Welcome

I feel that I should just bring a few things together to perhaps help others. Hope you don't mind my rambling.
My wife and I have never used TT before. I had an idea of what it was like due to the forums of TT. Our overall impression is that TT is good value for your money. We were completely looked after by our TD and driver. We never at any time felt that we were not cared for. As mentioned when we were by ourselves at Victoria Park Plaza we didn't feel as comfortable since we didn't have Peter there looking after us.
As mentioned before some of the major advantages of TT are that: cheaper than by yourself;first in line at all the attractions;meals and luggage all looked after;TD gives excellent intro to each country;hazzel free driving;meet lots of great people who all have something in common;flexibility to some extent such as being able to wonder on your oun. These are but a few of the advantages of coach tours. Twenty years ago I would have rolled my eyes at coach tours but not today.
I wish that TT would somehow get the news out there that the community/forum site should really be read before anyone goes on a tour. I know it mentioned the site,in small letters. Very few took advantage of the site. On our tour one person had quickly looked at the site. I was not disappointed because I new what to expect. As a matter of fact I had a number of surprises all for the better. It is amazing how many do no research and it shows. We didn't have to experience the unpleasantness of finding out something the hard way.
Their hotels were all good quality hotels although a very few were small. As others have said you should not compare North America with Europe.We went with open minds and were not disappointed. As mentioned we found that the hotels had sufficient soap,shampo,towels. Yes there were a lot of places without facecloths but we brought "puffy things" which worked just fine and dried very fast.
I know that I have spent a lot of time mentioning coffee and toilets. That doesn't mean that we didn't enjoy ourselves. I must keep telling myself that we are not in our own country. Thus why should we expect them to be the same as us. As mentioned before if Europeans tasted our coffee they would probably think it tasted like dishwater soap. When in Rome...
As mentioned by others your tour really depends on your TD. Our TD,Peter,really didn't follow some of the nightmare others have had. He was extremely easy to get along with and very patient. Once he said that this was not a whining coach. He was very patient. After reading about using the toilet on the coach I was a little concerned since I only have one kidney. I did very quietly mention this to Peter. He didn't spend time talking about using the toilet. As a matter of fact most were very good and they used the toilets at our stops. I personally used it but only a very few times. One of those times I said to Peter that I was sorry but I had to use the toilet. He said don't ever be sorry about that. Also when it came to optionals Peter was fantastic. He didn't do any hard sell. He was very smart in that we did an optional before we knew it was one. It turned out very well which encouraged others to do optionals.
Initially we were not going to do many optionals but my wife saw them and said she wanted to do most. What really surprised me was that Peter said if at any time you change your mind he would reimberse us the money for the optional. This goes completely against what I had read on the threads. There was no commitment. As a matter of fact we decided not to do one after signing up for it. Peter reimbersed us with no problem. When I said that you had already bought places at the meal he said one or two would not make a difference.
The issue of tipping Peter and Guiseppe was not a problem. Peter did mention tipping. He stressed tipping the coach driver. He never mentioned himself although I suppose it was assumed. Peter didn't spend much time on the subject. We initially weren't keen on tipping but they both did such a great job that there was no doubt about tipping.

Completely changing the topic. Most people wouldn't even think about this but we talked about it a little. We realize that in Europe they like to take their time eating. We were spending about 2 hours on optional meals. The meals were good and everything but my wife would have loved to be out exploring rather than eating. I didn't mind the length of the meals. I know that,in our culture,we don't spend as much time eating. When in Rome...
Moving on to another completely different topic. I told you that I was going to wonder around. The configuration of the coach was interesting. The toilet was on the right side of the coach right where the back door is located. The result was that the seats ,on the right,toward the front were OK but the seats towards the back were cramped. Thank goodness for seat rotation was gave everyone a chance to sit in good or bad seats. Everyone was very good about following seat rotation. We just remembered who was around us so that we followed them.
It was interesting in that every day those who sat in the front 2 seats had to tell about themselves. We usually did the introductions in the morning. When it was our turn someone said they were disappointed that I didn't talk longer. Now they were sick. By now you can tell that I really don't like to talk.
Throughout our tour ,due to our deligence,the toilet didn't smell at all. I really have to get a life or get over toilets!!!!!!!!!! We had a new coach and driver to take us from Paris to London. Unfortunately we got a toilet full of another tours waste if you know what I mean. The smell was so bad that we moved from down back up to the front of the coach. Fortunately there were empty seats since a number of people got off in Paris. Everybody looked at us asking us why we moved. We pointed out the smell and some others came up front but those down back couldn't jump off the coach. A few people needed to use the smelly toilet but couldn't get into it. So Peter went down back and really couldn't open it. I told him that I really had to go. He finally got it open. Let me tell you he wasn't happy about the lock on it. Peter told me to go ahead. To make my point I started screaming that you can't force me in there. Of course we were joking. When I came out I fell on the floor as if fainting. Remember this was all a joke. One poor girl told me not to go in there since I might never come out.
Our "new" driver got us into London but he got us lost 4 or 5 times. Peter was not a happy camper. We kind of made a joke of it. My wife was trying to get a photo of this strange structure. Well the next time around the structure everybody shouted to get the photo. She still didn't get it but by the next 2 times around she got her photo. We all started to sing "Round,Round,I get around." Everytime we took a wrong turn people looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

Hope that you have all enjoyed my colourful tour tales of our Grand European. It was a great,fun vacation. We loved it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: biotrav,

Enjoyed your tale biotrav. Your sense of humour made the tale very light reading and was appreciated.

Oh biotrav, I would love to have been on tour with you, I really would. I think your tour tale has been a highlight of my sorry life right now. You've made me think, you've made me laugh. Loved it. Don't, please, go away.

Brenda from the central part of the country with horrendous winters and exportable indigents .

quote:

Originally posted by mid life traveller:
Enjoyed your tale biotrav. Your sense of humour made the tale very light reading and was appreciated.

Hi mid life traveller
Thanks for that. You don't know if you are being boring or what.

quote:

Originally posted by BrendaC:
Oh biotrav, I would love to have been on tour with you, I really would. I think your tour tale has been a highlight of my sorry life right now. You've made me think, you've made me laugh. Loved it. Don't, please, go away.

Brenda from the central part of the country with horrendous winters and exportable indigents .

Hi Brenda
Thanks for the offer of exporting your winters. I'll let you guys keep them. My son is off to UVic to do his medical physics masters. They told him that they only get about1-2 days of snow per year and everything shuts down. Let's not talk about the days of rain.
Thank you for your wonderful words concerning my tour tales.
I have been so busy with our tour tales that I haven't been able to really read other threads. It is hard to get back to the different threads.

quote:

Originally posted by mid life traveller:
Enjoyed your tale biotrav. Your sense of humour made the tale very light reading and was appreciated.

Thanks mid life traveller.

Oh dear Brenda, it sounds like you may need a vacation. Are you still planning to go to Greece?

Biotrav,

It has been a privilege to read your tales. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Tulips:
Biotrav,

It has been a privilege to read your tales. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Tulips
Your very welcome. You just made my day.

quote:

Originally posted by Tulips:
Oh dear Brenda, it sounds like you may need a vacation. Are you still planning to go to Greece?

Tulips, you don't want to know about my present life, but we are planning to go to Italy for two weeks on our own in Nov. I week in Florence, 1 week in Rome, just to muck around and do things on our own time.

Hi Biotrav,

A big thank you from me I have enjoyed every word & adventure of your tale. I am so sorry it is over & I too hope you stay with us as part of the BB community.

Thank you for all your time & effort, for me it was well worth the read.

Make sure you tell Mrs Bio how much we love your tale, maybe she will come on & chat to us all.

You did a wonderful job on your journal. I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Biotrav

I have thoroughly enjoyed your tale. I hope to try and my tale when I get back.

By the way can you please ask Mrs Biotrav what "puffy things" are really called, so that I can put them on my list of things still to buy for my trip.

Fiona

I enjoyed you tale, it just makes us that much more excited to go one tour. Any more insight on the optionals? Was it a problem taking your camera gear and other items with you as you, was there room on the bus to store item, could you leave them on the bus and were there times you were not allowed to shoot photos? Thanks again

There are lots of tales being posted now and I fell behind reading. Finally started yours, biotrav, and got caught up in your tale and spent time finding and reading them all.
You did a great job reporting.
Thanks