Thompsam

We just sailed through the middle Rhine and we are about to dock in Koblenz. Our cruise director said we should be fine for the rest of the trip, but also said the upcoming trips may not be able to make it through. Fortunately, our ship made it through the really shallow section and we should finish our trip in Amsterdam without needing to be bussed.

Thanks for the update. seems like either Gate 1 dropped the ball and didn't book the hotel rooms they needed advance or, more likely in my opinion, they weren't willing pay the rates the hotel wanted so they opted to move to another lake where hotels were cheaper. This unexpected itinerary change is still pretty disappointing. Enjoy your time there. I hear it is beautiful.

Will do but I think the chances are slim and none. AMA and Avalon still offer Lake Como land extensions. There may be others as well.

I hope your itinerary holds and you get to go to Lake Como.

Thanks. I guess this may indeed be the reason for the change although no one told us this. It’s interesting that both AMA and Avalon still offer Como itineraries.

Thanks for the info. We are on the same trip except we don’t have the Brugge/Paris extension. If there were issues getting boats on the water due to construction, I can begrudgingly accept that Gate 1 had no choice but to move to Maggiore. That’s not what we were told though.

Agree. There is language in the passenger agreement that allows for changes but like you, I view this like changing a booked itinerary to the Grand Canyon to a trip to Bryce Canyon. For a European visitor to the US, Bryce Canyon is very nice and would be an interesting place to visit, but it’s not the Grand Canyon. We”d have been happy with a downgrade from a Hilton class hotel to a holiday inn class hotel, if the new hotel was on Lake Como. So far, Gate 1 doesn’t seem to see it that way and hasn’t appeared to care that we and probably a hundred plus other booked passengers, aren’t happy with the change.

You may be right, but as @Coral stated earlier in this thread and I fully agreed with - "They (Gate 1) should have considered that before they advertised a Lake Cuomo extension. These contracts are signed easily a year in advance." Your response did prompt me to do an hotel room search on Lake Como for the two nights we were supposed to stay there, Oct 4-6 and there are many hotels with rooms available. We were not given the option of moving to another hotel and keeping the Lake Como itinerary.

Yes, this is what is presently on the Gate1 web site.. However, when we booked the trip 6 months ago, the itinerary we booked was specific to Lake Como. My reservation listed a hotel in Lake Como and our itinerary included "a scenic morning cruise on Lake Como to the exquisite village of Bellagio, named "The Pearl" of Lake Como." It also included a stop at the northern shore of glacial Lake Lugano enroute to Lucerne. We chose the itinerary because of the Lake Como segment and would have not booked this itinerary if it was on a random Italian lake to be chosen by Gate 1 at a later date. Their May 9th departure is the last itinerary that goes to Lake Como.

My thoughts exactly. The hotel is still open and taking reservations.

Not till October, but it appears from their web site that all of the cruises from May 20 on are swapping Lake Maggiore for Lake Como. I honestly don’t think it’s a true bait and switch as Gate 1 has been running trips to Como. I do think someone at Gate made a business decision to switch to increase their profit as I suspect the Lake Maggiore costs are lower. So far, they haven’t offered anything to compensate us for the lower value Lake Maggiore segment, which is also disappointing.

The reason was something along the lines of "it's hard for business to meet staffing needs worldwide in this post-COVID world (she used retail establishments/restaurants as examples), so that somehow made Lake Como area services harder to come by than Lake Maggiore area services. That was the marketing spin. I'm sure the real reason is profit. I'm sure its cheaper for hotels/excursions in the Lake Maggiore area an if they can charge the cruiser the same amount, Gate 1 makes more profit.

I accept that minor changes are possible, but to me, this is not a "minor" change. We're not being moved between hotels in the same city or substituting a dinner at one restaurant for another. To me, this is like booking a trip to Venice and having the provider unilaterally change the itinerary to Milan. Yes Milan is a wonderful place to visit, but it isn't Venice. We would not have booked this itinerary if the Italian segment was Lake Maggiore, not Lake Como.

I am booked on a Gate1 Rhine River cruise later this year and have just been informed by Gate1 that our 2 night extension to Lake Como is no longer part of or itinerary and they have substituted 2 nights on Lake Maggiore as well as a couple of other itinerary changes. This change was very disappointing as one of the primary reasons for booking this itinerary was the Lake Como segment. Gate1 has not offered to reduce the cost of the trip or offered any other type of compensation even though in my opinion, this itinerary change reduces the value of the trip. Is anyone on this forum had their itinerary unilaterally changed like this? If so, we’re you able to get Gate1 or a different cruise line to reduce the cost of the trip or provide any additional compensation?