Oscar Brown troubles?

[JLDMED]

Aside from difficulty emailing him (and vice versa)-- has anyone had trouble with Oscar? I would like to book a tour through him, but am nervous because I have never booked an excursion outside the cruiseline.

 

Does he require a minimum amount of people? If so, how do you book ahead, then ensure there will be enough people for the tour to be filled? Is that MY responsibility? Do I have to be an "Oscar's Tours" recruiter? :-)

 

Has he ever been late returning to the ship? We would like him to take us ziplining, and then on the canal ride, and I know that it is a long day. Don't want to take any chances that we'll miss our departure time.

 

We're sailing on the Celebrity Galaxy out of Galveston in Feb 2006. When do we need to think about booking our shore excursions?

 

Any input would be appreciated!

[tinkerme1]

Aside from difficulty emailing him (and vice versa)-- has anyone had trouble with Oscar? I would like to book a tour through him, but am nervous because I have never booked an excursion outside the cruiseline.

 

Does he require a minimum amount of people? If so, how do you book ahead, then ensure there will be enough people for the tour to be filled? Is that MY responsibility? Do I have to be an "Oscar's Tours" recruiter? :-)

 

Has he ever been late returning to the ship? We would like him to take us ziplining, and then on the canal ride, and I know that it is a long day. Don't want to take any chances that we'll miss our departure time.

 

We're sailing on the Celebrity Galaxy out of Galveston in Feb 2006. When do we need to think about booking our shore excursions?

 

Any input would be appreciated!

 

 

What "PORT" is your ship docking/tendering in Costa Rica? This will make a difference, since Oscar prefers to take tours from Puerto Limon.

[JLDMED]

We'll be docking in Puerto Limon. We hear he is great ... just a few questions that I need answered!

[patrioticgirl]

JLDMED, I responded to your question over on the over board.:)

[joie de vivre]

Why not try getting a tour organized with Danilo Hall? I just got back from a tour with him and we totally loved him and the tour. We did the canal and we also did ziplining. Danilo can be reached at adventure_caribbean@yahoo.com there is an underscore between adventure and caribbean. Danilo will get back to you and he will make your day in Costa Rica one to remember. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me. You can check out the thread started by Corey, he also had a tour with Danilo. Let us know what you decide.

[marshaatn]

Hi -- Check my post about Charlie Soto -- he is more reasonably priced that Oscar and will make sure your day is great. I can't recommend him highly enough.

 

Marsha

[Driftwoodgal]

JLDMED,

 

I have taken a tour with Oscar, spoken with him on the phone and posted a review about our day with him. We will be back in Pureto Limon in Jan 2006 and will use him again. I can't say enough good things about him and his sister. Some of the problems with the email system has nothing to do with Oscar, rather the ISP there in Pureto Limon. Almonds and Corals had trouble responding back to me as well, I finally just called Oscar. If you call him... pick up a phone card from Target, Walmart it's cheaper that way. We did not have to have a minimum when we toured with him. We did have a group of 8 from our Meet and Mingle thread and two others came off the Brilliance.

 

You will see so much more of this beautiful country if you use an independent tour guide. I am sure others are good..... but Oscar gets my vote and my return business. It is to bad that all of the posts that were on the old board didn't get transferred to this one. Besides giving you a great tour.....he loves his country and it shows.

 

If you have any more questions you can email me at Colleen310@aol.com or post them here.

[39august]

Driftwoodgal is right on about Oscar. He was not only on time, but early. It is not your responsibility to fill up his tour. He will tell you if he has availabliity for your tour date and choice of tour. We did his canal, animal sanctuary, banana platation tour. He supplies cold water, sodas and beer. He is so knowledgable and so happy to show you his beautiful country!

[Driftwoodgal]

Just another thought that you should think about when booking a local tour guide. Some guides do an all inclusive price for your tour, and some have you pay for entrance fees into different areas and things like the zipline. I would suggest that you compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.

 

I think that Oscar now includes all of the fees that you would have to pay for your tour in the package price. When we were in St. Lucia our tour guide had to pay for an entrance fee into a park, all of that was included in our tour price.

[doublel]

We took the Oscar Brown tour in March of this year. He was waiting for us on the dock when we arrived. His tour was great, all fees were included. They took us to a fabulous restaurant in Limon and that was the only thing extra we had to pay for. I highly recommend Oscar.

[gizmo]

We used Oscar over a year ago.

 

Our ship docked at a different dock then what was published. I was somewhat worried but Oscar was there waiting for us.

 

We asked for a 4 hour tour and we enoyed it.

 

Oscar pointed out some lime trees. I commented that the ship ran out of limes. (A vodka gimlet is no good without the fresh lime :rolleyes: ) Oscar drove to a friend's house and picked me fresh limes. There had to be at least 50 limes in the bag.

[Driftwoodgal]

Gizmo,

 

That would be the Oscar that I have dealt with. In all of our cruises I book independent tours from the ship and I have yet have a tour beat the day that we spent with him in Puerto Limon. I can't wait to see him Jan 2006 so that he can show the group from the Brilliance he wonderful country. I will need to call him and see if he feels that we can do the zipline and the canals all in the same day. I know that he completely understands the importance of getting people back to the ship.

 

I can't wait to buy more coffee......in fact that might be the only thing that get put into the suitcase... just throw out the clothes :p

[ChattTenn]

Aside from difficulty emailing him (and vice versa)-- has anyone had trouble with Oscar? I would like to book a tour through him, but am nervous because I have never booked an excursion outside the cruiseline.

 

Does he require a minimum amount of people? If so, how do you book ahead, then ensure there will be enough people for the tour to be filled? Is that MY responsibility? Do I have to be an "Oscar's Tours" recruiter? :-)

 

Has he ever been late returning to the ship? We would like him to take us ziplining, and then on the canal ride, and I know that it is a long day. Don't want to take any chances that we'll miss our departure time.

 

We're sailing on the Celebrity Galaxy out of Galveston in Feb 2006. When do we need to think about booking our shore excursions?

 

Any input would be appreciated!

 

Hi,

 

Regardless who you will end up to go with. Be sure to state in your e-mail the meeting time will be local time or the ship time.

 

We used Oscar Brown 2 times (April 2004 and February 2005). We told him both times to meet us at the dock at 8:00 AM. He was there waiting for us in April 2004 but we had to wait for him in February 2005 (according to him the local time is 1 hour earlier than the ship time ??).

 

We were very happy with his service in April 2004 so on the next cruise we wanted to use his service again in February 2005. Well, we were very disappointed with this one. If there are more than 2 groups at any given time, he will go with the larger group eventhough he already PROMISED THAT HE WILL TAKE US HIMSELF because we were his repeat customer. The person he passed us to who had never been to places that we asked to see and agreed upon with the prices and so on.........

 

Puerto Limon/Costa Rica is a very beautiful place. Hope you will enjoy your day there.

 

Happy Cruising.

[ChuckyMoe]

I was just wondering if there was any problem getting off the ship to catch your private tours.

 

I have booked a tour with Oscar in January and he said that he would meet us at the pier at 8:00. I know that the ships let off anyone who has booked a tour with the ship before anyone else and wondered if there was a problem getting off in time.

 

I'm presuming that since we are docked that there would not be any problems.

[Driftwoodgal]

ChuckyMoe,

 

No you won't have any trouble getting off of the ship as you are docked. I think the problem has been with people giving Oscar different times to meet the ship. I am still having problems with trying to figure out what time to tell him to meet us on our tour in Jan 2006. When we first used Oscar we sailed out of Galveston Texas and we were on CST. Out next cruise we will be sailing out of Miami and will be on EST time. The ships change the times at some ports and not others.... maybe fellow cruisers can help out here. I just know that we were over 2 hours late arriving and he was there to meet us. I had talked to him on the phone and he said he would be there and he was. I think his business has grown since we used him..... and good for him. He is trying to give a quality product at a very fair price. He has tried to expand his business and include other drivers to help out when he is unable to drive you, that is what I am reading on posts here on the CC board. Oscar and his crew have my vote hands down.

[MortgageChick]

Do any of these tour guides have their own web sites.

[echusky]

Does any of these tour guides have web sites or places to see what their tours entail?....I'm going on the Carnival Liberty in February

[Driftwoodgal]

Chuckymoe,

 

I just noticied that you are sailing on our same ship the days that we will be on her. Have you signed up for the Brilliance Jan 23, 2006 Meet and Mingle? We would love for you to stop by and post. There are several couples that sailed on the Brilliance last year and we are sailing on her again in 2006. We all met through the CrusieCritic Board and the Meet and Mingle Thread. If you have trouble finding the thread let me know and I will try to get a link to it.

 

MortgageChick and Ehusky,

 

I don't know about any websites that tour guides have, but I do have some pictures of our day with Oscar Brown that I could send to you.

[MortgageChick]

I emailed Oscar several weeks ago but no response. Maybe I 'll just book with the ship. What email do you guys have for him??

[Driftwoodgal]

Mortgagechick,

 

This was his email cbrown@costarricense.cr but I think I read on the boards that it changed to limonense03@yahoo.com. I just use an ATT phone card and call him. His phone number is 011 506 758-1881 home and cell would be 011 506 350 -6415. IMHO it is well worth picking up the phone and calling him. You will get so much more for your money if you use him.

[Driftwoodgal]

I was in hopes that I could edit my above post before the time limit expired. I just got off of the phone with Oscar, I called his cell phone number 011 506 350 6415. He told me that the home phone is not reliable, to call his cell phone instead. I told him that some were still having problems with getting a response to their emails. I am sure this is so frustrating for him when people try to contact him and he has a problem getting their emails. I will send him an email to each of his emails later today to test them. He is to email me back with some prices and information for our day in Puerto Limon.

 

Oscar wasn't the only one that was having problems with his email account when we were looking into tours two years ago. I am just glad that someone posted his phone number so I could book with him. I am counting the days until we get to see his lovely country again.

[Kate-AHF]

I'm not having any problems emailing Oscar - as of this week. My first response was within 4 hours of my hitting the send button last Wednesday. We emailed back and forth talking about options, and I sent a confirming email last night. We confirmed it would be 8am LOCAL TIME, and I got instructions on what pier to meet them.

 

I'm really looking forward to it, and I thank everyone on this board that turned me on to this idea.