn't a 14 day river cruise anymore!
Also, did you now notice that as of yesterday, Category 7 suites are now available on this Sep 20th Budapest to Amsterdam, cruise/bus ride?
Also, on another string I read that two other cruises around Budapest have been canceled.. maybe Sep 22 and Sep 27?
I canceled on Tuesday and yet I'm still receiving messages about how my wife and I will be met on Saturday at the Budapest airport and my account shows it's only 2 days and 12 hours till the trip begins… yet my travel agent assures me that the trip is truly cancelled. Hummmmm…
I did make a new reservation on the MS Treasure for a May 28, 2028 Amsterdam to Budapest cruise with Tauck. They really do operate a fine trip if the rivers are flowing and May thru June makes for the highest "Probabilities" of the water being navigable.
March-April can have high water and not get under the bridges and we all know about mid summer through Fall for low water.
If anyone reading these Forum comments does go on the this Sep 20th Cruise, please post to this site and let us know how it is… Thanks
British, unfortunately that’s not the case. Our trip was cancelled, we had the Tauck insurance, booked our airfare thru our TA, and AON declined coverage for our airfare. I pushed back (I was an insurance exec for a top 10 company for many years, so I know the business)…was still denied. It’s not truly cancel for any reason, it has to be a covered reason, they wouldn’t even consider it under the “inclement weather” clause. Tauck said they can’t get involved with what AON decides. I told their customer relations department that they need to stop marketing it as CFAR insurance. I learned the hard way, two very expensive business class tickets, the credit expires in April.
I do feel your pain, we lost $5000 on a trip we cancelled with another company because the insurance only gave back 75%. Are you able to use the voucher you will get for the airfare before the expiry date. Even if it is for an independent trip somewhere?
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.
I am happy for everyone’s sake, whether for this cruise or for upcoming 9/27 and 10/4 Heart of the Danube trips using the Esprit that they did float it free and direct it towards Bratislava. Looks like it is currently sailing at 10 Kn west after making a quick loop to Komarno. Doesn’t really change my perception, but it is one “if” answered.
I decided to cancel and not wait to see if they cancel the cruise. Maybe if enough people elect to cancel, Tauck will cancel the cruise and I can get my insurance refunded or credited.
I’ll be doing the same shortly. Cancelling 9/17 Budapest flight and hotel and pivoting to 9/23 flight to Reykjavik for a week of adventure and then a week in Amsterdam. Completely different packing exercise!
Save the river cruise for when it can actually be a river cruise.
I agree with you, RandallJay1960!
We are a party of four and my husband was the ONLY one who got today's notification that they are adding additional hotel stays after last weeks positive email. VERY irritating! Why is it that Tauck, doesn't communicate better! We had called after the last notification and rebooked "temporarily" for next year. After last week's letter we "cancelled" next year's trip and now we are stuck! VERY FRUSTRATING! We did not pay this price to get bussed from one location to another! Anyone else feel our frustration? We realize they have no control of the weather/river levels, but this is not brain surgery here! The communication has been very poor to say the least. Our friends have lost almost $4,000 on flights and hotels stays and we have lost half of that amount as our flights were at least credited back to us.
It has been disturbing; perhaps they may still cancel the cruise as the did the Amsterdam - Budapest last sailing which was to be our ship to board in Budapest. I too have lost a bunch of money on cancelled flights. Sorry.
You should be able to get the money back via your Tauck insurance for these flights and hotels. You don’t have to book the flights via Tauck for this..It’s cancel for any reason and the Tauck insurance is a very good price ….compared with any other travel insurance the cancel for any reason about doubles the basic price.
Yes Momma De, we also feel the frustration. The supplemental letter we received on Monday now stating Day 7-Day 11, 5 additional hotel nights, will be added to the first 2 hotel nights in Budapest, making half of the 14 nights cruise "not be on a riverboat". It also states the remaining 3 nights, finally on the MS Treasure, somewhere near Amsterdam may not have any boat movement?
Isn't this like going to a furniture store to buy a living room set, putting a deposit down for the store to order it, and then having a "kitchen set" delivered with the vendor saying "it's still furniture".
AND, you don't get your deposit back, (i.e. insurance)
None of us are canceling this cruise because we want to stay home and see a football game! We are canceling because this isn't a 14 day river cruise anymore!
Also, did you now notice that as of yesterday, Category 7 suites are now available on this Sep 20th Budapest to Amsterdam, cruise/bus ride?
Also, on another string I read that two other cruises around Budapest have been canceled.. maybe Sep 22 and Sep 27?
I canceled on Tuesday and yet I'm still receiving messages about how my wife and I will be met on Saturday at the Budapest airport and my account shows it's only 2 days and 12 hours till the trip begins… yet my travel agent assures me that the trip is truly cancelled. Hummmmm…
I did make a new reservation on the MS Treasure for a May 28, 2028 Amsterdam to Budapest cruise with Tauck. They really do operate a fine trip if the rivers are flowing and May thru June makes for the highest "Probabilities" of the water being navigable.
March-April can have high water and not get under the bridges and we all know about mid summer through Fall for low water.
If anyone reading these Forum comments does go on the this Sep 20th Cruise, please post to this site and let us know how it is… Thanks
British, unfortunately that’s not the case. Our trip was cancelled, we had the Tauck insurance, booked our airfare thru our TA, and AON declined coverage for our airfare. I pushed back (I was an insurance exec for a top 10 company for many years, so I know the business)…was still denied. It’s not truly cancel for any reason, it has to be a covered reason, they wouldn’t even consider it under the “inclement weather” clause. Tauck said they can’t get involved with what AON decides. I told their customer relations department that they need to stop marketing it as CFAR insurance. I learned the hard way, two very expensive business class tickets, the credit expires in April.
I do feel your pain, we lost $5000 on a trip we cancelled with another company because the insurance only gave back 75%. Are you able to use the voucher you will get for the airfare before the expiry date. Even if it is for an independent trip somewhere?