Tauck & Uniworld

My wife and I are planning our next river cruise and had a question for the board.

We are dyed in the wool Uniworld fans and have been thinking about splurging on a Tauck cruise. Before we do, I wanted to get a feeling from people who have sailed both if the premium to paid is worth it.

For those who have done both please tell me if you feel the premium is worth it and why or why not. It could be for whatever reasons you chose and I am interested in hearing as much as possible.

Thank you in advance.

Well, we've done one Uniworld and loved it. This fall we're going to try Tauck. At the time I did the research, Tauck's price was very close to Uniworld's for our itinerary (Amsterdam to Budapest), in fact I think Tauck was a bit better. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

We did French Waterways with Tauck in 2014. At the time I did a close comparison with Uniworld who had a brand new boat coming out. We had been on the Douro with Uniworld in 2013.

If you want everything taken care of, with absolutely no extra charges, and the best of everything such as pre- and post- hotels, then go with Tauck. I too wondered about the 'premium' but it was not that much once I did apples-to-apples comparison. And our Tauck boat was not the newest but I see they now have newer ones out.

We subsequently spent a lot of money doing Japan with Tauck in 2015 (Cruising the Land of the Rising Sun) and it was the trip of a lifetime.

My wife and I are planning our next river cruise and had a question for the board.

 

We are dyed in the wool Uniworld fans and have been thinking about splurging on a Tauck cruise. Before we do, I wanted to get a feeling from people who have sailed both if the premium to paid is worth it.

 

For those who have done both please tell me if you feel the premium is worth it and why or why not. It could be for whatever reasons you chose and I am interested in hearing as much as possible.

 

Thank you in advance.

We have cruised with Tauck several times and have loved it.

In fairness, we have NOT cruised any other river cruise lines so I can't render an opinion or provide a comparison vs. other cruise lines.

My response would be that the entire Tauck experience is outstanding...from the cruise ship, cruise personnel, food and shore experiences.

However, having said all of that, for me the deciding factor is not how good things are when all is going well but, rather, how adversity is handled!

With a river cruise there is always the issue of river water levels being too high or too low.

On one of our cruises we experienced a very anxious time due to low water levels which threatened the completion of the cruise.

Some cruise lines stopped their cruises mid-cruise and deposited their passengers to fend for themselves.

During that time Tauck did an outstanding job in being able to deal with the problem (I don't want to go into details to make this any longer than it needs be) and we didn't miss a beat. Completed the cruise with minimal disruption!!! Oh, and it was NOT by converting the river cruise to a bus trip...it was as a river cruise.

Again, for me, that is the reason we spend a little more to go with top rated ocean and river cruise lines so that we can feel that the operator will always try to do their best to accommodate their customers/guests.

Thanx

Agree completely with previous posts. We did a Tauck Rhine River cruise last year and have not booked their "Blue Danube" cruise for 2017. If you add all the extras that tauck includes you will find the pricing the same or better. I did a comparison with viking for our Danube cruise and found that they were the same or better when you added two nights in Prague and two nights in Budapest and Tauck included excursions and fancy meals in both cities. We enjoy arriving a day eary and leaving a day late on our tours and have found Tauck very willing to make airport pickups and drop offs at no additional cost.

Our experience with Tauck has been that once you are off the plane you get a white glove experience. Having no additional costs once on the boat was a marvelous and very liberating experience!

Hope this helps!

Well, we've done one Uniworld and loved it. This fall we're going to try Tauck. At the time I did the research, Tauck's price was very close to Uniworld's for our itinerary (Amsterdam to Budapest), in fact I think Tauck was a bit better. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

Just wondering, how did you like your Tauck cruise? I will be doing the reverse tinerary this Fall.

Just wondering, how did you like your Tauck cruise? I will be doing the reverse tinerary this Fall.

Hi. Unfortunately we ended up cancelling for several reasons.

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Also I have compiled links to all the Cruise Critic cruise line and comparo articles here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2415906

LOVE Tauck...they are the best