06 May 2024
I hate writing bad reviews and this is more of a warning than anything because I felt like they tried to take advantage of us as the only white people on the boat. We enjoyed the music and the nighttime view of the city lights, the wine wasn't bad as it usually is on these types of outings but the meal was really bad. I actually don't expect much on these types of excursions when it comes to food so I wasn't surprised, although saying we're getting shrimp & squid with rice and it comes out with mussels is pretty odd (and I hate mussels).
So here's my problem: They passed around a drink menu and after a bit we flagged someone down to order drinks. My daughter ordered a Pina colada and he said that it was buy 1 get 1 free so I also ordered a Pina colada. They were pretty tasty, light on the alcohol as expected, but tasty nonetheless. With about 30 minutes left he came around asking if we wanted another drink and this is how that conversation went (btw my daughter took 4 years of Spanish in high school).
Him: Would you like anything else to drink? It's 40,000 pesos for the 2 you had, if you buy 2 more it's 60,000 pesos.
Her: So if we get 2 more the total is 60,00 pesos?
Him: Si.
So we ordered 2 more because that seemed a like a good deal, right?
Then a woman came over so we could pay and she said it's 60,000 pesos. I gave her 70,000 pesos and she smiled and thanked us for the tip.
We waited and waited and waited and finally I'm watching the bartender start washing glasses so I walked over to her and said we never got our second drinks. At this point she starts acting like she can't understand me. The guy that took the order came over and said no, that was a tip. Um, no. Who gives a 75% tip anyway but I digress. I told him no, you told my daughter it was 40,000 pesos for the 2 we had and if we got 2 more it would be 60,000 pesos. Again, he said no, it was a tip. At this point, I'm not trying to ruin our evening and there was only like 5 minutes left anyway so I told the woman to give me my 20,000 pesos back.
Everyone else around us that ordered another round of drinks received theirs and we heard similar conversations of if you buy x more, it's x amount. I'm left with no other choice but to believe that he thought he could take advantage of the only 2 Americans on the boat.
This is crazy long but people should be aware of the character of people who would scam tourists that way. It left a really bad taste in my mouth and it wasn't the taste of mussels.