Royal Caribbean books unsafe excursion to Tranquility Shores

[JCMAN]

Pictures are at the bottom of the post.

 

We were on the Nov 4th sailing of the Voyager of the Seas, which was an awesome trip except for one horrible excursion to Freeport, Grand Bahama.

 

We had booked the Tranquility Shores Beach Day with lunch through Royal Caribbean (at a whopping $62 per person) thinking that we were getting a beautiful day at a resort with a beach, lunch, and drink. (Pretty hefty for 4 hrs at a beach...but it's a resort....so we think...)

 

What a joke! We ended up at a junkyard. The beach and water were littered with jagged, broken glass EVERYWHERE. In the water we found frayed metal roping attached to an engine block, as well as garbage cans and wood posts with rusty nails sticking out of them. The dock was falling apart and the "resort" was a small building that was in shambles. The bar/lunch area had piles of junk right next to it, and was missing parts of its roof. The entire building had enough flies in it to populate the island and we did not eat or drink anything out of fear of the unsanitary conditions. (SEE ATTACHED PHOTOS)

 

Since there is only one bus there at the start of the day and one bus back at the end, we were virtually prisoners on our beach chairs. 25 minutes away from the cruise terminal and isolated from the rest of the island. Not only did we lose our $62, but we lost the amnesties that we could have used on the ship that day!

 

Although about 35 of 80 people filled out complaint forms (We didn't realize that they expected the children and spouses to fill out forms to take us seriously :rolleyes:, the Explorations rep only gave us $31 each credited to our SeaPass. We were told that this was a gesture of goodwill, she was unauthorized to give us any more and that when she heard back from the main office in Miami it would be resolved further. Unfortunately, it was a Friday afternoon and we left the ship on Sunday morning with no response from the office in Miami but we were given instructions by her to call them directly on Monday because "it was too hard to reach her at sea".

 

Big mistake. RCCL's main office claims SHE made the decision to only give us $31 because not enough people complained enough) and that we were getting nothing else. (Basically, they played a fancy version of ship to shore pass the buck.) RCCL claims that EXPLORATION (who books all RCCL excursions) is an independent vendor and RCCL is not responsible for what they do. Hello???? They are a permanent fixture on your ship!!!! This is a reflection on Royal Carribean!!!! People book through Royal Carribean because they think it is legit and they won't get ripped off!!!! I'm here to tell you...don't do it. You might as well book directly and pay half. You get no support from RCCL anyway.

AND STAY AWAY FROM "TRANQUILITY SHORES" - IT'S A DUMP!!!

The Bahama excursion was our last stop and really ended our trip on a sour note. It's a shame, up until that point, we were havaing a good time. Maybe we'll go over to Princess next time.

 

 

More pics in next post.

 

EDIT: Corrected mispellings.

[JCMAN]

[lv2bcruzin]

Wow. That is pretty bad. Like I've always said the Bahamas are junk. If it wasn't for Atlantis on Paradise Island the Bahamas would have no reason for people to even show up, and after doing it once that is enough. I've been two Nassau 3 times, same hole everytime. The people there do not take care of what they have. :mad:

 

The Bahamas are one of those places that people who have never been anywhere else in the Caribbean think that it is the most wonderful place. :rolleyes:

[megsterl]

Do you think that some of the stuff that was scattered around the beach and water, and the condition of the building had anything to do with the hurricanes. If that is true then Royal Caribbean should not be offering that tour if it is damaged. I would be mad. At least you still had a good cruise.

[yogimax]

Wow. That is pretty bad. Like I've always said the Bahamas are junk. If it wasn't for Atlantis on Paradise Island the Bahamas would have no reason for people to even show up, and after doing it once that is enough. I've been two Nassau 3 times, same hole everytime. The people there do not take care of what they have. :mad:

 

The Bahamas are one of those places that people who have never been anywhere else in the Caribbean think that it is the most wonderful place. :rolleyes:

 

I don't think it's fair to label an entire people as "uncaring." Like all nations, there are individuals who care very deeply and others who do not. Blanket indictments are unproductive!

[msraye]

Certainly, I expect the cruise line to back their choice of tour providers. RCCL has really fallen down on this. I had a complaint with a Princess tour in Aruba. They were on it in a minute and I had a full refund! On another cruise (to Alaska) the tours were cancelled because Princess felt that the company providing had fallen below their standard. I will be very careful if I tour with RCCL.

[superjerryw]

Jeeez, what a dump. We almost took that excursion, glad we didn't.

[JCMAN]

Do you think that some of the stuff that was scattered around the beach and water, and the condition of the building had anything to do with the hurricanes. If that is true then Royal Caribbean should not be offering that tour if it is damaged. I would be mad. At least you still had a good cruise.

 

That might be why. But it was entirely irresponsible on both Tranquility Shores' part and Royal Caribbean to operate. If they had notified us of hurricane damage, we might have been upset or even mad, but then there would be the possibility of booking another excursion or at least using the facilities onboard!

 

Instead, they sent us to Tranquility Shores. Do you see that towel full of broken glass? A towel from Royal Caribbean. We brought the towel (glass and garbage inside) and put it down right at the Guest Relations desk because the Explorations! desk was now closed-Grand Bahama was the last port of call before we returned home

 

Anyhow, Tranquility Shores does have a website, http://www.tranquilityshores.com/. Looks nothing like when we were there...

[truffles2]

That is really pretty bad! I wondered....did you show the pictures to RCI? If not, I would write them and include the pictures. I believe they would make it right.

[cruisertobe032007]

I am sick, I think your photos tell the whole true story. We just spent 49.00 per person to book through Carnival. I will see the rest of the cruise members today and I think we might be cancelling. Any other tips for Freeport or Nassau?

[racephoto]

Wow. That is pretty bad. Like I've always said the Bahamas are junk. If it wasn't for Atlantis on Paradise Island the Bahamas would have no reason for people to even show up, and after doing it once that is enough. I've been two Nassau 3 times, same hole everytime. The people there do not take care of what they have. :mad:

 

The Bahamas are one of those places that people who have never been anywhere else in the Caribbean think that it is the most wonderful place. :rolleyes:

 

I wonder if you would appreciate hearing people refer to your home as "junk" and a "hole". Of course we all know all American cities are postcard pretty. :rolleyes:

 

Grand Bahama happens to be my least favorite island in the Bahamas that I've visited so far (I've only been to about 10 of the more than 700 islands of the Bahamas) but to indict an entire country based on a visit to one city is like someone making pronouncements about the entire USA after visiting Queens.

 

JCMAN, Grand Bahama took a big hit from Wilma, they had 10 foot storm surges and hundreds of houses were destroyed. It was a bad idea to keep selling that excursion based on the pics you saw and I hope RCI refunds your money. Good luck with that.

 

Gail

[stcsf04]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

 

We also had a bad experience in Jamiaca. We all filled out forms and got no response. I need to call them again. It was really bad also. It was suppose to be a Jamican Farm some farm Just a couple of Plants in the front yard of a house, a pig a cow and some very mean dogs.

 

Hope you get more resultion!

[madelinerose]

Obviously, you've never visited the Bahamas Out Islands. :cool:

 

The Bahamas are one of those places that people who have never been anywhere else in the Caribbean think that it is the most wonderful place. :rolleyes: