Attention: John – Moderator

Hi John,

There has been quite a deal of discusion on this BB recently by several people who will be travelling on the European Clasic tour this year, particularly in relation to Optionals.

According to my brochure:

quote:

This tour begins with your arrival in Athens on Day 15, then follows the European Heritage itinerary from Day 16 to Day 35.

When you open the website page for the European Classic tour, the route map showing on all international sites except for North America is the European Heritage route map:
…click to enlarge

However, on the North American sites, the correct European Classic route map (for North American travellers) is showing:
…click to enlarge

I am very well aware that the list of optionals for each tour provided on your website is for guidance only and that the final list of optional excursions to be offered during your tour will be given to you by your Tour Director. However, is it not reasonable to assume that the list of optionals for the second half of the European Heritage tour will be exactly the same as the list for the European Classic tour?

Well they are not! The following optional items shown in the European Heritage list are NOT included in the European Classic list!

SRR08 AMALFI COAST DRIVE & POSITANO VISIT
ROM18 ILLUMINATIONS DRIVE & PIZZA DINNER
ROM06 TIVOLI GARDENS & DINNER
ROM07 TIVOLI GARDENS (EXCURSION ONLY, NO DINNER)
FL04 MEDICI BANQUET
FL09 SAN GIMIGNANO EXCURSION
FL08 TUSCAN COUNTRYSIDE & WINE TASTING
NCE06 EZE EXCURSION & DINNER
NCE07 VILLEFRANCHE WITH DINNER
NCE09 MONTE CARLO BY NIGHT, DINNER & THE CASINO
NCE11 FRENCH RIVIERA CRUISE & PROVENCAL DINNER
LCR06 SWISS ALPINE SHOW
LCR09 LAKE LUCERNE CRUISE, SWISS ALPINE SHOW AND FONDUE LUNCH
PAR09 PARISIAN CABARET WITH DINNER
PAR11 PARIS ILLUMINATIONS & DINNER

Two questions arise from this:

1. Why are the two optional lists different when the EC tour is said to correspond with the second half of the EH tour?
   
2. Why does the EC itinerary still contain “Optional hooks” to optionals that are not included in their list?

For example:

quote:

DAY 8 – SORRENTO AT LEISURE. Time to visit lively Piazza Tasso to watch the art of ‘intarsio’ wood inlaying. Maybe explore the Amalfi Coast before returning to the hotel? (BB,D)

This is “intinerary-speak” for “The TD will offer an optional to Positano on the Amalfi Coast.”

phil

Phil
You are an amazing BB - your concern, interest and very helpful advice has been a constant for me since I became a member.

Believe me your hard work is much appreciated.

Happy travelling.

quote:

Originally posted by YonYon:
Phil
You are an amazing BB - your concern, interest and very helpful advice has been a constant for me since I became a member.

Believe me your hard work is much appreciated.

Happy travelling.

Phil,
I also agree with everything YonYon said. I appreciate all your insights and contributions.

Phil -

I look forward to the reply for your post, and thank you for being so thorough.

Optionals are SO VERY important, as most will do this only once and want to do as much as able to fit into this wonderful tour.

We are all watching closely.

Thanks Phil - from Debra J

I too am interested in the answer to this.

Thanks for asking the question.

European Classic 29th July '09

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your input on this. We are very interested to know the answer to this question also.

Optionals are still listed on E H and many other tours as well - feel the Classic's Optionals are being a bit short changed.

Thanks

Deb & Gary

Hi all
We where on the classic last year in August. We travelled parallel with the heritage sometimes we where at the same optionals together or us in the morning and the heritage in the afternoon. When there wasnt enough travellors from our group for an optional we joined the heritage group. We either stayed at the same hotels or we stayed some where different.The Sorrento optional to Positano is something that I think should be part of the included tour it is so breathtaking.
Jan

Hi Phil,

Thank you for comments and thorough reasearch!

I have forwarded this onto our tour planning department and will ask for their feedback.

Many thanks
John
Moderator

Hi, while I'm not travelling on the European Classic tour, I am doing the European Explorer in Sept 09. After the dicussion on the board regarding the optionals being removed I looked at the optionals for the Explorer tour and have noticed that quite a few have been removed as well, particularly the Versailles Palace which was one I was looking forward to and the Moulin Rouge.

I'm curious as to why they have been removed.

Jenn

Jenn, the removal of these options would be appear to be in line with John's earlier post about pruning the 'optionals' lists, based on input from the senior TDs, etc. On my European Explorer, neither Versailles nor Moulin Rouge was offered. Versailles wasn't offered because there just wasn't time to fit it in with everything else. Moulin Rouge wasn't offered because our TD believed that Nouvelle Eve offered a better value, bona fide Parisien cabaret experience. Maybe their not being included will save you from getting your hopes up, though you could possibly arrange to do them independently.

Jeanie