Excursion Rip Off

[Island Cruiser]

Orpington, I am so glad you acknowledge your limited mobility challenges. Some of your fellow passengers don't. On our recent Voyager cruise we booked a shore tour that included a walking tour of the old city and a marvelous folk dance show. The tour description said the tour included "700 yards" of walking. That's about a half mile. A half mile of walking in the hot sun on cobbled streets (not easy walking by any chance). When the tour guide on our bus announced "Here is where we begin our two hour walking tour" shouts of protest rang out on our bus. "We didn't sign up for a two hour walking tour." About six passengers out of 36 insisted insisted we scrap the whole tour and return to the ship. And, in fact, all of them had limited mobility challenges. They overreacted to the guide's announcement thinking we would be walking for two hours. In fact our two hours out of the bus included an hour sitting in splendid air conditioning watching a folk dance show performed exclusively for us. And another twenty minutes of the two hours was consumed by sitting in three different church pews listening to our guide. But at the end of the folk dance show they insisted on an immediate return to the ship for all of us even there was a little more walking scheduled and they got their way because we were so tired of listening to them grumble. They shouldn't have booked this tour in the first place. They clearly found the walking seriously challenging. And while a part of me sympathizes, the other part of me says "Folks, the tour description said you would be walking about 700 yards. So press on and shut up. You have no right to spoil this tour for the rest of us." And this is why, wherever possible, we try to avoid ship's tours and make independent arrangements. What I call the Jake Snake from Serpent Idaho factor seems to appear all to often on ship's tour busses. Or maybe just the tour busses I book. Pat