What was the worst excursion you have ever taken?

[cruzeluver]

The ONLY excursion that has been a disappointment is the Fury Catamaran Sail and Snorkel in Cozumel. The "snorkeling" was truly awful. Nothing to see and only about 20 minutes. The time at the beach was nice, and the guides were friendly enough, but the main focus seemed to be on the booze (re: cheap) provided on the way back. Unless getting shnockered on cheap tequila is what you are looking for, beware any excursions that include unlimited alcohol.

[mom2NnB]

Jamaica's first language is English. ;)

 

That's what I thought. They said "no Eglish" and then started speaking in another language. When he got back they were speaking in another language - not English, don't know what they were saying.

[Desert Cruizers]

Hey Vicky nice to see you and we really enjoyed meeting you both in Oct. Please stay in touch, our Hawaii Board is still active with Amy, Mike & Gigi, Claire. Many of you here had some scary moments it seems, I do recall our day in Acapulco, we got a bit of a scare when one of the locals was on wrong side of road,and heading straight for our tour Bus, he quickly turned into a left hand lane going in wrong direction to get on the correct side of the road. We thought what a way to start a tour.

[zantedeschia]

Jamaica's first language is English.

 

That's what I thought. They said "no Eglish" and then started speaking in another language. When he got back they were speaking in another language - not English, don't know what they were saying.

 

It's called "Patois". A form of pidgin English.

[mom2NnB]

It's called "Patois". A form of pidgin English.

 

Thanks!:D

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

I am reminded of when DH and DD took an excursion to the falls. Two incidents resulted:

 

DH was distracted and DD (about 9 years old) was approached by a vendor. He asked her the names of her family and she gave him the names. Later he confronted DH and DD with 4 tiki statues carved with our names indicating that she had 'ordered' them made when she gave him our names and wanted $25 each. DH didn't want a hassel and finally agreed to pay $5 each.

 

The vendors were so aggressive, DD and DH decided to pull the 'no english' trick on them. They started talking gibberish to each other and the vendos finally left them alone when they thought they couldn't communicate with them. LOL

 

We get a lot of laughs from it now. Take each adventure as it comes.

 

:D

[mom2NnB]

I am reminded of when DH and DD took an excursion to the falls. Two incidents resulted:

 

DH was distracted and DD (about 9 years old) was approached by a vendor. He asked her the names of her family and she gave him the names. Later he confronted DH and DD with 4 tiki statues carved with our names indicating that she had 'ordered' them made when she gave him our names and wanted $25 each. DH didn't want a hassel and finally agreed to pay $5 each.

:D

 

They did this to us too. DD (6 at the time) told them her name and her brothers (11) and then demanded we pay them. We got ours for $5 each too, and they smelled like marijuana.

[yogimax]

Have to add the "Turtle Farm" in Grand Cayman. We thought it would be an environmentally friendly tour.

 

NOT.

 

The turtles are being raised as FOOD and live in tanks with hundreds of other condemned prsioners!

[pam_1024]

OMG' date=' love2crz, you win. You had DH & me rolling on the ground. chicken guy, haaa!!![/quote']

 

lol, glad I'm not the only one who almost spit coffee on my computer screen :D. I know this had to be terrifying at the time but man it was funny reading about it. Although I'm now freaking out over a planned excursion in Belize through RC in May. :eek:

[sunnyshine]

Have to add the "Turtle Farm" in Grand Cayman. We thought it would be an environmentally friendly tour.

 

NOT.

 

The turtles are being raised as FOOD and live in tanks with hundreds of other condemned prsioners!

 

Thats really terrible. Thanks for the info. :(

[Alexis]

The Whale Watch in Hawaii many years ago.

It cost us a fortune to cruise around and see nothing. :( The person running the tour would say, "Oh look, there's a tail over there" after we were all made to look the other way. :mad:

We returned to the cruise ship and sat on deck and watched a pod of whales playing right off the side of the ship for free.:D

[karolm]

Santa Marta, Columbia We were going to stay on the ship for this port due to all the negative reviews. We already had been at sea for 3 days so thought we would try a ship excursion. Because of the inaccurate description at the shore excursion talk by Luke Bergado, shore excursions manager, we chose Taste of Tayrona Park. We went down to the desk and I personally asked Luke if this excursion would be appropriate for my DH and I due to our knee problems. He told us not in the least strenuous. Well, after getting to the park in a bus escorted by armed militia we were all told by the guide to follow him. Up and down hill, passing many groups of armed militia, thru mud, up 132 rock stairs all uneven, but whose counting?) and even one jump about 3 feet down and we arrived at the beach. One knee was swollen for a week. When we got back to the ship it took me 4 days to get an appointment with Luke to talk about the discrepancies. For the first 10 minutes he told me my husband had talked to him all about the bad experience. NOT. I felt like I was dealing with a used car salesman. After another 6 days I finally made an appointment with Heike Cramer the Hotel Director. Finally some satisfaction with a half refund and being told not to tell anyone. Sorry but be very aware the shore excursion talks are not likely to be very accurate.

 

Post: I challenged the charge on my visa and never paid the other half of the cost of the tour.

[dutchess43]

I wouldn't even bother to post mine after reading some of these my experiences pale in comparsion. My soda at one point flew out of my mouth, I could not contain myself.

[beachlovergirl]

We made our way down to the beach and sat under a thatched umbrella for a couple of beers. A man dressed like a chicken and making chicken noises came wandering up to us. He took a swig of whiskey and blew out a big stream of fire which caused a part of our umbrella to start smoking. We all ran into the water because he was clearly drunk and very dangerous stumbling around fire breathing. After about 1 1/2 hours our guide shows up with the river tubers and off we go finally to Dunns River Falls.

 

It was the worst tour ever and the craziest. It's also given us something to laugh about for years!

 

Sorry......I'm still laughing about this one!!!!!

 

Dee

[NavigatorBride]

They did this to us too. DD (6 at the time) told them her name and her brothers (11) and then demanded we pay them. We got ours for $5 each too, and they smelled like marijuana.

 

Us too. We were warned about this on the boards so I told our girls (2 and 5) not to tell anyone their names....and they did ask! One of the vendors heard me tell the five year old to come and hold my hand and approached us with a drum with her name started on it. I told them no and started to walk away and he said it was free....then he tells me it's $5.00. By then my daughter has it in her hand so I told him I'd give him $2.00. He wasn't very happy, but then again, neither was I. Grandpa finished scratching her name on it when we got home. Our two year old was in a back carrier on my husbands back and he was asked on numerous occasions if he wanted to buy drugs. DUH! NOT. The falls were beautiful, but the market at the top was a nightmare.

[CruiserFox]

I've had the same experience with Dunn River Falls, but probably my worst was in Cozumel. My college roommate and I took the "Party Cruise" to a beach. 1) It was 30 mins late 2) it was run by some crude individuals who kept making dirty gestures to us 3) the free drinks were awful, including the virgin ones 4) they then told us we had to go through this marketplace to get to the beach "we were allowed to use" only to find out, it was the one we docked at, they just wanted us to get hounded in the marketplace. 4) the snorkeling was a bunch of rocks. We finally just decided to take a cab back to the dock instead of enduring the ride back on their Cruise.

[moesyk4]

Our worst experience was in St. Maarten and wasn't an organized tour, but everyone had said it was super easy to go to Orient Beach without one (which it was) so we just went on our own. We went to the taxi spot and got passed over about 6 times to get in a taxi/van because they kept wanting to get more money to cater to the larger groups. Finally, we were crammed in the back of a 15 passenger van with little air and took the trek to Orient Beach. He told us he would come back in 5 hours to pick us up. We went on the beach and paid to get two beach chairs with umbrellas (I think 12 dollars each). It was supposed to come with a free drink, which was a can of some foreign soda out of a lukewarm cooler. Two hours later some lady came over and demanded that we pay for the chairs. I told her several times that we had already paid her partner and would not pay again and even though she never did believe me she finally left us alone. The water was pretty but had a ton of seaweed and junk floating in it. Plus it was rough from all of the waverunners. We were constantly harassed by people trying to sell stuff who wouldn't take no for an answer. Finally, after 2 1/2 hours, we'd had enough and wanted to go back to the ship, but unlike the other ports, there is not a single taxi that waits for people there. It is all set up by appointment. Finally, we chased down one taxi was grudgingly took us back to the ship. It really ruined St. Maarten for us!

[printingchick]

Dunnes River Falls in Jamaica. We booked through RC - it was the Reggae Baby cruise and falls tour. I probably shouldn't bash the trip entirely, because there were people in our group who had a blast. I'm afraid of heights, so climbing the falls, with nothing to hold onto except for the people in the human chain with you, was a little too scary for me.

 

 

I keep reading people complain about the "Raggae Baby" cruise. We just took that "Cruise to the Falls" on Freedom of the Seas and we had a BLAST!

[VickyMcG]

Hey Vicky nice to see you and we really enjoyed meeting you both in Oct. Please stay in touch, our Hawaii Board is still active with Amy, Mike & Gigi, Claire. Many of you here had some scary moments it seems, I do recall our day in Acapulco, we got a bit of a scare when one of the locals was on wrong side of road,and heading straight for our tour Bus, he quickly turned into a left hand lane going in wrong direction to get on the correct side of the road. We thought what a way to start a tour.

Wow, hi, Gay! I remember you as making our Hawaii trip Extra Special! my grandson loved the pirate pins, & goodies. Thank you for being who you are. We are on the transatlantic thread now. (Going in April yay!) I hope that all is going well for you in 2009. Take care, Vick :D

[golfer1966]

Ours was a ship sponsored scuba trip in Jamaica. We were picked up off the pier in a runabout motorboat. Near the pier the sea wasn't too choppy.

 

The boat put us off on shore where we were taken to a dock that had our 'gear' setup on fence posts on the dock. The scuba master was wearing a wetsuit that looked like it had had an encounter with a shark it was so full of holes. My then 14 year old son and I had our own regulators and BC's or I would have stopped right there. As it was, we were loaded with our gear back on board the runabout and taken to the dive site - about 20 minutes away.

 

Outside of the shelter of the harbor, it was really rough. I had been diving around 8 years but still started feeling queezy. By the time we got to the dive site, all I wanted was to get under water. Alex and I were the first in the water. The dive master told us to go to the front of the boat and hold onto the anchor rope. We tried that, but the waves were about 3-4 feet high and we were being jerked around so badly as well as the danger of the boat crashing down on us. For the first time in my life, I lost my lunch and I was done. Alex and I boarded the boat again.

 

One other couple decided not to go. Another couple went out on their own and ended up returning to in another boat because they couldn't make it back to our boat. The dive master took my son and they were able to go down and have a nice dive, but the DM had to tow my son back to the boat because of the strength of the waves. I lay on the floor - miserable and unaware of the problems the others were having.

 

RCL did refund 1/2 our money when I complained about the conditions and the poor quality of the company they used for their excursion. (I hope they discontinued using them). In hindsight, I shouldn't have even let my son go out, but I did and thankfully it ended well. I learned the lesson that even tho an excursion is ship sponsored, does not guarantee the quality or safety of the excursion.

 

Any other horror stories out there?

 

 

They took us to Catalina Island to snorkel. The water looked great and I Was pumped to get in cuz I love to snorkel. Well, I jumped in and there were no fish. As I swam around I saw more and more garbage. Now I know why there were no fish. Friends got out on the beach there and there was garbage along the beach too. I actually took a show I had found while snorkeling to the tour operator and asked if they lost their show. They just looked at me cuz they knew I was mad. I told them...This was the worst snorkeling tour I had evenb been on and I will advise RCCL of this as well...and I did:eek:

[marci22]

I have never been on a horrible excursion, mainly because I research a lot before we go, so I know what to expect. One time though, in St. Maarten, I was annoyed because we negotiated a price to go to Orient Beach. The taxi driver said one price, then changed it when we got to the beach. I paid him only the original amount, and walked away. It left a bad taste though.

 

(also while at the beach, we were constantly bothered by people selling things. I made the mistake of listening to one for 2 minutes and then she was really mad when I said 'no thank you'. My advice: just say NO to all of them unless you really want to buy what they are selling)

 

Otherwise we had a nice day at the beach.

[KULPN]

We booked a tour of San Juan. We were only docked in San Juan from 4-midnite. It got dark just after the tour started (6pm) So we basically rode around on a bus & saw nothing. I am pretty sure we just went in circles. The traffic was awful. The driver had such a thick accent, we couldn't understand much of what he told us. We booked this trip on the ship. Oh well...

[LisaH]

I wouldn't say our Tulum tour was terrible BUT we would never do it again. the bus ride was long, the ferry ride was not bad for us but unbearable for the majority that got sea sick. The ferry ride was VERY unpleasant. We finally moved upstairs and outside and it was much better. Just watching people get sick can make you kind of queasy. And then the time at Tulum was too long. The logistics to get there and back were just not worth it.

[vtoria98]

The one and only tour i have ever booked turned out to be a disaster. We went on the Freedom in oct and decided to do the Stingray and Snorkel tour with a tour operator that is widely recommended on this board. Well, what a nightmare, the water was so rough that 3/4 of the poeple on the boat were afraid to get in the water for the snorkel part, not to mention that I grew up in FL and have been snorkeling my whoel life and they took us to a brown/grey reef that was almost completely dead.

 

Then its our turn to pull over to the Stingray part, well again the water was so rough we almost couldn't get over there, well when we did the Cayman Authorites get on their bullhorn and close down the Stingray place. Then its off to some other "secret" stingray spot, that must have been a secret to the stingrays too becuase i got in right away and never saw one stingray, the boat operator spent almost as much time as i did looking for at least 1 stingray.

 

Needless to say everyone on the boat except maybe 4 people and my friend and i were totally seasick from bobbing in the water for at least 2 hours.

 

Ugh, no more tours for me. And I had talked it up to our friends from everything I had read on here.

[cruisedawgg]

The one and only tour i have ever booked turned out to be a disaster. We went on the Freedom in oct and decided to do the Stingray and Snorkel tour with a tour operator that is widely recommended on this board. Well, what a nightmare, the water was so rough that 3/4 of the poeple on the boat were afraid to get in the water for the snorkel part, not to mention that I grew up in FL and have been snorkeling my whoel life and they took us to a brown/grey reef that was almost completely dead.

 

Then its our turn to pull over to the Stingray part, well again the water was so rough we almost couldn't get over there, well when we did the Cayman Authorites get on their bullhorn and close down the Stingray place. Then its off to some other "secret" stingray spot, that must have been a secret to the stingrays too becuase i got in right away and never saw one stingray, the boat operator spent almost as much time as i did looking for at least 1 stingray.

 

Needless to say everyone on the boat except maybe 4 people and my friend and i were totally seasick from bobbing in the water for at least 2 hours.

 

Ugh, no more tours for me. And I had talked it up to our friends from everything I had read on here.

 

I hope you mean no more rough water tours. Don't miss out on all of the other fun things to do!!!