VERY DISAPPOINTINGThe advertising and details of the trip looked good, but it appears to have been written by a marketing person in a remote office somewhere, and nobody checked if what they were promising was actually possible or could be delivered. And it wasn’t. Most timings were wrong, trips had delayed departures just about every day except for the two days when they were cancelled. Every day lots of reasons/excuses given but many difficult to believe.First the PositivesServing staff generally very good but when ordering drinks had long delays in being served up to 20 minutes at times. Food generally good but certainly nothing special, and the wine was ‘£7 a bottle in the supermarket’ level, very average.Now some of the Negatives. I could give you pages of problems but here are just a few examples -Embarkation –Timings were wrong, couldn’t book in for 2 hours Not a great start.Disembarkation was much worse, Chaotic. Our itinerary showed leave the ship at 4pm. But Swan Hellenic said out of your cabin by 8am, off the ship by 9am, later changed to 1pm but with no use of facilities onboard. Fortunately, after a lot of hard work by another guest things got sorted out as best they could in the circumstances.Free wi-fi advertised, even on the rolling advert screen on the ship. Reality was ‘free wi-fi’ was $25 a day and you had to pay for the whole cruise, so for $250 for the trip. Not my idea of free wi-fi.On the sundeck, 6 sunbeds for 160 guests. We were told by the staff they couldn’t put any more out, but up on the top stargazing deck there were dozens of sunbeds, but all packed away in storage racks.Tenders – in the advertising - New feature on SH Diana “onboard tender boats to take guests passengers ashore in addition to, and in greater comfort than, the customary expedition Zodiacs.”Reality was the tenders were never used. They tried twice to launch the tenders, both abandoned so back to using the zodiacs and with the usual delays.Visit to the Botanic gardens on day 2 walk through the start of the gardens. Visit the toilets then back again to the bus so didn’t see the majority of the gardens. Very disappointing.Curieuse day 3 Split into groups for the walk, our leader kept looking down at her phone then we realised she looking at google earth to try to find the way. Then told we had to wait for the next group because ‘their leader had the key to the doctor’s house’ Waited 20 minutes so they could overtake us, but when we arrived at the Doctor’s house it was closed for renovation. Not a very believable excuse.Praslin Valle de Mai day 5 delayed start as usual. When we arrived packed with people, lots of other groups, so very difficult to hear what the guide was saying or stop and look at anything. 20 minutes or so walk along the main access path, then back to the shop at the entrance and out to the bus.Island visit Grand Soeur didn’t happen, cancelled Island visit Aride didn’t happen, cancelled La Digue Tour of the island. Advertised as ‘a tour of the island’ followed by a visit to the Union Estate. Reality was we drove from the jetty to the nearby Union Estate. We asked where was the tour of the island? Told by the tour operator and Swan Hellenic it was the drive from the jetty to Union Estate.So a memorable holiday, unfortunately mostly for the wrong reasons.Overpromised and underdelivered.After nearly 2 weeks a reply from Swan Hellenic with many of the questions not answered, just ignored.My first cruise and probably my last. 13/11/24 Hello Kim, thank you for taking the time to reply my post on Trustpilot within hours of me posting it. Thanks also for your comment ‘we will ensure all aspects of your feedback is investigated and actioned.’ Very reassuring. After waiting since 24 October for a reply to all my complaints it is a relief that you will be dealing with it. As our booking agent helpfully pointed out ‘Yes, as per ABTA guidelines we work to a 28 day turnaround with all complaints. My email sent to you on the 24th October to acknowledge your complaint, confirmed a reply will be provided within 28 days which is the standard process and allows both ourselves and our suppliers sufficient time to respond.’ So I hope to have the matter resolved by 21/11/24, not long to wait. Warm Regards Martin
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Cultural Expedition Cruises
