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Tauck confirms visit to closed nation??
Just got a confirmation e-mail for the August 18, 2021 Norwegian Fjords and Coastal Treasures cruise. But Norway is still closed to most outsiders including Americans, as far as I can tell. Will be calling Tauck about this, but wondered if any of the more experienced Tauck travelers have insight.
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I'd wait to call for another week or so. EU will likely be making some announcements on this. They've already said they're committed to opening up to vaccinated tourists, just working out details. I'm waiting to hear on Switzerland (it sorta is and isn't EU) and Netherlands since our current flight plans include a transfer there at Amsterdam airport.
Opening up to vaccinated tourists does not mean masks won't be required in restaurants, museums, hotels and on Tauck
buses.
Our land tour that included Norway in July was canceled weeks ago by Tauck. I still think it was the right decision
I see this cruise is not included in the tours scheduled to run through August on the Jun 10 update. :-(
I'm sorry for those booked on them, and I had hoped to ask some questions of this year's cruisers in preparation for our cruise next year. Not going to happen, it looks like.
Terry, the situation in Europe is changing and there is still hope for openings later in the summer. The Tauck list is just those countries that have opened or specifically announced opening like France, Spain, etc. For Switzerland, there Federal Council will be voting the 23rd on this (with I think an implementation 1 Jul) and we'll hear if our Aug tour is going forward. Meanwhile, Tauck adjusted our balance due date to 30 days prior giving some extra time on this.
Claudia, it looks like you were right. I see on today's update that this cruise will start in August, which is the first scheduled sailing. That's good news.
I’m sensing there is a lot of pressure from Tauck’s river and small ship partners. If they don’t cancel, maybe Tauck will lose their payments. Many of the ships and boats are no longer showing full. I certainly would not want to go do somewhere like the Douro river in November when it’s too cool and rainy
Tauck IT is having fun trying to keeping up with this. I note the list of tours operating differs between the Travel & Health tab and the Open Tours tab.
We're actually booked on the Douro next year in late Oct/early Nov as I don't tolerate heat well. That's fine at home where I can stay indoors in the A.C. Not so great on tour where I want to be out walking.
And yes British many of us are going to try and take our booked tours this year and hope for a great time in spite of some possible inconveniences. You can spend the rest of the summer playing Cassandra with dire warnings or just accept that we see it differently and wish us well.
I have been to Spain and Portugal many times. I have been there in both spring and fall, preferring fall due to the cooler weather. Cool, not cold. And in an attempt to dispel the misinformation about rain, the rainy season is during the winter months. Only once, in late October one year, did we get drenched by a very short but torrential downpour in Porto while we had some free time. Miraculously, our tour director managed to gather up our small group and direct us into a cafe where we were served hot chocolate and pastry compliments of Tauck, of course. One of my many fond memories.
I am also delighted to see the Greek mythology reference. It must be the connection to UNM! Best wishes to you.
Cassandra from Greek mythology or Tia Carrere from Wayne's World?
No clue at all.
Greek mythology. Cursed to tell the truth but nobody wants to hear it.
Not UNMs fault. Just an interest in mythology and a mind for trivia.
I was surprise tonight to get an email from Rick Steves vacations to say they will not be starting European tours until at least November. He recons his tours are almost 70 sold out for next year.
I knew that, but wondered how many would know the other Casandra? Too highbrow of a crowd I guess.
I am certainly glad we resched all our tours for 2022. I don't think I could handle the stress.
In some ways it would be easier to just delay our travel til 2022 but in my case it sets up a domino effect. Example, Swiss Crown Jewels is top of my list. If I cancel and resked to 2022 the tour goes up at least $500 per person and could be $1500 if 5 of us can't get slots on the only Sep Classic sized tour Tauck offers. We are sked for the Douro at the end of Oct 2022 which would mean 2 separate trips to Europe, or delayling it to 2023, or trying to back to back the tour with Switzerland. I ran the numbers on the later choice and the only dates that work make the Swiss tour $1500 more (sm grp) and moves the Douro to a more popular dates so it goes up $1000. In all a $5000 increase for the two of us. Our Normandy/Brittany tour would likely fall off the list and it's the one Tauck gave us the $500 credit to keep our money there last year plus another $1000 credit we were given from our 2019 river cruise. Potentially could lose one or both of those.
And money aside, both of my older siblings are going on the Switzerland tour this year. Let's face it, none of us are getting younger and this trip is special because of our heritage.
Bottom line, we're all balancing different issues making our travel decisions. I respect someone who feels waiting is the best decision for them. I just ask the same.
Tauck had a little trouble correcting all the places on their website when they officially cancelled this tour last week. Briefly, it still showed up on the "Health and Safety" list of 2021 trips that are still on schedule. Now the 2021 Norway small ship cruises have all been erased from the website, as far as I can tell. Like Claudia Sails, we will be a little backed up in 2022: France in May, then back to Europe in July for Norway. Lots of carbon credits to buy next year!
I agree that Tauck's website administrators seem overwhelmed with keeping up with daily changes. The Norwegian small ship cruise for Aug and Sep of this year does show as available when scrolling down to the Pricing and Availability section. In all fairness to them, they have an enormous job to do and probably have limited staff. Nonetheless, enjoy your 2022 trips!
Kfn…you claimed Tauck were up to date just a couple of days ago. They are indeed overwhelmed and I know doing their best, but they really cannot be relied upon for correct information. That’s why my husband will not travel until next year when things have hopefully stabilized and we don’t find ourselves arriving for a vacation to find a country has suddenly gone into a temporary lockdown.
If you are referring to me, no I did not claim that Tauck was up to date on everything; rather, I commented on how, in my opinion, they provide regular updates on COVID requirements as those requirements become available to them. That's all. Moreover, a country can go into lockdown for many, many reasons. Please recognize that we all have different levels of fear and risk tolerations.. I choose to travel or not to travel after analyzing those factors. That does not mean I am right, nor does it mean that you are wrong, or vice versa.
Looks like Tauck has discontinued the “disagree” option.
And ‘agree’. I guess we can no longer be agreeable (??)
They also removed Agree.
Poor decision, IMO. Removing Disagree will simply lead to more Flags. And too bad they didn't make the Flag posters identifiable.
Frankly, I never look at those. After seeing people's reaction to flags, emoji's, emoticons, etc. I would not miss them if the feature completely went away.
As to data and info (whether it is cost, tour status, descriptions, etc., etc.) being consistent across the website- that has always been a problem, even before the new main website software. It looks to me like the design team and software engineers put most of their effort into appearance and flashy features (like those annoying pop-up windows that always get in the way or disappear when you don't want them to), etc. rather than (simple) functionality (many of us still long for the old but simple-to-use website) and the ability for the in-house IT staff to quickly and easily make updates and corrections. That has been the failing and downfall of many smaller company websites. I don't mean to make it sound easy, because it isn't, but it can be done.
I'm sure this is not the case with Tauck, but companies often hire a website designer to design, build, implement, and operate their website. However, if the website designer goes out of business the customer may not have the staff or expertise to properly update and change often unique or proprietary software or even make updates to content, unless they hire a new software company who invariably wants the customer to use a different software.
But, getting back to data - the site software should be designed so that no matter how many places across the website the same data and info appear, it is only populated or updated from one master data source/file. There should never be different values for the same data.
AlanS is absolutely correct: data in two or more places will ALWAYS be out of sync!
I see that Ponant has also removed the 2021 Norwegian Fjord cruises from their site.
Hi everyone! Can I just worry out loud for a minute? We’re booked on the Loire Valley/Brittany/Normandy tour for the September 19th departure. This was a rebook from a year ago last spring when we were actually going to do Essence of Japan, and decided to use the deposit for France instead. Like everyone else, virtually all the trips we’d planned for 2020-21 have been cancelled. I’m just really nervous that with this awful Delta variant, this trip will get cancelled too, or somehow we’ll test positive despite being fully vaccinated and very careful 😳. Does anyone know what happens if you suddenly test positive at some point during the trip? Thanks for any advice offered to a foolish worry-wort.
Tauck will not commit to telling us when I last read their stuff. The best thing is to see what France will be doing as that is the jurisdiction that matters
Going back to a June comment, I have to agree that Portugal is a Mediterranean climate, so November is fine, lovely even; my research shows 11 days of rain in Porto, on average, barely more than other times of year. Lisbon can be quite warm much of the year, Porto slightly cooler: 60s in fall. Of course, I love Provence in January and February and often reject tours b/c of high temps, so I understand if you take this with a grain of salt.