Happyexplorer

We are currently on the Marina  cruising from Rio to Santiago. Booked a B4 guarantee and assigned a B2 cabin two weeks prior to the cruise. Cruise was booked in early August last year.

I am looking to book a small group private tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. I got quotes from several companies. Giancarlo of Tour of Italy gave me a very attractive price. Has anybody used this company before and can comment on their experience?

I was in the same tour of 25 people with Ramses and can understand some of Vicki's frustration. However her original post does not seem to be around so I cannot address it directly. Therefore I will give some of my observations.

Lianna did a great job in working with Ramses to organize this tour. The tour was well organized, and the bus and hotel was top quality.

Most of us decided on a private tour to get away the the big and impersonal tours organized by the cruise ship. We wanted to spend more time actually sight seeing and less time standing around and waiting. Unfortunately with a group of 25, the experience started to feel like a big tour, although not as bad as a tour of 50 people in a big bus. With hindsight, Lianna should have capped the group at 12-15 people and hopefully some one else would have organized another group.

Our guide, Mimmo or Mohammed was below par compared to guides I had used in England and China. He had poor English skills. He would give a set speech on things we were about to see, but had problems answering questions. He did not know enough of the nuances of the English language to understand questions easily or give adequate replies. He also did not always gather the big group together before launching into an explanation of sights we were about to see. We did not get much information from him about the Sphinx. Mimmo might do better as a tour guide to smaller groups. But he may not make as much money selling stuff to the tour members!

Still, I would say that I enjoyed the 2 days in cairo. If I ever go back to Egypt, I would still use Ramses. However I would limit the size of my group to 8 or fewer people in order to get the personal attention we all expect.

Su-hin