London and Paris Seine River cruise September 13-24.
My husband and I arrived in London on the morning of September 11 our transfer was non existent! Found out later several people had the same issue on Monday. Tauck did reimburse our cab fare in Euros, which we would have preferred a credit back to our credit card. The original plan was to tour the Palace on Sunday and Windsor on Monday. However the passing of the queen shortly before our arrival canceled those plans. We did walk to the palace Sunday evening but chose to turn around and go back to the Savoy. London was packed with people and it only got worse. But the Savoy was lovely and the breakfast was excellent! We chose to replace our canceled castle tour with a private driver and tour guide to Blenheim palace and the Cotswolds,which the hotel concierge made for us. We had a wonderful time and the recent rains had revived the Cotswolds to their green glory.
The actual tour started the evening of the 13th with dinner and a talk by Celia Sandys, Churchill’s granddaughter. I cannot comment on the wine as I do not drink alcohol because of medication my husband thought the food was wonderful. I personally don’t go on trips to eat so I just enjoy whatever is served. Our original morning bus tour was changed from major city sites to a British museum tour with a local guide who was very good. We were able to do the private Churchill’s War Room tour, but we had to walk there due to so many road closures. This was not a problem for us but some chose to be otherwise compensated not go. I think better instructions on the layout of the War Rooms would have been beneficial however we still enjoyed it.
The rest of the trip went as planned. Train ride to Paris then down the Seine to Normandy.
The Hobbitt door in the Cotswolds.
Our private Louvre tour was not private as France decided to extend the hours shortly before our arrival our guide was excellent and the crowds were not bad at all.
The only tour guide that was not excellent the entire trip was the Paris city tour guide, terrible.
The weather was good only a few sprinkles much cooler than a lot people had planned for. I had a good coat but used the cold as an excuse to buy a cashmere wrap in Rouen. We loved the small French villages the tours and our free time.
Our private early morning tour to Giverny was perfect beautiful sunshine the gardens were in excellent condition.
I will include a few pictures of churches and villages and end with Normandy. From the onboard lecture to the tour at the Caen memorial to the beaches we could not have had any better tour guides or weather absolutely perfect.
We were each given a white rose to lay on Omaha beach in honor of those who sacrificed their lives.
Comments
I am so sorry I didn’t change from the Africa to France venue. I also got a Normandy tour guide picture out of order. In my defense I’m still fighting strep and I’m not exactly 100%
Delightful report! Glad you were able to make alternatives in London!
Alan perhaps you know a way I could easily transfer my review to the proper place? I’m sure I’ll get flagged for posting in the wrong tour.
Terrye - One way to transfer your review would be to copy the original, then paste it into the new location, then delete your post that's in the wrong location. Should be fairly easy to do.
Terrye,
Sam beat me to it!
The easiest, but not necessarily the quickest (it may take awhile to happen, if at all) is to send an email to Tauck IT ( esupport@Tauck.com ) and ask them to move the entire thread. If possible copy and include the URL of the thread in your email.
The other way is to do as Sam suggests. However, I'm not sure how the photos will copy if you just try to copy and paste your entire post with photos displayed, so before highlighting and copying your original post, select the "edit" mode to reveal the photo file names.
Go to the forums home, select "New Discussion," select the correct forum name, then paste the copied material into the new post. Remember you can preview the new post before you "Post Comment." If it doesn't look good fix it or abandon it. (all easier to do than explain!
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Unfortunately, the software won't allow you to delete your original post since you are the originator of that thread and deleting your post would leave responses by others hanging without a parent post. You can request that Tauck IT delete it, but make sure you tell them the correct one!
Sam and Alan thank you I tried to copy and paste but it wouldn’t paste. I’ll cal tech later my iPad is needing to recharge and I’m too tired from my bout with Strep to keep going on this right now. Let theflagger have a field day😂
Terrye -
Option A: As Alan says you won't be able to delete the original post but you could delete its content, replacing the content with a message that says your review was moved to the discussion thread where the new one is located.
Also, as Alan suspected the copy/paste only works for the text of your original post (I tried it by pasting it into a message to myself). So after getting the text copied to the new thread you might have to reinsert your photos into the correct place in the thread.
Option B: Leave it where it is and if you want simply edit that post and insert a new line at the very beginning apologizing for putting your review into the incorrect discussion area.
Option C: Leave it where it is and don't worry about it.
Terry,
Sam lays out options.
As for copy and paste, it does work. I just verified that it works using one of my old posts, but as I mentioned above you must go into the "edit" mode of your original post so the file names instead of the actual photos are displayed, before you do the copy.
(there are ways you and others can copy individual photos
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Ahh I didn’t hit edit first well I e decided to go with option c.
Ok. I alerted Tauck IT anyway. The thread has been moved!
It is not a big deal now, but in the future, when someone who is interested in or is planning for this tour and they go to the Cruising the Seine, plus Paris & London forum they wouldn't have seen your post. This is doubly important because it seems a lot of folks don't know how to use the search function or, like many, find it less than user friendly.
(Misfiled threads are also a problem when people post trip reviews and other useful trip-specific info in the "General" category.)
Forum User tip - Without using the Search function, to find important posts you and others have initiated, especially if you don't remember where it was posted-
It can be easier to find your past posts in "My Discussions" - in the list of Quick Links at the right side of your screen.
If you are looking for a post by someone else and know their user name- click on their name anywhere you see it, to be taken to their profile page, then click on "Discussions" to see a list of posts they originated (click "Comments" to see a list of comments they posted to someone else's thread)
Lastly, in addition to bookmarking the thread or specific post with your browser, you can make a forum bookmark of any thread of special interest (yours or someone else's) that you may want to regularly refer back to in the future. Unfortunately, the Tauck software does allow you to categorize bookmarks nor can you bookmark a PM like you can with your browser. To bookmark a thread using the forum bookmark, click on the star at the right side of the thread title bar.
Thank you Alan.
Terrye I went on this cruise in May, for our welcome dinner Churchill's granddaughter did not show and the food was not very good, I think the problem was that at that time the restaurant we were supposed to have at dinner at in the Savoy was closed, everything had just started to reopen.
Don't feel like the Lone Ranger with last-minute changes in London. I did the London and Paris land tour in 2011 - two weeks before William and Kate got married. My Oyster card for the Underground even has their engagement photo on it (my only souvenir). Because of the wedding rehearsals, etc. we had a lot of last -minute changes including our visit to Westminster Abbey. I was sitting near the front of the bus and saw first-hand how many hoops the tour director had to jump through to ensure we were not disappointed. Even with changes of days for certain things, I think only one thing was cancelled completely and I don't even remember what it was.
My Rendezvous on the Seine river cruise in two weeks will be my 15th tour with Tauck. Watching the tour director in action with all those changes reinforced why I travel with them.
And thanks for the heads-up on the Louvre. When we went in 2011, we went in the middle of the day do hopefully it will be a little less crowded in the evening on our trip, even if it's open for others.