Trafalgar Travel
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Splendor of Japan, Tour Failure!
We have just completed our Splendor of Japan, including Hiroshima. The itinerary and hotels were excellent. The cause for the 2 stars...we were assigned a tour guide that barely spoke English. She continually took the easy way out, never assigning bus seats. She told us that her boss told her, contrary to every trip we have been on, that she DID NOT HAVE TO ASSIGN SEATS ON THE BUS! She repeateadly talked about herself and her family instead of the sights we traveled past or to. When questioned about something, if you were not sitting upfront, you did not know what she was replying to. When asked about where we were, or what we were seeing, she needed to ask the bus driver. She often recruited other guests on the bus to speak into the microphone and try to assist her in providing an English explanation. When gathered outside she would begin an explanation, in hard to understand English before the entire group had a chance to gather. She was requested to start over again many times. There was a parallel tour, nine days, and on one occasion we had the benefit of that tour guide explaining tea rituals. He was articulate. He even apologized to his group for repeating what he had prepped them on, as he filled in the prep work that our guide did not do. And that's not all? Nope! While on route, our guide was filmed asleep in her seat on the bus. Costco has a lot of explaining why they suggested we use Trafalgar. Added, May 30... ...we have since contacted Costco and Trafalgar. Trafalgar customer service DOES NOT TAKE PHONE CALLS...email only! Friends we met on the trip continued on to China with Trafalgar and told us the Trafalgar quality had returned on that trip. Nice to know they can deliver sometimes. Just too bad they DO NOT TAKE CALLS. We booked Eastern Europe with a reliable competitor....THEY TAKE CALLS. BTW; The picture of our tour director fast asleep on our bus is slowly making it's way thru our groups. Quite the conversation piece. Shame Trafalgar is a Costco recommendation...Costco must be asleep on this one, lol.