4/20/2021 Ams - Bud, riverboat

We booked this several months ago when it showed up (We have learned river cruises sell out fast). Anyway they said once prices, dates finalized we would be notified and have 14 days to change. Well I see it’s all now posted but we have heard nothing. We aren’t interested in cancelling, maybe upgrading the cabin, but just the same shouldn’t we have heard something?
Speaking of upgrading, any comments on Ruby deck versus Diamond deck. We booked ruby and will use the saved 2500 to fly first class at least that’s the thought.

Comments

  • edited February 2020

    See this recent thread for a discussion of problems with notifications;

    https://forums.tauck.com/discussion/13870/booked-the-may-2021-eastbound-cruise#latest

    In any case, call Tauck and discuss this with an agent.

  • John, there was a thread about this very issue this week. Many of us have not been notified when prices are finalized. I always thought if you did not get back to Tauck in that 14 days you could lose your place on the tour. However, yesterday I booked a tour for July 2021 and asked specifically. It means if you do not cancel if you have changed your mind, you can lose the deposit. I would call Tauck and change your cabin before it’s too late. One of the times I was not called, it was for a Small ship and by the time I realized some of the cabin choices were gone. So annoying when I had booked the tour 18 months in advance.

  • Re Ruby vs Diamond, Ruby is the only level we've ever been on for 4 cruises. It's just fine. In fact, friends we met on a Seine cruise had booked a Cat 7 since the difference ( at least then) between the 6 vs 7 was small. After seeing our Cat 6 on that cruise, they switched to the same room on our Bud-Am cruise last summer and were just fine with it. The Cat 6 has plenty of room, storage and the bed faces the water which is nice for viewing.

    I don't recommend the front triangular shaped cabins (lobby noise) or the ones at the rear (too far from most everything on the ship and closer to the engines).

    Have a great cruise!

  • Thanks Claudia, the more I thought about it the more I was satisfied with ruby. Because in all seriousness if your in the cabin enough to care, then you aren’t enjoying the cruise. Our last river cruise, we were never in the room except to sleep and shower.

  • edited February 2020

    Agreed. Our first cruise was a 1 week on board the Sapphire when the Ruby deck had the old 150 sqft cabins. Only remember a couple of short periods when we were in the cabin other than sleep, dress, etc. Showering and dressing did take a little more thinking thru for space in the tiny bathroom and the way all the room and closet doors all opened in a tight space. We still had a blast and came back for more cruising.

    On the longer cruises where you have more down time (daylight cruising) it has been nice to have a retreat. I'm enough of an introvert to need a little quiet time every now and then. The Amsterdam/Budapest cruise does have a fair amount of daylight cruising. We missed out on the full day of cruising ( check out my review from last summer for why) but still had a few shorter bouts.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file