Your Lucky Tours or JJ?

[bluecruisin]

BTW, JJ himself was our tour guide.

[JanBethC]

Sorry you had such a bad experience with JJ. We did NOT like our tour either, as I posted previously.

[FLC48]

I was in bluecruisin's group for JJ's tour and confirm everything that was said. If you're booked for a private tour with JJ and there are other people on the bus, get off before the tour gets underway. He'll take you where he wants to take you and not where you've contracted to go. JJ is charming, amusing and likeable, but he's also manipulative and smart. If you're dissatisfied with his tour, he'll bring you back to the port with just enough time to board the ship and no time to renegotiate his fee. Be careful of this guy.

[deb63]

I'm so sorry to read all these bad reviews. Not just because it's disappointing to hear about people not performing correctly - but because you spend all this time planning your vacation and have it not live up to your expectations because of something outside of your control.

 

Our trip is still well over a year away - our desire is the Jaguar Recovery Center, and it sounds like the tour guides who offer it are getting less and less positive reviews. Sadly, it is not an excursion offered by the ship at this time.

 

I do appreciate reading the honest feedback. It is most helpful in the researching/planning.

[wandar0807]

I've emailed both of this tour guides with prices for custom tours, and both have given the same price. Any advice on who to choose? Has anyone toured with both guides that could offer a comparison? Both have such good reviews and references on this site, I'm not sure which way to go...

 

On April 2011, we traveled on the Carnival Freedom to the Port of Limon, Costa Rica. I had previously made arrangements with Eduardo Humphreys of Your Luck Tour for an excursion to Veraguas Rain Forest. Eduardo

can recommend other tours that his company offers depending on the length of time you will be in Limon. We highly recommend him and will surely use his services in the future.

Pablo was assigned as our tour guide/driver and he was waiting for us when we arrived at Port Limon with a sign with our names and he also waited for us at the Veraguas Rainforest until we completed our tour. Pablo made us feel secure and comfortable during the tour. He is also very knowledgeable about his country and as an added treat he is also fluent in English and was able to answer all our questions. It was GREAT having our own personal driver and guide. Additionally, we had the best authentic Costa Rican seafood at a restaurant next to Playa Bonita and the price was very reasonable. We can truly say that we had an AWESOME time! Eduardo was also kind enough to come by and meet us.

Eduardo can be contacted at Yourluckytour@gmail.com

We feel truly blessed to have been able to meet Eduardo and his assistant Pablo and hope to return to beautiful Costa Rica in the near future. A million thanks to Eduardo, Pablo and the Costa Rican people for making us feel so welcome!

Que Viva Costa Rica -- Pura Vida!

PS: Forget the rest Your Lucky Tour is the BEST!

:)

[Dutchie2011]

I was also on the JJ Tour with Bluecruisin and FLC48. Both groups made it perfectly clear to JJ that we had booked private tours and what we were expecting. The other group, on the bus, also made it clear that they wanted to do the zip line and go at their own pace and that was why they booked a "private" tour. When he got on the bus, JJ appeared to acknowledge the requests, told us that one of us would not get JJ if we split up and got off the bus. When he returned, he shut the door and we were off. He gave us no explanation and just drove off.

He was charming and manipulative and before we knew it we were at the zip line. At first it appeared he would drop off the zip liners and then take us somewhere......but that didn't happen. He continued to distract us with other things until we realized we'd been there 1 1/2hrs and no intention of leaving before the zip liners returned another 1 1/2hrs later. Our group was promised beach, authentic lunch, cocoa tour and shopping all of which did not happen for either group. I asked him several times as hour by hour passed at the zip line how we could possibly do the rest of our tour and he told me there was plenty of time and the tour goes in a loop right around everything we were to do.

JJ knew he couldn't deliver what he had promised both groups before we left. Flc48 said it all. JJ is charming, amusing and likable. He knows how to play the game and time it so you have no time to discuss your disappointment. As BlueCruisin said he would not discount the tour and acted truly hurt by our disappointment and told us we were being unfair before telling us he'd take $5 off. Considering we sat around for 3 hours waiting on another group, only saw two our of five tours, that was completely unacceptable. Also, check your pricing carefully. There were different fees charged from group to group for the same tour with JJ Tours.:confused:

[mduffy1834]

Just one more comment from another member of the really bad tour..............

 

The day after, we were on a tour in Panama (with My Friend Mario that was wonderful) and met some people who had used JJ Tours the day before - different van, the itinerary we should have had - and had a great time. Did everything they were supposed to do, had a great tour guide, and plenty of time to do stuff. We had a bad day and tour - JJ should have somehow put us on the other van and still would have made money and not gotten bad reviews.

 

Please don't let our bad experience keep you from booking - just use caution and common sense. Get your itinerary route before you drive away, make sure you are comfortable with everything, and speak up if needed. Looking back, I wish we had put up more of a stink while we were waiting for the zip line, but live and learn. It was an adventure and a learning experience.

[wheatengirl]

I was with the group of 8 on the BAD JJ tour. We were told it was 45.00 for the tour portion and 35.00 to add the zip line. 2 in our group decided not to zip line once we got there but he charged us 60.00 for the 2 who didn't go. He also told us that the cost of the food was included in the tour and again that was an extra cost. We wanted a private tour and then we got included with the group of 6. They were great people but we also knew that someone was going to get short changed once he decided to take the two groups together since we wanted to do the zip line and they didn't. He's quite the smooth talker and uses the language barrier to his advantage. I thought he said that when we arrived at the zip line that another van was going to meet us there and take the other 6 on their tour so that they did not have to wait the 3 hours. So at the end of the day, 2 in our group overpaid by 20.00, everyone overpaid by the food not being included, and the group of six got one of the worst tours that they should have not paid for at all. I think he started off with good intentions but it really was not a good tour for either of the groups.

[mabert]

Just returned from HAL cruise 4/12-4/22. We stopped in Porto Limon on 4/15 and had a tour with JJ.

 

Arranged by another CC member, she insisted with him that we would be guided by him. It was wonderful. There were 5 of us. It cost $145 each.

 

We arrived at 8am, went to the Jaguar Rescue Center (one hour drive). On the way to the next stop (aerial tram), JJ preordered lunches at a roadside cafe that were ready upon arrival. A stop at a banana plantation. Then off to the aerial tram, a walk to the waterfall (350 steps) then a level walk. These were with a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide. Back to Porto Limon, stopped to buy coffee (at the Wal Mart of all places!). Arrived at the ship 3:30pm. All aboard was 4:30pm. A ship excursion arrived late so the ship was held.

 

What made our trip different is that we were the only group and JJ was the guide.

 

I am sorry for the terrible experiences by others. Our excursion was terrific.

[joeito]

On April 2011, we traveled on the Carnival Freedom to the Port of Limon, Costa Rica. I had previously made arrangements with Eduardo Humphreys of Your Luck Tour for an excursion to Veraguas Rain Forest. Eduardo

can recommend other tours that his company offers depending on the length of time you will be in Limon. We highly recommend him and will surely use his services in the future.

 

Pablo was assigned as our tour guide/driver and he was waiting for us when we arrived at Port Limon with a sign with our names and he also waited for us at the Veraguas Rainforest until we completed our tour. Pablo made us feel secure and comfortable during the tour. He is also very knowledgeable about his country and as an added treat he is also fluent in English and was able to answer all our questions. It was GREAT having our own personal driver and guide. Additionally, we had the best authentic Costa Rican seafood at a restaurant next to Playa Bonita and the price was very reasonable. We can truly say that we had an AWESOME time! Eduardo was also kind enough to come by and meet us.

 

Eduardo can be contacted at Yourluckytour@gmail.com

 

We feel truly blessed to have been able to meet Eduardo and his assistant Pablo and hope to return to beautiful Costa Rica in the near future. A million thanks to Eduardo, Pablo and the Costa Rican people for making us feel so welcome!

 

Que Viva Costa Rica -- Pura Vida!

PS: Forget the rest Your Lucky Tour is the BEST!

:)

 

We were lucky to also get Pablo as our guide on April 25th with a different itinerary (zip line, banana plantation and more). Our experience was just as wonderful as described here and will highly recommend this company any time.

 

Joey M.

[ringettechamp]

We went on a JJ tour in March during our Jewel of the Seas cruise. We had a fabulous 8 hour tour to the Canals, Jaguar Rescue Center, Cahuita National Park, banana plantation etc. A nice lunch was also included. JJ was our guide. He was very personable and knowledgeable. I loved the monkeys and sloths at the JRC. I would highly recommend JJ Tours. It's too bad one group of people had a bad experience. I don't think this is the norm from him.

[bluecruisin]

It was dissapointing to our group to have such a poor tour experience, we understand that everyone has an off day. What was unacceptable was the callous and unethical way he handled (or mishandled) making the situation "right". We should have been charged half price as we only had half of the tour we were promised, also an" I'm sorry about how things turned out" would have been personally appreciated and a sound buisness move.

[wendymac]

We booked Your Lucky Tours for our excursion we took this May - I had booked quite far in advance and based on things people on CC had said specifically requested Edouardo as our guide - this did not happen, we got a nice fellow but there was no commentary at all - we went to the banana plantation - with zero explanation - went to the canal tour - with no explanation from him at all - luckily the guide driving the boat was more talkative so that part was good, we stopped at Playa Bonita for 5 minutes with no explanation - stopped atop a hill in a residential zone to see the harbour and then dropped us back at the port - I would not recommend to book Your lucky tours - I was extremely disappointed.

[chrisv348]

Perhaps this name was mentioned earlier in the thread but I highly recommend a fellow by the name of Jorge Ramirez Morales. Email jorgel.cr@hotmail.com We booked a private tour with Jorge based on a recommendation from another ship passenger. We took a chance and it proved to be a great choice. He is a one-man operation and offers customized tours of your choice. We visited the Jaguar Rescue Center, Cahuita Park, Banana Plantation with pits stops at a local restaurant for drinks and a visit to the grocery store for coffee. He is very fairly priced, speaks good english and is knowledgable about the Puerto Limon area. I encourage anyone considering a private tour in Costa Rica to contact Jorge. He is very good about returning emails promptly.