Tauck vs. ABD River cruise- help please!

lpm23

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 1, 2017
So I had put a placeholder on the new Tauck Portugal family river cruise. The itinerary just came out and it doesn't seem as kid friendly as the disney river cruises. My kids will be 8 and 10. Does anyone have any thoughts they can share? I am just concerned with the lack of active activities. it also seems like unlike disney everyone does the same excursion. is that correct? thx
 
I have not been on either, but based on my research Tauck excursions do not split up parents from children.

To us, this is a big plus as we want to experience the sites together. In fact, we have pretty much ruled out an ABD river cruise bc of how frequently they seem to separate adults and children. It really is an individual preference though.
 
I wanted to comment based on my experience on the ABD Rhine River cruise. I did every excursion with my daughter and was pleased that there were number of different, active choices each day. The only time we were separated was during dinner, which is not required but it was both of our choices. We both loved it and are booked on the Rhone next year.
 


Yes I totally agree on the Rhine. We did it and had an amazing time and also were never separated from our kids. I don’t want separate activities I just want activities the kids will be interested in. They like more active things. We are doing the Seine too with ABD in August.
 
I have not been on either, but based on my research Tauck excursions do not split up parents from children.

To us, this is a big plus as we want to experience the sites together. In fact, we have pretty much ruled out an ABD river cruise bc of how frequently they seem to separate adults and children. It really is an individual preference though.
The kids' activities are purely voluntary. If your kids don't want to do the special kids' activities, they don't have to. You're not "separated" from your kids - a special, kid-friendly option is provided at places they feel might be boring for your children.

We had tons of kids on every excursion on our Danube River cruise. The only separate activities I can remember was a dress-up activity while we were touring the rooms at Schönbrunn Palace. And that was only for a small portion of the excursion. The rest of the time, the kids were all with us.

Sayhello
 
I have not been on either, but based on my research Tauck excursions do not split up parents from children.

To us, this is a big plus as we want to experience the sites together. In fact, we have pretty much ruled out an ABD river cruise bc of how frequently they seem to separate adults and children. It really is an individual preference though.

Having been on two ABD River Cruises, I must agree with PPs and not only are you not split up from your children, when any child under 18 leaves the river cruise boat, they MUST be with an adult. If they desire, yes, they may eat with the other children one flight of stairs above you, but that is a family decision and not mandated by ABD. Tauck and ABD are both wonderful tour operators but please don't misinterpret ABD and how they operate.
 


We did the TB Danube cruise and it was perfect for kids. The guides came up with a lot of fun activities for the kids that were not listed in the itinerary - on and offshore. The boat was bigger than the new boat for the Douro cruise, but we were always split up into smaller groups for excursions, so it was never overly crowded.
 
Having been on two ABD River Cruises, I must agree with PPs and not only are you not split up from your children, when any child under 18 leaves the river cruise boat, they MUST be with an adult. If they desire, yes, they may eat with the other children one flight of stairs above you, but that is a family decision and not mandated by ABD. Tauck and ABD are both wonderful tour operators but please don't misinterpret ABD and how they operate.

That's good to know. It seems I read things about kids playing in the gardens or mazes while the parents toured the castle or museum but I must have misinterpreted the information. While our children love playing outside, they also really enjoy touring "adult" sites so we wouldn't want them to miss anything, plus we just like to see things together.

I probably still lean a bit towards Tauck Bridges, but this is good info to know that ABD river cruises could work too.
 
There is always the option for the kids to stick with the adults on everything- even wine tasting they had juice for the kids. that being said they also offer more "kid style" activities for the kids who just want to do something different. It's a great option for everyone. I also found it was great for traveling with my dad. He's very active but sometimes he just preferred a more mellow activity so this was a great trip for everyone to do what they wanted.

For those who have done a Tauck river cruise how many adventure guides do they usually have? I loved how our Rhine River Cruise had 7 ABD guides. it just gave a ton of coverage for all activities.
 
For those who have done a Tauck river cruise how many adventure guides do they usually have? I loved how our Rhine River Cruise had 7 ABD guides. it just gave a ton of coverage for all activities.
Well, seeing as Tauck only has one Guide on their land tours, I can't imagine they'd have anywhere near 7 on their river cruises.

Sayhello
 
There is always the option for the kids to stick with the adults on everything- even wine tasting they had juice for the kids. that being said they also offer more "kid style" activities for the kids who just want to do something different. It's a great option for everyone. I also found it was great for traveling with my dad. He's very active but sometimes he just preferred a more mellow activity so this was a great trip for everyone to do what they wanted.

For those who have done a Tauck river cruise how many adventure guides do they usually have? I loved how our Rhine River Cruise had 7 ABD guides. it just gave a ton of coverage for all activities.

On our cruise there were 4 guides and a cruise director. They did a great job. I didn't see any need for more. There was nothing lacking. They even took the time to put together a video slide show for the farewell dinner.
 
On our cruise there were 4 guides and a cruise director. They did a great job. I didn't see any need for more. There was nothing lacking. They even took the time to put together a video slide show for the farewell dinner.
that's good to know! which trip was that?
 
When deciding on TB vs ABD for our river cruise, the wider choice of excursions/activities each day led us to ABD. DD did everything with us - on our cruise, they had both 'kid dinner' in the upstairs lounge, and 'teen dinner' in one or both of the private dining rooms/large tables.

We have travelled with TB, but not on river cruises. We met someone who had done one, and said it wasnt great as her kids didnt like the single activity on some of the days. Comparing activities, ABD had more 'hits' for us - and they met expectations!
 
We did the TB Danube cruise and on board there was 4 guides. On land each small group had a Tauck guide as well as one or two local expert guides per group on the area you travel to. Our daughter liked this trip as well as any other she has taken. Spend a day early in Budapest and you won't regret it.
 
We loved our time on ABD Danube, and would do it again tomorrow. The kids (9 & 7 at the time) we separated from us (their choice) maybe twice. Once was in Vienna at the palace, they had a great time at their activity, and they would have been bored on the palace tour we were on. The other time was at another palace, and they had an awesome tour. All their friends go on those, and most of the ABD guides go with the kids and leave us adults to the local guide.
 

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