Any experience with ISLAND MARKETING?

[goofbros]

The family has finally decided on a shore excursion that is offered by Island Marketing.

 

Please share your experiences with this organization.

 

Thanks for your help and feed back!!

[MamaParrotHead]

We used them in Coz and Grand Cayman, they were great. Tours as promised (the one in Coz was actually way better than promised :)). Absolutely no problems with them at all and highly recommend them.

[goofbros]

Thanks for the information!

[soon to cruise]

We have also used them in Coz and Grand Cayman and had a great time both times and everything went as planned. Oh, actually we used them twice in Coz. once with a jeep tour and the next year we hired a private driver through them. Everything was GREAT!!

[Visa711]

We booked the dune buggy tour in Cozumel through Island Marketing and it was one of our favorite excursions ever! It was much cheaper than the Carnival excursion (which I believe is run through the same dune buggy company anyway). The individual running the tour was awesome and it included a great authentic lunch on the beach. Highly recommended!!

[Nanatochase]

We used them last year with no problems. We used them again this year and because of the swine flu our ship cancelled that port. We emailed them and told them of the change and within a week the deposit was refunded back to us. Very good company to work with.

[wildcatt99]

Our stop was cancelled because of the swine flu and they refunded our money quickly. We'll be going again next year and will book with them again. A+ company to deal with. Have a great time!

[inheritst]

Our stop was cancelled because of the swine flu and they refunded our money quickly. We'll be going again next year and will book with them again. A+ company to deal with. Have a great time!

What is their contact info.

Thanks Stan

[goofbros]

Stan, just google island marketing. They will come up as Cozumel shore excursions and when you click on that you will see it is Island marketing and all their trips. Hope this helps!

[bonzijam]

We used Island Marketing a few times in the Bahamas and in Mexico. We are planning to use them again in the Caymans, the Bahamas and in Mexico again in the near future. Don't hesitate booking with this group. We never had a problem getting what we paid for.:)

[casieleigh]

We were after a relaxing excursion, definitely not one with a lot of activity. After hearing FABULOUS reviews of Nachi Cocom , we decided to book with Island Marketing for the all-inclusive. We got a cab from Puerta Maya to Nachi Cocum and paid the balance of our all-inclusive day upon arrival to the club. When exiting the office, we were in the restaurant in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of reception-maybe wedding? I asked what was going on (we even had to tip toe quietly through the restaurant to get to the beach). I was told by one of the nice guests that it was a kindergarten graduation for a local school. My first thought was, “Wow! What a nice party for a kindergarten graduation!” I figured it may end soon and it wasn’t keeping us from enjoying the beach so who cares?

However, it ended up ruining our day. The party was about 150 people who had rented out the club for the entire day until closing. We had planned to eat appetizers on the beach and then go to the restaurant for the meal and dessert (like so many others suggested on the boards). There were NO tables in the restaurant available for eating because they were all being used for the party. We felt VERY out of place and felt as if we were intruding on a private party, which we were. We ordered appetizers (wings and cheese sticks). 45 minutes later, the appetizers arrived by another server in a big hurry and apologetic, so no big deal to us. We know these things happen. We were happy to be on the beach and trying to make the best of the scenery. We were hoping to swim in the pool, which was one of the main reasons we chose Nachi Cocom. However, when we tried, I counted 23 children in the pool--NOT exactly what we expected. Our server was really nice, but just seemed way too busy with the group to serve us, which isn’t really his fault. There were kids running all around us on the beach. We don't mind kids (we have 1 of our own), but this was a bit much. We had to ask 2 kids to borrow the shower to wash the sand off our feet because they were sitting in the it playing. We ended up skipping dessert and part of our entrees because we were so frustrated with the slow service and disappointing atmosphere.

 

I understand that Nachi Cocom needs to rent out the facility to private parties, but others shouldn't be allowed to reserve for these. At minimum, we should have been warned that there was a party going on. It would have affected our decision if we had known that the restaurant, pool, and shower would be unavailable, much less the service so slow. As for the food, the ribs were AWESOME! The wings were standard fried wings served with a bottle of buffalo sauce on the side. The cheese sticks were OK—they were a weird sort of cheese, not mozzarella. I liked them better than DH, but I like any kind of cheese. The cheese was sort of clear looking inside. We each only got 1 drink because our waiter never came back, but the 1 we got (margarita and rum and coke were very good and not too weak).

 

It was obvious that this isn’t usually the way things go at Nachi Cocom, so we decided to just leave early. I really wanted to talk to someone at the club about our experience in hopes of getting at least a partial refund. I couldn’t find anyone in the office and the few waiters who were there were all SO busy with the private party that it wasn’t going to happen. We couldn’t get anyone to bring a 2nd drink when we’d been there for 2 hrs, so it was unlikely that I’d find someone willing to help me with this situation. It seemed to be more of a booking issue than a service issue, so I saw no problem waiting to discuss it with Island Marketing who we booked with.

I’d heard great things about Island Marketing, so I decided I’d give them the opportunity to respond. I emailed them as soon as we got home and was offered free admission to Nachi Cocom on our next visit. I’ve been emailing back and forth over the past weeks about it because I really feel we are entitled to at least a partial refund. We paid $140 total for this excursion including cab fare and got NOTHING near worth that in return. I don’t hold them responsible for cab fare, but we certainly wouldn’t have paid the cab fare to go to the beach if we knew this is how it would be. I waited to post this review to give them a chance to make it right in some way. Today, I received a final email from Andrew Bacon of Island Marketing who said their policy is to offer free admission to anyone who isn’t happy with their visit. That’s it. There’s the customer service that I heard such wonderful things about. He says that Island Marketing wasn’t aware that Nachi Cocom had booked the private party and they wouldn’t have allowed us to book if they had known. I guess that still doesn’t entitle us to even a partial refund. So, even though I DO NOT think that this is business as usual for Nachi Cocom and I definitely think it’s usually a great experience, I’ll never go there again because clearly there is a communication problem between Nachi and Island Marketing. YOU will never know if this is going to happen on your visit or not. The facility was beautiful, but this has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

[cruisingbajan]

I certainly understand your disappointment(and I guess that is putting it mildly). I certainly hope this does not happen to us next April.:(

 

I certainly hope you guys can work something out with island marketing. Maybe you can give them another shot

[jaysue]

Used them to book the dune buggy tour in Cozumel 2 days before we arrived in Cozumel - all done over the internet - very professional, live chat was very helpful and would use them again. Clear directions, tour was as promoted and promised.

 

Cheers

jaysue

[scb1959]

I'm glad there are so many people who have been satisfied with Island Marketing, but I thought I'd share my dissatisfaction just for informational purposes. I will not use them on any island excursion in the future because I had great difficulties with email correspondance and getting answers to my questions. Additionally, I always deal with private excursions rather than the cruise ship excursions, but this organization does not provide refunds for cancellations due to illness or change of plans (except for ship and weather problems) once you have paid the deposit. All the other companies do.

[jaysue]

I'm glad there are so many people who have been satisfied with Island Marketing, but I thought I'd share my dissatisfaction just for informational purposes. I will not use them on any island excursion in the future because I had great difficulties with email correspondance and getting answers to my questions. Additionally, I always deal with private excursions rather than the cruise ship excursions, but this organization does not provide refunds for cancellations due to illness or change of plans (except for ship and weather problems) once you have paid the deposit. All the other companies do.

 

Thanks scb1959 - you are right on their refunds policy

 

Cheers

jaysue

[MrsPete]

We used them for an ATV trip in Cozumel and were very pleased. Everything was just as promised on their website. I would definitely use them again.

[Kristy19]

We used them for a day at Nachi Cocom in January. It was great, one of the highlights of our cruise. There were about 20 people on the beach the day we were there. We had a waiter all to ourselves and he was very attentive. The food was great. I highly recommend the chicken fajitas and the nachos! We plan on using them again for our cruise in December.