Venture AshoreReviews of ventureashore.com

We took two trips with Ventures the first to Ephesus where the guide was very good and knowledgeable. However at the house of Mary we had to queue for 90 mins. He didn't give us any idea of how long it would be so returned to the ship and hour later than expected. Our second trip was to Sorrento and Pompeii. Sorrento was very rushed we had around 30 mins to find some lunch. Pompeii was great but again not long enough. Excellent guide in Pompeii. The negative was although the bus driver was very good the minibus was really old and tatty, with almost 366k on the clock. This included seats that needed cleaning and internal door panels that needed replacing.

We really enjoyed the gardens. They were absolutely beautiful. However, our driver did not care of our concern about making it back to the ship on time. When we voiced our concern and asked him to just skip the remaining talking points and get us to the ship as quickly as possible he completely ignored us.

No information at port gate ,no sign saying venture ashore stop ,not sure if bus was going to turn up,should be someone with name on a board waiting as per instruction,bus driver was on his own no rep luckily he could speak English and was very good.

A bit of confusion with the pickup. Once we got that sorted out, he said that we couldn't go to Skaill House and Skara Brae because we didn't have tickets. It was never indicated in the multiple emails that we needed to acquire tickets. Disappointed. Friendly guy but we kept on having to ask him questions. Kirkwall was beautiful

I've used Venture Ashore before without issue, but this time was disappointing. First, we were required to book a ferry to our meeting spot separate from the Venture Ashore reservation, which in itself was not terrible, but it was very inconvenient having to get to the ferry, book the ticket, and wait for the next ferry for over an hour. I wish it was all rolled into one booking. The biggest problem was when we got off the ferry. There was no tour guide to meet us. A local taxi driver read our voucher, made a few phone calls, and agreed to take us on the pre-paid excursion (presumably after agreeing to get paid by the Venture Ashore travel agency). Everything turned out ok in the end, but this was not the guide we were promised that would meet us at the dock. I was very scared for a bit.

Maybe putting in a reminder for the people doing excursions from cruise ships would be to find out if and when you arrive which time you will be there ship's time or land's time?? This trip and maybe only this trip, can't say we've had this problem before, but we were going off the port's time we sailed from.

Mendenhall Glacier Tour by Shuttle- it was good but insufficient time at the glacier to visit the Information Centre, which was very good, go down to the glacier lake, the actual glacier can only be seen a mile away(global warming) and go to the waterfall, which I was informed was excellent. Potlatch Totem Park- only people we saw were in the Gift Shop, site appeared to be run down and neglected possibly due to it being early in the tourist season. Tour information stated "In the totem carving shed, you'll learn the significance of these cultural works of art and watch one of the carvers in action" there was no one in the shed.

When we arrived at the dock in Grand Caymen, the staff was very professional, pleasant and organized. We had hired transport to/from 7 mile beach (which is really 5.5 miles of beach). Once in the transport van, I asked several questions of the female driver i.e. You will show us the spot where you will be picking us up? Answer: Yes I'll show you, and I will be picking you up. Then, I asked: What time would you like us to be there? Answer to me: 1:20 pm. Upon getting out of the van, she then told my partner 1:00 -1:10 pm. "And you might have a different driver". Ok. We were then told to meet in a picnic shelter and E and D Rental staff would take us to the van as the two communicated with each other by cell phone and the driver might have to park in a different spot due to congestion. OK. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for $25 from E and D Rental who were the folks who met us at the van. The driver and Dominique were coordinating things in a different language. The gal renting the chairs/umbrella said that she normally charges $30 but would give us a $5 discount as we used Venture Ashore. I believe Venture Ashore stated in their information that rental should have been $15, but 3 cruise ships were in that day so we expected "surge" pricing. Besides, our chairs were right up to the water line. Yeah! The first hour or so was great. Then it got very crowded, starting with lots of people standing right in front of us taking selfies for an hour, then the water was so full that the snorkelers were saying the fish left. I checked it out and, yes, the fish had gone elsewhere. Looking down the long beach, it was not very crowded. Why was everyone scrunched up together in this one area? Maybe the food trucks near by? Maybe this was the ONLY place to rent chairs? No explanation provided. NOTE: A basic jerk chicken from a food truck was $30, + more for sides and a drink. To take a break, we took a walk. We left our towels on the chairs as we had rented them from 9am to 1 pm. We found some food across the street that was great and half the price of the food trucks. We came back a short time later, and the lady who had rented us the chairs said she had taken our towels off the chairs. She did give the towels back - pointing to them wet and crumpled in a pile on a table. We said we were going back to our chairs. She said ok. HERE IS WHERE THINGS TOOK A TURN: 1. She had re-rented (double rented) our chairs!!! We went back to our chairs around noon that we paid for until 1 pm. Other stuff was in one with a guy vaping weed in the other. She knew this but didn't tell us. 2. We went back to the picnic shelter where people were waiting for their rides and from which the lady rented. We were then told if we wanted to leave early, we could. Great! Dominique would be collecting us at 1 pm. Not too much different from the original times, but we waited and chatted with fellow guests. 3. 1 pm arrives then 1:10 pm rolls around and no Dominique. We were told he would be back shortly. 1:20 pm . Finally, I see him as he is headed to the parking lot about 1:30 pm with another group of people, but having never swung by the shelter. We went after him. Yes, lots of parking congestion. We saw some people from our cruise ship with Dominique and continued to follow them. 4. Dominique pointed to a large tour bus. We checked with the driver, and he was going back to the port so we just got on with the other tour group to get back. One of the tourist that was from our boat said the group was on a Princess excursion with a stop at the beach. OUR ORIGINAL DRIVER NEVER SHOWED NOR DID DOMINIQUE of E and D Rental ever assist us in connecting with our ride. We were smart enough to follow and stick with people we recognized from our ship, but had we been drunk or 80 years old etc, would we have been stranded??? Maybe. I think we should be refunded half the amount we paid for the van ride back to the port we did NOT get. Booking # 240309035 Thank you, Gale H.