LetTheGoodTimesCruise

No you are not overthinking this because it does happen but not much you can do about it. We arrived at 8:00 am, the rep walked us over to a big tent area where we were told to come back to that same spot by 9:00. We returned at 9:00 and more waiting as the different tour operators tried to get their groups together. We left in a vehicle by 9:30ish to go to the area where we board the boat. Now more waiting on the boat because some folks from Carnival were booked but were late. We didn't get going until 10:30ish. We had a wonderful time with Nativeway's Rays, Reef and Rum Point tour but not happy at all with the waiting around. If people are reasonably late that’s fine but unacceptable to keep a boatload of people waiting around. It was a very busy port the day were there at around 5 or 6 ships and so that may have made a difference to the chaos that day because Nativeway does have really good reviews.

Hi , thank you for your very nice review of your tour. Could you please tell me, what "Mayan Eden" is? Also, you mentioned stopping at a restaurant for lunch which was 'local' and inexpensive ..... what did you eat there and what was the name of the restaurant?

\thanks again for the information ... I believe it is exactly what we plan to do.

 

marise

Mayan Eden Eco-Park is is nature park with some Mayan culture thrown in. It is a sanctuary of animals, birds, there was a butterfly enclosure and some replicas of ancient Mayan sculptures. We were able to hold a couple of the monkeys and a lemur (we passed on the snake!). A guide took us through the walking path and gave us history and cultural information along the way. I think we paid around $6 each to get in. It is not very big so it may not appeal to someone who is looking for a ton of things to see for hours. We were there about an hour and it was just right for us because we didn't want to spend too long at any place so that we could have time to fit in as much as possible. About the restaurant we stopped at - I really should write things down because I honestly don't know the name. We weren't looking to stop and eat at some expensive resort area with a magnificent view of the ocean or anything. We just wanted something simple, quick, inexpensive and I'm sure any guide will be able to find something similar. We asked our guide to take us to where he would go for lunch. We ate a very traditional cultural dish of rice/beans, chicken, fried bananas and it was delicious. The three of had all had the same dish with drinks and it was very cheap at around $21US. It was a good portion and enough to recharge us for the rest of the day.

We recently returned from the Oceania Riviera and would like to recommend our guide “KENNY”. Prior to contacting Victor Bodden, I read through numerous reviews here and on Trip Adviser and wrote down a list of names of guides who had provided others with good tour experiences. In the event none of the ones on my list were available and we would have to be assigned a guide of their choosing, I also provided a list of guides that we did not want due to a poor review. This worked out well for us and fortunately we did not need to be assigned a guide as Kenny was available from our list.

We knew about the hill we would need to walk but had to look for it at first. When we got out of the terminal building, we didn’t immediately see the hill, we had to turn left and make a short walk through a parking lot and the hill is on the side of that parking lot. There were folks we ran into on the way that were able to confirm we were on the right track. It was just me and my husband and our immediate reaction was that we were pleased to have a nice clean, roomy, air-conditioned van in good condition for our tour. We found Kenny to be a likable and polite young man; friendly, easy-going, cordial. He is around 23 or 24 but has been training to be a tour guide since the age of 9. He is not a loud person, not too talkative or too quiet (just right), or the type of tour guide that seems to tell the same jokes to every tourist. He is unpretentious and just comes across as a nice person who wants to do what he can so that you will enjoy your day. We had already had some active port stops so just wanted a relaxing tour day in Roatan seeing different parts of the island by vehicle. We requested stops at scenic lookouts for photos. We enjoyed a stop of the Mayan Eden. He did not make any stops at vendors of any kind where it looked like he may have gotten any kind of kickback. We wanted him to stop at a local store so that we could buy some pure vanilla and it was cheap at $1.50 a bottle. We told Kenny that we wanted a lunch stop at a place that a local would choose, nothing fancy as we got lots of that on the ship, not expensive, didn’t have to have a great view, just good local food. He delivered and we were very pleased with his selection. We hadn’t planned to ask our guide to join us for lunch but thought we would make that decision based on our interaction with him whilst on tour. We liked Kenny so much that we did ask him to have lunch with us and he was very grateful. Kenny was also an excellent and careful driver as it certainly did not look easy manoeuvering through some of those narrow roads and at times tight spaces. We wanted a guide that would provide us with plenty of culture and history about the island. Throughout the tour we continually asked questions and Kenny was always able to provide a good answer. We had a very simple tour but he will take you anywhere you want to go and anything you want to do. We would have liked to have done more but the time goes by amazingly fast. If we ever find ourselves back in Roatan, we will not hesitate to ask for KENNY again.