Thank you.

This year the excursions on The Royal Kingdom of Greek Macedonia operated. However we do have minimum numbers on which an excursion can operate so we cannot guaranteed they will always operate as this is a customer’s choice.

Kind Regards,

Mildred

days " at leisure " in the hotel . Too much of a risk for me if the optionals are cancelled.

Yxd , you will have to persuade all your fellow travellers to book them with you once you are at your destination if there are not enough people booked !

Best wishes,

Bob

It really is very annoying! ...sometimes you can get to a place and do it on your own but sometimes you can't you need the JY tour bus etc....

It Would be good if JY stipulated online or in the brochure ...this needs X amount of people to run this optional trip

Cindy

Yes you are right- the minimum numbers are low and they do vary from tour to tour. We do try to operate our optional excursions on low numbers to avoid disappointing our customers.

Kind Regards,

Mildred

People not wanting to go to Jack Daniels. Sharp intake of breath......

Exactly Ian, you would have thought that was a done deal wouldn't you, I was really surprised!!

And for this to happen it wasn't a really low number either....somyes numbers do vary tour to tour!

Cindy

People not wanting to go to Jack Daniels. Sharp intake of breath......

Exactly Ian, you would have thought that was a done deal wouldn't you, I was really surprised!!

And for this to happen it wasn't a really low number either....somyes numbers do vary tour to tour!

Cindy

I visited JD on a TS tour of Memphis, Nashville etc so it was not an optional as such but went down very well with everyone on the tour. Not sure if it was because I was lead passenger or if I signed up to something there but out of the blue a few weeks later I got a rather nice certificate pronouncing me to be an "Apprentice tour guide" which looks rather nice framed on my memento wall.

Conversely on my one and only cruise there were 4,000 or so passengers and not enough interested in filling a small bus for a cultural tour of Madeira!! Those interested joined another tour which was very enjoyable but struggling to get 40 out of 4,000........ Never again!!

One of the problems we had with the Jack Daniels tour with Thomas Cook was that they ran it on a Sunday when Tennessee is a dry state. They could not buy anything and only lemonade to drink. I think it cost $35 for a half day and I am glad I missed it. Spent the day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville instead which is amazing. Found a large selection of Jack Daniels at a shop in Gaylord Opryland Hotel 🙂 

Jan

Hello Cindy and Ian,

One of the problems we had with the Jack Daniels tour with Thomas Cook was that they ran it on a Sunday when Tennessee is a dry state. They could not buy anything and only lemonade to drink. I think it cost $35 for a half day and I am glad I missed it. Spent the day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville instead which is amazing. Found a large selection of Jack Daniels at a shop in Gaylord Opryland Hotel 🙂 

Jan

Yes it is a dry state, so we could only buy, I got my husband a lovely bottle which did survive the journey home. I loved the time spent at the hall of fame, very interesting, did you do the grand Old Opry, ?

Cindy

Hello Cindy and Ian,

One of the problems we had with the Jack Daniels tour with Thomas Cook was that they ran it on a Sunday when Tennessee is a dry state. They could not buy anything and only lemonade to drink. I think it cost $35 for a half day and I am glad I missed it. Spent the day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville instead which is amazing. Found a large selection of Jack Daniels at a shop in Gaylord Opryland Hotel 🙂 

Jan

Yes it is a dry state, so we could only buy, I got my husband a lovely bottle which did survive the journey home. I loved the time spent at the hall of fame, very interesting, did you do the grand Old Opry, ?

Cindy

On a point of detail Tennessee itself is not dry but the county in which Lynchburg (where JD is based) is dry. The advice we were given was to walk slowly and breathe deeply!! We had lunch in the town & were advised to try the sauce with the cheesecake - which our driver noticeably, and probably sensibly, passed on. The Country Music hall of Fame is well worth a couple of hours and the Grand Old Opry is a not to be missed national institution.

Ian

Yes I did the Grand Ol' Opry. This too was an optional tour with Thomas Cook. Think they took us to the Gaylord Hotel first as it was a Sunday. This was also the same day as Jack Daniels in the morning. This was a day off supposedly, I was exhausted 🙂 

Jan

I no longer book tours where a lot of the days tours are optional as I do not want to spend my holiday having  

days " at leisure " in the hotel . Too much of a risk for me if the optionals are cancelled.

Yxd , you will have to persuade all your fellow travellers to book them with you once you are at your destination if there are not enough people booked !

Hi Nelson,

I agree with you on the optional excursions.  I think more and more of JY excursions are becoming optional.  I thought about going to San Marino until I saw that the farewell dinner was optional!  It is the same with some other short stay tours.  Still it keeps the headline price down.

Sylvia

Best wishes

Jaya

My personal opinion is excursions should be included in the price and then it is up to people to decide if they want to go or not and those who, like me, want to see as much as possible am not disappointed by optional excursions being cancelled.  What is the point of going somewhere and spending more time in the hotel by the pool or on the beach instead of exploring and seeing the sites?

Best wishes

Jaya

I agree, on my trip to Portofino & the Cinque Terre the one excursion I was really looking forward to

was the Carrara Marble Quarry, but it was cancelled as only five persons had booked.

Dave.

Singapore Sling at Raffles is a hopeful- they are doing renovations at the moment and should be finished by then. Trans Alpine railway was being mended and that is finished now. We travel along the Kaikoura Coast road- last I heard, badly damaged in the last earthquake. We shall see what we get when we get there 😉 

Jan

Looking at the optional tours for Breathtaking New Zealand in October, I am unable to do the Kawarau jet boat as I have a neck problem not covered by my insurance. However Hobbiton, Rainbow Springs and Walter Peak and cruise are definitely on 🙂 There is also a chance of helicopter to Fox Glacier and flight over Mount Cook if weather permits.

Singapore Sling at Raffles is a hopeful- they are doing renovations at the moment and should be finished by then. Trans Alpine railway was being mended and that is finished now. We travel along the Kaikoura Coast road- last I heard, badly damaged in the last earthquake. We shall see what we get when we get there 😉 

Jan

That's a shame Jan, the boat ride is not what I was hoping for, it was all to gentle for me, when I questioned it they said it was in view of the age group of JT travellers, I did manage to do a fantastic thrill ride in Florida....I did manage the helo and land on the mountain..

Cindy