Finally canceled!

We got the call today, that our October 3rd tour was canceled. We chose to have the deposit back and have the insurance put into the Dream saver account. That now has I believe almost $2000 in it. Our flight got canceled weeks ago, so we don’t have that to deal with. All this is just as well since we have been assuming for weeks that this tour would not go and have scheduled some work to be done on our House in October.
This latest cancellation and reading on another thread that October New Zealand tours are canceled, makes me assume that maybe Tauck is already thru August and September cancellations and are now starting the October ones. What do you think?

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Comments

  • I haven't heard about my Sept ESW tour yet. Flights were cancelled 6 weeks ago.

  • Nope, haven't heard anything about our Sep tour. Switzerland Crown Jewel still has tour dates showing for Sep 2020. The country has opened up quite a lot including the borders but they have not made a decision on letting in people from non-Schengen zone countries. Supposedly they are to make a decision 6 Jul. Wouldn't surprise me if they kept it closed to tourists. Oddly, the hotel we are suppose to stay in for nights 2-3 says their season is only Jul and Aug. No word of a hotel change.

  • Really, and yet there is the 14 day quarantine for international travelers there. My other theory was to cancel all the tours that appeared to have quarantines in place for the likes of us before canceling other tours.

  • I'm sure there is some method to the madness but I don't see it. My only deadline is we have the $1000 credit for cruise interruption last year that has to be applied by mid Jul ( need to double check the date) or we'll lose. We need to know which tour to put it on by then.

  • Claudia Sails
    7:52PM

    I'm sure there is some method to the madness but I don't see it. My only deadline is we have the $1000 credit for cruise interruption last year that has to be applied by mid Jul ( need to double check the date) or we'll lose. We need to know which tour to put it on by then.

    Just apply it to a new booking for a tour you know will be cancelled, so you can roll it further on down the trail. Won't that work?

  • Alan, I'm not sure. When we put down the deposit for the 2020 tour I was going to use it but the Tauck rep said not to. That I might lose it if something went wrong and we didn't take the tour. Of course that was 11 months (aka a lifetime) ago so who knows. Checked my notes and 15 Jul is the decision point on this. Can't imagine a decision on the Sep tour won't have been made by then.

  • Yes, we were also cautioned about using a couple of vouchers we had been given, once applied to a tour, if it is cancelled, that’s it. We were advised to use it as late as possible.

  • we are on the October 10 tour and expect it will be cancelled as well. If they cancelled British Ocrtober 3, I have to assume all September is gone as well. Can't see them doing our tour as the only one for 2020.

  • British: I also heard today that my September Bali trip has been canceled. However, despite what the web site shows, there are at least three departures available for solos next year so I will probably roll my deposit over to one of those. A very disappointing 2020 but hopefully next year we can cram in twice as much travel! Now have to hope United cancels the flights in September!

  • edited June 2020

    Claudia Sails
    8:07PM

    Alan, I'm not sure. When we put down the deposit for the 2020 tour I was going to use it but the Tauck rep said not to. That I might lose it if something went wrong and we didn't take the tour.

    Are you sure the rep wasn't addressing the situation if you cancelled. If what you say is true, that means money does have different colors,i.e. it can be and is tracked throughout the process. If you put it towards a new trip, doesn't it all become the same color again, and therefore the clock starts over again? This is the question I asked last week, and got differing answers from forum folk.

    According to the Summary of Purchase for 2021 J&E (re-booked) trip we received in March, the funds from the cancelled 2020 J&E (DreamSaver ("Guest Protection Plan")), 2020 "deposit", and 2020 "Journey" tour cost were aggregated and identified only as "Deposit Paid" and "Other Payments." The total of those two equaled the "Total Payments" from the 2020 trip. (Two days later we received a revised Summary of Purchase that included the two $500 credits.) Now as to whether Tauck keeps track which funds came from where or if procedures have changed, I can't say, but if they allow, and they do, DreamSaver money to be used anywhere for a trip, or even split between two trips (I have done that previously), how can they not refund it if they cancel the next trip. As I understand it, the Dreamsaver, really doesn't come into play unless you cancel but it just a part of the refund if Tauck cancels.

    Soooo, in short, I may be wrong, but believe if you use vouchers or DreamSaver for a trip that Tauck subsequently cancels- you get the money equivalent back. Again, I may be wrong, it happens on very rare occasions. :)

  • I'll certainly ask the what ifs when next I talk to Tauck.

  • Alan, Unfortunately,it was my husband who took the call yesterday, so I can only go by what he said, but with the first tour that TAUCK CANCELLED, they told us the same as Claudia has said....but we are talking vouchers here, not the same as Dream saver or Wallet, they can only be applied once I’m sure.

    I still don’t understand how it works when you rebook a tour for the following year when the original tour you booked has not been cancelled. Does that mean you have to pay a new deposit plus another insurance and therefore lock in even more money with Tauck?

    Sandman, do let us know when you here about your cancelation.

    Sally, from what you say, sounds as if Tauck may be concentrating on canceling specific tours at the moment rather than doing them all in date order across the board.
    As far as cramming in twice as much travel, the most tours we have taken were six during the first year of my husband”s retirement.....I’m not sure if life gets back to normal and we commence everything else in our lives like Theatre and singing, that we could manage that again, it takes a lot of planning, especially as to get on a specific tour you have to book so very far in advance. I guess that last minute non tour trips to just one destination are an easier thing to do. There are so,e places in the US I want to visit. Was planning on leaving that for a few years more, but maybe now is the time.

    Now here is another question for people...how many of you actually know someone who has had the virus? I know of one person around my age who I haven’t seen for years who had it bad. I have another friend in England of my age who had it bad, was not in hospital but last I heard, she was still coughing after weeks.
    Has anyone been tested?
    I know of one person who has been tested, my friend’s son in law, in his forties, who is a hypochondriac, he was tested very early on, he did not have symptoms and it came back negative.
    We would love to get an antibody test but there is still no really reliable one out there that doesn’t produce unacceptable high levels of false positives and negatives. We still think my husband picked it up in China in October...do you remember he still had the remains of a cough in December Sally?

  • Morning British!

    I can answer your question about rebooking a tour when the current tour hasn't been cancelled yet.

    I'm on the same Switzerland tour this September as Claudia. We both put a deposit on the same tour for 2021 to not lose a spot. Yes to your question - a deposit and insurance was required to book. Of course you didn't have to do the insurance at the time, BUT, if you did not then pre-existing conditions would not be covered if you added it at another time.

    I did just call Tauck to ask about the September tour and the rep believes that we should know by end of this week or early next week. I'll probably call back if I haven't heard to see what the status is.

  • British, in answer to rebooking if your original tour hasn't been canceled, you have to pay the deposit and they encouraged me to also buy guest protection for that tour. I thought I could just move the first protection from the original but the rep said it was better to buy a new one - something about pre-existing conditions. I don't understand how that works.

    On covid, we're pretty sure number 2 son had it in April. Sick at home for a week including the loss of smell/taste. Didn't get tested. He lives in Florida and too hard to get a test then. Know a few people who have been tested here but all negative.

  • British
    6:43AM
    I still don’t understand how it works when you re-book a tour for the following year when the original tour you booked has not been cancelled. Does that mean you have to pay a new deposit plus another insurance and therefore lock in even more money with Tauck?

    Yup! It is like any new booking. There is no connection to your existing booking. And yes, it does tie up money (deposit and insurance) We are doing that with one tour now.

    As far as I know the only ways to avoid that are to switch to a different departure date in the same tour season, either an available date or sold out date. (we have done the first and are trying to do the second) If the new date is already sold out you can have Tauck put you on a Waitlist, no deposit, etc. is involved. If there are cancellations and you are lucky enough to make it to the top of the Waitlist, all funds paid to date are transferred to the new departure and the original departure is cancelled with no penalties. Once Tauck has notified you of an available spot, you have two days to accept. We have never done it, but it may be possible to switch to a different tour altogether (same tour season) without penalty.

  • British, I have a tour in September to Scandinavia that has not been canceled yet, I just heard that I got in a river market cruise for which I was wait-listed however considering all the protocols for Scylla I will let it go, it doesn't look like it would be any fun aboard a ship.

  • Only a masochist would consider river boat or other international travel given current protocols and ever-changing rules and regulations.

  • British: My travel agent is rolling my deposit for Bali to the same trip next year. She is checking on all the issues regarding insurance and deposits (they have my initial deposit for Bali plus I rolled over the deposit for the canceled Scotland trip for June). Many of their 2021 trips, including Bali, are (at least nearly) sold out. Guess we just have to put down our deposits and hope for the best.

  • Hi Smarks, good to hear from you. We still have 2 tours booked with Tauck for 2021, so for us, it’s just not sensible to book more tours with them next year. We realize that many tours will be sold out and we will take that chance rather than tie up all those deposits on tours that may continue to be cancelled Or modified Into something that is not why we originally booked the tour. We are thinking that the most likely tour to still go ahead is our tour of Japan next September but that is not with Tauck.
    I was talking to a friend in England this week and I know the UK has a worse record of cases for the total population than the US, partly because so many people travel there compared to in the US and they went into lockdown later than we did. When I told her people were refusing to wear masks here because they see it as their freedom of choice being taken away from them, she just could not understand that idea.
    She is a nurse who works in a Primary care practice, only one day a week since nurses retire at 60 there. Health care professional all have to have Covid antibody tests and she is awaiting results. Anyone over 70 in the UK is ‘Shielded’ plus at risk people. They all get priority for home deliveries and get a free box of groceries every week. Their lockdown has been more strict but more people are complying than here in the US

  • British, I received a text from my travel agent that Tauck canceled our October 10 tour, the last of the series. Not sure if we want to roll it over for next year but am feeling really disappointed that reality has finally arrived. We knew for months that this tour would not go, but I guess we didn't want to let go until the decision was made for us. Unlike you, this was our only planned tour this year and will try and double up when life gets back to normal, whatever that becmes and whenever it happens! So sad for us all.

  • So sorry Sandman, it’s so long ago that we signed up too. By the time our phone call came, we had completely gotten beyond going and had moved on. My husband got the call and he felt that the way the agent was talking to him, she was expecting him to be angry, he was cheerful and said we had been waiting, so I guess maybe Tauck agents have been experiencing that from a lot of ignorant customers who still don’t understand the long road ahead we have to go before this crisis is over or ever over. I was just glad to finally be over the uncertainty as our flight had been cancelled for some time.
    I guess we travelers have to be so grateful of all our past traveling experiences and memories and realize how lucky we have been to afford such travel. We are grateful every day that we are not worrying where our next meal is going to come from and things like that.....say I as we ‘suffer’ in our first heatwave of the year with a broken A/C Which may or may not be fixed or replaced in the next few days 😀

  • edited August 2020

    Planning on booking this again for October 2021. Anyone else rebooked? Is Tauck still offering the gift of time in 2021?

  • Yes, GoT still available though when I rebooked my 2021 Switzerland trip they didn't have the contracts/prices set so it's something to keep track of and make sure it gets added to the statement at some point.

  • No, not planning on booking it again as we already had another vacation booked for the time we wanted to go in September. Not booking any new trips until we are more sure the tours will go, don’t want to lose any more insurance money with Tauck. We will look at this tour again in the future.

  • Sandman I'm booked for the Kingdom & Dragons tour next October together with a couple and 2 single ladies I met on other tours. We actually booked last year for 2021 because solo travelers don't have as many places in a tour as doubles. Gift of time is available in 2021 as I already have other tours booked.

  • Gladysorlando984, are you on the 2nd or the 16th? We booked the 16th as the 2nd was already unavailable.

  • Sandman I'm on the 2nd, they sell out pretty fast that's why I booked so early, sorry about that it would have been nice meeting you.

  • Welp, our Sept 2021 Kingdoms tour canceled this morning. I expected this, given that Singapore is not letting most people in, and it does not look like they will for quite a while. It was nice of Tauck to cancel early enough so we can make other plans for the fall. Kudos for Tauck in what has to be a very trying 2021 for them.

  • I was on an August Bali trip that was also canceled. I had also booked the Aegean Treasures cruise in August as a back-up and will add the Bellissima Italy trip to follow for a back to back. Greece is already open so the cruise should go and Tauck believes Italy will open by July. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

  • Still waiting on cancellation for our Blue Danube riverboat cruise August 3. Monies due this week so I suppose we will hear soon.

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