Greece Trip Review: Athens, Santorini, Catamaran Cruise, One-Week Vacation

Review by traveler

Jim B.

7.11.2023

General Info

Traveler Review

Which Country (Countries) did you visit on this trip?

Greece

Your overall comments on the trip and the travel company:

Our travel company was accommodating and provided many options for the trip. The accommodations in Athens were less than I was expecting for the price of the package. The accommodations in Santorini were excellent. The transfer from the Santorini airport to the hotel was difficult. I had issues with the driver.
The dinner reservation in Santorini had issues. I notified our travel agency regarding the issue with no real response. There was a large private party at the restaurant when we arrived for our reservation. They had to reset the entire restaurant and told us to come back an hour later than our reservations. My order was not correct, and the wait staff made no effort to fix. The Catamaran excursion was terrific. There has been many attempts to pay for the excursion with not luck. Seems that the payment system is inadequate. I am still unable to pay the bill without being charged a surcharge.
The airline reservation from Santorini to Athens had us wait more than 5 hours for our connecting flight. I know that "was playing it safe" but added more time to an already long trip home.

What were the most enjoyable or memorable parts of your trip?

Santorini and the catamaran ride

If you could take your trip again, what would you do differently?

Understand the cost break down of the package. I did not feel it was a good value.

Travel Company Comments:

Hello Jim!
Thanks for sharing your feedback and to be honest I was really surprised by your review sent to Zicasso which I find extremely unfair and misleading!
As a company, we always want to know how your trip was and we love constructive feedback as it is one of the ways that we can become even better which is our goal as a company but also personal.
I am referring to it as unfair and misleading as from my comments below your feedback, all aspects that you found "unsatisfactory" in reality are not as you described them. I was heartbroken reading how you experienced your holiday as Jim apart from the restaurant on your last night in Greece, you never referred to anything negatively!
You mention: The accommodations in Athens were less than I was expecting for the price of the package.
We had booked you at a 4* hotel which has a review rate of 4.6 from 225 Google reviews and 9/10 from 900 reviews on Booking.com. The hotel but also the room type were listed in your trip plan with their links and you never mentioned that you didn't like it or that it had an issue!
The transfer from the Santorini airport to the hotel was difficult. I had issues with the driver.
Jim, I am aware of what happened during your transfer from Santorini airport to your hotel as the transfers are ours and the driver has been our employee
for the last seven years. Jim, you gave him as a tip a 5 Euro note and upon entering your hotel you informed the receptionist to call us/our driver and inform him that by mistake you had given him 50 Euro and that you wanted the change back! My driver immediately replied but also and my female concierge who escorted you from the airport to your hotel and was in the same van, that actually you had given a 5 Euro note which is blue color and not a 50 Euro note which is an orange color and that he could drive back and give the 5 Euro to you! After some minutes you replied that you had made a mistake and all good!
So why should our driver be blamed for it?
The dinner reservation in Santorini had issues. I notified our travel agency regarding the issue with no real response. There was a large private party at the restaurant when we arrived for our reservation. They had to reset the entire restaurant and told us to come back an hour later than our reservations. My order was not correct, and the wait staff made no effort to fix.
Jim, we booked many restaurants upon your request all over Greece, and even though it ended up causing us issues, as after booking your reservations and sending back-and-forth emails, at the last minute you asked us to cancel most of them! Regarding the restaurant in Santorini which you had picked and we booked, you informed me after your experience which was your last night in Greece and I thanked you for the feedback as we had never heard anything bad about it.
You messaged me on WhatsApp at 22:19 and I replied at 22:26 that I will check with the restaurant and inform them of your bad experience!
I am not sure what else you wanted me to do!
The Catamaran excursion was terrific. There has been many attempts to pay for the excursion with not luck. Seems that the payment system is inadequate. I am still unable to pay the bill without being charged a surcharge.
Jim why don't you mention that on your free day and a couple of hours before the sunset cruises start on Santorini you reached out to my WhatsApp and informed me that you were interested in a sunset cruise and that you had asked your hotel receptionist and they gave you the price of 160 Euro per person and asked me if I could give you a better price to which I immediately responded and upon agreeing I managed to book you on a cruise which is the best in Santorini and more expensive and I personally paid that amount as you couldn't proceed with the payment link!
You asked from me to pay when you are back home and on a computer to which I agreed and even though I sent you 5/6 secure bank links, exactly the same bank link type with which you paid for your trip with your credit card you informed me that your payment couldn't go through each time!
When you asked how else we can do it, I informed you that you can do a bank transaction but you will have to cover the 10 Euro bank transaction fees!
I never asked for a cent on top of what your actual cruise cost Jim even though I will pay in the end taxation on this as it went through our business account as I wanted you to enjoy as most as possible your holiday!
The airline reservation from Santorini to Athens had us wait more than 5 hours for our connecting flight. I know that "was playing it safe" but added more time to an already long trip home
Jim, on your last day you had a flight from Athens at 15:10 to JFK airport and we booked you on the 08:45 AM flight from Santorini as the next flight was at
12:50 which was a huge risk as almost all flights from the Greek islands are delayed in the high season! Please believe me that we never want our guests to sit around airports doing nothing but I prefer that option to risking an international flight!
I am sorry your experience didn’t match your expectations even though we strived for the best!
Kind regards,
Rebecca