What was the worst excursion you have ever taken?

[pierces]

Hi. Just (seriously) wondering what a "show" is, or what you meant to type if not "show."

 

The "w" is very close to the "e"...

 

More to the point:

 

Thw "e" is vwry closw to thw "w"...

 

;)

 

Dave

[Winegirl58]

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!

 

 

Is this really true?? We were thinking about doing this, but not if this is true!

[ken_nyc]

It was my deep-sea fishing excursion from the Mariner in August 2007. This was my only Royal Caribbean booked excursion. There were 5 of us on a charter boat including Jerry and his son Joe (Cruise Critic Members). Five rods were put out. A small Bonita was the first fish caught. As I took my turn in the chair I fought the fish and then felt a strong tug. I thought I lost the fish, and as I was reeling the line in I realized I only had the head of a Bonita. I was told a shark must have bit off the rest of the fish. Next, Jerry caught a Wahoo and his son caught a nice size Barracuda. Since I did not actually catch a WHOLE fish my fellow passengers agreed that I was to sit in the chair but the mate pushed me away and had another passenger sit and he caught a Barracuda. The mate tried to convince him to have a taxidermist work on the fish for $750 USD. WOW!! That was too expensive, he declined and the mate was disappointed (I was glad that he didn't go along with the taxidermy, it was more money than it should have been so the crew would get a significant cut from it). Needless to say I was disappointed at the treatment I received, but was glad for the other fishermen. I did not give the mates a tip, this was the first time ever that I stiffed the crew on a tip and I am an avid fisherman. The 1st mate was not too happy and I let him know why and walked back to the ship

[Sheffie]

Is this really true?? We were thinking about doing this, but not if this is true!

 

Yes, it is really true.

[turquoisesea]

This thread keeps getting longer - it would seem we have all had some interesting (awful!) excursions. Up until last year I would have said the worst tour we have been one was the San Juan Rum tour. But now I have one worse. Last spring on the Crown Princess we signed up for a guided tour of the island of St. Kitts, ending up with a couple of hours on the beach. It was advertised as a comfortable, air-conditioned bus. So, at the appointed time we went out to the pier and got in a long line for our tour. Bus # 1 - new, comfortable, and air conditioned - pulled up and about one third of the line got on. Bus # 2 ( a twin to bus #1) rolled up a few minutes later and the next third of the line got on. Now, we are left waiting for bus #3. We waited and we waited and we waited. After about 15 very hot minutes (this is St. Kitts in April!) a hundred year old recycled American school bus painted in tie-dye fashion pulled up. This could not possibly be for us - it had "Bob and Elvis's Party Bus" painted in BIG letters on the side! But yes, we were told that this was for us. As we boarded the bus I questioned the guide, inquiring as to where the comfortable air conditioned bus was. She said this was it! I started to fuss "a bit" :p and my adult daughter said, gritting through her teeth, "Shut up and get on the bus!" So, I did. Needless to say, it was a very hot 3 hour trip, with no air-conditioning, a speaker system that did not work, and a baby who cried the whole time. I'm sure the driver had important things to say, but we never heard it. For those of you who know St. Kitts - it is very mountainous! :eek: The bus barely made it up the inclines - I was sure we were going to roll back down. The last straw was the beach (I can't remember which one it was) that we were supposed to go to was closed so they took us to Cockleshell Beach where we were greeted by a GIANT, smelly wild boar (pig) that was sunning himself right in the middle of the small beach with his owner. :eek: I must say that we had many laughs and some funny pictures from that excursion, but it was truly awful! :eek::eek:

[hnrlawtonocala]

My husband and I have had bad luck with shore excurision.

 

1.) Grand Cayman Underwater Observatory and Island Tour... We had to jump on the boat as it tugged back and forth from the dock. I was so afraid that I would fall and be crushed by the boat. We managed to get on and off the boat in one piece.. We then went to Hell and the Turtle Farm. The Turtle Farm was cool but then we went to Hell...what a waste of time.

 

2.) Bottom Fishing in Cozumel- We wanted to do something that we thought would be fun... I should have known better after our experience with the boat in Grand Cayman (a year earlier). We showed up for the tour and took us to the boat. They wanted us to jump on board.. first we had to step on a slanted board and then on the boat. Something about this just didn't seem safe.. I really tried to get the courage but the guy in front of me almost fell..and that was all I needed to see. I told them I wasn't going and didn't care if I was going to lose my money. I was not going to end up in the hospital... (in Mexico). Thankfully, Royal Carribean gave us our money back after we told them what happened and that is was unsafe.

 

We are leaving next week on the Freedom of the Seas...YEAH.. but the only boat or ship i will be going on is the Freedom of the Seas... :):)

I can't say for sure if we will do any more excursions..but I will probably be keeping both feet on the ground for them.

 

(Ok.I admit it... I am accident prone... :p)

[Booking It]

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

My mom tried pulling that when we walked off of the ship in Ocho Rios. The people were completely in our faces wanting us to go in their cabs. We totally ignored them, and we were almost past the crowd one finally gets in our faces and says, "Sprechen sie deutsch"? That gave us a good laugh for the rest of the night. I guess props for him for learning a few foreign phrases to help his business! :)

[emdia43]

Wyndham Hotel and Beach break in Nassau. Three of us, $68 each.

We were the only people there for most of the day. Our lunch was a hamburger and fries.... We were so bored we left after lunch and went back to the ship. We got a taxi back to the pier for $15- when we arrived I gave the driver $20 and he got back in his taxi, said he had no change and took off...:eek:

[MonDreamr1]

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.

 

I'd second this one above, only to add I got so sick I didn't want to eat my boxed lunch so I left it on my seat on the bus like they told us we could do with anything we didn't want to carry around - came back and the bus driver had eaten my lunch.

 

The worst one though had to have been horseback riding to el Limon falls in Samana. First the bus looked like it had been in a shoot out with random holes in the side and the windshield. Once we finally got there, I really wanted to just stay on the bus after seeing the condition of the poor horses. The tour was discribed as having a local guide - I take this to mean you have a local guide ON a horse that is front of the line on the trail and one or two in the middle and then one at the back of the line. Not so on this trip. The guides aren't on a horse - they are leading the horse while they walk. They seem to gather up any random horse like creature they can find and then have the locals drag them up the very rocky thin drainage path on the side of the mountain. The saddles are not adjusted for height - hello cramped legs. The guides when you get to the top will then release the poor beasts and focus on you. Trying to tell them you really don't want to go down the very slippery muddly slope doesn't work they just grab your arm and pull you - sliding down that in an uncontrolled manor. Convinced the girl we really didn't want to go up the other part to the main falls. When we finally got back up to the horses to start back down - I tried to just walk back down - we weren't allowed to.... I got to sit on the horse and tried not to cry the entire way down - I was seriously trying to figure out if DH had enough cash on him to bribe our way to clean medical care.

[chachi]

My worse excursion wasn't so bad compared to others. I usually have all of my shore excursions booked before hand, but I had nothing for Cabo San Lucas. When we got off the boat, someone offered to take us on a glass bottom boat ride. It was pretty cheap so we decided to do it. When we got on the boat it was so cloudy/moldy looking that you couldn't see anything. It was disappointing, but obviously no where near as bad as others. (I at least felt safe the whole time) I guess I have been pretty lucky.

[Seadiva2]

I was very bored on the Bacardi Rum Factory Tour. They keep you there too long and you don't actually get to see the rum being produced. I felt like a hostage there for several hours waiting to back to the ship. Won't do this tour again!

[SamFritz]

My husband and I have had bad luck with shore excurision.

 

 

 

2.) Bottom Fishing in Cozumel- We wanted to do something that we thought would be fun... I should have known better after our experience with the boat in Grand Cayman (a year earlier). We showed up for the tour and took us to the boat. They wanted us to jump on board.. first we had to step on a slanted board and then on the boat. Something about this just didn't seem safe.. I really tried to get the courage but the guy in front of me almost fell..and that was all I needed to see. I told them I wasn't going and didn't care if I was going to lose my money. I was not going to end up in the hospital... (in Mexico). Thankfully, Royal Carribean gave us our money back after we told them what happened and that is was unsafe.

 

 

 

(Ok.I admit it... I am accident prone... :p)

 

Was it just the boarding process that made you uncomfortable? I'm planning on doing the bottom fishing in Coz. this summer with my teenage boys. We've only had good experiences with any of the ship booked excrusions in Cozumel, so we're counting on this one measuring up.

[cruising to paradise]

Ours was in St Maarten on a private tour. We spent 10 minutes at Orient Beach ,drove around, spent 30 minutes in Marigot,drove to a Hotel, picked some people up and took them to the Airport.Back to Phillipsburg where he dropped us off a few blocks from the main shopping area.