My complaint:
Dear Sirs,
First half of the excursion was good, with a good guide who was very informative. He then left us at the hotel for lunch and went off duty. This is when things went wrong. The lunch was absolutely chaotic and the food was of poor quality and not enough to go round. We were told to queue up at the buffet and be quick as other coaches were arriving any minute so the food would be gone. It was literally a fight to get anything and not at all what I expected from a tour that cost £155!! There was a jug of water on the table and no other drinks offered. Somebody said that we could get tea but when I went up there was no hot water left and nobody available to do a refill. It was shockingly awful!!
We were told to meet our second guide up the road outside the tourist office at 2pm. There was a guy there holding up paddles with numbers on representing the tour number. This was fine and clear to see. What wasn’t fine was the fact that the guide did not speak at all. He simply waved us all through so we were herded into the station with NO INSTRUCTIONS whatsoever of what to do when on the platform. It was literally a case of following the person in front and all tour numbers were mixed up. A train was in so we all got on it sitting where ever we could find a seat. Again no instructions or advice were given and we didn’t know whether we were even on the correct train. The guide was nowhere to be seen! The train set off and there wasn’t a great deal to see from the left hand side that I was on. When the train stopped we all got off and I followed everyone else and crossed the platform to wait for the next train. Again the guide was nowhere to be seen. I heard somebody in the crowd say that with this train the best side to be on was the right hand side. When the train pulled in I got on and was lucky to get a window seat on the right hand side, happy days I thought after the disastrous lunch! But alas, a few minutes into the journey a train guard appeared and asked us if we were with MSC. When we replied yes she said we were in the wrong carriage and had to move! I told her we were NOT given any instructions as to where to go or where to sit. In fact I still hadn’t seen the guide at all! She insisted that when the train stops at the next station we had to move to the back of the train. I didn’t want to give up my good seat but she said she had people standing in our carriage that had booked these seats! It was a complete disaster and where was our guide???? Needless to say that when I moved to the correct carriage I didn’t have a good seat!!
Apart from the first half of the day, the rest of it was a chaotic mess, and I didn’t see my guide until I was nearly back at the ship. What a waste of space he was!
I reported my disappointment when back on the ship to the excursion desk. A cheap bottle of red wine was sent to my cabin but as I was on a premium drinks package this was no compensation at all.
As mentioned above, this excursion cost me £155 and in view of the above I seek a refund of half the tour cost being £77.50.
I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Shirley Donovan MAAT
Suggested solution:
Refund of half the ticket price.
