The excursion was a total failure on the part of your company! The entire day was spent waiting:
1). 1 hour delay at the departure location, which was extremely crowded and chaotic. There was no clear directions as to which bus we needed to board. Since there was so much traffic at the pickup location , traffic jams delayed our departure again.
2). To our surprise, the bus drove into a gas station while the driver filled up the bus with fuel. This is entirely unacceptable, a waste of our time, and a ploy to get tourists to spend money the cafe on water, coffee, and other items.
3. Upon arrival at the departure point to transport us to the island, we waited another hour until they could locate a boat for us to take to the island. When they finally found one, boarding was unsafe and disorganized again. It was very dangerous for my travel companion, who was older than most of the people on the tour, which immediately made me feel uncomfortable that she may injure herself. It was a small boat, and not a catamaran as we had been told it was to be.
4). When we arrived at Catalina Island, disembarking from the boat was also extremely unsafe for my family member. She was assisted, but I was still concerned for her safety.
5). We were then shown to our area, again, the explanation for the day’s events were spoken in Spanish. We surmised that we were assigned to the blue lounge chairs only, where there was not enough for our party, since some of them were already occupied or broken, so several people had to drag chairs over from another section.
4). Lunch was promised at 1:00, but not served until 2:30. The food was mediocre at best, and definitely not a balanced meal.
Some items ran out before people could get them from the run-down buffet. The so called “open bar” that we were promised had only Rum and Coke, or Pina Coladas, which we had to pay for ourselves. In addition, the restrooms were dirty and unkept.
5). Later, the flamboyant director announced that we were going to snorkel, and invited us to board another tiny boat to take to the location. Some people were not present, so they missed the experience altogether.
The snorkeling area was barren, with little to no wildlife. I have been snorkeling in other parts of the world, but this was a total wash.
The activity was very unsafe, as participants were not given any instructions, and the boat was overloaded as were all the others.
6). Departure was much later than planned, as there were no available boats to take us back to the mainland. We were the very last group to depart from the island. Everyone was up in arms, and standing in the blazing sun waiting for directions from staff members. We finally boarded another dangerously tiny boat and returned to La Romana. We were never instructed to go upstairs, and again were left waiting for directions. When we got upstairs, we found our bus was already loaded and ready to depart, waiting for us, thinking perhaps something may have happened to us. Again we waited about 45 minutes before the bus departed.
7). When we returned to the pickup point, we spoke to a female manager who was not helpful in the least, and told us that she would communicate our issues to the company. We were not offered any type of compensation, so we just swallowed our tongues and walked away to go to dinner, exhausted and filthy from the awful day we just had.
As Americans, we expect to be compensated in some way, as most companies would do to redeem themselves. What do you plan to do????
This is NOT a comfortable boat ride / excursion. It is a speedboat transfer to Sanoa island. We had fun, but it was chaotic, cramped and a bit overwhelming. Think of this as a taxi ride to the island. So that you know what you're getting. Also, we spent more time on the boat then we did on the island. Again.. we had fun. We had a good time.. but expectations needs to be set.