A 2 1/2 hour sailing trip on the Delaware on Labor Day afternoon sounded wonderful, peaceful and…read morecalming. I imagined sails unfurled taking us in the replica sailing vessel under the Delaware Memorial Bridge towards Philadelphia or perhaps southward towards the merge with the ocean. Two and one half hours sailing ... 150 minutes of sails billowing perhaps music playing and history being shared. Casual entertainment on the Delaware. We pulled out of New Castle under the ships motors at 3pm and were back unloading at 5pm. By my calculations that was exactly TWO HOURS not the promised 2 1/2 hours and no sailor, the seas were not rough nor the skies stormy. Two hours ... shortchanged by 30 full minutes of "sailing" time. Oh wait, we actually did not sail but several of us were called to duty to pull up the sails only to watch them billow for a couple of minutes before they were brought back down. And, those of us who helped really had to put our muscles and our backs to work to pull those sails upwards. We we're motorized for these 2 hours and actually we sat almost still for about 15 minutes. We never reached the Delaware Memorial Bridge (we headed north for this trip) and actually we did not cover much of the Delaware River on this 2-hour experience. The ship itself is awesome but perhaps some music or entertainment other than having to help the amazing volunteer crew with the sails would have made the cost/trip more worthwhile. We were handed a sheet with a scavenger hunt hinting that we and our shipmates should start searching for the answers but they never provided the answers to the scavenger hunt and there were no winners nor losers. It was as if it was an afterthought. The history narration was interesting but most on board either missed the announcement or couldn't find the docent providing us with insight on the Kalmar Nyckel. The extremely excessively large American flag kept hitting people on the foredeck wrapping itself around them, which was not a pleasant experience (You would think by now they would have purchased a smaller flag ). I felt worse for people with children because there was no energy in this TWO HOUR cruise ... it was calm and peaceful and I burned a few calories pulling ropes. Yelp asks ... "What could improve?" ... MUSIC, MORE INTERACTION by crew leaders, being truthful about how long the trip is, actually using the sails to move the boat, and travelling up or down more of the Delaware, which might lead the trip to last the advertised 2 1/2 hours.

We visited the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation Museum and Shipyard yesterday, and it exceeded my pretty…read morehigh expectations. We are visiting Sweden later this month on vacation, and (somehow - I don't remember how), I learned about the Kalmar Nyckel and thought: "Now that is the perfect thing to do leading out to our vacation in Sweden!" So off we went. We booked a sail on the boat - 9:30 a.m. on their opening day of the season. We arrived a few minutes before 9:00 to check in (as instructed when we purchased the tickets). That was great, because the Foundation's building is also home to a surprisingly great museum. The museum is on the upper floor of the building, and you can learn about navigation, sailing, the original Kalmar Nyckel, the replica of the Kalmar Nyckel, the colony of New Sweden (founded just a few minutes walk away from where you stand), and more. I knew nothing about the Kalmar Nyckel (had never even heard of it) and almost nothing about the colony of New Sweden. I got so much out of my visit. The Kalmar Nyckel was built in 1625 and eventually came to be owned by the Swedish city of Kalmar. When Sweden decided to establish a trading colony in the New World, the Kalmar Nyckel was one of two vessels selected to make the journey. The colony of New Sweden was founded in what is now Wilmington when the Kalmar Nyckel and the ship that accompanied it landed at the rocks just next to where the Kalmar Nyckel is docked now in 1638. The ship was sunk in 1652 off the coast of Scotland, but it made three more journeys to New Sweden and so was instrumental in the founding of the colony. In 1986, a group of Wilmington citizens established the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, which designed, built, and launched the replica that you can see or sail on if you visit. After learning as much as we could in half an hour, we boarded the Kalmar Nyckel with around 50 others (lots of children and families) and went out for a sail on the Christina River on the ship. The ship is beautiful, and I spent a lot of time taking in the details (see my many pictures). The sail was lots of fun. The staff volunteers were amazing, answering lots of questions and providing lots of information throughout (there was a pirate story for the kids and a history talk for everyone during our 1 1/2 hour sail). There are opportunities to help the volunteer staff pull some ropes (sorry I can't provide technical language for what we did; not a sailor!). Important info: The Kalmar's sailing season is May-October, but it docks at some other East Coast locations throughout the season. So definitely take a look at their schedule on the website to ensure you're visiting on a day you can see and sail on the Kalmar! This was a wonderful experience. I learned a lot and had tons of fun. And it just felt so unique to this region and to Wilmington. Where else can you go for a sail on a 17th century replica of a Swedish vessel?! Definitely an activity to add to your to do list if you live in or are planning a visit to Wilmington. I was really glad we made this day trip up for our sail.

Just came back from great trip. Everything went perfect. Thank you again guys…read more P.S. I don't know why yelp hides my reviews. Looks like someone manually flagging them??? Anyways... This guys are good at what they do.

Just returned from Puerto Rico and encountered a few hiccups. I called and it was all handled…read moreimmediately byMaureen. Issues resolved and trip continued to be great!

Although I never met Judy or Maria in person, they are my go to people for vacations. Very…read moreknowledgeable about resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. I just returned from a vacation resort in the Dominican Republic that they suggested. Once again, they were spot on. Beautiful resort at a great price. They were able to share first hand information, as they have visited the resort. In addition, we always manage an upgrade when we book through them. They take care of all the details. Thanks Judy and Maria!

Engaged travel agents, informative, provide excellent customer service service and best group…read moresports experiences!

Chris was so great to work with ! She has planned 2 girls trips for me - one to Italy and one to…read moreIreland , and they were flawless. All of the hotels she found , ground travel, restaurants and excursions were top notch. She also helped us remain on budget which was important for us .

There should be a zero rating since that was my experience with David Thomas. After going back and…read moreforth on details ahead of the wedding day and explaining timings for our bus shuttle multiple times, I thought everything was set up and would go smoothly. My guests were left confused since their bus broke down and they had to call another one. This led to my guests arriving late to our wedding. I only found out months after my wedding that this occurred as David Thomas did not notify me of the issue. After months of going back and forth with their CFO, they were not accommodating with a refund. If you are planning to use David Thomas for your wedding, my advice would be to go with another company. They are disorganized and do not handle issues appropriately.

David Thomas was the best in arranging for and completing our coach bus transportation to and from…read moreour wedding venue. Debbie Kennedy at David Thomas was great and her drivers were on time and professional, alleviating at least one of our to-do list items. I would highly recommend them for any Philly area limo and bus needs.

I hired Metropolis for my wedding shuttle bus and they were absolutely amazing. They were on time,…read moreprofessional, clean and respectful. They made sure that there was one less thing I had to worry about at my wedding and that meant a lot. Afterwards, I used their team for airport transportation to and from my honeymoon and it was an even better experience. A+ service and I would recommend these guys to anybody!

I'm usually the one that plans our family vacations. This one was special because it was to be a…read morebirthday present to me. I didn't want the hassle of researching and looking and watching tons of videos. I had seen this company's tiktok and sent it to my husband. I said ask for their help. They did an amazing job. After contacting them they sent him a form with a few questions. Location, budget, days, preferred airport and what he was looking for in a vacation. Maribeth quickly Came up with an itinerary. He asked them to switch the order of the island. We wanted Anguilla first and then St. Martin. He had them move around the itinerary a bit. Changing the amount of dates, with St Barts, without, more days here and there. Everytime she promptly responded with the changes and the price. Once finalized she sent the form for payment. He forgot and they tried again a few days later. We got email reminder of forms we needed. A detailed itinerary with confirmation numbers. Contact info and emergency contact info for the company. Now the trip was above superb. They set up our ferry transfers with a private company. This was the best decision. Our flight was delayed by a lot and the service they picked for us waited for us and quickly got us on our way to Anguilla. Our experience at Zemi Beach house was perfect. The distance to the best beach was short. We ate at the other bigger resorts and felt although bigger the distance to the actual beach was too far. In St. Martin we stayed on the French side and it was the best choice for us as well. Now our hotel was also a few steps from the beach and a short drive to a calmer beach. We already said that we will contact them again for our next tropical vacation.

Leading up to our travel to the Dominican Republic and Live Aqua the communication was good with…read moreconfirmations of itineraries and booking confirmations for special things that were supposed to occur for my wife's birthday with the travel agency - The Tropical Travelers. Upon arrival at the airport the private driver that was booked for us was hard to locate, but once located went smoothly. The company itself was not great as the driver on both our route to the resort and back drove very fast and our safety did not seem a priority. Upon check-in at the hotel after almost 48 hours of being awake from traveling we were met by the concierge and told they would check us in, great! Until we were offered a free couples massage after asking for our photo ID and credit card type and not being fully aware we agreed. This was a mistake. We just wanted to get to our room and settle into the hotel, but instead were swindled into a breakfast the next morning to meet the concierge again and be handed off to a timeshare presentation that took over 2-3 hours of our time. They were not super pushy, but did keep trying to offer more incentives and have the next supervisor come over with more deals when we just wanted to enjoy our vacation we paid for. Live Aqua itself is small and quiet but almost every room smells amazing. We had the Fuego ocean front which was nice, but the pool area is not private at all and almost a safety concern if you forget to lock your patio door as you can just hop over to the next room. The beach area is small and not private so locals came right up to us multiple times offering goods and services. We said no thank you and most kept their distance after that. There are not many pools on property and no hot tubs at all. The concierge did ask if we had feedback on the resort the next morning and we stated it would be nice if they had a door for the toilet area and he said yes multiple people have given that feedback and they were looking into it. Only to find out after visiting a couple's room we met that there were some of the same rooms with doors for the toilet area. How did the concierge not know this? We felt once again like we were not given the truth. According to our travel agent the hotel was made aware that it was my wife's birthday, except upon arrival they seemed surprised by this and only had some very small balloons in the room upon arrival and a small cake when I had asked for more to be done. Every time we met with some new staff member it seemed like no one communicated between the travel agent, concierge, butler, and supervisors as each person had to ask why are you here? What are you celebrating? On another occasion we had asked our butler if they could change out the bottles/type of alcohol in the room in our mini bar. We were not looking for top shelf, just a different kind and were told he could not do that. Then after speaking with another couple with the same butler they were able to accommodate their request. Once again we were not treated the same as others. We were supposed to have a Bali bed reserved for one day on the beach and a hydrotherapy session at the spa another day. Upon checking into the hotel these items were not mentioned at all and only after we did more research realized these items were already included in our room package, which our travel agent apparently did not know, although books this resort frequently? The Bali bed had no reservation sign or anyone even checking to make sure we weren't just using it un-reserved and there was supposed to be a bottle of wine and there was not. We had to even setup our own towels for shade and setup the tables as it was just all stacked up. Not a huge deal, just was hoping for something more romantic. Upon emailing these issues to the travel agent, she said she was speaking to the hotel to ensure our next few days went better, even stating she escalated it to management. There was the same small cake one other day (unsure who put it there or why) and only upon asking our butler to have some better decorations in the room was there something done by him that should have been done in the first place. We had high hopes for the food with our past experiences in the Caribbean, but found the food very bland. The options were ok, but lacking in flavor and some restaurants did not have many options. We did enjoy the Asian hibachi. The positives were time together away from the hustle and bustle of life, but we would not recommend using this travel agency again nor staying at Live Aqua. The travel agent did reply two times while we were still on property, but did not check back in to make sure our experience was improving and still has yet to follow up post trip to see how it went.