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Gift of time deadline is earlier this year
I got a 2023 brochure from Tauck yesterday and noticed that the Gift of Time deadline for 2023 trips is July 31, 2022. That's two months earlier than I ever remember it being. Not sure if that is a sign of increased demand, Tauck wanting to augment it's cash flow with deposits, cost cutting, or what. In any case, repeat travelers should take note and plan accordingly.
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It used to be the end of Sept.
I noticed that in an e-mail I received. I plan far ahead because we are rather finicky about making sure we have the dates we want, tour size and the cabin category preference (if riverboat tour). Two 2023 tours are already on the books. That is kind of you to remind everyone. Happy travels.
In one of our 2023 trips we got the last cabin available in the category that we wanted.
I'm set for 2022,2023 and 2024.
We booked October 2023 in November of last year. Only 2 cabins were available in our category.
Already booked our 2023 tours—January, May, and October.
I have told Tauck, what I want for 2024, they put a note on my acct. I'm supposed to remind them early 2023.
When I ask about trips far ahead, they just say too early and to call back at such and such a time. It does not put you on a wait list as far as I know. With the volume of calls Tauck are getting and the huge amount of bookings, it does not make business sense to spend time calling people about specific tours they say they are interested in. Tauck clearly do not have the staff to do that. They want to fill the tours that are the nearest in happening. Although right now, while we can still cope with the extra energy required for land tours…when we transferred our cancelled Africa four to an Alaska cruise not that long ago, someone had just cancelled the cabin category we wanted. Calling can be just luck. We have had emails this past week touring available river cruises thst still have vacancies for this year.
While Tauck continues to have such a generous cancel for any reason policy, some will just book and book tours with no intention of taking all of them, we’ve met several people who admit they do that, just the same as booking restaurants and doctor appointments they don’t end up going to. There appear to be many people who travel with Tauck where the loss ld insurance money etc is no big deal.
We booked the Hidden Galápagos and Peru on March 8 this year for May 20, 2023 and are on a waitlist for our preferred cabin as most of the nicer cabins were not available. Also, we booked Egypt: Jewel and the Nile for October 28, 2023 and again are waitlisted. Morocco wasn't a problem as it is a land tour.
It’s different when you are on a list for a cabin. The tour is already published as going