Acapulco's worst tour guide

[Bubba#1]

I have been asked to post this here rather than in another section.

 

Just got back on Mercury's 2/24/06 Rivera 10 day cruise and thought it best to advise all cruisers who not to use as a tour guide in Acapulco.

 

I am sad to say his name is Sebastian. This guide was not my suggestion but a cruise friend who I hope still remains one after this post.

 

First of all he parked his vehicle close to one mile away from the terminal. Either he was late for our 10 AM meet or everyone else who was there didn't like him and wished he was out of the way. We must have been approached by at least 40+ other guides seeking our services until we ran into him and the end of the pier.

 

At first I asked to go to the Fairmont Princess which he seemed dumbfounded and refused to respond until my louder 3rd request. As the front seat passenger I felt he purposely ignored me because he had his own plans on where to take us.

 

With in a few moments the response I got was ridiculous saying if he took us to the palace which he didn't seem to know existed at first would cause us problems with his tour, which included a tour of the highest church in Acapulco. (I will use AC for Acapulco from here on).

 

Now this church was up on the mountain and had nice views so I can't complain about it except when it was time to depart we had NO AIR CONDITIONING. Finally about 20 minutes later we got it up and running by hitting a bad bump.

 

Now so as not to confuse we traveled the streets slower than a bicycle in some cases as this driver tried so hard to make a day of it. Our next stop was at the cliff divers which we were told started at 12:30 and by 1:00 PM we were still navigating the streets as he let in every car who wished to get ahead of us. Finally I said to the driver in frustration and without Air again if he lets another car in I was going to take his place behind the wheel. So we pressed on to the divers only to find because of his delaying tactics no close views were available for pics. A disappointment to say the least.

 

After the show the driver attempted to take us shopping.(Remembering we crawled along in traffic after leaving the cliff divers show without Air). Of course at his stores, where low and behold the city decided to dig up part of the street in front and the workers decided to take a break. Was he pissed off, when they refused to move their vehicles. He was arguing with them when I asked the other 8 passengers if they wished to shop answering no.So I told the driver to move along. We did proceed to the hotel wher John Wayne and Tarzan owned way back when and had some ice cream for lunch and PJ,s samples.

 

Linda who organized and planned with Sebastian the tour wanted to go to an art gallery to view paintings. So he took us to an art gallery which consisted of a wall with tile on a street were the trash was piled van high. I really felt bad for her and mean her no disrespect and really enjoyed her and PJ and wish to remain friends, but this guy sucked.Finally he took us to and dropped us at the San Diego Fort across the street from the ship. The tour consisted of about 5 hours in a van and 3 hours outside of it. Since we first got shut out by NCL cruiselines who dropped AC from its itinerary on the dates we scheduled with them to travel, I was really looking forward to seeing AC and the Fairmont Princess. I remain calm again and plan never to visit AC in the future.

 

Finally may I say that my tour however ruined by this tour guide was still loads of fun only because of the wonderful people we met through cruisecritic. I hope my post here will help those who are looking for a tour in AC. Please be careful as many of them are scammers.

 

Linda thanks for your hard work and believe me it was appreciated by all.

 

Bubba

[FinelyCruising]

Thanks for the information. I don't know much about private tours or how they work, but by placing your post on this board I imagine this will assist others in determining best practices for selecting an operator, including finding out early on those with air cooling and those who don't operate with it as a benchmark.

[Spikesgirl]

Gotta say, this is why I pay the higher price and book through the cruise lines. We've never gotten a bad tour guide, not even in Acapulco! One that we has was so great, we ended up just hanging with him because we enjoyed his company so much. Thanks for the warning!

 

Charlie

[lovemexico]

so its say away from sebastian then. where did linda dig this one up? did he have a good recomendation from someone here. we have booked with a girl named rosie in may who has had some very nice things said about her. and i will come back and tell you all about our time in acapulco.

[lovemexico]

so sorry almost forgot to ask does sebastian have a last name. thanks