Tour Guide Fail

Not sure where to post this but had to say it somewhere. We went on an NCL cruise in January 2015 on the Sun and booked an excursion for the family through the ship for X-Caret. Our guide was Ernesto who we met after getting off the ferry in Playa Del Carmen.

This guy walks SO fast. If you didn't power walk, and jog at times, he would be gone and you would be lost. We stayed as close to him as possible on the way to the park.

We got to the park and he led us straight to the underground rivers. Everywhere he went he was power walking. He was waiting for us when we got through, and guided us toward the Jaguars because that is close to the restaurant he suggested for lunch. We lost him. The map to the park was so confusing and he gave us an old version, so the numbered venues didn't match anymore. We finally ran into him and found the restaurant. After that, with what little time we had left, he said to head to the sea turtles and back down to the meeting point near the entrance. Well, we were 4 minutes late because the map was so confusing and we had 2 very young and tired children. Our group was nowhere in sight. I stayed at the meeting point with the kids while my husband went looking for Ernesto. He finally finds us and we RUN to get the bus, that he is not sure will wait for us. The entire bus trip back to the ferry is FULL of comments about us being late, and having to run, and tipping him and the driver extra for waiting and the running.

THEN when we got off the bus and had to walk back to the port, he lost half of his group because he was walking so freakin fast and didn't account for traffic crossing streets. And he never looked back to check. We were in that group. Thankfully one woman fell back to show the rest of her group the way back, and we just followed her. We got back to the ferry boarding area still missing several people from our group and Ernesto was complaining that they were slow people. They were probably just lost asking for directions. He never went back to look for them. They made it, after I don't know how long. We make it to the ferry back to Cozumel.

The park was nice, but I wouldn't do it as an excursion again. There was just not enough time to see most of the park.

Ernesto was just an awful guide. He had some helpful suggestions for the park. But I wouldn't be surprised if people missed their ferry, and then ship, because of him.

Most tours turn out to be exactly what you pay for, but it's always disappointing when it ends up being something totally different. Very sorry this excursion didn't work out for you.

You say you booked this excursion through the ship--did you make a formal complaint about the situation once you got back on board? Have you contacted the cruise line with a detailed account of your experience? It sounds like this excursion was so rushed, harried and more complicated than it had to be. It's important for the cruise line to know any tour problems or vendor issues and resolve them. It *might* not be too late for you to gain any satisfaction, but maybe by posting here on CC and also notifying the cruise line, you can help improve the experience for others.

It seems the complaint is that the guide walked too fast. There are always issues when walking is involved. I suspect that half the tour thought he went too fast, and half thought he went too slow. Unfortunately this is what happens when you take a group tour.