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Lesson Learned - Booking 3rd Party Tours


nbcruiser2
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This post is long but I am posting this as I learned a huge lesson booking a tour through Stormin Norman and Diamond Di. To cut to the chase, the lesson I learned was always, always know who the tour operator is when booking a tour, even if through a third party (a third party is someone that makes money from booking tours). A reputable third party will tell you the name of the tour operator so that you can fully vet them and,should you be late returning to the ship, the ship can contact the tour operator directly. The following post is how I learned a valuable lesson after over 100 private tours booked and having always being back on the ship at least one hour prior to boarding time.

 

I booked the“Lively Lisbon” tour through Stormin Norman and Diamond Di. I had seen Norman for years on these cruise boards, learned a lot from him and thought he was a “stand up” kind of guy. I had no qualms whatsoever about booking this tour through him.

 

On the day of the tour, I found out that he had oversold the bus for the tour. Unfortunately, I don’t have the facts to state that this was a tour by bus as Stormin' Norman has blocked me from the tour description.

 

Anyway, he had hired an additional car (which was supposed to be a minivan) and, as my husband was unable to go on the tour, I volunteered to go in the car. Our tour was greatly abbreviated as it took us a long time to leave the dock and took a long time to do the tour of Pena Palace in Sintra. After the tour, we had lunch (I would have preferred to actually tour Lisbon) which was an hour away from the ship. Lunch was finished at 3:30 pm (which still gave us time to get to the ship for 5:00 pm) but then we were given 45 minutes to shop. Are you kidding me? We now have 45 minutes to get back to the ship when we are still an hour away.

 

Our car arrived first and we hopped in and off we went to do a tour of the coast. At 4:30 pm, I told the driver we had to be back at the ship by 5:00 pm. He told us we had plenty of time. I then told him that it was 4:00 pm Lisbon time as ship’s time was one hour ahead. He argued a bit with me and then called the tour guide. I stop here to note that Norman never had the tour guide call the car and tell them that we had to get back to the ship. I did hear from others that, when they boarded the bus, Norman told the tour guide that they had to go directly back to the ship so as to make it on time. After the driver hung up with the tour guide,he put the pedal to the metal but told me that we would not make it back by 5:00 pm ship time and that the tour bus was miles (yes, miles) ahead of us.

 

At 4:49 pm, I called my husband (who was still on the ship), to let him know that we probably would not make it back on board and to go to Guest Services when they called my name. He ran directly to Guest Services,where they asked him the name of the tour operator. He only had Stormin Norman’s name and not the name of the tour operator. The Guest Services rep said he would radio the bridge but did not know who Stormin Norman was.

 

I called my husband at 5:03 pm to let him know we were still not back, to stay on the ship and that I would be fine and meet him in Vigo (but I was extremely upset). I actually was so upset that I was making myself sick. At 5:13 pm, Guest Services tried to call me but I had just pulled up to the pier and was on the run(arriving 13 minutes after final board time). I made it on the ship and called my husband at 5:18 pm.

 

I told Normanthat this was the first and last tour I would do with him. I did receive the following private messagefrom him:

“Please know that I was in contact with the head of a Guest Services (by cell) and they were expecting us late. And furthermore, we were not the last back. There were 50 more persons who arrived 35 minutes after our scheduled back on board time.”

 

So, since we got extremely, extremely lucky that there were 50 people that arrived behind uson a Carnival tour, that makes it okay? I don’t think so. And, my response to him:

 

“No one notified the car we were in and after taking a tour of the coast and me freaking out did the driver call the tour guide and find out our onboard time. If it wasn't for me and him putting the pedal to the metal, we would have missed the ship. Too bad you didn't give a damn about us in the car.”

 

And, a line from the email that I received from Norman when booking the tour – “PLEASE NOTE: One of our top priorities is to ensure that we are back on board on time for the ship’s sailing. Because of this, it may be necessary to adjust the tour itinerary without notice.”

 

Draw your own conclusions but, as for me, I’ll never tour with him again. He had no regard for us in the car and whether we missed the ship or not; only for himself and those on the bus. Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.

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Wow, that would have been pretty scary to me, especially being that you were not with your husband.

 

We have a journey cruise booked for February and he has several tours set up. I did not book anything with them because this is not the first time I have heard of negative experiences.

 

We always take a picture of the Fun Times with the ports emergency contact number and the time to be back on the ship.

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This is why i always, always book the tour DIRECTLY with the tour operator unless the tour operator tells me to book it from a third party. I did a tour last year and the tour operator told me to book it via viator (another tour third party site)

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Wow. This is another good example of why it's risky booking excursions outside of Carnival. It looks like they book group cruises too. There is no way I'd turn my booking over to a third party. Thanks for sharing.

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I’m glad you made it! Did you have your passport with you? I always wonder what I’d think if it looked like we wouldn’t make it. How far was the next port?

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I had my passport and credit card with me. The weird thing is, before I left home, I actually looked up how far the next port was by car (4 1/2 hours). I have never done that before - it's like I knew something might happen.

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Can't say I'd ever trust a tour, or anything for that matter, from a person who goes by the name "Stormin Norman."

 

I also would never, ever book a tour unless there were HUNDREDS of verifiable positive reviews on Trip Adviser.

 

I searched, and I don't see this guy on there. Am I looking at the wrong page?

 

Glad you made it back to the ship.

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Wow, thanks for the feedback. Sorry about your experience. I would have been furious. I have no problems booking tours outside of Carnival, but I prefer to be brought back to the ship slightly early. Have never had a problem with that.

 

 

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Can't say I'd ever trust a tour, or anything for that matter, from a person who goes by the name "Stormin Norman."

 

I also would never, ever book a tour unless there were HUNDREDS of verifiable positive reviews on Trip Adviser.

 

I searched, and I don't see this guy on there. Am I looking at the wrong page?

 

Glad you made it back to the ship.

 

Google the two names together to find the agency.

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Third party excursions are not the best way for a 'relaxing' shore excursion but when we still cruised, we did many a D.I.Y. excursion via local bus and/or train wherever possible.

 

What we liked about our D.I.Y. excursions was that we were in control of where we went, for how long and when we decided to get back to the port and the ship in plenty of time.

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Google the two names together to find the agency.

 

I did, and I found their website, but no reviews on Trip Adviser. A website means nothing, I could spend a few hours and make myself look like a travel pro if I wanted to. My point was that I would never hand over my money to a company that had anything less than 100 positive, verifiable reviews on a legitimate site like Trip Adviser. I did not find this company on Trip Adviser. Maybe I missed it.

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I’m so glad you got back in time. I would have been physically sick after going through all of that. You poor thing.

We’re platinum with Carnival and have only done 3 carnival tours, the rest have all been local tour operators. And never once have we been even close to missing the ship. I hope other cruisers don’t think all private tours are like this, because they aren’t. All of our tour guides have been very careful of ship times and getting us back long before the ship leaves. They usually ask all of the people which ship they’re on and when they are leaving just to be sure. Sounds like this third party tour operator didn’t normally do this and had no idea what he was doing. Thanks for warning us about this. I’ll be extra sure to not book through third parties. Though we usually tend to book with local tour guides that do smaller groups because that’s what we hate about carnival tours, the overcrowding with them is over the top.

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I am sorry to hear that you had such a stressful experience.

Unfortunately he will never give you the name of the tour operator because surprise surprise you might find out that he is overcharging you.

He has been banned from cruise critic but unfortunately still sells his overpriced tours on FB.

Also known as the man with the funny hats but has toned down this a bit. Not funny at all but a bit pathetic.

 

 

 

I was also on the Horizon TA and did book private tours through cruise critic with no problems. The tour operator was Spain Day Tours and we booked directly with the company

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I am sorry to hear that you had such a stressful experience.

Unfortunately he will never give you the name of the tour operator because surprise surprise you might find out that he is overcharging you.

He has been banned from cruise critic but unfortunately still sells his overpriced tours on FB.

Also known as the man with the funny hats but has toned down this a bit. Not funny at all but a bit pathetic.

 

 

 

I was also on the Horizon TA and did book private tours through cruise critic with no problems. The tour operator was Spain Day Tours and we booked directly with the company

 

The reason why I posted this is I did not see any negative posts about his tours so I had absolutely no idea. I have no problem with someone making money off the tours (I'm all for entrepreneurship) but, once you are making money, you become at least morally (if not legally) responsible. I just wanted to warn others.

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Here is another example of why you might want to book thru carnival not a 3rd party.

 

I took a cruise last Dec. Its never really cold in Belize or Honduras in the 10 plus years ive done it in winter. I was sitting for the priority tender in Belize and a couple across from me was saying they didnt really want to get in the water. It was 61 degrees that morning, not good swimming weather.

 

Cold and awful both other ports too. coldest cruise Ive ever been on. Carnival cancelled all the water excursions in Cozumel, not sure about Honduras as thats a private beach.

 

Had the couple booked with Carnival and not prepaid a 3rd party they MIGHT have been able to cancel with carnival 24 hours in advance ... we already knew it was going to be cold, and I think Carnival might let you cancel or tell them you are sick or whatever and refund your money to obc.

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A cruise ship excursion is overpriced and overcrowded. There are plenty of reputable third parties that are well-reviewed and vetted online. You just need to do your research. And it's not even that difficult. But if you aren't savvy, or are just lazy, stick with the cruise line.

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Wow..that's crazy.

 

We will NEVER book with private tour operators or third party people because it's just not worth it. It's not that we're lazy or we're not savvy or whatever..we just prefer to have the peace of mind of knowing that if something goes sideways (as it has a couple of times), we have somebody we can go directly to and get answers and/or a refund or whatever.

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I’m so glad you got back in time. I would have been physically sick after going through all of that. You poor thing.

We’re platinum with Carnival and have only done 3 carnival tours, the rest have all been local tour operators. And never once have we been even close to missing the ship. I hope other cruisers don’t think all private tours are like this, because they aren’t. All of our tour guides have been very careful of ship times and getting us back long before the ship leaves. They usually ask all of the people which ship they’re on and when they are leaving just to be sure. Sounds like this third party tour operator didn’t normally do this and had no idea what he was doing. Thanks for warning us about this. I’ll be extra sure to not book through third parties. Though we usually tend to book with local tour guides that do smaller groups because that’s what we hate about carnival tours, the overcrowding with them is over the top.

 

 

I too typically use local tour operators, but I did have a potential problem that was not the tour operators fault. With plenty of time to spare, we were headed back to the ship when in St. Thomas. Well, you know how some of the streets are really narrow? There was an accident that was totally blocking one of these roads - two drivers about to come to blows & refusing to try to move their vehicles. We got boxed in so that the driver could not go forward and couldn't try to back out to take another route. We were stuck for almost an hour waiting for the police to force one of the drivers to move his vehicle.

 

Thankfully, we had given ourselves almost 2 hours to make it back so we weren't late, but all of us in the van were freaking out. This was the one time I was thinking "you should have taken a ship excursion."

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This post is long but I am posting this as I learned a huge lesson booking a tour through Stormin Norman and Diamond Di. To cut to the chase, the lesson I learned was always, always know who the tour operator is when booking a tour, even if through a third party (a third party is someone that makes money from booking tours). A reputable third party will tell you the name of the tour operator so that you can fully vet them and,should you be late returning to the ship, the ship can contact the tour operator directly. The following post is how I learned a valuable lesson after over 100 private tours booked and having always being back on the ship at least one hour prior to boarding time.

 

I booked the“Lively Lisbon” tour through Stormin Norman and Diamond Di. I had seen Norman for years on these cruise boards, learned a lot from him and thought he was a “stand up” kind of guy. I had no qualms whatsoever about booking this tour through him.

 

On the day of the tour, I found out that he had oversold the bus for the tour. Unfortunately, I don’t have the facts to state that this was a tour by bus as Stormin' Norman has blocked me from the tour description.

 

Anyway, he had hired an additional car (which was supposed to be a minivan) and, as my husband was unable to go on the tour, I volunteered to go in the car. Our tour was greatly abbreviated as it took us a long time to leave the dock and took a long time to do the tour of Pena Palace in Sintra. After the tour, we had lunch (I would have preferred to actually tour Lisbon) which was an hour away from the ship. Lunch was finished at 3:30 pm (which still gave us time to get to the ship for 5:00 pm) but then we were given 45 minutes to shop. Are you kidding me? We now have 45 minutes to get back to the ship when we are still an hour away.

 

Our car arrived first and we hopped in and off we went to do a tour of the coast. At 4:30 pm, I told the driver we had to be back at the ship by 5:00 pm. He told us we had plenty of time. I then told him that it was 4:00 pm Lisbon time as ship’s time was one hour ahead. He argued a bit with me and then called the tour guide. I stop here to note that Norman never had the tour guide call the car and tell them that we had to get back to the ship. I did hear from others that, when they boarded the bus, Norman told the tour guide that they had to go directly back to the ship so as to make it on time. After the driver hung up with the tour guide,he put the pedal to the metal but told me that we would not make it back by 5:00 pm ship time and that the tour bus was miles (yes, miles) ahead of us.

 

At 4:49 pm, I called my husband (who was still on the ship), to let him know that we probably would not make it back on board and to go to Guest Services when they called my name. He ran directly to Guest Services,where they asked him the name of the tour operator. He only had Stormin Norman’s name and not the name of the tour operator. The Guest Services rep said he would radio the bridge but did not know who Stormin Norman was.

 

I called my husband at 5:03 pm to let him know we were still not back, to stay on the ship and that I would be fine and meet him in Vigo (but I was extremely upset). I actually was so upset that I was making myself sick. At 5:13 pm, Guest Services tried to call me but I had just pulled up to the pier and was on the run(arriving 13 minutes after final board time). I made it on the ship and called my husband at 5:18 pm.

 

I told Normanthat this was the first and last tour I would do with him. I did receive the following private messagefrom him:

“Please know that I was in contact with the head of a Guest Services (by cell) and they were expecting us late. And furthermore, we were not the last back. There were 50 more persons who arrived 35 minutes after our scheduled back on board time.”

 

So, since we got extremely, extremely lucky that there were 50 people that arrived behind uson a Carnival tour, that makes it okay? I don’t think so. And, my response to him:

 

“No one notified the car we were in and after taking a tour of the coast and me freaking out did the driver call the tour guide and find out our onboard time. If it wasn't for me and him putting the pedal to the metal, we would have missed the ship. Too bad you didn't give a damn about us in the car.”

 

And, a line from the email that I received from Norman when booking the tour – “PLEASE NOTE: One of our top priorities is to ensure that we are back on board on time for the ship’s sailing. Because of this, it may be necessary to adjust the tour itinerary without notice.”

 

Draw your own conclusions but, as for me, I’ll never tour with him again. He had no regard for us in the car and whether we missed the ship or not; only for himself and those on the bus. Sometimes, actions speak louder than words.

 

We booked a tour of Athens (pre Vista cruise) in 2016. He would not tell me what tour company we were using when I asked. We also had lunch at a place about 1 hour out of Athens (no sight seeing there just a long drive to and from lunch). We were supposed to have shopping time at the Plaka but lunch ran long and even though we didn't have to hurry back to the ship we just skipped it and he told me to just go on our own. It wasn't convenient to where we were staying, so were never had time to do any shopping in Athens. I would never book with him again.

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Wow..that's crazy.

 

We will NEVER book with private tour operators or third party people because it's just not worth it. It's not that we're lazy or we're not savvy or whatever..we just prefer to have the peace of mind of knowing that if something goes sideways (as it has a couple of times), we have somebody we can go directly to and get answers and/or a refund or whatever.

 

For the most part, we're the same way. Last summer was the first time we used a private operator, but it's the same one used by the ship. We used Overlord Tours for a tour to Normandy and it was amazing! We did save about $300 doing it that way. But for the most part, we just stick with the ship. It's whatever you feel comfortable with, IMO.

 

 

And for the OP, that would be so scary! We always like to give ourselves extra time to get back too, so I know I would have been panicking way earlier! ;p

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I did, and I found their website, but no reviews on Trip Adviser. A website means nothing, I could spend a few hours and make myself look like a travel pro if I wanted to. My point was that I would never hand over my money to a company that had anything less than 100 positive, verifiable reviews on a legitimate site like Trip Adviser. I did not find this company on Trip Adviser. Maybe I missed it.

 

Still waiting to see the "Stormin Norman" business page with reviews. Don't come here and bash 3rd party tours because you got burned by some random guy. That's like handing money to some guy hanging out by the port and being shocked that you didn't get what you paid for, Don't be so naive.

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Still waiting to see the "Stormin Norman" business page with reviews. Don't come here and bash 3rd party tours because you got burned by some random guy. That's like handing money to some guy hanging out by the port and being shocked that you didn't get what you paid for, Don't be so naive.

 

After over 100 private tours, I don't consider myself to be naive. I had never seen any negative reviews of his tours, only positive ones. When I told some people that went on the same tour what happened, they were like, oh well; others were shocked. Some people think he's great (and those are the reviews I have seen). Hence, the reason I wrote this as I wanted to share what I learned to help others make an informed decision. There is no need to "rub salt into the wound".

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