Just returned from a fabulous Royal Danube cruise:
First of all no tour diversions ; we cruised according to the itinerary;We had only 43 passenger on board Ms Savor.The service and food choices were excellent.Secondly we did not have any major flight delays or lost luggage!The worst airport experience was in Newark,NJ with many gate changes and delay of about an hour that did not impact our tour significantly.the next worst experience was oi ORD upon arrival;to get to global entry we walked endlessly;not sure why this could not have been facilitated better.Thirdly no one in our group had COVID-19 that we know of.Only a minority of our group wore masks during the tour even while we were traveling on the coach.Crew members never wore masks;Tour directors did not wear either.In my opinion in spite of the Tauck travel well pledge Iwas disappointed at the relaxed way many ignored precautions;we had several coughing on the bus;they did not wear masks either. Again we were lucky so far but will monitor for the next few days .
While traveling could not log into forum because the website showed Tauck UK!
Thank you for the update sudhamali. I read in another thread that you must use https://forums.tauck.com since the link at the bottom of Tauck's home page to go to the forum does not work while cruising.
We also were concerned in advance about our Rhine river cruise (with Oberammergau) that departed on 8/28 from Basel to Amsterdam. No problems whatsoever. It was a lovely cruise - our first river cruise. They mentioned they had one cruise earlier in August that had to make an adjustment due to low water levels but by the time of our cruise, the heatwave was over and there had been some rain. Ms Grace - just 84 passengers on board. Wonderful service. No luggage issues since we did carry-on only but we did not hear of others with issues. Also no one had Covid that we were aware of and with a small group, I think word would have gotten around if anyone had left the ship.
I think Surgie meant to say their tour started on 8/28 in Milan. We were on the Grace on 8/28 and it was in Heidelberg. We got off of the ship in Basel on 8/31. Our cruise was also uninterrupted and on schedule. We did reboard the ship at a different place in Heidelberg after our touring, but I don’t know if that was an adjustment.
Sorry I did mis-state the dates because the tour to Oberammergau preceded the cruise. We then took a bus to Basel where we boarded Ms Grace on 8/31. So we were boarding in the afternoon after you got off in the morning, Sealord. We also had some spots where the ship moved without guests on it while we were touring in a city but the crew said these movements were planned and not related to water levels.
I believe there are several cruises where people depart for a shore excursion in one location and return in another. On our upcoming XMAS Mkts cruise we depart the boat in Basel for our excursion to Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus, but "catch up" with the riverboat and re-board in Krembs.
On our trip there was rain on and off even though our cruise was in a limited portion of Danube.Low water levels causing trip changes should not be a concern for now.
On a couple of our river cruises we left the ship at one location and reboarded at another as part of the itinerary. On the Seine we left the ship in La Havre, spent the day touring the D-day beaches and were to meet the ship in Caudebec-en-Caux (at tiny hamlet on the river). The only problem was the ship got held up at a lock and we arrived about 20 minutes before them. Was kind of fun to watch out ship arrive and quickly embarked everyone after a very long day. Happy hour immediately after.
Comments
Just returned from a fabulous Royal Danube cruise:
First of all no tour diversions ; we cruised according to the itinerary;We had only 43 passenger on board Ms Savor.The service and food choices were excellent.Secondly we did not have any major flight delays or lost luggage!The worst airport experience was in Newark,NJ with many gate changes and delay of about an hour that did not impact our tour significantly.the next worst experience was oi ORD upon arrival;to get to global entry we walked endlessly;not sure why this could not have been facilitated better.Thirdly no one in our group had COVID-19 that we know of.Only a minority of our group wore masks during the tour even while we were traveling on the coach.Crew members never wore masks;Tour directors did not wear either.In my opinion in spite of the Tauck travel well pledge Iwas disappointed at the relaxed way many ignored precautions;we had several coughing on the bus;they did not wear masks either. Again we were lucky so far but will monitor for the next few days .
While traveling could not log into forum because the website showed Tauck UK!
Thank you for the update sudhamali. I read in another thread that you must use https://forums.tauck.com since the link at the bottom of Tauck's home page to go to the forum does not work while cruising.
We also were concerned in advance about our Rhine river cruise (with Oberammergau) that departed on 8/28 from Basel to Amsterdam. No problems whatsoever. It was a lovely cruise - our first river cruise. They mentioned they had one cruise earlier in August that had to make an adjustment due to low water levels but by the time of our cruise, the heatwave was over and there had been some rain. Ms Grace - just 84 passengers on board. Wonderful service. No luggage issues since we did carry-on only but we did not hear of others with issues. Also no one had Covid that we were aware of and with a small group, I think word would have gotten around if anyone had left the ship.
I think Surgie meant to say their tour started on 8/28 in Milan. We were on the Grace on 8/28 and it was in Heidelberg. We got off of the ship in Basel on 8/31. Our cruise was also uninterrupted and on schedule. We did reboard the ship at a different place in Heidelberg after our touring, but I don’t know if that was an adjustment.
Sorry I did mis-state the dates because the tour to Oberammergau preceded the cruise. We then took a bus to Basel where we boarded Ms Grace on 8/31. So we were boarding in the afternoon after you got off in the morning, Sealord. We also had some spots where the ship moved without guests on it while we were touring in a city but the crew said these movements were planned and not related to water levels.
I believe there are several cruises where people depart for a shore excursion in one location and return in another. On our upcoming XMAS Mkts cruise we depart the boat in Basel for our excursion to Lucerne and Mt. Pilatus, but "catch up" with the riverboat and re-board in Krembs.
On our trip there was rain on and off even though our cruise was in a limited portion of Danube.Low water levels causing trip changes should not be a concern for now.
On a couple of our river cruises we left the ship at one location and reboarded at another as part of the itinerary. On the Seine we left the ship in La Havre, spent the day touring the D-day beaches and were to meet the ship in Caudebec-en-Caux (at tiny hamlet on the river). The only problem was the ship got held up at a lock and we arrived about 20 minutes before them. Was kind of fun to watch out ship arrive and quickly embarked everyone after a very long day. Happy hour immediately after.