CAROLYN W.
Excellent Tour Marred By Logistical Issues
The actual tour was very good. The guide, Joji, was knowledgeable, warm and patient and had a great sense of humor. The locations we toured were outstanding. The cities we went to; Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Nara, were wonderful places to see. The hotels were excellent, but some were far from the city center. The restaurants were generally also excellent. We could have used another day in Tokyo, though. However, all of that was marred by unjustified changes to the itinerary, one of which, a change to the start date, cost us hundreds of dollars in airline change fees and huge inconvenience. We missed out on a highly rated show due to another late change. All of the tour members thought that there was too much use of public transportation. Navigating crowded and confusing subway stations was difficult with a large group of people, and we felt bad for Joji San. Tour buses should have been used more. In addition, we transferred between cities on the bus, but it was too small to accommodate our luggage. That was a lapse in judgement on Ritz' part. Ritz is more experienced with China tours. They might do better in Japan with more experience.
Response from Ritz ToursJun 7, 2019
Hi Carolyn, We are happy to hear that your overall trip was enjoyable, but saddened to hear that not everything lived up to your expectations. Thank you for acknowledging Joji for her outstanding service, she truly is a valuable asset to our team! We will pass along your gracious compliments to Joji, and the management team of our partners in Japan. We are pleased that you found the quality of the tours and accommodations to be exceptional; we pride ourselves in providing top notch service. We do apologize for the change in the itinerary, and understand how this was an inconvenience to you. We know that because the departure date changed it affected the cost of the trip; in addition we added some other inclusions (meals and a show) in order to improve the overall itinerary. We are sorry if these costs were not thoroughly explained when booking but we do hope you enjoyed the updated itinerary. In regards to the show that was missed, we are sorry that you did not get to experience it. As the Samurai Cafe show was cancelled by the cafe on March 11, we replaced it with the Samurai Experience and we do hope that you found it enjoyable and just as entertaining. Concerning the usage of public transportation, we are sorry if it was more than expected. We do state in our Features tab of this tour package that ground transportation is used in each city. We will take your feedback and use it to improve our communication about this for future bookings. We are sorry if the bus size during times of transfer between cities seemed a bit small, we can understand how this could be uncomfortable. We are in contact with our partners in Japan to better this service. Once again, we would like to say thank you for sharing your experience with us and the world. We do value your feedback and are taking all of it into consideration when improving our overall services.