nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

New, 3 March 2021, Update

AlanS

If you noticed, the banner at the top of Tauck website homepage and the subject for the first Announcement above, have changed (even though there are no new (3 March) posts)- I guess I'll add one. Latest Travel and Health Information ( UPDATED 3 March 2021 ). Looks like the call volume banner is back, too.

I can't tell what all was changed but Tauck has, "decided to cancel all tours through March 31, 2021, with the exception of a few select departures of our Southern Charms itinerary." Weren't tours thru 31 March already cancelled? (yes, in the 17 Feb Update, he says, answering his own question ) I guess the previous exceptions were the Wonderland, Yellowstone in Winter tours which are now done for the season.

It appears the "Your Peace of Mind" page has changed and maybe there is more info about and the actual the documents we will be required to sign: Travel Well Pledge and Waiver of Liability for COVID-19

Is the link to COVID 19 test location locator new? How about the "COVID-19 Travel FAQs" It seems the FAQ are much more extensive- e.g. Tauck will arrange and pay for on-tour COVID testing when traveling between countries- e.g. Jordan to Egypt. Tauck will arrange but not pay for COVID testing prior to return to the US.

Anyone else see anything else significant?

Comments

NancyCohen

It seems that if your 2021 trip is cancelled or you opt against going, then Tauck would find a slot for you on a 2021 trip or 2022 trip. Is that possible??

Scott_Parks

The change made is "For travel scheduled for April 1, 2021 - June 30, 2021*
Final payment for all scheduled April 1, 2021 - June 30, 2021 Tauck land tours and cruises is now due 30 day prior to departure..." Previously, the dates were April 1, 2021 - May 31, 2021*

Sealord

I just received an email from Tauck due to our upcoming trip in late June. They said they were “heartened” by the vaccine progress, and the drop in covid rates, and they expect travel to begin again “before long”. In other venues, Q&A, they said they did not plan on requiring vaccinations at this time, but they encouraged everyone to get them when available. The TD’s will be covid tested before commencing a series of trips, and guests doing back to back tours will be required to be tested before and between trips. It looks like we might be seeing the infamous ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.

British

I read about the Covid test sites and extra questions there the other day. When we called Tauck last week to discuss our cancelled tour, the agent told us that select Southern charms tours were running. I’m sure she said all other tours were cancelled thru the end of April.
Nancy, what you have to be careful about reading is that I understood it to mean is that you will not get your insurance returned.
Also, the insurance you can apply to another tour if you cancel or of Tauck cancel, can only be done once.So if your tour is cancelled twice, you will only get credit for one of the insurances. This was explained previously last year and last week to us.That is why the agent cautioned us to apply any of our travel wallets or dream savers, only when we are absolutely sure the tour we want to apply it to is a ‘Go’. That’s why some people are annoyed when Tauck cancels because they risk losing up to around $600 per person, per tour.

Kathy0529

British - I was told the same thing last week when I spoke w/Tauck that all tours thru the end of April were cancelled, including the American Canyonlands tour. I'm booked for Switzerland end of Aug/beginning of Sept, but had to call about changes to my flights booked w/Tauck. I asked about the Canyonlands tour to see if at least a domestic tour would run and was told that all thru April have been cancelled.

British

I knew I wasn’t imagining it!

dogdoctor

I waited on hold for 40 minutes yesterday and eventually gave up. My father-in-law (FIL) was informed that our July 22 Blue Danube Bridges Tour was "not going to go" and that he/we could cancel outright or rebook for 2022. Unfortunately he didn't bother getting clarification as the why the trip has been "cancelled". Do any of you know or have insight? I find it extremely odd that our trip still appears to be scheduled in our accounts and even looks fully booked on the trip web page and that I've received ZERO e-mail communication to indicate there is a problem with the trip. I can try to call again today, but that was a long hold.

Whelp. That explains things. The boat will not be available for our trip. So clearly we'll be rebooking (maybe even for the same trip, different date).

AlanS

dogdoctor
8:20AM edited 9:27AM
. . . . I find it extremely odd that our trip still appears to be scheduled in our accounts and even looks fully booked on the trip web page and that I've received ZERO e-mail communication to indicate there is a problem with the trip.
Whelp. That explains things. The boat will not be available for our trip. So clearly we'll be rebooking (maybe even for the same trip, different date).

Check out this thread and the one started by Terrilynn last month about having our 2021 XMAS Mkts cruises cancelled early. I did some research and later received info from Customer Relations and from a discussion with Dan Mahar about some Rhine and Danube river boats being relinquished back to ScyllaAG, who owns the boats, for use by Viva Cruises Scylla's wholly-owned subsidiary.

Based on your post, it appears an unknown number of river boats are possibly being relinquished much sooner than Christmas.

Also, there is another thread that partially explains why tours continue to be shown on the website, even after they have been cancelled- Tauck is attempting to control the amount of incoming calls so they can personally notify travelers about cancellations and handle re-bookings at the same time. The reports of long wait times seems to indicated that strategy may not be too successful, either that, or the increasing speed of the vaccine rollout has resulted in more new and return travelers calling to hopefully book tours.

British

Tauck never emails you to tell you your trip is cancelled, they always call you....I kinda getting used to cancellations.
When tours have been canceled, they seem to mark the date as sold out. I noticed that when they canceled a tour date we had and this was pre Covid times

Claudia Sails

I got a snail mailed Summary of Purchase this week for our 2022 Douro cruise with the final price - thankfully it seemed the same as 2021. However, I never received an email notice to say prices had been set and had 2 weeks to accept or get a full refund. We don't want to cancel so all is good, but if you have a deposit on an unpriced 2022 tour you might want to check regularly to see if the website has the prices.

BKMD

The phone delay is another good reason to use a travel agent.

British

I can only assume travel agents are having the same wait

British

Claudia, I never received confirmation of a final price on a past tour, I only noticed a few days before the two week deadline and called them.....yes, be careful folks!

AlanS

Calls to let us know tours have been priced have been hit or miss, usually miss if we haven't booked and are just on an interest list. If we have are booked they just send a revised Summary of Purchase.

dogdoctor

AlanS - thanks so much for your reply/update. That was so helpful. This is sadly our first cruise with Tauck (2020 rescheduled to 2021, now with river boat loss forcing a reschedule again) and I guess trying to go for the first time in the middle of a pandemic was, well, just pure FUN!

My wife and I are markedly younger than the normal generation of Tauck travelers, and so to have this trip undercut again was a huge blow as I had all the time off reserved again for this particular trip. How many years in a row can I take the same time off and screw over my colleagues. Luckily we were able to rebook the same trip (same dates) on the Danube, just in the opposite direction. I still want to see what that Category 7 room looks like! So if we can all be vaccinated in time, and the world gets back on track, and the trip goes as planned, then we just have to make some minor adjustments to our flights.

So two positives today... rebooked Bridges Tour 2021! and... booked a J&J COVID vaccine!

AlanS

Every small step towards traveling again is a positive and heartening one! I'll spend the next year doing research, tweaking pre and post-stay excursions, etc. etc. though it is hard to achieve the same level of interest and excitement in those activities since we are on our second re-bookings (third time is the charm) for three trips. That is especially true when you consider some were booked well over a year before the departure date. It is depressing, especially as we age and running out of time as it were. I was crushed when our first COVID cancellation happened just a few weeks before departure in early 2020, now I suppose I am somewhat numb to it or at least better informed so can anticipate and prepare myself. In reality we had been waiting many years for that early 2020 departure- Tauck had shelved their Jordan and Egypt tour back in 2013 due to the Arab!

BKMD

British
I can only assume travel agents are having the same wait

They usually have a separate number or prompt. But even if not, it's not my problem.
BTW, British, the TA I use is in your backyard (Paoli).

British

A good tip, if you chose the ‘book a new tour’ choice on the phone, I think they answer more quickly....makes good business sense