pamiam51 Posted July 8, 2022 Report Share Posted July 8, 2022 We booked the Calafia Valley Wine Country Tour on our Royal Caribbean cruise vacation through Explora Caribe. The tour advertised “tales of the area’s history, people, and culture while traveling alongside an informative guide.” Additionally, “visit two renowned wineries and tour the expansive vineyards, roam the cellars.” In researching this tour, I expected to visit La Casa De Doña Lupe and L.A. Cetto, which are minutes away from each other. We did not visit L.A. Cetto. They took us to a second winery (25 minutes away and a rough bus ride on a dirt road) which our guide called Matilde. Matilde is actually a restaurant. Finca Tré is the winery, and La Estancia is the hotel. This “resort” is still under construction. The grounds completed are beautiful, but for now it is partially completed. Finca Tré serve 3 wines - one rosé, one red blend, and one syrah. Unfortunately, it seems as if Explora Calibre cannot handle the growing cruise demand coming out of California. Our guide (Samantha) was very young and incredibly uniformed. She admittedly didn’t speak much English, didn’t read script she was given, and we had a silent bus ride ride…outside of her singing 3 songs…karaoke style. I didn’t learn about Ensenada, Calafia wine country, the wineries we visited, the wine we drank, or any part of this area’s people/culture. One of my favorite parts about a tour bus excursion is hearing the guide’s stories and pride in their city/country. When we arrived at the first winery, she dropped us off and we were not given any information, including how to navigate the winery. No one told us about the wines, the winery, the history of the winery. Highly disappointing. We found the tasting area and tried 4 wines each. The man pouring has great customer service and poured wines that we preferred - white and red. There was a large selection of wine. Our guide was serving bread and cheese in the corner of the market room. Unfortunately, she didn’t know what kind of cheese she was giving us. The second winery was beautiful and the gentleman that greeted us gave us a quick tour of the vines. The 3 wines they have were excellent. Unfortunately, the winery isn’t finished and it was under construction. We would have appreciated our guide letting us know that there was no food at the second winery. It ended up being an almost five hour tour and we ate one piece of bread and 4 cubes of cheese. I don’t understand why the second stop was changed. The other winery was 2 minutes away from the first. Going an extra 25 minutes away to visit the second winery seemed “off.” Even the excursions booked by passengers not affiliated with the cruise line went to L.A. Cetto… Overall, there’s nothing I would recommend about this tour and I’m disappointed that Explora Caribe would hire a guide of this poor quality. Your guide can make or break a tour. She broke ours. WAAAYTOOO, JNichols and ellcee 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cactusgirl Posted July 9, 2022 Report Share Posted July 9, 2022 Thanks for this review. I have been struggling to figure out exactly what to do at this port. You helped x out one options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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