24 May 2025
This excursion was booked through SEG and provided by Grey Line.
We are mature, experienced cruisers and had successfully used SEG to book shore excursions in the Caribbean several times Unfortunately, this tour did not meet our expectations. The “meet up” did not occur as advertised and we had to search the bus lot to find the Grey Line bus. The bus was loading and we were on his roster, so we became passengers #47 and #48 on a 46 seat bus - that is we got jump seats in the aisle. This is not what I would call a “Small group” experience although when I questioned that, I was told that anything under 50 passengers is considered small. It turned out that apparently Grey Line consolidated tour groups originating from SEG, AAA, and other agencies that I did not recognize. Our guide spent the long trip to Antigua (and return) standing in the door-well, and the dispatcher rode on the floor up nearer to the driver. Once we reached Antigua, the walking tour was as described. Our guide tried to check all the boxes by rushing through the various highlights, did not welcome questions and seemed flustered at having to shepherd so many people. After we were crammed back into the bus, our “delectable lunch” consisted of a subway style sandwich, bag of chips and a soft drink handed out on the bus on our back to the port. We did arrive back at our ship with time to spare.