beware when you book with myfriendmario !!

[Thorben-Hendrik]

We booked with him and confirmed serveral times but he never showed up which left us stranded at the port, made the bets out of it, but it sure is BAD to be stuck without a tour !!!!!:mad::eek::mad:

[Ventura]

Thanks for the warning. I've emailed Mario to ensure that he will show up on December 29th. I let him know that I had seen a comment on Cruise Critics -- hopefully it will be of concern if he knows the word's getting out. What did you do as an alternative?

[disneylynn]

Wow! Thanks for the warning,

I had a large group booked with him for feb, I booked it in sept. Last week I get a email from him saying he wants half down ($1750) and he wants me to send a money order to a Indiana address. I emailed him back telling him I was not going to sent that much money to someone I met on the internet. He now said he would take $500. Now I don't know what to do.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

We were to 3 different ports and ALWAYS booked with indipendent operators ONLY myfriendmario let us down!!!

I WOULD NOT SEND ANY MONEY !!!!

 

Please keep in mind that the average wage in Panama is US$200-300 PER MONTH !!!:eek:

So he is making the MEGABUCKS it is very unsafe and unreasonable to send ahead!!! All operators that I booked with did NOT ask to be paid till the tour was over and I think this is just good business!!!

 

We eventually hired a taxi and had a good time but lost a lot of time looking for mario and felt not very safe at first but were lucky to find a nice taxi-guy that did his best to show us what I had planned........

[disneylynn]

I am so disapointed, His tour sounded so good.

I was going to send him $10 per person as a deposit.

I would be sick if I lose anyones money!

Thanks again

Lynn

[sjd4]

germanfflyer,

 

When was your trip and what ship? Did you just get back? I'd like to email Mario and ask him why he was a noshow for you. There doesn't seem to be many other choices out there for a tour (at a good price). You are the first person to write that he did not show. How many people were in your group and which tour had you booked?

Glad you had a good time on your cruise beside that. I guess it is hard to have a bad time on a cruise.

Thanks for the info.

[disneylynn]

Thanks for the message Ventura

Do you Think it is ok to send him a deposit of $500?

I am so confused!

Lynn

[MandynJim]

We booked with him and confirmed serveral times but he never showed up which left us stranded at the port, made the bets out of it, but it sure is BAD to be stuck without a tour !!!!!:mad::eek::mad:

 

He was definatley there, we were on the same ship as you the Legend<12-3-11-2005>(we were on the Charlie Soto trip with you, it was a good tour also, we were in the back part of bus, we were not the complainers).

 

My wife and I were actually late getting off the boat in Panama, we got off the ship at 7:20, and we got to Mario around 7:30 he was still waiting for us. I don't now how you missed Mario but he was definately there until at least around 7:35 or so since we were running late that morning. Sorry you missed him but he does do a great tour. We scheduled the Embra Indian Village and the River tour there was 6 of us total, which was fantastic, I would highly recommend this tour and would not hestiate using Mario again:) .

[Host Caroline]

Thanks for the message Ventura

Do you Think it is ok to send him a deposit of $500?

I am so confused!

Lynn

 

I would never send a tour op that much money.. when I do groups I use tour ops that allow me to collect indiv. booking info and they send it to them..

And CC policy does not allow tour ops to "conduct business" on the boards.. If Mario has any concerns he needs to address with you it will need to be via email!

[Ventura]

Caroline... I apologize if I violated some Code of Conduct. I was well aware that tour operators themselves cannot post messages. However, I truly felt that details from Mario's email to me were relevant to many cruisers who had questions about his policies. Perhaps we can share this information appropriately. I don't want to do so without permission.

[Host Caroline]

You can summarize the email, i.e. "when we booked our tour with this comapany we were told that they had a new policy and that......"

but anything that hints at advertising OR any post that can be traced back to the tour op themselves that promotes the cost of or touts their business will be removed....

[Ventura]

Thank Caroline. As my previous post was deleted, here's a summary of my correspondence with Mario. After reading some rather negative comments about him not showing up, as well as confusion regarding documentation required, I sent an email to Mario. He did ask me to share his response with the forum, which I did verbatum. I now understand I was not supposed to do this. Basically, Mario will wait for people who have booked him, but obviously, cannot wait forever if he has other people waiting as well. I think this makes sense to any tour operator. Only passengers getting off the ship in the canal or Gatun Lake require a special Visa, and names must be supplied to the tour operator. This does not apply to tours originating in the port. There also seems to be some confusion about deposits. Apparently Mario has updated his policy and is asking for a deposit on group of 6+. He claim to receive 30 emails a day from people requesting tours, and my assumption is he's been burned a few times. We may not all agree with that, and personally I would never send a money order. At least with a credit card deposit you have some recourse. As well, what happens if the ship cannot dock or inclement weather prevents you from doing the excursion?

Mario has been quite efficient responding to my emails. I have been impressed with his professionalism and we're anticipating a wonderful day in Panama. Will certainly provide an update when we return in the New Year.

[transit5495]

I have also been emailing Mario regarding the deposits. He said to look at the critics board and see how respectable his operation is. I sent him back saying there were some responses not so favorable. He explained that particular instance, there was a no-show and he had 14 people waiting so he took off. He also said the map he gives is very easy to read and he also gives his cell-phone number. The reason for the deposit, he says is because he has had clients book tours and never get off the ship or email to cancel and he has spent time and gas to pick up no one causing "quite a few major headaches".

I understand and can sympathize with his problems, but I still don't feel good sending a money order. He says he collects the deposit in Indiana so his agent can easier pay the commissions to the Travel Agents in the U.S.

But I am not going through a travel agent so I don't understand that argument.

It sounds like a great shore excursion and I'm still going to try and book it.

[CruisingGirl95]

I can understand that he needs something, But why not a credit card. I did not book with a Ta. I have a large group of people that include my friends family and roll call. I have been talking with the people on my roll call for a year, most of us meet on the Miracle last year. We all booked other tours last year and this year together and never did anyone want me to send $1750 in a cash money order.

 

P.S. Sorry this is Disneylynn my DD was logged in

[Thorben-Hendrik]

Missing Mario was BAD:mad: but loosing money too would be even WORSE:eek:, so I would defenetly NOT recommend to pay in advanve, because so many things can happen !!!:cool:

[VikkiGarcia]

I have booked many independent tour guides for different cruise ports, even less traveled ports like Puntarenas. I would not feel comfortable sending any money to anyone. I have had to pay by credit card a US based travel agency for our tour. Don't ask me how the other company got their end of the payment. I figure that if something went wrong my recourse is disputing the charge. I have always found someone offering some kind of tour at ALL ports, so if my prearranged desides to no-show (hasn't happened yet) I will not be standing at the peir being left with nothing to do.

[JeriNP]

Hello all,

 

I'm on the QM2 January 3 2006 sailing, stopping in Panama at Cristobal (?), and I want to book Mario's tour...and says he needs our passport numbers ahead of time. Has anyone else had this experience, and if so, what did you do? I'm just leery of giving that information out to anyone. He said that we needed to give him this information in order to get off the ship, but I didn't read that anywhere on the Cunard website. The homemade form says, in part,..."authorize my clients to get off the QM2 ship at Gatun Yacht Club in Gatun Lake".

 

Any help on this would be appreciated. It sounds like a great tour and other people have written very good things about him, but this just sounded weird to me. Thanks.

[Hebe]

We have been asked before for passport information in Argentina and in Europe. I know in Europe it was for them to file ahead of time that we were on an in country tour with a country based tour company. We did not a visa to get into the country because we were escourted.

[kelster42]

We gave Mario our passport numbers and that is how he got us clearance off the boat. Celebrity was not going to let us off the boat but Mario got us clearance. I posted earlier Must read about Mario. As for Indiana we found out that is daughter lives there.

 

Kelli

[springfire]

I have booked a tour with myfriendmario on my Carnival Legend cruise. He has been great so far in communicating with me, others seem to really enjoy his tours. I am really looking forward to this. Most people on here have really enjoyed his tour.