Monday the 2nd Today was the worst day of our trip! Today was supposed to be one of the best! We were going to Xcaret! Well, our ticket said to meet the tour person in the lobby at 9 am sharp! We woke up at 8:30, so were running late, so threw on some clothes, and got there about 8:45. 9 oclock rolls around, and no one is there. Now keep in mind, we rushed to get there on time, so we missed breakfast, this is important for later. 9:30... nothing, so we goto the concierge desk and ask where the the tour guy is, he grabs our paper, and calls someone. They say they will be there in 15-20 minutes.. 10 oclock they finally show up. No problems, we will get there within the hour and have a ton of fun! Nope!!! This guy takes us to a shopping mall downtown, and says we have to wait for another bus. We realize that this company is not Albatross, but transmexico or something similar. So we get to the store, and they proceed to try and sell us crap while walking from the front entrance, all the way to the back. We check in, and they send us right back to the front. I proceed to tell the lady at the counter that I will spend 0000 dollars in this store because of the trickery! So the bus rolls up at about 1130. As we are getting on the bus, the guy checks our reciept, and says you got basic, it will cost you 35 dollars each to upgrade. I said what do you mean? He explained that basic meant entrance/transportation only. No food, no towels, no nothing, just entrance, and transportation. At this point, I was already a bit hot, because of the time, and the whole shopping stop etc.. So I told the guy I wanted a refund, and would find my own way back to the resort. He sent me inside to the counter, all the way in the back of the store, once again! I go to the lady, and say give me a refund, she says sorry we did not sell you this package, we are a 3rd party company blah blah blah! So I told my wife let's just go, and we can straighten it out at the park. On the way the guy comes back to our seat and asks if we are ok, I explain the whole ordeal, pull out 20 bucks, which I brought for a tip, and told him that this was for you, but I will not give it to you, because of that guy. I said I cant do anything about it, but you can. If you go back and yell at him, maybe he won't rip people off again, or maybe you just won't do business with him. He pleads something about don't hate mexicans for something he did blah blah. So we get to the park about 130pm and proceed to sit on the bus for a half hour waiting for wrist bands. Then we get off the bus like children and line up for another 15 minutes, and finally get into the park about 215, 230 ish. The first thing I do is go ask for a manager, and they spend the next hour trying to get a hold of this guy to bring us some coupons. Finally, the manager comes out, and says, we got a hold of the guy, and he is going to come here, so go and enjoy the park, and check with the information booths periodically, and we will let them know so you can come and get your coupons. So Here we are 3-330 ish, and we are finally going to get to enjoy the park, but, did you know that some of the stuff closes at 530? The rivers for one. Well, here is what we got to do at Xcaret... Snorkel for about an hour, then swim one river before they start closing everything for that ball game. We got to see a monkey, umm, and a panther, but not much else. We went to the soccer game, but it was not very good so we left, and waited for our bus driver. Here are the key points.... It costs $30 bucks a person to eat at Xcaret (restaurants). We had not brought anything with us, because the tour guy said we had food, towels yada yada. I am sort of a germafobe but not really, but did not want to share snorkels with anyone, so luckily we brought our own. We brought very little money, and anyone who knows Xcaret knows that you can't eat very well on $20 bucks. We had not eaten that day up to this point, so were starving! We ended up buy a bunch of candy bar type crap, which is things we DO NOT eat, and consequently were sick afterwards... We checked the info booth, nothing, noone showed up, noone cared, and when I asked the tour guy when he came back, he said he was all the way back in town, and couldn't do anything anyway. We got back pretty late, and sacked out.. Btw.. no resort restaurant open that late... Tomorrow... we decide to not let that experience ruin our vacation, and wipe it off the books.
I hope you guys enjoyed your trip overall. My experience going on tours and trips is that you need to read the details of the trip for what is included/not included. They usually have a brochure that outlines it. I'm surprised that they gave you credit at all for the trip that you missed.
I have enjoyed your TR, and feel your pain on the wasted day and $$. Sounds about like flying and accepting layovers instead of going nonstop. Reminds me why we don't do many of the touristy events.
Tere, That is why we asked so many questions. We go to Mexico a couple of times a year, on the Baja side, this was our first Cancun trip. We do many tours in Mexico, but this guy blatantly lied to us. My thing is this, be up front about the 2 packages, and we would have taken the plus package, anyway. He did not even offer it, and by the time there was an offer for it, we had no money to pay for it, that is what burns me. Of course the limited time at the park, it was just a mix a errors that made this day bad, but our overal trip was amazing! I spent a total of about a half hour on this, with the hotel the next day, and when they gave me the "We cant do anything, speach" I wiped my hands of it, but will tell everyone I meet about it. All of this being said, my grief is not so much with the resort, it is with Albatross. For those reading, everything else , except the beach lol, but the staff, the food, the people, Amazing, pure amazing!
wassup man it's brad from Temptation last week..... as for albatross i think you need to talk with sergio he is a really cool cat he will make you happy (if he can) i attend and get others to attend his trips because of him not albatross not Temptation but because of him.... so if he doesnt make you happy please let me know as i have informed him of your post and we will see what comes of it.... when is the part about you singing every other song for 3 hours????? you did well my friend... was great meeting you guys look me up on facebook...... brad armstrong located in reno.........
I will work on the rest tomorrow. I am not sure of the guy who I booked with, he had dark hair and goatee. He was not there when I went back to talk to them, it was some bald guy.
Hey DandA... we ran into the SAME problem with Chichen Itza. We also booked with them and it was terrible. The experience was great but i hated the tour. When we go back, we will just rent a car and do this ourselves. BTW, We'll email you the pictures from Isla Mujeres sometime this weekend. C&D
