Coral Breeze Shark/Ray Alley

[Peachy59]

Just wanted to let others who are thinking about booking this tour know about my family's experience with Coral Breeze. I booked this tour well in advance ( in August). I had read a few negative reviews about them but decided to take a chance.This was Tuesday 10/11/05. We ended up canceling the tour after we arrived. When we got home there was an e-mail from Paul asking about why we canceled at the last minute. Here is my reply.

 

 

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for writing. I haven't answered sooner because we didn't get home from our trip until the 18th, then had computer problems for several days.

I would love to tell you what happened from our perspective. After meeting your rep at the Wet Lizard we waited until it was time to board the boat. We were near the end of the line for boarding. As we got onto the boat, we realized there was nowhere to sit, and there were still a couple of people behind us. Your reps asked everyone to move over to make room, but there just wasn't any more room. The others on board were beginning to complain about trying to fit more people on and also about a strong smell of gas fumes. After a couple of minutes your rep said we were switching to a bigger boat. Yay! They told us they needed to fuel up the boat. OK, so we boarded that boat. I have to say it wasn't much bigger although there was a little more room to sit as there was some seating in the middle. Ok, so we are all sitting there waiting for them to gas up. It was extremely hot as there was little ventilation and a lot of people crammed in there. As we are sitting there I was talking to someone from the Carnival ship that was in port that day. She said Carnival had canceled their excursion and they booked this one at the last minute. There was some discussion about what time we would return to the pier. Your rep said they would have everyone back by 3:15. Also, some people were saying not only were they gassing up but they were waiting for more people to arrive. Huh? They are planning to put more people on the boat? So we are sitting there, it is stifling hot in this covered boat, it is already past the time we are supposed to leave, and we are going to have to come back 45 minutes earlier than we are supposed to because they have booked people from the Carnival ship at the last minute? Sorry Paul, but that is not what we signed up for. Others were beginning to get very restless now and were talking about leaving, as were my family and I. Again, I asked about the time we were going to be brought back to the pier, and your rep said we will have to be back by 3:15. So as we are STILL sitting there waiting to leave, very hot in this covered boat, I am trying to picture everyone being fitted for snorkeling gear in this overcrowded condition. I was aware that a few of the people were not participating in the shark/ray snorkeling part of the excursion, as we had plenty of time to talk at this point. At this point my husband and I decided we just didn't want to participate any longer and we got off the boat and went to talk to your rep at the pier. Part of the reason was because we felt the tour had been overbooked, but the fact that what was supposed to be a 5 hour excursion was now only going to be a 4 hour excursion was the last straw. So we go to ask for our money back and the lady (sorry I don't remember her name) is still trying to talk us into going. She is saying this boat is licensed to carry 60 people and there are only 40 on there. You have got to be kidding. I don't know who is responsible for this in Belize, but I seriously doubt this would be the case in the US. So I am telling her we are supposed to get a 5 hour excursion and she is telling me we WILL get a 5 hour excursion. HUH? OK, it is after 11:00 am ET and we have to be back by 3:15 pm ET. How do you get 5 hours out of that??? I don't know how she counts but that is only 4 hours.

I also would like to mention that one of the reasons people like to book excursions independently, rather than the ship tours, is because they are generally less crowded.

 

Paul, I really appreciate your writing to ask about what happened that day, Also, I would like to ask a few questions if you don't mind. Didn't your reps know how many were booked before they started boarding us? They should be very familiar with the boats you have. Why did they try to cram everyone onto that first boat? Why didn't they have the bigger boat ready to go before they put us on there. We could have waited in the shade while they fueled up. I would like to mention at this point that there was a very young child on that stifling hot boat, he was so hot his father was pouring water on his head. Most of all, I would like to know why people from the Carnival ship were booked on this tour that wasn't supposed to get back until 4:00 ET. Seems the tour time was changed just to accommodate them. We booked way in advance and our tour time was changed so more people could be booked. Sorry, but this is just not a good way to do business. We were looking forward to this tour more than anything else we had planned on our cruise. It was a huge disappointment for us. I just hope that in the future you will take all this into consideration. I also hope we will be receiving our deposit soon, as we were told it would arrive to us as a check in the mail.

 

Thank you,

Judy

 

 

I am still waiting to hear back from him. Also, we were refunded all but the deposit we paid, we are still waiting for that.

 

Like I said before, I just wanted to let others know about our experience with them. I'm sure others have had a great experience, but I would recommend having a plan B if you book this tour. They seem to cater to the many rather than the ones who book in advance, if it will be more profitable for them.

[Coral Breeze]

I want to take a moment to respond to this and clear up some comments and questions that were made. There are several assumptions made that are not accurate. Anyone who knows me from the CC Boards or from email correspondence, you know I am all about service. If an experience is not as expected, we take responsibility for it and correct it. I love the CC Boards because it really gives cruisers a place to teach AND learn.

With that said, I want to make sure it is clear the customer in this case did NOT take the tour. Yes, things were uncharacteristically disorganized at the start. It was a simple human error and the captain brought the wrong boat. Our guests should not have been allowed to board the smaller boat, but it happened. We corrected it as quickly as possible and were on our way. Not how we planned it, but our crew did their best to recover.

I have several emails from guests from that day who described the shaky start but said the rest of the day far outweighed those first few minutes. “A nice recovery” as one person put it. Our tour manager offered to allow this one family who did not take the tour to go and if they weren’t satisfied, we would provide them a full refund. I thought that was a great customer service offer, but it was turned down. So now we are left with a report to be cautious when booking the Coral Breeze Shark/Ray tour from someone who did not take the tour.

Yes, we tripped over ourselves at the beginning and apologize for that. I think anyone who has taken this or any of our tours knows it is a smooth process and something out of the ordinary happened that day. It is nice to know that 37 other people who did take the tour that day enjoyed their day in Belize.

I’m not sure what booking in advance and catering to “many” means. Our tour operations are run the same way each day. We have a cap on the number of people we take on a tour and use additional equipment if we exceed that cap. Since Hurricane Katrina, we have been juggling tour times as the Cruise Lines have been changing their itineraries. If we change a tour time, it is to allow the tour to fit in the port time for a ship….nothing more.

I have to admit, I was floored when I read this post. Again, everyone should post their experience, but please be fair. The day I heard what happened, I emailed this customer so my concern would be waiting when they returned home from vacation. I wanted to know what caused them to not go on the tour, above what I already knew. Our crew can tell me one thing, but getting the perceptive of our customers is what really matters. About a week after a cruise, our reservation system actually sends out a proactive email to our guests asking about their experience. Feedback is important and we want to know . We provide many tours for CC members. It satisfies me to know that we have provided a great Belize experience for many. If the experience described above was typical, you would not be reading about Coral Breeze because we would not exist.

 

Judy, all I can say is I’m sorry things started out poorly to a point where you did not want to proceed with the tour. I really wish you would have given us the opportunity the others did that day because I’m confident your opinion would have been different. As it is, you are left with a not so favorable opinion of us. Since your experience is not typical, I don’t think it is necessary for people to have a “plan b” for their tour. It is just a matter of allowing us to prove why we are one of the most respected and popular tour operators in Belize.

 

As always, if anyone has any questions, please let me know.

[Linda8818]

So are you going to refund her deposit?

[Coral Breeze]

Hi Linda,

Of course we are. It has already been sent.

[Peachy59]

OK, I feel the need to respond to this.

 

Paul, I don't know why you were "floored" by this post. I e-mailed that letter to you two days ago. I told everything exactly as it happened. I never said we went on the tour. I did recieve your reply this afternoon after I posted this. So now I have a couple more questions for you. You did apologize for the "shakey start" and tell me our deposit will be mailed to us. Thanks, I do appreciate that. You told me that due to Hurricane Katrina some of the ship port times have been changed. So, why were we not informed that our tour was being shortened ? When we paid our balance for the tour at the pier we were not told about this. We would not have even known about it if we hadn't had so much time to talk to others on the trip. Your website states that this is a 5 hour tour and even breaks it down to the minute. Your website also states that your tour is better than the ships tour and one of the reasons given is it is less crowded. We were packed in that boat like sardines. Everyone was complaining. Why in the world would your reps not know how many they can comfortably fit on each boat? They should.They just kept packing us on there and asking people to make more room until everyone was saying "no more." There were some people right behind us getting ready to leave the tour also but someone talked them into staying. My theory is, and it is just a theory, that you had an opportunity to book a lot of people for this trip because a lot of ship sponsored excursions were cancelled that day. Some people I talked to who booked at the last minute told me this. As I said in my previous post, I'm sure a lot of people have had a great experience with your company. I'm just not one of them. Had your reps informed us that you were trying to accomodate people who had their excursions cancelled and possibly offered us a discounted tour to make up for the shortened trip we might have had a great experience also. We were looking forward to this excursion more than any other we had planned. It was very disappointing for us that it turned out like it did. The fact that we had to find out the trip was shortened by another passenger was not acceptable. That is ultimately the reason we cancelled. Anyway, I'm sure most of the people who went had a great time as they knew the tour time and that they would be back in time for their last tender. I'm sure THEY knew what they were getting when they booked.

 

 

I would just like to add that I don't go around badmouthing people or businesses. That is not my intent. I have been a member of these boards for three years. I have learned so much reading them and am just letting people know of my experience. I stand by my original statement. Have a plan "B"

Again, I would like to add, Paul did apologize and tell me our deposit would be returned and I do appreciate that. I hope all others who book with Coral Breeze will have a great experience.

 

Judy

[BigAl]

Our experience with CB last week was nothing less than AMAZING! Thumbs up to Paul and ALL at the CB tour company! Hope we can tour with them again next year and anytime after that.

 

Paul,

these things happen and you just take em and try to make adjustments to your procedures so that they don't happen AGAIN! Keep up the good work and My hat's off to you for your attention to excellent customer service. It means a LOT!!

 

Allen :)