Has Anyone Heard from Katakolon Express lately?

Hi

I recommended them to my friend's group for their cruise this week and they reserved them about a month ago. They (Katakolon-Express) were great to deal with and communicate with.

They were in Katakolon this past week on (July 10) on the MSC Musica and Katakolon-Express wasn't there!?! They ended up jumping on the other option that meets at the port and fills up the bus after 40 minutes of looking/waiting around the meeting point.

It is very odd for a company to take reservations and not be there, especially since you pay once you meet them there. My friend sent me an email saying they got messed up. I have been emailing them to help them find out what happened and KE is not answering. Have they folded up shop?

They looked like a great option for Olympia. I hope something didn't happen to the company. So I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this lately or have they heard back from them recently.

I have been trying to reserve space for my wife and I for October. I filled in the booking info and sent it off last week. They said if I did not hear in 24 hours, I had mistyped my email address. I gave them a week and resent the request last night. No response yet.

My problems combined with your friends do not give a warm feeling.

I would be interested in any info on either K-E or the company your friend wound up with.

Thanks for the reply Paul.

I don't want to make any panic here but I do want to find out what happened, because I recommended Katakolon-Express. However, your lack of response leds me to think there has been something happening with K-E. So hopefully someone else mentions something.

At the moment, I do not have much detail what my friend and their group did or who they got at the last minute. I am just so happy they did find something or they would be really peeved with me for telling them to not do the ship's tours! I have mostly done private tours since 2003 and seriously, they have ALWAYS shown up. So that is why I think something happened to the company especially since this was a big bus company that only deals with the ships. Like I said before they looked like a fantastic option for this port!

All my friend said in the email to me was they were pretty much the first people off the ship and looked for them for 40 minutes (K-E shows very specific meeting points on thier map) and then they just took another option that was waiting there. I have been to this port and it is tiny, it is not like you can miss a company with signage and a bus. So I was very confused. That is why I emailed Katakolon-Express to find out if they were there or not. I sent 3 emails since Tuesday and no reply. This is when I decided to check back with CC, my cruising bible.

When we were checking for options for this port originally here on CC, there was another option mentioned. I forget the name but they were similar to K-E except that they wait to fill up the bus at the port (I didn't like that) and the tour was half the price 10 euro not 20 euro that K-E charges. Funny, I think that one that fills up at the port is probably what my friend ended up with. They are still on the cruise so I won't find out what they did until they come home.

Sounds like something is definitely wrong. I sent a request for November about a month ago with no response. So just last weekend I sent a request again including my email in the body of the comments section and have received no response. Looks like I'll make alternate arrangements.

I resent my request for October yesterday and no response.

We will be starting our Med cruise next Friday. I sent Katakolon Express an email yesterday to reconfirm tranportation for the 6 of us, since I had heard from someone on our Roll Call that KE needs 20 people to operate the bus. I got an email today from one of their reps saying that it was true they need 20 to operate but that they already have 14 for our date and have lots more inquiries every day. Therefore he guaranteed they will be operating the bus that day. I hope they are operating since the train is so iffy these days KE should do a better job notifing people with reservations of the status of the bus.

OK so the plot is thickening and this is pretty bad circumstances. I have had two emails from KE since my original post, I wanted the second email to confirm some questions I had before posting. This is pretty weird....

I rec'd an email at the end of last week from Stephen at K-E saying Last Tuesday July 10th, the Katakolon-Express, did not meet the passengers for the tour of Olympia because the managing crew of the MSC Musica (this was the ship my friend was on) called the tourist police and had the tour escort & bus driver arrested when they entered the port! They said this was so far, the first and only time this has ever happened and of course the worst case scenario. MSC was alleging that K-E coerce their passengers at the port. I know my friends had to reserve ahead of time and give their names so K-E could show the port that they have confirmed reservations with ship passengers. By the time K-E explained to the police and were in fact released it was too late to pick up the passengers and continue the tour! This is terrible that the ships are fighting back like this. First of all they are hurting their passengers by ruining their tour plans but they are also playing with people's livlihoods and potential for earning a living.

K-E told me in the second email they are the only ones that operate within the port area and they now have some sort of clearance pass, to show they are legit so this does not happen again.

I don't know if this is getting better or worse.

I am pretty sure my friends ended up taking the other option that waits outside the port area to fill up the bus. So if K-E isn't there on your dates you can go with that option in a pinch. If anything, it sounds like they are the more likely the ones to coerce the passengers as they are getting people more last minute. They operate outside the port. Good thing they were there to take my friends to Olympia.

I wonder if the ship passengers complain to the shore excursion desk when they see similar tours to theirs at half the price and this is how the ship is fighting back.

K-E does not seem like a company that would coerce passengers, I don't want to see their business hurt because of this. At the same time, I think I would stick with the small private tours with a licensed guide.

Just sent an email off to them-I'll let you know when/if I receive a reply-meanwhile I think I'll start a Plan B. We are leaving in 2 weeks! Thanks for the heads up!

I got an almost immediate response from Katakolon-Express: Here is the email I received. I guess I'll have to go on faith. Thinking back we had a similar scare in St Petersburg-other companies trying to elbow each other out.

Hello Karen,

Your reservation is CONFIRMED – please send the link to the Cruise Critic report so we can answer.

We have experienced problems created by competitors and the Cruise Ship companies who don’t like us providing a better / cheaper alternative but we are determined to continue our service.

Regards from Greece,

Stephen Todd.

E-mail: stephen@katakolon-express.com

We are looking forward to going to Olympia with Katakolon Express. I hope their problems at the port get resolved.

Thanks to everyone for helping figure this out. Thank you Stephen for your communication. I am very happy K-E is still fully operating and continuing to offer a great alternative to cruisers in Katakolon!

For those of you lucky enough to be going soon, please let us know how your visit to Olympia went!

The Booking -Reservation and Inquires link doesnt appear to be working.

If you use the Contact us you get a reply. I sent a request yesterday and got a reply today.

I sent an email to Stephen and he took care of me.

The Booking -Reservation and Inquires link doesnt appear to be working.

 

If you use the Contact us you get a reply. I sent a request yesterday and got a reply today.

I have been in touch with him today. Please contact him on stephen@katakolon-express.com<stephen@katakolon-express.com

or use the contact following link http://www.katakolon-express.com/contact.htm

We booked with Steve at Kotakalon Express for their Olympia trip on 15 July. We had confirmation back within 12 hours. The coach was waiting for us in the port just across from the gangway. We had a great day, interesting commentary and good advice.

We enjoyed it so much and were impressed with the professionalism that we booked the Atens City Tour (Piraeus Express) for the next day. Steve and Maria drive over that night and were there to meet us as arranged and we had a super day (althought a very hot 42 degrees!) in Athens.

I would not hesitate to recommend them and think we should support these small companies who offer such an excellent service at such good value.

DottieD

Has anyone done the private tour with Katakalon Express that includes the lunch at the Europa Hotel? It also includes a private guide at the Olympia site.We're contemplating doing this on our upcoming Oct cruise and was wondering whether it was worth the extra money.

We were in Katakalon a couple of weeks ago on a HAL cruise and took the train which is only a short walk from the ship. The charge was 10 euros return for an adult and 5 for a child. First train left at 9.00 am with several options to return from Olympia.

I would highly recomend this option as the train is air conditioned and relatively new.

We were in Katakalon a couple of weeks ago on a HAL cruise and took the train which is only a short walk from the ship. The charge was 10 euros return for an adult and 5 for a child. First train left at 9.00 am with several options to return from Olympia.

 

I would highly recomend this option as the train is air conditioned and relatively new.

Is there atrain schedule To/From Katakalon? Is taht tru that they go on strike a lot?

Here is the webpage

http://www.katakolon.org/katakolon-train.html

Not sure if they are on strike all the time -it certainly worked perfectly for us. At the worst if they did go on strike when you are in Olympia it would only be a case of taking one of the numerous taxis back to Katakolon.

When we traveled we had trains back from Olympia at both 13.00 and 14.00 -just check with the guard on the train when you get to Olympia what the times are for that day.

Hi

 

I recommended them to my friend's group for their cruise this week and they reserved them about a month ago. They (Katakolon-Express) were great to deal with and communicate with.

 

They were in Katakolon this past week on (July 10) on the MSC Musica and Katakolon-Express wasn't there!?! They ended up jumping on the other option that meets at the port and fills up the bus after 40 minutes of looking/waiting around the meeting point.

 

It is very odd for a company to take reservations and not be there, especially since you pay once you meet them there. My friend sent me an email saying they got messed up. I have been emailing them to help them find out what happened and KE is not answering. Have they folded up shop?

 

They looked like a great option for Olympia. I hope something didn't happen to the company. So I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this lately or have they heard back from them recently.

We just returned from 20 days on the Noordam and used Katakolon-Express and they were great. They were on time and had followed up with emails regularly. They even emailed me to let me know we would be docking earlier than the original itinerary and they would change their pick-up time appropriately. We did the optional guided tour and thought it was a good value. You can reach them at stephen@katakolon-express.com. Stephen Todd is the owner and he escorted our group. Hope you get through to them. Don't know what the problem has been but I am sure they are still in business.

We just returned from 20 days on the Noordam and used Katakolon-Express and they were great. They were on time and had followed up with emails regularly. They even emailed me to let me know we would be docking earlier than the original itinerary and they would change their pick-up time appropriately. We did the optional guided tour and thought it was a good value. You can reach them at stephen@katakolon-express.com. Stephen Todd is the owner and he escorted our group. Hope you get through to them. Don't know what the problem has been but I am sure they are still in business.

I have been emailing them regarding a private tour in a mini-van for 12 people. They said " If at all possible we will take you directly to the site entrance instead of the car park about 1200 yards away." 1200 yards!!! No way are we going to want to walk this far. Does the bus take you directly to the site entrance?

How far is it from the train to the site entrance?

I have been emailing them regarding a private tour in a mini-van for 12 people. They said " If at all possible we will take you directly to the site entrance instead of the car park about 1200 yards away." 1200 yards!!! No way are we going to want to walk this far. Does the bus take you directly to the site entrance?

They took us much closer than that. Don't know why he can't guarantee it. Maybe it varies from day to day but we were certainly much closer than 1200 yards.

He replied in an email that since we have passengers who would have trouble walking that distance, he can take us to the site entrance.

We just returned from a Crown Princess med cruise and used Katakolon-Express. Stephen and his crew were great and we are glad we used this company. They are the only independent bus company that picks you up right on the dock as you get off the ship. They were on time and Stephen provided a narrative about Olympia and some facts about Greece as we drove to the archeological site. We had three hours at Olympia which was more than enough time to see the site and the museum. Some of our group even walked around the town. The company is very much alive and ready for business so please do not hesitate to use them. You can contact Stephen at stephen@katakolon-express.com.