Following the advice of our 20-something concierge from the Royal Sands my wife decided to surprise me with the birthday present from hell, and managed to talk 5 of our friends into joining us in a Xoximilco excursion.
Here's my sad story:
To begin with, we were told our party of 7 would be in a private van. So imagine our surprise when a full-sized bus pulled up at 7:15pm and loaded not only us but several others from the Royal Sands. We then stopped at several other hotels for pick ups and did not arrive at Xoximilco until 8:45pm, which we were told was only 10 minutes south of the airport, thus a 25 minute ride. Before we left the bus we were informed for the for the first time that we had to sign a release and "spray heavily for mosquitos". The bus and the spraying alone would have discouraged us from spending the exorbitant fee charged. We were also told we would enjoy drinks and appetizers and be able to socialize for a while until our gondola left. In fact, as soon as we went to the rest room and were sprayed, the name of the gondola on our tag was called. We never were able to have the benefit of the appetizers and drinks. I observed that our group of 7 was given a different gondola than the 4 or 5 other parties on our bus. I did not see their gondolas anywhere near ours when we boarded so I can only assume they were allowed time to enjoy the drinks and appetizers after the lengthy bus ride. We felt we did not need the appetizers since we had been told this was an all you can eat buffet of chicken, shrimp and ribs. Once on the gondola we were given small bite size portions. I found some yellow rice and 2 shrimp which was edible, but passed on the crickets and dried small fish. I don't drink tequila, so settled for a couple of beers and we ran out of water very quickly since it was very hot this evening.Towards the end of our trip our guide pulled out a contraption which held multiple batteries, with two wires extending and had us all make a circle while holding hands. He then proceeded to "shock" us. One of my guests had muscle spasms the rest of the night. One man on the gondola had a pacemaker and was never even warned what was going to happen since we were simply told to all join hands. Since we were obviously into a torture theme, I had to fight the urge not to waterboard my wife.
We did not enjoy the music, small food portions or being surrounded by young drunk people dancing. This all should have been told to us by the concierge or Thomas Moore representative when my wife asked, prior to purchasing our tickets at the Royal Sands.This is the type of excursion that needs to be specifically explained as to what is involved. I understand the only information Thomas Moore provided was that we would be back by 11:30pm. Had we known any of the above we certainly would not have agreed to such a tortuous 6 hours. To add insult to our injury, we got on the bus at 11:20 pm and then we had to wait until the remaining passengers on our bus arrived after 12:30pm, finally arriving back at the Royal Sands after 1:00 am, exhausted, starving and still shaking from the shock we had received. I did not see any other gondola guide use the shock device on their people, which I found appalling. I am thankful I did not take my children along for the misery. I saw other children on other gondolas who were equally miserable. In all, this both the concierge and travel agent should have told us what to expect. Our group ranged in age from mid-50's to mid-60's however, this excursion IS NOT FOR MIDDLE AGE AMERICANS!!!!!! OR CHILDREN. The events should be spelled out as such, not promoted just to get the money. The 6 young 20 something Hispanic/Americans on our gondola had the time of their lives, singing, dancing and falling down drunk. Another thing, our guide did not explain in English the food nor the stops we made, supposedly commemorating Mexican history. All we were told was we would learn a lot about Mexican history. Since he spoke Spanish to everyone, the 7 of us knew nothing of what was going on. All of the Hispanic/Americans spoke English well enough for the guide to have spoken in English and everyone understand. It truly was a night of torture in terms of the travel, food and shock. At the very least, everyone on our bus (about 25 people) should have been on the same, or at least gondolas right in a row. Why we had to wait on the bus for well over to an hour for the rest on our bus to arrive was a major screw up on the part of Thomas Moore.
Despite knowing of our displeasure we have not heard anything from Royal Resorts or Thomas Moore. I have no idea if there's a Chamber of Commerce or hotel organization in Cancun but I feel they have a responsibility to put pressure Xoximilco to step up to the plate with more factual descriptions or risk the threat of no recommendations. read more
