excursion Outback Dominican Adventure

[liquorstore]

We're taking the Outback Dominican Adventure off the Sunshine in April. We're looking forward to the schoo visit and plan to bring donations for the children. Has anyone taken this excursion (especially on a Sunday)? Any review is appreciated

[Florida Paesano]

Yes, we've taken that excursion and had brought along donations for the children at the school.  The tour guide never mentioned the donations and never mentioned how to take the donated items.  We had them in a duffel bag that I carried.  Upon entering the school grounds but still outside of the classroom, I was mobbed by children who appeared to be in the upper grades of elementary or even middle school ages here.  (I counted more than 20 on my way out.) The children were pushing and hitting each other and with all of them trying to grab the bag from me it ripped.  The contents of the bag spilled all over and the children were grabbing and stealing things from each other.  At this point, there was absolutely no sign of any teachers or other adult supervision.  It was so bad that my main concern was simply to extricate myself from the situation.  Once inside the room with what was the kindergarten classroom, one of the teachers in that classroom told me I should not have done that and that I should have told the tour guide that we had donations.  That would have been excellent information to have from the tour guide.  Nothing at all was mentioned about how to donate prior to this point.  I did notice that we were the only ones on our tour who had donated items.  After the school visit and getting back on to the tour bus, the guide admonished me for not having told him we had donations and that I should have told him beforehand.  I explained that since I was not the tour guide, I felt he was the one who should have let our group know about their process and that he clearly watched me exit the bus carrying a large duffel bag.  After than experience, I will not be donating anything like this again.  The unsupervised children tore apart most of the donated items in their attempt to grab them for themselves and there was nothing but a mess of smashed crayons, markers, coloring books and other items we had included.  However, I will always remember that there was one young girl who tried to keep the others from mobbing me and kept saying to me "I'm sorry".  

[GB Chicago]

We had such a different experience.  I wrote a review on the carnival excursion site.  The tour guide did tell us not to give the kids money so as not to encourage begging and that is when we asked if it was ok to bring donations into the classroom.  We did not see any kids outside of the classroom and the class we visited had 1st or 2nd graders.  They were so polite and thankful for the donations.  Several others brought donations and took them straight to the teacher.  The entire tour was fantastic from the house visit to the beach!  We did not go on a Sunday though so I can't comment on whether school would be in session.

[Nerkbuck]

We went on this excursion with our teenagers and loved it. School was out, so we didn't get to see any of the kids. We had a good time at the farm and the kids enjoyed the beach. Lunch was good, but it was a long ride. I would highly recommend it.