Experience Victoria - Victoria, British Columbia

Yusri D.

Michael from Experience Victoria was an excellent tour guide, super friendly and really knowledgeable. His love for the city was infectious! The gardens were beautiful and definitely worth a visit. I highly recommend the city tour and Butchard gardens excursion.

B R.

Unbelievably bad. Arrived on Norwegian Encore 5/18/24 for “The Empress Experience” Arrived at Meeting time of 8:30 (group one). Stood in freezing cold waiting for a bus until 9:05. When one of the group complained that she had waited thirty plus minutes the hostess snapped “Well that’s what you get for arriving too early”. (Woman has indeed arrived 10 mins earlier but the response set the tone for the evening).

The first bus apparently for group one apparently did not arrive so the hostess told the people from the first and subsequent second groups that both groups would have to squeeze into one bus but that the first group would board first and exit first. Then she promptly forgot to monitor boarding and the second group pushed its way past the first, leaving two disabled seniors from the first on their own to sit in the far back.
We arrived at the Empress WELL after dark. The driver said our new hostess Calin would escort us into the tea room and would assure that the first group with a now short turn around would be seated first. The second group was told to walk around or shop to accommodate the very short time before the first had to go back to the bus.

Calin, however, did NOT wait for half of the riders to get off the bus and literally disappeared with a few of the first to get off (it was pitch black by this time). A group of those at the back of the bus, including a few handicapped persons with mobility issues, wandered around the hotel trying to find her. We never did find her. When the hotel staff helped us to the tea room, all seats had already been taken by the second group. Calin was nowhere to be found to monitor seating. By the time my partner and I were eventually seated, we had a very short window. We ordered immediately, ate quickly, and ran out to find our bus. Calin
NEVER appeared.

This god awful experience cost us $200.
Worst travel experience in at least two decades.

Slavka B.

Your driver, Jim, driving the bus 8108 on May 27, 23 for the night Tour of Butchart Gardens, left us behind at 10:50pm, leaving 10+ minutes early and failing to perform the proper headcount. This was not only unprofessional, but a gross negligence on his part for if it wasn't for Brenda (another employee) who happened to be in the area and drive us to the port in her own car. Without her, we would have been stranded in Canada at almost midnight. And we were told that the Norwegian Cruiseline guarantees that anybody on excursions booked by them (cruiseline) won't be left behind. In the end it was a sheer miracle we made it, and we are grateful that the captain made the decision to wait, but it was a completely unnecesarily nerve wrecking and very stressful experience caused by one individual. So disapointed this will be my memory of Victoria and Canada (since this was my first trip to both).

Guy W.

Joshua P.

Rebecca N.