I booked a trip for the Oct. 18 Simply Italy trip but it's not a guaranteed departure date. Does anyone know how often Simply Italy trips get cancelled? or how many people they need per trip?

Not too sure about how often trips are cancelled, but perhaps booking the Oct 11th Simply Italy tour would be better...it's a guaranteed departure

I will be going on the Simply Italy tour that starts 12 October as it is a guaranteed departure. I agree with Erstange999 it would be safer to go on a guaranteed tour.

Definitely go with guaranteed departure. My May 22 trip this month was canceled and I ended up changing flight plans to be on the guaranteed May 20 tour anyway.

I incurred some extra $$ charges for the flight changes above what Contiki would "consider" reimbursing, $130 only. So I only go a measly $50 voucher for use towards the optionals. They say that's the risk of booking a non-guaranteed departure date.

My friend and I are looking at going on oct 18 too. we're doing some other touring and traveling on our own and that's the one that best fits with our schedule. i hope it goes!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Unfortunately, a family wedding on the 11th keeps us from going on the guaranteed departure trip the week earlier. Hopefully a lot of people will sign up for the 18th and it will run!

Apparently the trips get cancelled often. I just had my London Paris Rome Trip get cancelled. and while on the phone replanning - 2 other trips that I liked were cancelled. According to the person I talked it - it happens alot..

But GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU!! I REALLY hope none of your trips get cancelled..its alot of crazy stress!! Happy Travels

how do you know if it's a guaranteed departure?

MD25 next to the departure date there will be a red checkmark indicating a guaranteed departure.

Not necessarily true. The one I was on had a red check mark and it got cancelled.

I asked about the Red checkmark and never really did recieve a solid answer - I was just told "it can cancel even if it has a red check mark"

How much in advance do they let you know if it does get cancelled?

quote:

Originally posted by MD25:
How much in advance do they let you know if it does get cancelled?

I'm not sure how the policy works - for me - i only found out when i phoned them re: my information and they informed me that i was booked a week later for the same trip...

Hi there, I really hope it does not get cancelled. My friend and I are really looking forward to it and Oct 18th works perfect for our busy schedules. But hey theres at least 5 of us on this board alone who have signed up for that date, thats okay with me! lol