Awful DCL excursion

[DisMommyTX]

We had our worst shore excursion ever on our most recent Disney cruise. In St. Thomas, the Amazing Catamaran Snorkel and Beach Adventure (ST68) had 50 DCL guests plus 50 from the Symphony of the Seas. No snorkeling and less than an hour on a beach that was inaccessible to most. Not only was DCL's response onboard pathetic (30% refund after days of complaints from multiple families), I now realize that unlike most other cruise lines their website has no mechanism to leave a review for excursions . So, besides a description here and on cruise critic, can anyone suggest other ways to let future guests know NOT to waste their money on a rip-off excursion? I understand that shore excursions booked through the cruise line are run by independent contractors, but I am disappointed that DCL continues to set-up their guests for such an awful experience and would like to help others avoid making the same mistake we did.

 

[GPaLarry]

Good to know. We are going on the Fantasy into the Caribbean June 27 (we hope!), but we picked ST46, Carib. Sea Safari, Snorkel. We have been on nine other DCL cruises and countless DCL excursions without a problem. Many were truly memorable. Thanks for the heads up...keep safe!

 

[BlueRibbon]

You can certainly post it here, as a lot of folks who end up going on DCL, visit these pages just to read about it.

Out of curiosity, was there some kind of extenuating circumstance that prevented the snorkeling? Also, care to elaborate on why the beach was inaccessible?

 

[dclpluto]

I had a couple of bad ones totem poles I. Alaska

In Acapulco I seen a house that Sylvester Stallone almost bought. Lol
Dcl doesn’t go to Acapulco anymore that I’m aware of this was on a Panama Canal Cruise.

 

[OKW Lover]

Sounds like the OP has already complained to DCL about this supplier. That's about the only thing that will help future cruisers.

 

[Karin1984]

If you want people to know that this particular excursion was bad, then you should update the title of this thread. It makes it easier for future people on this website, but also for Google and other search engines to find your review.
I would suggest to included the name of the excursion, number and Port in the title.

 

[Carrie in AZ]

I would absolutely like to read your experience in full detail. I very much want to snorkel in St. Thomas on a future cruise. I would extremely disappointed if there was no snorkeling on a snorkeling excursion. I understand these types of situations are weather dependent and ocean conditions, so maybe the weather came into play? Please do share.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you want people to know that this particular excursion was bad, then you should update the title of this thread. It makes it easier for future people on this website, but also for Google and other search engines to find your review.
I would suggest to included the name of the excursion, number and Port in the title.

I second this idea. If you title the thread "Review of (insert name of excursion)" and then detail what you did or did not like about it, it will help with searches on this forum and if people google it. You could also review it on other travel forums like tripadvisor, etc. I think that would be helpful. I know when I research shore excursions, I typically google the name of the excursion and I'm thankful when I'm able to find info such as people's experiences, the vendor, etc.

 

[bumbershoot]

Out of curiosity, was there some kind of extenuating circumstance that prevented the snorkeling? Also, care to elaborate on why the beach was inaccessible?

I h the same questions.


A review is useless without specifics.

 

[MomOTwins]

We had an awful excursion in Cozumel (Ruins, discover mexico, and chocolate) and complained to guest services. The “ruins” were a mosquito farm with some crumbling rocks, the tour guide was mean and made my son cry, we spent more time being herded to gift shops than we did on the actual activities, and got back to the ship 2 hours late. We got some popcorn from DCL when we complained, so that was nice, but I too was very disappointed that the excursion was not up to Disney quality. I do think that Disney should vet the excursion providers a bit better. Our excursions in Jamaica and Grand Cayman were well run, with friendly staff, and on time.

 

[ivanp91]

The impression that DCL gives me with excursions is that they are very reluctant to offer anything, falling back on the "third party" excuse. All despite the fact that Disney approves and markets the excursions, and pockets a share of the cost.

The absolute worst I've ever had was in Cartagena, Colombia on the EBPC last November. It was a city tour and the guide was pretty bad to begin with, but it culminated in him and a guide from another group screaming at one another in a museum, more than once, and then proceeded to tell us the other person's tour was "bulls**t". This was in front of children. He then had the audacity to give a half-assed apology on the drive back to the ship and still expected tips. Numerous people complained to guest services, but they were unwilling to do anything.

Another one that still bugs me a little was in Lisbon, EBTA 2018. Again we did a city tour, this one was supposed to include the Gloria Funicular. To be fair, the tour guide was really quite good, we went down the Santa Justa Elevator, but a lot of us were puzzled when the tour ended and we hadn't been on the funicular. The tour guide insisted that we had done it, and then tried to claim the elevator and the funicular were the same thing. I mean, they very obviously are not, but we decided not to press the issue with them. We went past guest services to ask about it, and the Officer that spoke to us said that the funicular had broken down that day, saying "it's old, these things happen". We later found out from doing our own research that it was down for scheduled maintenance, and to be fair someone would have known this beforehand. A simple heads up at the beginning of the tour that a substitution was taking place would have eased some of the disappointment.

 

[JaimeInParker]

I would suggest you post your reviews on a site like TRIPADVISOR - I use it to read up on cruise excursions as well as many other places

 

[mousefan73]

I am assuming that the beach was not accessible as the boat did not dock on this beach but one needs to fit enought to hop over the boat into the water or use a latter and wade over to the beach. For many older this is an issue. This may not be the reason for the OP, but when I look at beach exercusions this is the one aspect I google and post questions on as this will make or break an exercusion for my mom.

 

[wombat_5606]

Why is everyone advising people to go somewhere else to post about these excursions? I think a sticky for this subject would be ideal.

It should include the city, the title and the excursion number, such as posted in the OP initial post. Since Disney doesn't provide a way to catalog these reviews, I think DISboards is the ideal place.

 

[Rob1872]

Why is everyone advising people to go somewhere else to post about these excursions?

I don't think that everyone is saying to go somewhere else to post; they are suggesting additional options to increase the scope of where the review can be seen.

Having said that, I'm not 100% sure if OP has the goal to provide feedback to people considering future excursions or just wants to vent. If OP is serious about wanting to warn people about issues with this excursion, then the thread title should call out the excursion name, not just "Awful DCL excursion", and they should include descriptions of what happened and why. WHY was there no snorkeling? (Weather was too bad, they didn't have enough snorkel gear for everyone, they modified the itinerary to remove the snorkeling) WHY was the beach inaccessible? (Closed due to drug contaminated needles strewn along the sand? Beach was open but only big enough for 50 people and there were 500 packed in? Needed to swim in from the ship and most of the people didn't feel comfortable with a 25/50/500 yard swim?)

 

[wombat_5606]

I don't think that everyone is saying to go somewhere else to post; they are suggesting additional options to increase the scope of where the review can be seen.

Having said that, I'm not 100% sure if OP has the goal to provide feedback to people considering future excursions or just wants to vent. If OP is serious about wanting to warn people about issues with this excursion, then the thread title should call out the excursion name, not just "Awful DCL excursion", and they should include descriptions of what happened and why. WHY was there no snorkeling? (Weather was too bad, they didn't have enough snorkel gear for everyone, they modified the itinerary to remove the snorkeling) WHY was the beach inaccessible? (Closed due to drug contaminated needles strewn along the sand? Beach was open but only big enough for 50 people and there were 500 packed in? Needed to swim in from the ship and most of the people didn't feel comfortable with a 25/50/500 yard swim?)

Yes, people should be specific in their descriptions, but I think, going forward, a sticky with ANY review would be preferable to what there is out there now. If I read a thousand times that someone hated it and only one where they gave me a lot of specifics as to why it was worth every penny, I'd still decide against the excursion.

Sometimes it is easy to identify the vendor when you are comparing a DCL excursion with one you may see reviewed on other sites.

Unfortunately, we could ask for specifics, but unfortunately, it rarely gets done. Have you ever read through the threads for opening day prices?

 

[teacher31]

Good to know. We are going on the Fantasy into the Caribbean June 27 (we hope!), but we picked ST46, Carib. Sea Safari, Snorkel. We have been on nine other DCL cruises and countless DCL excursions without a problem. Many were truly memorable. Thanks for the heads up...keep safe!

We have done this excursion twice and love it! I hope you have as a fantastic time as we did. Happy sailing!

 

[MomOTwins]

Yes, people should be specific in their descriptions, but I think, going forward, a sticky with ANY review would be preferable to what there is out there now. If I read a thousand times that someone hated it and only one where they gave me a lot of specifics as to why it was worth every penny, I'd still decide against the excursion.

Sometimes it is easy to identify the vendor when you are comparing a DCL excursion with one you may see reviewed on other sites.

Unfortunately, we could ask for specifics, but unfortunately, it rarely gets done. Have you ever read through the threads for opening day prices?

I'd love a sticky too. When I was searching for excursion reviews I felt like I kept finding info piecemeal in individual trip reports.

 

[DietCokeMommy]

Just a tip for next time - with enough googling and looking at the provided pictures you can usually figure out who the excursion company is and then read reviews here and on TripAdvisor. Also, I refuse to do most/all cruise line excursions. I made the mistake of doing the cattle herding type of excursions on our honeymoon and hated them. I hate when you’re packed on a boat with 100 people and I now pay more to have a better experience with less people. And with companies I can read reviews of.

 

[PJ]

We had a bad experience on a San Juan shore excursion, mostly issues with the tour guide. Guest Services gave us a 50% refund even though it was 3rd party booked thru Disney. Might be because of the number of complaints they got. There were 2 others in line ahead of us complaining about the same tour, and I suspect there were others.

I'm sure they don't do this routinely, but we were very satisfied with our treatment .