BEWARE Venture Ashore shore excursion company

[wendygator]

Wanted to make sure no one is taken advantage of like we were by this company. We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise with Disney coming up soon and a friend said before COVID they used a company called ShoreTrips to book several great excursions for this itinerary. I had a lot going on so I searched for ShoreTrips and was diverted to a website for a company called Venture Ashore. Something seemed off when they asked if I wanted to purchase trip insurance through them for an additional fee if for some reason the ship didn't port that day or we had to cancel due to COVID. Again, I should have done more research, but I went ahead and booked our excursion. It was transportation from the ship in St. Thomas to Coral World for a Sea Lion Swim, some time at a nearby beach, and then back to the ship. Everything seemed legit until I didn't receive the vouchers they said they would email me in 72 hours. I decided to call and the call went directly to hold music, so I went to their website and chatted with "someone". He assured me I would receive my vouchers today. This morning, I received an email with vague meeting instructions (meet at the port and look for a van that says, "Transfer to Megan's Bay" (25 minutes away from Coral World), and no vouchers. Then, I searched the internet for reviews on this company. I found nothing. Nothing on Cruise Critic. Nothing here. Nothing on Trip Advisor. So, I decided to call Coral World directly. The woman I spoke with was lovely. I asked if a company named "Venture Ashore" had booked a group of tickets on time and date of my reservation with them. She said they only sell group tickets for their dolphin swim directly to the Disney Fantasy Port Adventures team, and she was sorry that I had gotten caught up in this elaborate scam. My husband is talking with our credit card company now, but the Coral World representative suggested I place a review somewhere so other cruisers would not be swindled as well. I hope someone here will learn from my mistake. We do have a happy ending to our story in that the Coral World rep sold me tickets to the sea lion swim interaction, and we will still get to have the experience our family wanted to have; just with a much higher price tag and a lesson learned.

 

[dcassetta]

I am sorry this happened, but thank you for sharing.

 

[Intr3pid]

Rule # 1 for any shore excursion or tour company: look them up on TripAdvisor. If they don't have an online presence or have one with lots of negative reviews, turn them away.

 

[wendygator]

Lesson learned the hard way for sure. Looks like our credit card company is handling it and flagging them in order to protect others. Also, now when someone googles Venture Ashore, they come upon this thread. Thanks for understanding and allowing a place to post warnings for others.

 

[fitnessmouse]

You now have me worried. I am booked with them for transport from civitavecchia to airport next month with a tour of Rome

 

[Intr3pid]

You now have me worried. I am booked with them for transport from civitavecchia to airport next month with a tour of Rome

Any Civitavecchia to Rome transfers - with or without a tour - should be booked directly with those authorized to enter the port and pick you up curbside. Here is how:
https://www.civitavecchiaport.org/transfer/

 

[texascutie]

Just booked the 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Fantasy, first cruise, and all the excursions are sold out. Mousesavers mentioned Viator, has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks. Also, is there a chance they open up more spots on Disney closer to sail time?

 

[wendygator]

When we cruised the med with Disney in 2013, we used a company called Rome in Limo for both our Rome and Pisa/Lucca excursions. Not sure if they still have access to the port. So thankful it was shared. The MO of this company seems to be 1) No vouchers and 2) Delay with fake service people. Many times they sent me emails saying they we working with their “voucher team” to get vouchers sent to me. I managed to confirm the weren’t legit when I called Coral World, the destination they were supposedly taking us to, and the wonderful gal there told me they had only sold group tickets to the Disney Fantasy Port Adventure Desk for the date in question. After my husband reported to the credit card company, we received a new email saying that “due to unforeseen” circumstances, our adventure had been cancelled and they would refund all our money. Still waiting to see the refund. I’ll keep you updated.

 

[MomOTwins]

Just booked the 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Fantasy, first cruise, and all the excursions are sold out. Mousesavers mentioned Viator, has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks. Also, is there a chance they open up more spots on Disney closer to sail time?

It is possible since it is an unusual itinerary that they are still working out arrangements with vendors and will add nee excursions closer to sailing. Also possible some spots will be available once you are on board with last minute cancellations or folks who test positive. Unfortunately any unusual itinerary draws a much higher ratio of higher status castaway Club members that activities are hard even for silvers to book—as a first time cruiser, independent excursions may be the way to go

 

[texascutie]

It is possible since it is an unusual itinerary that they are still working out arrangements with vendors and will add nee excursions closer to sailing. Also possible some spots will be available once you are on board with last minute cancellations or folks who test positive. Unfortunately any unusual itinerary draws a much higher ratio of higher status castaway Club members that activities are hard even for silvers to book—as a first time cruiser, independent excursions may be the way to go

 

[texascutie]

It is possible since it is an unusual itinerary that they are still working out arrangements with vendors and will add nee excursions closer to sailing. Also possible some spots will be available once you are on board with last minute cancellations or folks who test positive. Unfortunately any unusual itinerary draws a much higher ratio of higher status castaway Club members that activities are hard even for silvers to book—as a first time cruiser, independent excursions may be the way to go

Thank you for your help! I will keep checking, I didn't realize it was a unique cruise. I feel so lucky!

 

[Intr3pid]

Just booked the 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Fantasy, first cruise, and all the excursions are sold out. Mousesavers mentioned Viator, has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks. Also, is there a chance they open up more spots on Disney closer to sail time?

Viator is a marketplace for tours - like Expedia - as in most of the tours are listings and not their own. In fact, TripAdvisor owns Viator.

Viator lists standard tours from somewhat vetted sources. You can't customize much, but you are protected in the sense that if the tour company turns out to be a fraud, Viator will refund you and boot out that operator. Typically, the name of the tour operator is listed somewhere in the description, so you can independently research it too (in TripAdvisor or elsewhere).

What I'd do is search for tours on Viator and read the reviews. If the rating is high, you should be OK. If not enough ratings, try finding the name of the operator in the listing and research independently.

 

[texascutie]

Viator is a marketplace for tours - like Expedia - as in most of the tours are listings and not their own. In fact, TripAdvisor owns Viator.

Viator lists standard tours from somewhat vetted sources. You can't customize much, but you are protected in the sense that if the tour company turns out to be a fraud, Viator will refund you and boot out that operator. Typically, the name of the tour operator is listed somewhere in the description, so you can independently research it too (in TripAdvisor or elsewhere).

What I'd do is search for tours on Viator and read the reviews. If the rating is high, you should be OK. If not enough ratings, try finding the name of the operator in the listing and research independently.

Thank you so much for your help! Figuring out Covid test timing now.

 

[soniam]

Just booked the 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Fantasy, first cruise, and all the excursions are sold out. Mousesavers mentioned Viator, has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks. Also, is there a chance they open up more spots on Disney closer to sail time?

I am also on that cruise. Excursions and capacity are being randomly added it seems. For Viator, several people on the cruise social media site have recommended them. Since excursions were even slim for platinum guests, people have been sharing excursion resources. Hope you find something you want. Good luck from another Texan.

 

[anricat]

Just booked the 9 night Southern Caribbean cruise on Fantasy, first cruise, and all the excursions are sold out. Mousesavers mentioned Viator, has anyone had any experience with them? Thanks. Also, is there a chance they open up more spots on Disney closer to sail time?

Yes, and it was terrible. We booked them for leaning tower entry in Pisa. When I got my reservation, it was for a completely different time than I had booked. I told them it wasn't going to work, we had to be back at the ship at the time they gave us. I asked for the original time we booked, they said that it was full and so I asked for a refund. They said it was non-refundable. I told them I think a refund is in order given that I didn't actually get what I had originally purchased. They told me that if I had read the second to last paragraph of the second page of the terms and conditions, I would have seen that the timing wasn't guaranteed.

Lesson learned. So if you're going to book, make sure you read EVERY. SINGLE. PAGE. of the terms and conditions. I disputed it with my credit card company and won. It was absurd. I mean, if I bought tickets for the 2:30 showing of Dr. Strange and then the movie theatre said, "no, actually, your tickets are for 9:30" nobody would take that. I was so mad. I will always book directly with the tour company.

I use Viator to get an idea of the things to do, see if I can figure out the company and book directly with them. The company makes more money that way since they don't have to give a commission to Viator. Keeping money in the local economy where it belongs! Same with Trip Advisor. Research there, then Google the name of the company and book direct.

 

[wendygator]

All I can do is tell my story. I hope I helped someone. I find it interesting that your posting above comes at 3:30am. That’s the same time the automatic robo-emails would be generated with regards to my fake reservation.

Travelers, please call ahead and do tons of research especially for excursions and transfers in foreign countries. Maybe read old trip reports on the DIS and share with each other.

Personally, I will never forget the woman’s voice on the phone when I called Coral World when she said she had “never heard of Venture Ashore” and had only booked excursions that day directly with the Port Adventures desk from the Disney Fantasy.

Hoping my story will help someone here.

 

[anricat]

All I can do is tell my story. I hope I helped someone. I find it interesting that your posting above comes at 3:30am. That’s the same time the automatic robo-emails would be generated with regards to my fake reservation.

Travelers, please call ahead and do tons of research especially for excursions and transfers in foreign countries. Maybe read old trip reports on the DIS and share with each other.

Personally, I will never forget the woman’s voice on the phone when I called Coral World when she said she had “never heard of Venture Ashore” and had only booked excursions that day directly with the Port Adventures desk from the Disney Fantasy.

Hoping my story will help someone here.

It is interesting that this person joins up and then their very first posting is one minute later on this thread and they only reference Celebrity Cruises when this is a DCL specific forum.

It's also worth noting that if you search for "Venture Ashore reviews" on Google this thread on the DIS is the second result.

 

[cmph]

All I can do is tell my story. I hope I helped someone. I find it interesting that your posting above comes at 3:30am. That’s the same time the automatic robo-emails would be generated with regards to my fake reservation.

Travelers, please call ahead and do tons of research especially for excursions and transfers in foreign countries. Maybe read old trip reports on the DIS and share with each other.

Personally, I will never forget the woman’s voice on the phone when I called Coral World when she said she had “never heard of Venture Ashore” and had only booked excursions that day directly with the Port Adventures desk from the Disney Fantasy.

Hoping my story will help someone here.

Trust me, we all believe you. I mean, this isn't Celebrity Boards lol. Plus "have the structure to offer the service" - ?? All righty.

FWIW - we did use Shore Trips before, and b/c it was recommended through our TA, she had a unique link for us and could book via their agency account with the company (or something like that). It was one of 2 excursion sites her agency used in that fashion. It gave me a sense of security. This was pre-covid, so no doubt things have changed, but (not that it helps now), I'm sure TAs have other excursion companies they use like that. Stinks that Shore Trips is now defunct, but I totally understand how you got scammed b/c it really was a legit company.

 

[AquaDame]

We have made our excursions with this company in Greece and had very good experience. It is true they are new, but apparently they belong to a wider group and have the structure to offer the service.
Our groups were super small, less than 12 people in Olympia and 9 in Athens, with very good guides. Prices of course we're half of those of Celebrity Cruises.

I recommend Venture Ashore.

Hey Rosafunki; can you tell us a little more about your excursions..? A few folks are concerned about your review given that you are a brand new poster and do not mention DCL. If you wouldn't mind sharing more info I'm happy to leave your post up, but if you are in fact just promoting them and are being disingenuous then I'll need to remove it.

Thanks!

 

[fitnessmouse]

I did book my rome to go tour with them and all went well. We got a call from the company when we were still in the hall looking for our bags, to ask us if we had met our driver yet. They called again when we were on the port shuttle and when we had met our driver. This was June 5th (from RCL Odyssey). The former name of the company was cruisingexcursions.co.uk i think.