Complaint--Orca Enterprises--stranded

[tonymsrad]

We were on the 1030 Captain Larry Whalewatching trip through Orca Enterprises on Tuesday, June 22. The trip itself was good. Captain Larry is obviously respected by all the other boat captains, he knows whales, and we saw several. No complaints with this part of the trip.

When we booked the trip, I paid an extra 10 dollars to be dropped off at Mendenhall on the way back. When I mentioned the rest of my family had a 2:00 time to do Northstar's Glacier trekking, Orca offered to drop them off at Northstar, which was between the whaleboat and town.

My family was dropped off at Northstar around 140. Another group was dropped off at Coastal around 145. I reminded the driver about dropping me off at Mendenhall, and he said, and I quote, "I was told to take you back to town." I very nicely told him I had a paper in my hand stating I was to be dropped off at Mendenhall. He refused.

Once in town, I went to the Orca offices. They told me the problem was the slow bus driver, Aaron, They told me to take, and again I quote, "any bus you see across the street except for the green trolley." After 25 minutes of trying to find a bus, I found the one bus that would take me. By now it was 2:45, and I had planned to hike the E. glacier trail, a 21/2 to 3 hour hike. The last bus to town would be at 5, and they recommended catching the 430 in case there were long lines for the 5, meaning less than 1 1/2 hours there. By this time I was livid. I went back to Orca. They told me they were driving another group out to the whaleboat at 3, and they'd drop me off on the way. They also had a group that needed to be picked up from Mendenhall at 530, and would pick me up then.

On the way to the whaleboat, the driver was radioed and told to proceed on to the whaleboat, and drop me off after. Not only did he proceed to the whale boat but then went to a warehouse to pick up drinks, dropping me off at Mendenhall at 4pm, when I had planned to get there at 145. As he dropped me off he pointed to a spot and said,"This is where Pam will pick you up at 5:30."

At 555, the Orca bus came, filled with people on the way to the whale boat. I asked the driver how long to get me back to my boat. He said between 30-60 minutes, and we had a departure time of 7. From talking to people while I waited I learned there was a private bus (?frontier I think) and their last bus would be at 6. Taking a chance, I waited five minutes more, begged the frontier guy to take me back downtown (he did).

I would not count on Orca to transport you place to place. They are putting too many stops in the allotted time, and are not finding it possible to keep their committments. The rangers told me that 4 people had been stranded at Mendenhall within the past several days by them, and had had to be transported back to town by the rangers.

[Elliern]

Thanks for the report, however, I was under the impression that shuttle buses ran every 30 minutes from town to Mendenhall for $5. We too have arranged to be dropped of at Mendenhall after the 10:30 cruise. but no arrangements were made to get back to town since I thought we could just hop on one of the shuttles that would be coming by and pay our $5. Was I misinformed on this?
Thanks
Ellie

[Coral]

Ellie - when you are dropped off by Awesome Orca at Mendenhall, they give you a voucher which can be used by 2 different companies for a shuttle back to DT area when you are done at Mendenhall. One shuttle is MGT and the other I believe is New Frontier (or Frontier something). So the $10 includes your return trip. Buses do run every 30 minutes back from Mendenhall.

[tonymsrad]

Yes, the buses do run every 30 minutes, but the last is at 5 pm, and there is a danger of that bus being overcrowded. And no, the voucher is not good for Frontier, only for the light blue city bus.

And again, I too had made arrangements to be dropped off at Mendenhall after the boat ride, but Orca refused because they were behind schedule. I ended up there at 4 pm.

[tomcarson]

The voucher we received from Awesome Orca was good for both MGT Blue buses and Frontier buses. We used Frontier to return to the downtown area. We had no problems with the transportation Awesome Orca provided. I am sorry to hear that you did. They are a small organization and I think they try to please as many people that they can with different transporting and in your case, it sounds like they came up short.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

Thanks for posting about the problems you had with Orca and the bus part.

Sorry you had so much trouble.

Hope the rest of your trip went smoothly.

:)

[bayman]

We recently went w/ Orca and did a hook-up w/ Coastal . Orca picked us up ,arranged the timing ,took us from one to the other ,and at the end -time was tight ,they hustled us to the ship . It wasn't military precision ,but it all worked very smoothly and efficiently. Sorry you had such problems.

[janetmojo]

But I have never heard of Northstar, do they have a website or anything with some more information?
Thanks,
Janet in Atlanta
[email]janet@morgancontracting.com[/email]

[Host Caroline]

[url="http://www.glaciertrekking.com/"]http://www.glaciertrekking.com/[/url] :)

[Dave & Julie]

I believe Orca is the best whalewatching tour in town, but they may overpromise when it comes to shuttleing guests. I'm taking Orca on 7-20 instead of the excursion offered by the Star. You're better off taking the blue busses up to Mendenhall. It's only five bucks and they run frequently. ;)