Just off Liberty Cruise on 6/17--Bad Experience with Mario

Hey all, Had a great cruise on the Carnival Liberty last week. Gotta mention the My Friend Mario tour though. We had the British woman as our guide. I can't remember her name--but you all probably know her--since I've seen other postings from people who had her as a guide. We took the tour where we went to the Indian Village, then to swim under the water fall, then to the Gataun Locks (sp?). When we first got on the bus our tour guide asked us if anyone spoke Spanish, and no one on the bus raised their hand, and she asked everyone where we were all from. I guess since no one spoke Spanish--this gave her free reign to talk in Spanish to the other guides and she thought no one would understand. I minored in Spanish in College so I'm fairly good at it--but I didn't raise my hand--since I don't consider myself a Spanish speaking person. When we got to the Indian Village, we were escorted to a large hut where they were serving soda to us. When they got to me and my niece they only had two cups of diet Pepsi on the tray--- Even though I am over weight-- I just happen not to like diet soda, so I asked if I could get a regular soda. They had 5 liters of regular soda that they were all passing around. So our "nice" British guide went over to the Spanish speaking Indian who was serving people and in Spanish said " Yeah that skinny one over there wants regular not diet." Thinking I didn't understand her.

I also need to mention that at the start of the tour-- she started telling us about the town of Colon--and explained that it was a slummy city because "as we all know-- it is mostly black people who live there, and 'not all' but 'some' of the blacks are filthy people!" This she said in English as part of our tour! We couldn't believe she said that!

Then after our waterfall tour she said that we were going to the locks, and she said we would have plenty of time. It took us an hour to get to the locks and we were supposed to be on the ship no later than 3:30, and the ship was supposed to sail at 4pm. We did not even get to the locks until 3:40--and we were trying to tell her that we had to go so we didn't miss the ship! We were still at the locks at 4:05, and she said she was monitoring a Carnival excursion that had not returned to the ship yet, and as long as we get back before them-- we would not miss our ship. We ended up getting back at about 4:20 and luckily we did not miss the ship--but the Locks tour was very stressful since they were not taking us back until after the ship was to set sail--and Mario is not a Carnival sponsored tour. The tour was a good tour--but I think it was poorly managed, and I am not sure I would ever risk taking a non-Carnival tour again.

Just wanted to let everyone hear of this experience! The rest of the cruise and the ship was awesome!

Almost missing the ship is really the only part of your experience that would give me any hesitation in booking with My Friend Mario.

I'm sorry about your experience, chiledog. We did Mario's Gatun locks and beach break tour and had a great time, with plenty of time to do some shopping back at the pier - but one of our CC roll call members did the Embrera tour and also barely made it back to the ship. I would e-mail Mario and let him know about your experience.

:eek:

I think what you described is really awful and I'm gald you posted. Did you write to the tour company and tell them about this guide? This would have been something I'd do right away.

Don't let this turn you off from tours not sponsored by the ship. There are plenty of good ones out there.

I didn't really want to cause any trouble so I didn't email Mario, but we were really scared we would miss the ship and that ruined our whole excursion. I at least wouldn't do this tour with Mario again.

I didn't really want to cause any trouble so I didn't email Mario, but we were really scared we would miss the ship and that ruined our whole excursion. I at least wouldn't do this tour with Mario again.

Personally, if I were Mario, I'd want to know. If this happens a few more times (just the disrespect of speaking about you like that is awful) and word of mouth about his tours turns negative and he loses business you wouldn't have done him any favor by keeping silent.

Hey chile,

glad you enjoyed the Liberty...we did too (6-3-07)...BUT! I am really sorry that you had a bad experience with the sarcastic remark and the racism remarks...there are NO excuses for that and I also think you should email somebody about it just to save other people form the grief. So sorry that happened to you. That behavior is NOT acceptable.:(

:(

That is just too bad...you missed out on a part of the world that is just gorgeous and would have been much more enjoyable had the tour been better.I lived in Panama for 10 year on both coasts and it has so much to offer. If you ever go back, get over to Panama City (the pacific side).

Thanks for your post.

My family was also on this excursion. It started out great but ended very stressful. I enjoyed visiting the Indians and my husband really enjoyed the waterfall. I started to get upset with Lori are guide when 1/2 the bus did not go to the waterfalls and she said she would be back in 30 minutes and was gone over 2 hours. Her assistant stayed behind with the other half that did not go to the waterfall and when we started asking questions to him as to where they were he was no help @ all. Then arriving @ the locks @ 3:40 when we were to be on the ship @ 3:30 was very stressful. I was disappointed that the guide did not seem to think it was a big deal, going to the locks was what I was really interested in and we were the for maybe 5 minutes. I have been on several excursions and this was the most stressful by far.

Wish I were on that tour Ida slapped the s##t outa her!

Yes-- The first thing I did is look around the bus to see if there were any black people--because I knew they would be so offended--because I was-- and I'm blonde and white! Lori is lucky-- but she probably wouldn't have said that if there were black people on the bus. Same as she wouldn't have talked about me or others in Spanish if she knew we could understand. I think I got a different impression of this tour than most--because I was picking up rude things she was saying in Spanish all day--and I don't think anyone else understood her. The tour was an awesome tour--she just ruined it by being so rude and almost making us miss the ship. But my aunt (she's only 44) didn't pick up any of the rude Spanish remarks--so she thought Lori was fine, so probably most people on the tour were happy. I'm just amazed at how someone could "act" one way, and be a racist rude person when they think no one could understand. But the black comment was made in English for all to understand--so that right there should have made everyone's head turn!

Almost missing the ship is really the only part of your experience that would give me any hesitation in booking with My Friend Mario.

WOW, is that the only reason? :eek: I would think that the sarcastic comments about the OP's weight and that of Black people would be up there with almost missing the ship. May be I am not quite understanding you completely but that was very unprofessional for the tour guide to make about any one or any race. :mad:

Wish I were on that tour Ida slapped the s##t outa her!

It would have been priceless if at the end of the tour when she was expecting a tip, you said in Spanish and also in English that you were offended.

It would probably affect the tip level from the entire tour and would teach her a lesson.

DON

Wow, that's shocking that she would say and do so many things!! I would've been freaking out in your shoes, on top of being extremely ticked off.

I definitely think you should write to Mario and let him know about your experience. These sort of things need to be known about so they can be dealt with and future cruisers don't experience the same thing you did. I hope you posted this on the appropriate Ports of Call board as well!!

Oh Kieferbell.....you are too funny......I start reading, expecting a bible verse......:D

Hummmm.....having a bad day was she??:eek:

Personally, if I were Mario, I'd want to know. If this happens a few more times (just the disrespect of speaking about you like that is awful) and word of mouth about his tours turns negative and he loses business you wouldn't have done him any favor by keeping silent.

Ditto! He needs to know what his employees are doing when his eyes are not around to watch them. He puts a lot of trust into his tour guides to give us consumers a great tour. He may not know that this particular guide might be acting this way on each and every tour she goes out on.

We were on our Balcony watching as all the LATE arrivals pulled into port and we saw your bus pull in. It was nervewracking for us to watch. Your tour guide was pretty cocky.. it is like being robbed you had no control of the situation. I donlt like feeling that vulnerable.

I don't care that they knew there were others on Carnival tours still late to arrive.

If they promised you you would be back on time and the excuse wasnt being stuck in traffic... etc.. this would make me very angry.

I would NEVER take this tour operators tour again. I like to have a relaxing time on my vacation. This kind of stress would have been ridiculous.

Our past experience taking the Kohunlich tour on the Liberty in Dec. got us back with 5 minutes to spare.

Thank goodness it was with the Ship tour.

I would never chance it.. and Panama is notorius for late returns.

A lesson learned.

Btw too bad you never joined our roll call. We had fun. Bryce.. didnt know you were on this tour... It was great meeting you!

WOW, is that the only reason? :eek: I would think that the sarcastic comments about the OP's weight and that of Black people would be up there with almost missing the ship. May be I am not quite understanding you completely but that was very unprofessional for the tour guide to make about any one or any race. :mad:

Sorry, Kieferbell, but I have read way too many positive things about this tour company to think this is something that takes place all the time. There is no doubt in my mind that the second some people read this, they already alerted Mario to this posting.

Again, perhaps because I also know Spanish and don't say so probably makes me less likely to think someone is talking about me. Then again, I would not just have sat back and said nothing. It is not my intent to say what should have happened at the time. I have done plenty of research and I am still booking an excursion with Mario, and I do appreciate reading this post. in fact I will monitor it to see if multiple people add comments about experiencing the same (such as what happened when people commented about bad experiences at the Cat's Meow in Costa Maya), and if so, I may feel differently. So far, the only comment that corroborated the original posters was with regard to almost missing the ship.

Sorry, Kieferbell, but I have read way too many positive things about this tour company to think this is something that takes place all the time.

:eek:

Excuse me but I think this should not take place EVER.

Wow - what an experience. I would not want to be stuck in Panama, and the racism is unexcusable. We had an excursion booked with Mario for our tour in August, but now I'm thinking maybe we should just bite the bullet and do a ship excursion. We have two children ages 14 and 11. Any suggestions?

Many have advised us to take the ship tours in Costa Rica and Panama. I think we will stick to that plan for our upcoming March cruise on the Liberty. So sorry for the bad experience you had. The racial slurs are just unacceptable!!

Thanks for the post and I'd definitely email Mario. I'm sure he knows his business could be greatly harmed by any bad press here and would like to know of any problems. I was leaning towards Mario for this October until I read a post a while back on the Panama board about one of Mario's guides being drunk (and drinking during the excursion.) Still haven't made a decision but this may have tipped the scales in favor of doing the ship's Kayak tour the OP mentioned.

After a close call last year, I don't want to be even close to missing the ship and have seen quite a few reports of Mario's tours cutting it close.