ms Esprit for Tauck

We were impressed with the arrangements through Tauck for this cruise which went off extremely smoothly. We enjoyed the congeniality of the crew and the passengers made possible by this small boat concept cruise. The excursions were great and the accommodations aboard ship were far more than adequate. We plan to travel with Tauck in the future.

I gave you most of my comments and was even more comprehensive on my evaluation to Tauck, including an additional page of both good and bad constructive comments. Too long to repeat here. Tauck is obviously a first rate tour company, and their special touches set them apart from all other tour companies. As I mentioned, the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague was not up to Tauck standards and they should change hotels there. While the opposite was true of the Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest which was fabulous; wish we could have spent the extra night there instead of the Intercontinental. If we decided to do another Tauck tour, I would spend about 2 months walking to get in better physical condition for their walking tours which are very strenuous, and then you add in cobble stone streets, and your legs begin to kill you. One comment about the airplane flights. While you got us a very good fare during the few months up to the trip, when the original fares were outrageously high, the return flight was very bad, and we would prefer to spend a few hundred dollars more to avoid a very early morning flight from Europe (6:15 AM flight from Budapest to Amsterdam) required a 2:30 AM wake up call, luggage pickup at 3:15 AM and two connecting flights with baggage pickup in Atlanta, go thru customs and two layovers. We spent 23 hours traveling to get home, and will not do that again even if it means a few hundred dollars extra to avoid this nightmare.

1st time on a river cruise. Even though enjoyable and the Tauck staff was wonderful, have decided this style of travel isn't my favorite. Did like small ship with fewer people.