Worst Shore Excursion Ever?

[xcluex]

Just came back from the Carnival Pride on the Mexican Riviera - DF and I really enjoyed it, so no complaints about Carnival itself. Some of the artwork on the ship got a few giggles from us (nudity is fun!), but overall, it was lovely. The crew was fabulous, always made us feel special (detailed review of our whole experience to come). But this comment is about the excursion we booked in Cabo San Lucas through Carnival. The excursion was "Clear Bottom Kayak and Snorkeling," and I haven't yet unpacked the excursion brochure, so I don't have the exact description of the excursion but I have to say: WARNING it was nothing like that. Yes, we had a clear bottom kayak - but everything else was inaccurate. Our first concern was that there was supposed to be three experienced guides with us, one each on kayaks in front and in back and one on the boat taking us to our kayaks (in the middle of the bay). There was only one "guide" who stayed on the boat and did as much guiding as a bottle of glue. We were led to our kayaks and told to jump off our boat onto our kayaks and did not give the customers explanations about how to kayak, just said go and there we went. There were some nervous first time kayakers who didn't know techniques (basic stuff like for two people kayakers to paddle in the same direction or opposite). And so, despite the assurance that we would have a safe trip and that we would have to "do something really stupid like trying to get off the kayak" to fill our kayak with water and sink, about 6 of the 8 kayaking couples had kayaks full of water and were sinking! One couple overturned twice, the woman got hit on the head by her kayak, and waited 25 minutes to be saved BECAUSE our sole guide was trying to save other people who were sinking. Another lady had a nice mouthful of fumes from a boat because all the while, we were clipped by water taxis, jet skiers, and random other motor-operated boats that were everywhere and kept sending turbulent waves, which was one of the reasons why everyone was sinking. And for our particular experience, DF's oar broke in HALF after 15 minutes in the water and we had to waddle around in the kayak for a long time because the guide and his boat were trying to save all the sinking people. Plus, DF's hard plastic kayak chair broke TOO! so his chair was squashing my toes (since I was in back) and I had to keep pushing it forward with my feet (Hard to explain unless you were there). Women were crying, yelling at heir husbands/boyfriends, it was a mess. We were supposed to see Lover's Beach, but no such luck, we never went there....Instead, our tour mates called the place we went "Quarrel Beach" because so many couples were fighting. Our snorkeling site - well , it was a public beach and we are not snooty people, but it was a beach dominated by a large, graffiti-covered abandoned building with "shady"-looking characters (no, not the hawkers who I know need to make a living somehow, these people were...scary). We did choose not to snorkel there, which was a shame as we love snorkeling and brought our own gear, and went back early. Oh, and there were no fish to be seen through the "clear bottom" - fine, it was winter and we were distracted by our crying tour mates, navigating among crazed jet skiers, tossed to and fro with no help in sight. To Carnival's credit, the representative wrote down our complaints and did refund us 1/2 of the excursion price. To us, refund or not, we think this tour should be taken off the list, or at least booked through another more responsible tour operator, and that the kayaking tour should not be done in the middle of traffic worse than an LA highway.

[Snoozeman]

Sounds like an episode of "I Love Lucy' with everything that can going wrong.

[halos]

I would think that if a few more people experienced what you did, they will definitely eliminate this from their excursion choices. They really do listen to complaints.

I'm so sorry this happened to you....it must have been really awful.

[gazingm42]

We have had 2 different excursion which were bad. One a sub in Sitka Alaska about 4 or 5 years ago. Then we had another in Grand Cayman. The bottom

line was Carnival excursion desk didn't care in both cases. We wrote letters

to the office and never got a response.

 

Thus one reason I do not book onboard excursions.

[scperk]

That sounds like the "Deep sea fishing" fishing trip we took in the river in Costa Rico(I will never take another cruise that goes to Costa Rico)...We were on the Victory cruise where one of the cruise passengers killed a mugger who was trying to rob a van filled with tourist......Dennis

[SheriNtexas]

Some of the artwork on the ship got a few giggles from us (nudity is fun!), .

 

 

You should have seen some of the 16yo teen girls on our tour of France and Italy last summer when we saw the replica of the Statue of David!:eek: :D :D

[Jsme]

I agree, if more people complain that excursion will be taken off the books or at least that company. The last thing any cruiseline wants is a bad excursion. Remember they make a lot of money on the excursions. I bet they refunded you the part that was their profit. We will be on the Pride in November. Thanks for the heads up.

[SheriNtexas]

Sounds like an episode of "I Love Lucy' with everything that can going wrong.

 

 

 

That is what I thought too! I found myself laughing as I was reading the OP "experience" even though I know it was not funny at ALL! I guess I was laughing because of the craziness it must have been, and how scary it must have been too!! :eek: :eek: Just wanted to clarify that I wasn't laughing like "making fun" laughing, just laughing because it DID remind me of I love Lucy or keystone cops or something!

[SheriNtexas]

To the OP-YIKES!!! What a horrible experience!! My 16yo daughter and I did the individual powerboat and beach escape last summer in Cozumel, and I tell you what-if they hadn't spent a good 20 minutes or longer giving us directions, all the hand signals, etc. i would have been scared to death! I was driving the boat, my dd was the passenger, and we had to follow the guide in a row to the beach. It was pretty scary for someone who has never driven a boat before!!:eek: Not only did each boat have to stay in the line, but you couldn't get too close to the boat in front of you, but you had to watch for hand signals, etc. It was fun once i kinda got the hang of it, but more than once we flew up off the seats after hitting a small wake too hard! We not only had our guide in the very front of our line but one in the very back as well as one who stayed in the middle but not in the line to make sure everyone was doing ok! Kayaking, to ME, looks kinda scary anyway! I can't imagine how scary it was with boats sinking, and then to be right in the middle of other water traffic too!!:eek: :eek: We had no one else around us the whole time we were in our little boats, and I'm glad for that!! I can just picture all the mad people on your excursion, yelling at each other, scared...etc.! :eek: I'm glad you got at least SOME of your money back! I have always wanted to try kayaking sometime in the future, but what y'all went through does not sound like fun at ALL! Thanks for your review of this excursion!!

[shipty2]

We had an awful excursion a couple years ago in Belize. We went on the city tour and baboon sanctuary tour combined. After sitting for half an hour listening to how we were going into a real jungle and to use DEET to repel bugs and buying a mini broom to sweep away fire ants we were prepared for war. The guide takes us three feet (really 3 feet) into a sparsely treed area to see the howler monkeys swoop down and eat some leaves we offered then the tour was over and we reboarded our bus for the city tour...or so we thought. When we all realized we were almost back to the ship someone asked when we were going to be taken on our city tour only to be told the city tour was on the way there-we just had to look out the windows to see the city.

[MonaCD]

Mine wasn't quite that bad but in 2003 I took a Stingray city excursion through Carnival. The snorkelling equipment was falling apart. The swells were so forceful that it was hard to keep footing (I know that can't be helped) but I ended up having the top of my foot cut by the barb of one of the rays. When I got back on the boat, the "captain" had no concern at all, didn't have a first aid kit on board, not even a bandaid. Luckily one my fellow guests had a small first aid kit and came to my aid. Ever since then I carry a small first aid kit with me on all excursions.

[onceagain]

We booked a whale watching excursion in the Dominican Republic. We were so looking forward to it. We were all asked to meet in the showroom, there was a bunch of us. They were in contact with the boats because they had some concerns about the weather. After about 1/2 an hour they said everything was fine and we started loading up the boats. There were 3 nice big boats waiting for us. We started out and our ship disappeared into the horizon and the clouds started rolling in. It started raining a little and the waves were getting bigger. Then it rained harder and the waves got even bigger, then it started just pouring and pelting us and the waves were HUGE. About 80% of the people were now losing their breakfast over the side of the boat, if you know what I mean. People were begging the driver of the boat to turn back because the waves were huge at this point and people were getting really scared that we would tip. :( He just kept going out farther and farther and kept laughing. I was so sick - I had brought a towel with me and I just laid my head on the towel on my lap and wanted to cry, but I was too busy trying to concentrate on not getting "sick." The rain finally stopped but of course all of us were soaked and miserable. At that point he started looking for whales. He jumped up and pointed to a whale's tail - but honestly at that point nobody was interested in seeing a whale we just wanted to get back. He finally brought us back about 20 minutes later. We went back to our room, took a hot shower and took a nap. The most miserable excursion we've ever taken!!!! We did write to NCL and they gave us 30% of our $$ back. Cruise Critic was filled with postings from people who were on the boats at the same time, saying how horrible it was. Man, I never want to experience that again!!:eek:

[dan40]

I know your experiences were horrible. I've had a few myself, altho nothing with World Class Rankings BAD, like some listed above. But I hope by now you can look back and laugh about them. Because reading about them, without the agony, is funny. I'm laughing about the outrageous situations, not the people.

 

Dan

[xcluex]

I know your experiences were horrible. I've had a few myself, altho nothing with World Class Rankings BAD, like some listed above. But I hope by now you can look back and laugh about them. Because reading about them, without the agony, is funny. I'm laughing about the outrageous situations, not the people.

 

Dan

 

No worries, we're just glad we're alive to laugh about it!!:D

[caribbean dreams]

Sounds like what we saw in Belize, we were not with the ships tour who had about 40 people & 2 guides cave tubing, we had 14 pp & 4 guides, we rescued people all the way down the river, that the carnival guides had not even noticed were missing or hurt.

 

Yet another reason i try & book private excursions.

[SheriNtexas]

I know your experiences were horrible. I've had a few myself, altho nothing with World Class Rankings BAD, like some listed above. But I hope by now you can look back and laugh about them. Because reading about them, without the agony, is funny. I'm laughing about the outrageous situations, not the people.

 

Dan

 

 

 

I felt bad that in my reply that I said I was laughing!:o I'm with YOU, dan40, I was laughing at what must have looked like pure craziness going on, not at the people who were experiencing it!:eek:

[suziehmkr]

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. We were on this tour the week of 1/6 and also had half of our money refunded... so I know you aren't exaggerating at all. :( I will be reading this to my husband when he gets home. Thank you for reporting it since it helps substantiate what happened to us on the same tour. Carnival has got to see what is going on with this tour. It is new for them and exclusive... too bad it isn't working out for them.

 

Our experience is relayed here in our port review (and I didn't even mention the flooded kayaks!):

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=694608

 

We have only booked excursions thru the cruise lines 3 times (all different lines) and each of these had problems. However, all of our independent excursions have been excellent. Go figure.... So much for the saying - you get what you pay for, because those thru the ship are NOT cheap.

[TCF]

....it is their shore excursion program.

We have had only one bad excursion and that was on a western caribbean swing on the Triumph a couple of years ago. We did a "working plantation" tour on Jamaica.

It was supposed to be an actual working plantation but the last time it had seen any work was probably around 1950....then it became a sucession of rich Brits summer house....complete with a swimming pool....pastel shade en suite bathrooms that were the rage in the 70's...and a ride around a bumpy road on a jitney trailer pulled by a very old and sad tractor!

 

We complained to the crew on the excursion desk on our return...but no one seemed interested.

 

We're on the Splendor to the Med next September and we are already negotiating all of our shore excursions with private companies operating in Italy and southern Europe rather than dealing with Carnival's excursion program.

[cubsfan2008]

Hi while we were on the Liberty at Grand Cayman we took the snorkel and stingray Carnival excursion. I think the ship we took was the sundancer. The ship was an extremely old catamarran and burned lots of oil. The entire ride to and from the sandbar we were forced to breathe the obnoxious odor of burnt oil and diesel fumes that would sometimes cloud over the entire boat. It also seemed the boat could not go faster than 10-15mph and we watched as all the other tours scooted past us on newer cleaner boats. The guide was great on the tour, other employees also very nice, just the boat was in poor condition. After riding in the boat 30-40 min in each direction breathing in the clouds of smoke, I got back to the ship and had to stay in the rest of the night due to an intense headache/migraine.

[bolivar5599]

Sounds like what we saw in Belize, we were not with the ships tour who had about 40 people & 2 guides cave tubing, we had 14 pp & 4 guides, we rescued people all the way down the river, that the carnival guides had not even noticed were missing or hurt.

 

Yet another reason i try & book private excursions.

 

You used Cavetubing.com didn't you? We are going to Belize in Feb on the Glory and this will be for a second time. We have asked for Timmy - our guide the last trip and we had an absolute blast. It was a fun time and we loved it. We got to do 2 caves to the Carnival and RCCL one. We also were in a line - you know foot under the arms of the person in front of you.

 

My buddy Mac and I were in the back and we went around a particularly tight corner and of course you would know my tube hit a snag and it tore out a 1 inch chunk of rubber and the tube deflated immediately and Timmy gave me his tube. Needless to say he made a lot of fun at my expense and we all had a good laugh over it. When we get together we still laugh about it. I cannot recommend them too highly. You don't pay for it until it is done. You don't like you don't pay. We gave him a LARGE tip. The lunch was delicious - we ate at Cheers! Will report on our trip this time and we are sure to enjoy it.

 

We loved Belize and had even considered retiring there - that is how much we loved the people and climate.

[LanaJae]

What happened to me wasn't a shore excursion, but it could easily happen during one.

 

My ex-husband chartered a deep sea fishing trip from a beach vendor in Mazatlan. He knew he was not supposed to do this, we had been to Mexico before and he knew it was stupid.

 

I don't know why I went along, I was already furious about it, I suppose it was the amount of money he spent.

 

We arrived the next morning, got on the boat and had a good morning of fishing. On board was my ex, a man from Sweden, myself and the captain and mate. We were out about 15 miles from shore. There were probably 10 other similar fishing boats in the same area.

 

Just when everyone was heading back to shore, the motor quit. We were close enough to other boats so I asked the captain to please contact them for help. He said it would be fine (limited English). An hour went by and the other boats were getting further away. At this point, the mate tied a black plastic garbage bag on a fishing pole and started waving in around, no one saw it.

 

An hour later, the mate dumped a barrel of oil overboard. At this point, I learned that we had no radio, no lights, no food, no water - nothing. There was not another boat in sight - we were drifting further out.

 

Into the evening, we saw a ship. Of course it could not see us. I asked the captain if someone would be looking for us and he said no, maybe tomorrow when they see the boat is gone, maybe not. I asked him how they would find us and he shrugged.

 

Now, luckily, sometime in the evening, the owner of the boat went to the shore office and saw that our boat was not back and realized something was wrong and sent out more of his crew to look for us. They didn't notifiy authorities, but they did bring a radio. They went out to where everyone was fishing that day and then tried to follow the direction of the wind, and, nothing short of a miracle, found us. The towed our boat back with a rope, and I believe they said we were out 30 miles and then drifted another 15 miles south.

 

(excuse me, I am having a panic attack writing about this!)

 

So, next week I will be on my first cruise - it's been 18 years since I've lost sight of the shore, except for a short whale watching excursion off the coast of Maine.

 

Not writing this to scare anyone - just remember to thoroughly check out any excursions you setup on your own.

 

There was one happy memory of this nightmare - dolphins stayed with the boat the entire time we were drifting and they followed us all the way back to shore getting more excited the closer we got, it would've made a beautiful video as they were jumping in unison three on each side of the boat.