2022 River Cruise Fiasco

My wife and I were on the Rhine and Moselle river cruise at the end of May. Four days into the cruise my wife contracted COVID and we had to leave the boat in Cologne, Germany. We were very disappointed in the cruise for the four days we were on the boat as it didn't live up to our (generally well earned) high expectations from Tauck. As I write this note 60 days after our departure from the boat, I'm still waiting on Tauck to refund the balance of the trip and for the insurance company (AON) to settle my claim. I've been told several times by Tauck that the "check is in the mail" but it has yet to arrive. As for the insurance company, I've gotten well acquainted with the call center in the Philippines but not much further. You may want to lower your expectations of Tauck and look around for a different insurance provider.

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Comments

  • Due to the high number of COVID related refunds, Tauck's accounting department is overwhelmed. I have also been waiting two months. The check is not in the mail, it's in accounting's inbox.

  • I suspect it has more to do with cash flow. Everyone in this industry is overwhelmed with COVID issues. They have now turned their problem into my problem. I don't know much about AON but I expect more from Tauck.

  • We had to cancel our Best of Hawaii last January due to being Covid positive 3 days prior to the tour. We received our refund from Tauck about a week later—but it took 3 months for Aon to refund our airfare. I’m sure both Tauck and Aon are overwhelmed with cancellations and refund requests. With Aon, we called with the occasional status inquiry, but we knew it would come eventually.

  • On our June trip to Ireland six of our group of 24 ended up getting Covid and were pulled off the tour. Don't believe one couple wore masks much but 2 other couples were pretty strict about wearing their masks and social distancing. One of the couples who ended up with covid were both practicing MD's (I believe General Practitioners). Don't think the rest of the group wore masks much but to be honest I'm not obsessed with that any longer so wasn't paying that much attention.

  • While waiting for a refund 60 days might seem long ;as mentioned by others these are unusual times and it may take longer.My personal experience with Delta vacations travel insurance at the beginning of the epidemic in 3/2020 was about 6 months waiting and multiple persistent emails and calls.Eventually got a full refund!So hang in there Kirk Beasley.

  • Yep bucklist I was being a bit rude but then reality often is. Just to put my comments in context, we got a call this morning before I saw this post from our son. One day back at work for a different travel company after a second bout of covid and his blood pressure is already spiking dangerously. Primary reason are the rude impatience customers, software problems he has zero control over and a company demanding overtime because they're short staffed. He's looking for another job. How about we all give these poor frontline call center employees a break. They'd all love to be on a nice, expensive vacation too.

  • “Star Trek’s” Spock would have a terse comment about all this ‘mask dogma’. I will leave it at that.

  • The tour directors wear masks all the time, it appears to work for them. I only know of one river cruise Director test positive.

  • I think you just made my point. Yes. We have had two directors test positive … one Tauck and one Ponant.

  • Can’t believe we are still talking about masks!Quality of the mask,how you wear it and when/where you wear it are all important in addition to your personall immunity;not to mention your luck or chance.Thank goodness the severity of illness is less.When we were in Equador at the beginning of Omicron surge most of the time most of us wore masks.Now with relaxing rules everywhere the collective chance of getting Covid-19 is definitely higher.

  • Our upcoming tour requires masking on our flights and at the destination, or you can be fined $300. This should be interesting in a place you can get fined for chewing gum.

  • I wonder if the Lone Ranger ever had COVID🥷
    Just kidding, it’s Friday so lighten up folks.

  • What are the lots of different ways you can contract Covid? Sorry, I’m not aware of anything but droplet infections. Touching surfaces and getting Covid are rare, we should be hand washing and not touching our faces anyway.
    What I think is rude, is when masks are supposed to be compulsory, like in the National parks where we were. And even worse, knowing the abuse the tour director got when the positive people were told they had to leave the tour. He had been warning us all week that not masking was playing Russian roulette. They chose to ignore him. I feel bad for the Tour directors on the cruise ship tours where testing is still required.

  • USA Today had an article ‘yesterday’ about the cruise lines testing and masking requirements. The CDC ended it’s covid cruise line program last month. So now the requirements are determined by the cruise line and the destination. They go everywhere from testing and masks to no testing and no masks “requirement’ for passengers. If you are going cruising, you need to check with your cruise line for the specifics for your cruise.

  • So if masks stop the virus, why do people who mask still catch Covid? We've been vaccinated and boosted and caught it anyway. It's a virus. It happens. Luckily, it is much less serious than originally. We're all going to have to learn to live with it.

  • British- do you have the link for the AON insurance upgrade? Couldn't find it. Thanks

  • Janet, this is the info I received from.British: aontravelproplus.com. For $49.00 I added $2000 in case of trip delay. It is aon’s TVPPLUS policy. You will need your Tauck reservation ID number.

  • You also need the date of your deposit - my initial trip was cancelled 2 times but in the ‘Financial’ section of my account, it shows the original deposit date.

  • Thanks for the info

  • Glad my info was helpful everyone!

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