Oscar Brown Tour 1/20/2005

[Blue Eyes]

I have e-mailed Oscar for a tour to include zip-lining at Almonds and Coral Resort for January 20, 2005. My husband I will be on the Coral Princess. If anyone would like to go e-mail Oscar and join the tour. There are several of us on the board on the ship, but I do not know if any of them will want to go. We hope to have some beach time, too. Our ship will be in port from 7 to 6, so lets get started early, say 8--8:30, if that will fit Oscar's plans...Hope to hear from some of you...

[alcman]

Donna,

 

We have already confirmed with him for the 20th. We are on the Brilliance of the Seas. There are four of us. We are scheduled for 8 am.

 

Jerry

[Blue Eyes]

Great Jerry, looking forward to meeting you :) . We loved the Brilliance. Met the most wonderful cruise friends. In fact we still e-mail and post regularly on this board. Some of them are going again 2/14/05, but we just could not do the 11 day cruise. We are self-employed and both work in the business and can not be away 2 Fridays. If Clo is your cruise director, you are in for a treat. If she is be sure and "Moo" to her and get her to tell you the story. :D

[alcman]

bump

[dmacadam]

We are also on the Brilliance on the 20th and I talked briefly to Oscar on the phone. We have 6 in our party and I really wanted an e-mail confirmation but have never gotten it. (Have e-mailed several times) We are scheduled for 9:00 but it sounds like Jerry is at 8 on the same cruise ship. Anyone have something in writing? I'm getting nervous.

Beth

[thepocketrockett]

Just to let you know that my husband and I and a group from the Coral Princess just returned from a partial crossing of the Panama Canal. I don't know what other people are saying about Oscar Brown's tours but please be aware that you will be paying a considerable amount of money for nothing. Oscar was there at the dock when we arrived but then he handed us over to a young woman who, although very nice, was not at all knowledgeable about Costa Rica. You would do better to go on line with Coral and Almonds and book with them directly. Perhaps if you have a large enough group they will send someone for you. Those people were really wonderful and the guides were outstanding. I had heard wonderful things about Oscar Brown but I'm beginning to think he is flooding this website with his own reviews. We were all very disappointed with the tour except for the zip lining part. Please be aware of this and save your money.

[CRUISAYEAR]

thepocketrockett....Thanks for voicing your opinion. I am sorry your time with Oscar turned out not to be with Oscar. Yours is a serious concern, and if this happend to me I too would be disappointed. Oscar and I correspond regularly, and before I question him as to how and why this happend, could you explain how this went down ?

Was his van full ? Did he also take folks to Almonds and Coral at the same time that you went ? Did he explain or give any reason as to why he did not take you personally?

What was the young lady's name ? and was she a relative of his ? Were you booked for a tour, or just transport to A&C ?

Although I personally have not been to A&C, I am aware that they can indeed set up transport. I have read here on the board that they have there own bus. I also know they contract with local drivers such as Oscar and others in the drivers union.

I will remind Oscar to read your post, and make adjustments to the way he is doing business to prevent anyone else from being disappointed, or feeling he misrepresented himself. Yours is the first negative post concerning him.

I can assure you of one thing. Oscar is NOT flooding this website with his own reviews. He has NEVER reviewed himself here. He is well aware that is not allowed here.

This has been done by a person who goes by "Janecruise" and I am still awaiting an answer from the board host as to why it was allowed. This person, Manuel Bebe used Oscar's boardname of "Limon" for his #1 post. All other posts by him were done under "Janecruise" so I think his first post slipped by the boardwatcher, as I don't think anyone is allowed to register as a CC member under a name that is already taken.

Oscar wants to provide the best service possible, at a competitive price. He knows this is the difference between being just a taxi driver, and becoming a respected tour operator. He is still learning. English is not his native language, and internet and phone service between our country and his is sporadic at best.

As a former satisfied customer who was impressed enough to be the first to recommend him on this board. I continue to offer him what advice I can as to how to do business with us Americans, and what we expect from those who vie for our hard earned shore excursion dollars.

[thepocketrockett]

Cruiseayear - There were 9 of us on Oscar's tour. All of us without exception were extremely disappointed in the tour. Oscar never gave us an explanation as to why he was handing us over to someone else. He also didn't know who we were when we arrived and called his office on his cell phone and handed the phone to me. The zip lining as I said before was terrific and the staff and guides at Almonds and Coral were A+ and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. After communicating with Oscar over the course of several days I was under the impression that he himself would be taking us on the tour as was the understanding of the other people on the tour. Although I do not recall the name of the young woman who escorted us I can tell you she had green eyes (contacts she told us) and the only expertise she had was pointing out churches of which there are many in Costa Rica. It got so late because the driver of the van took an inordinate amount of time in the gas station that we had to cancel part of our tour which was no disappointment to us. We would have never made it back to the ship if we would have taken the full tour. Additionally the young woman who escorted us kept stopping to talk to her aunts, cousins, and other family members. When you have a limited amount of time in a particular place as you do when you dock in a port you don't want to wait around while someone chats with friends and family. I'm sorry to be so down on this but I think people should know that not all the experiences with Oscar Brown and his operation have been positive ones. Again, I would recommend Coral and Almonds any day of the week but that's as far as it goes.

[oneknee]

As one of the 9 on the previously mentioned excursion, I can say that I share thepocketrocket's opinions. My girlfriend communicated directly with Oscar beforehand, I believe she organized the tour on the port of call board. Never once was it represented that anyone but Oscar would be guiding us. We did book a whole tour, not just transportation.

 

What was not mentioned was the van... we had to push start it! I guess I am a lazy American, but that really bothered me! I set the bar for transpo. somewhat higher.

 

The young lady who conduced the tour did mention that Oscar was out on a tour, but we did not see him at any point. IT WAS ALMOST PAINFUL AT THE END OF THE EXCURSION, WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONED THAT WE USE CRUISECRITIC, AND WE WERE GIVEN A COPY OF A SURVEY ABOUT THE BEST LIMON EXCURSIONS KNOWING FULL WELL I COULD NOT RECOMMEND OSCAR.

 

Zipping was excellent. I am such a chicken when it comes to heights, so the first platform was quite challenging. After that, it was such a rush.. I would porbably do it again if it was offered at a different port. Almonds and Corals was beautiful and their staff was high caliber.

 

We also did get to see/interact with a sloth which was very important to Kristin, so that part of the tour was worth it too.

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

PAT

[CRUISAYEAR]

Thanks for the info thepocketrockett and oneknee. Will do what I can to help prevent this from happening to others. Will advise that if Oscars own tour is booked for the day, that he at that point should disclose this and offer to hook the overflow up with someone else as an option of their own choosing. Not his. In order to protect his own reputation.

[thepocketrockett]

oneknee - I totally forgot about pushing the van and let's not forgot how the driver got lost in the gas station. the zip lining was incredible especially for people like you who are scared of heights. it was so awesome and seeing that sloth up the tree with her baby was an incredible experience. Perhaps Oscar is taking on too much and doesn't want to turn tourists away but people should be aware that his tours are not up to snuff and I would be hard pressed to recommend him. when you have limited time in a port you don't want to waste time and I think the tour was a waste with the exception of holding the sloth. I totally agree with oneknee. hey oneknee get better and happy holiday to you and kristin. it was great meeting you guys.

[Boomerang]

My wife and I agree with the tour information provided by PocketRocket and OneKnee. We, too, were on the tour arranged by OneKnee's friend. Although we did enjoy the banana plantation, holding a sloth at a private home and zip lining, we were disappointed that Oscar did not personally provide a tour to our group as we were led to believe. The young girl who operated the tour did not offer any substantial information about the people, history, plants and wildlife, etc. Another member on the tour asked questions about trees and plants, but the tour operator could not provide answers. It was frustrating that the driver did not have the van filled with gas prior to our departure. He was forced to stop and fill the tank up 30 minutes into our tour, then did not have the correct money to pay the gas station so we had to stop yet again on the way back to the ship. Driver also spent a lot of time in the gas station talking to two young women which was eating up more of our tour time. I was also one of those who had to push the van to get it started...not a problem but could have been if it did not start up and we could not make it back to ship on time from private tour. Oscar did not live up to the Cruise Critic HYPE. Beware.

[thepocketrockett]

For some reason when I went into your message today it disappeared. Your message on the board was "right on". If you can please re-send the previous e-mail to me. Hope that the "Mrs." is doing better. We really enjoyed meeting all you guys. The best part of the cruise was the terrific group of people we met. Spoke to Jill and Jordan who are still talking about BBD - yesterday was flashinglight's b'day and he brought out a bottle which gave everyone a big chuckle! Hope all is well and you're not freezing your you know what's off. speak soon. If not happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year to you guys and all our friends from the Coral Princess.:)