The reason I wrote the blog entry before this one was to try to show some concerned cruise passengers what it was that we offer. The post has helped some people understand more clearly what happens on the Eco Tour. Anyway, I don't want to assume that it is impossible for someone to have a bad experience on any of our tours as i know anything is possible on any given day. What i pledge to my customers and to the prospective ones is that what sets Adventure Antigua apart from the rest is that we aim to treat our guest like old friends or long lost family. You are not just another number when you are with us. We never have signed a contract with a cruise director and every single cruise ship passenger we have taken out has come to us through our website. Most of them got to our site after reading customer reviews on Tripadvisor, Cruise Critic, or from the Antigua Forum. All my crew know this and know very well that doing a good job is the key to our survival. There are many tours who get passengers because they have contracts with the ships and whatever happens on the tour that day the ship will send them guests the next week. We don't operate like this and this totally unusual bad review hurt us not just in terms of people cancelling but it upset my crew and upset me. We hate (that extreme word) hearing that people didn't enjoy themselves. It makes Tony and JD sulk and depressed when i tell them. We have talked about the review and have discussed ways to make our tour even better. Thanks to the person who sent it in and thanks even more to all the people who have emailed us with support and posted on the forums. This especially nice one came in today:
Hi Eli, I hope you are well. I was astounded by the recent problems you've had with comments made by some cruise ship clients - I thought the email you sent was very restrained and hopefully should avoid you losing any more business. But the PM is really to voice support for your company. We (Tracey & I) took one of your trips back in 1999 when we first visited the island (with Sunsail). (A few years after that first visit we bought on the south finger, overlooking the marina channel.) We took that first tour based on the recommendation of Sunsail and other guests - it was brilliant and far exceeded our expectations. Since then we have been on many of your trips - both Eco and xTreme and have never been other than pleased - you and your staff are always warm, friendly, well informed and very considerate of the needs and expectations of your clients. Even though we've gone on trips a second (or more!) time we always seem to find out something new! We have recommended your trips to family and friends of all ages and they have always been very pleased they took our advice. In fact in all the years since we took that first trip we have never ever heard anything other than praise about you or your company. I think you were very unfortunate with those cruise ship clients - they seem to be in the minority that doesn’t want what you’re delivering. So hang on in there you're all doing a great job! We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending your trips and you are free to publish/post any or all of the above. Kind regards Anton & Tracey Szklarek
