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What is the worst excursion you have been on?


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I have enjoyed reading some of the best excursions, so a different take on that thread is "What is the worst excursion you have been on?"

 

I would say the worst for us was in Grand Turk. It was about our third time there and we had our kids. We decided to go through Carnival and booked the Power Snorkel tour which was not cheap. We met at the dock to board a small boat. They probably took us about 3000 feet, to the other side of the ship about 200 yards off shore. They gave us our Sea Do powered device and we were only in the water 30 minutes!!!! It was at that time that I swore off Carnival sponsored excursions!:mad:

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Mine was a wasted day traveling to Tulum Mayan ruins. First, a long ferry ride from Cozumel to Playa deCarmen, then they paraded us through the streets to the bus. Then a long bus ride, where we had to stop at a souvenir shack, that must have been a relative of the bus driver, then finally to Tulum. And the ruins after that long hot journey was disappointing, and expensive tour. Never again!

I think a runner up would be to a beach with lunch in Falmouth. Booked through RCCL, the beach was crappy, with no umbrellas for shade offered, and lunch was sparse, and nearly gone by the time we got up to buffet from the long line.

 

 

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Mine wasn't through Carnival, but NCL. It was to St. Lucia and it was a simple beach day ship excursion. When we got to the beach, rows and rows of lounge chairs were lined up touching one another. They also had umbrellas at every second chair. They only left enough room to walk in front of your chair. The only way to get into the chair was to sit on the bottom and shimmy up...not so pretty in a lot of cases. We were in the third row. We couldn't see the water, only umbrellas and backs of chairs. A little girl who was sitting by us couldn't play in the sand because if she did, people couldn't walk by. It was awful and a wasted day. We took lots of pictures and got our money back. We have never complained in the 20 cruises we've taken, but we felt as if we wasted a whole day and shouldn't have had to pay do do so.

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Our worst excursion was in Cozumel where we visited a tequila company and bought $300 worth. Then the cruise line confiscated it and we couldn't drink any till we got home.

 

 

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and you were surprised by this? it is clearly Carnival rules

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We had an excursion in Cozumel that was supposed to be snorkeling and a glass bottom boat ride. Between the fumes and the rocking of the boat everyone got a little "weasy". It was a good thing that the snorkeling was first but the snorkeling was about a half mile from the boat. Didn't go very far at all. The fact that this was the worst is a good thing since it means that the vast majority of our excursions were great.

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Well this one was really my own fault...

when we were in Key West in August, we boarded that Monday. We went straight to the Serenity Deck and began drinking. You know, celebrating embarkation day, our 25th wedding anniversary, and the fact that the sun came up and we probably heard a dog bark at some point. But the trouble was I also took Dramamine!!! That pretty much increased the power of said alcohol. I had signed us up for the, um, Pub Crawl, the next morning in Key West. It was HOT. Very hot. And I'm southern and I've spent a lot of time in Florida and had been to the Keys before. So starting a "pub crawl" at 10:30 am, in very hot weather, very hungover was not my best decision let's say.......

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Mine wasn't through Carnival, but NCL. It was to St. Lucia and it was a simple beach day ship excursion. When we got to the beach, rows and rows of lounge chairs were lined up touching one another. They also had umbrellas at every second chair. They only left enough room to walk in front of your chair. The only way to get into the chair was to sit on the bottom and shimmy up...not so pretty in a lot of cases. We were in the third row. We couldn't see the water, only umbrellas and backs of chairs. A little girl who was sitting by us couldn't play in the sand because if she did, people couldn't walk by. It was awful and a wasted day. We took lots of pictures and got our money back. We have never complained in the 20 cruises we've taken, but we felt as if we wasted a whole day and shouldn't have had to pay do do so.

 

Sounds just like Mahogany Bay. on Roatan We considered it our worse excursion ever. Not only was it wall to wall chairs and clamshells, but the chairs were so broken down it was impossible to sit in it comfortably. Also, the floats we rented smelled so bad from B O that there was no way we were going to use them. We stood in line longer to return everything than we spent on the beach!

 

We learned our lesson and pay more to go over to either one of the hotels or to Bananarama. Much nicer beaches too! We are going to Club Natale on our cruise next month.

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We've never had a bad excursion...knock on wood! I guess if I was to rank them from first to last, my least favorite would be the White Pass/Yukon scenic railway in Skagway, AK.

 

It wasn't bad--it was actually quite lovely. We just prefer to do more active excursions than this. But like I said, it was still great so I don't have anything negative to say :)

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Been on some “interesting” excursions over the years, one in Vietnam where the bus driver overtook everything in front of him, even when there was other traffic coming towards him. One in Samoa just after they changed the road rules regarding which side of road to drive on, pretty much pick a side.

One in Fiji where they drove us to a river, we looked and they drove us back!

However I don’t want to sound like Pollyanna but there was always something interesting to see in a different country and I enjoyed them if only for the laughs.

 

 

 

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I guess we're very fortunate. Like no1racefan1, we have never been on a bad excursion. We do not book excursions through the cruise lines, they're all independent. So I have done my research prior to going on the cruise to know what to expect with the excursion when we get there.

 

I guess the only time I wasn't happy at a port of call was in Nassau. The place is a dump and we just ended up going to Atlantis. Atlantis was nice but it was definitely a waste of a day. We should have just stayed on the ship.

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We booked Spice Beach in Bonaire, took an open air "bus" to the "resort", the price included a rum punch, chairs and an umbrella, The "beach" couldn't have been more than 20 yards wide, with the front having a 3 foot high wall, with stones and rocks in front of it. The only way into the water was going on a pier, and climbing down a ladder into the water which was over my head (I'm normal height 5'6"). So, if you stayed in the water, you had to constantly tread, or hang onto the side of the ladder, which I did waiting for someone to enter the water so I could get out, meanwhile, a wave bumped me into the ladder, I immediately got a burning sensation, go out and I had a red mark on my leg, I went away, I never gave it another thought until two weeks later it came back with a vengence, and now I still have a red mark...Cost me $80, no more ships excursions for me. If I went on my own, it probably wouldn't have cost more than 25 bucks for both of us, but I would have been able to see that the beach was actually not a beach, so we could have turned around and for the couple of bucks went back to the ship for a 4 buck outing.

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My excursions have mostly been ship excursions and they were all a lot of fun. I always read lots of reviews before booking anything. I don't think booking a tour with the ship automatically means it will be bad.

 

My worst excursion was a tour in Jamaica. It wasn't booked through the ship. We caught the tour after walking through the port area. The tour guide was very good, but it was just a depressing tour through mostly slum areas. We did stop at the beach for a few minutes. It was very interesting to learn about the area, but not something I would ever do again for fun. I have no desire to ever visit Jamaica again.

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Jamaica in our journeys is way better to stay a week every couple of years. No way would the same experience be had off a ship for a few hours. The best things to see are away from the ports areas.

 

Cannot remember a really bad excursion all have been 3 to 5 stars.....most not through ships, found here and TripAdvisor :cool:

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On our first excursion on our first cruise (with NCL), we booked their seven mile beach break in Grand Cayman. As has been the theme for "beach break" excursions here, we were paraded off the ship to a bunch of vans and bussed over to a hotel on seven mile beach. All the NCL chairs were piled together shoulder to shoulder in a corralled area while the rest of the beach was spread out. And zero umbrellas in sight, those were extra. WE got there, checked in, drank our small cup of "free" rum punch, and then ducked out of the corral to get the hell out of there. Walked the beach at our own leisure and hailed a cab from the road when we wanted to go back to the tender area. It was a good lesson learned.

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There was the time in Nassau our tour guide was arrested in the middle of the tour followed by a riot then breaking out near the straw market after a vendor punched the police officer arresting her. This was a Carnival ship sponsored Segway excursion.

 

Not exactly the worst excursion but that memory stands out.

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I have enjoyed reading some of the best excursions, so a different take on that thread is "What is the worst excursion you have been on?"

 

I would say the worst for us was in Grand Turk. It was about our third time there and we had our kids. We decided to go through Carnival and booked the Power Snorkel tour which was not cheap. We met at the dock to board a small boat. They probably took us about 3000 feet, to the other side of the ship about 200 yards off shore. They gave us our Sea Do powered device and we were only in the water 30 minutes!!!! It was at that time that I swore off Carnival sponsored excursions!:mad:

 

Mine was a excursion to Pearl Island in Nassau. The best part of the excursion was the boat ride to and from the island. Once on the island you were trapped, and there was nothing to do.

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We've never had a bad excursion...knock on wood! I guess if I was to rank them from first to last, my least favorite would be the White Pass/Yukon scenic railway in Skagway, AK.

 

It wasn't bad--it was actually quite lovely. We just prefer to do more active excursions than this. But like I said, it was still great so I don't have anything negative to say :)

 

That's why there are so many different types of excursions. We each have to find what works for us and hope they meet our expectations. At least the train didn't break down. Then there would be a real interesting story to tell.

enhance

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My worst excursion memory was when my husband and I went ziplining in St. Thomas. The zipline itself and the crew were fun, but there was an "incident" that scared me half to death. We were on one platform and some of the group was at the next platform. My husband went right before me and after he left, the rest of us heard a scream from the other platform and then silence. The employee on the other platform said something over the radio to the employee on my platform that I didn't understand, and the employee muttered "oh ****." In a panic I kept asking what was going on and no one was saying anything. I was thinking that something happened to my husband. It turned out that a vehicle of employees had rolled down a slope and the scream came from someone who saw it happening. No one was injured and we continued after that.

 

 

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