Day Trip to Lucerne and Engelberg from Zurich

First, they say it is Spanish and the guide speaks 90 percent English and 10 percent Spanish. The brochure that you get from the excursion in Spanish , the activities are only in English so we already started badly. The stop in Lucerne is short an hour so have lunch or you will arrive in Engelberg at 1 pm and it is all closed. It is a nice but very small town and we got snowstormed and the guides laughed when the 10 people who "got us off" the bus with a waiting time of 3 and a half hours to those who go to Titlis who are the ones who really care about the company. There is insufficient information. The monastery is closed, you can't tour it at any time. The museum's closed and they won't tell you either. Go to Lucerne on your own as it is cheaper and there is much to go and see. In conclusion money lost.

Where to begin… we did a tour yesterday with the same company to intelaken and gridenwald and everything was good, the guides we were happy with but today we did a tour to Lucern and Engelberg, because their was two groups on the bus, one finished at engelberg and the other Titlis, it was very clear from the beginning that the focus of the day went to the people going to Titlis, we left the bus depot approx 9:35-9:40 am and arrived at Lucern 11:30 and were asked to be back at the bus by 12:25, for starters this was no where near enough time to spend at lucern, on top of that we got delayed by over 5 mins due to late comers, we then proceeded to Engelberg where we weren’t given any instruction by our guide as to where anything was, and no one we could ask questions to, as the tour guide left with the group to Titlis, the bus driver who dropped us off at Engelberg didn’t even speak English which was what we paid for, to have a tour guide in English. Apart from not having anyone to ask anything we got dropped off at a parking lot (2-3 min walk in the ice from where the map said we were supposed to be dropped off) the bus driver in the best way he could said to meet him at 16:45 to depart and pick up the other people from the other tour, we arrived at 16:45/16:46 and the bus wasn’t there, I have it 2-3 mins the checked the map realised the pick up location was at the monastery (the 2 min walk, I spoke about earlier) i proceeded to go to that location at as fast pace with my wife and arrived by 16:50 and still no bus, I have it another 4 mins in case of traffic before calling the operator, I spoke to Amanda and she asked me to give her a few mins, once she called me back she mentioned the bus had already left and was going to come back to pick us up, she asked specifically if we were in front of the monestary and I said yes, she then called me back again at 17:11 to advise me that people from the other group had people that were late to the meet up point and that they would be another 5 mins, once the bus arrived it didn’t even come to the monastery it came to the other location where it dropped us off and I was originally waiting, mind you it was at this point -4 degrees and no sun, me and my wife where freezing waiting for 45 mins, I then had to run on ice to make sure the bus didn’t leave again, this is at 17:29, the guide Adele had nothing to say apart from lies, she said that the bus left at 16:49 (as the driver said that to her) from the spot and that they took so long getting back due to ice on the road when Amanda had communicated with her already and had advised it was due to people being late, the huge lie ever as we saw all the locals buses coming from that road and others cars, excuses again! At this point I was furious as we were literally abandoned because the bus driver didn’t check how many people came back on board as he was supposed to, as we had no guide until she came back with the other group, this was unprofessional as we had tag and they had a list of people who supposed to be in the town, very poor service from your team giving responsibility to an employee who was not counting and doing the work properly, big mistake. Then I called Amanda again and she sarcastically said to us “be thankful that they came back to us and we saved you a train ticket back to Zurich” this is the most unprofessional thing that has ever happened to me concidering we were less than 1 min late to the spot. Absolutely appalling. Once we arrived back at the depot I spoke to Adele and the bus driver ( i believe his name was numo I’m not sure if spelling is correct) as he did not speak English he kept trying to lie to us saying he waited until 16:49 at the spot before he left, when another family that was with us, said to the guide Adele in front of us that the driver was lying because he picked them up and left as soon as it hit 16:45 and was at the pick up point for the other group at 16:48, and ever after that the guide and bus driver denied any wrong doing and not even an apology from anyone only excuses and excuses focused on another group not us, as soon as my wife asked to Adele “why the driver did not waits” she responded “we said you have to be on time or driver can go” and actually she said “the driver told me that he waits several minutes before departs” wow! I am impressed with the service and the way to replied as earlier we wait for 5 min another group of family of 4 in Lucern, so my question is why the driver did not wait 2 min? The other family said assured to the guide Adele that the driver was in the other parking spot at 16:48, so how come he waits for several minutes in the ice waiting for that long and capable to left us there in the town where we haven’t any idea where the train was as. How dare you as a provider to do what you did today with us? Completely unacceptable behaviour and pretty much left us there at the town without questioning how many people were supposed to jumped in and inform the guide? Really disappointed for us ! I don’t understand how you can not count how many people got on the bus before you leave before the netting time and in a spot that is different to what is on the map provided. I’m absolutely appalled and how have a very sore throat due to being left staring in one spot in the cold for 45 mins and my wife is even worse as she has a auto immune system disease which means that she get sick much easier and harder than most people. Even worse was the lies that we have been told, the unprofessional behaviour from the team and the fact that she was excuses him for something that she did not even realise if we do not called to the office worried about the time as we genuinely thought that they were delayed from the other point, but was nothing on that, was the fact that they rushed to pick up the other group with a long time of wait of 45 min let’s say that was 40 minutes! So means they wait for the other group more than half and hour as nobody came early at the meeting point, but us 1 min late and the driver left us and a sarcastic replied from Amanda when we wanted complain about the wait and for long we waited and registered times. This is not recommended! We really had a very bad ending, we got absolutely destroyed and mad when they came out with the responses and lies, and the most funny part was when the family member said to her the true! She was shocked as the guy supported my story. Please contact me as I would like to discuss sincere this matter with you.

Basically this is just a bus ride to two towns with a bit of narration on sights on the four hours of driving. Guides did not follow or guide us in both towns, and in Engelberg we were dropped off by bus driver for 3 hours with very little to do. Most shops closed and Monastery tour only at 4pm. One church. Titlis was an upcharge.