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• An almost disaster saved by Prince

  Caetano R,

  31 thg 7, 2023

  - Viator

  4.00

  At US$1,000 per person, this tour offered by Natural World Kenya, was the most expensive of all Masai Mara tours listed on Viator. Still, I booked it because I wanted to stay at the high-quality accommodation that they advertised. They were supposed to pick us up, my wife and I, at our hotel in Nairobi, at 7 AM. No one showed up and half an hour later, still no sign of the driver or the guide. Luckily, I had the local number for Natural World Kenya, and I decided to call them. I gave my booking number to the person who answered the call and after a few minutes of hesitation he told me that they did not have my booking. To which I said "Sir, how is that possible, if I booked this tour months ago and I have paid for it? Moreover, I have a ticket from Viator and as you probably know, Viator does not issue a ticket to a client unless they receive payment. If you tell me that you don't have my booking, we have a major problem here because I just checked out of the hotel, I don't have a place to stay in Nairobi and the only thing I am here for is to go on a three-day tour of Masai Mara. If you don't come pick me up, it will be disastrous." The person said that they would look it up and call back me in a few minutes. Meanwhile I decided to call Viator in the United States and the person who took my call was of very little help. But luckily, she told me that she could see my booking on their system. The booking was legitimate and obviously it was a mess up between Viator and Natural World. Then, after a frenetic exchange of text messages between myself and Natural World, they finally told me that a driver / guide was on his way to pick us up. The driver, whose name was Prince, showed up at 9 AM, a two-hour delay from the original pick-up time. He drove us straight to Masai Mara, but I had one more concern, about which I texted again Natural World. The concern was that I had booked this tour based on the high-quality accommodation that they listed, and obviously since they could not locate my booking, I assumed they had not reserved our accommodation anywhere. I asked, “Where are you going to put us overnight”? The answer came after a few minutes: “Don't worry, you will be staying at La Maison Royale.” Obviously, I had no idea about what La Maison Royale was but as we were already on our way to Masai Mara, I thought, well it is what it is. Let's try to enjoy it and after a very long drive, we arrived at Masai Mara. And that’s when things started getting better because Prince, our guide, was an outstanding guide and a very nice person. He speaks very good English, but most importantly, he knows how to find the animals and he is very knowledgeable about their behavior. Once we arrived at Masai Mara, around 2 PM, we went straight into a game drive, until about 5 PM. The next day we had a full day game drive with Prince, and it was phenomenal. We saw the big five, lion, rhino, hypo, buffalo, and leopard, plus all kinds of other animals. Prince knew where to find them, and we saw lions eating a prey, we saw wild animals at very close range and because of Prince’s superior knowledge of their behavior, when we saw a lion and a lioness together and by themselves, he told us to be patient, wait a few minutes, because they would mate. And sure enough, they did, not once, but twice, right in front of us, like 5 feet in front of us. I could take all the pictures I wanted and make a video. Prince was everything we expected from a guide, and he made our tour enjoyable and exceptional. Now let's go back to the accommodation during the tour. After the first game drive, when we arrived at La Maison Royale, it was, as I expected, not at the quality level that I had paid for. But we had no choice and had to stay there. It was not terrible, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. When we finished the tour and we were on the way back to Nairobi, I mentioned to Prince the problem we had with the booking. He was not aware of it and made it a point to put us on the phone with his supervisor, Howard, a very nice guy. Howard was concerned about the quality of the services and satisfaction of his clients, and he invited us to dinner that night at a famous restaurant in Nairobi, but we declined it because we were too tired after the long drive, and we had an early morning flight the next day. “I want to see you happy about this experience, so I am sending someone to your hotel with a refund of $100,” Howard said. It was very kind of him, and we took it, but $100 was not enough to cover the difference in the quality of accommodation that we had. I intend to contact Viator directly and ask for a proper refund. And here is a word of caution: most companies that operate in Africa don’t clearly say where you will be staying. They’ll list a hotel or lodge, but with one caveat: or similar. This “similar” is what gives them a lot of leeway to put you anywhere they want and claim that it's of the same quality. The fact is that it may not be. My advice to anyone booking a tour in Africa is to try as hard as possible to find out exactly where you’ll stay, otherwise you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. Having said that, I want to stress again that what made our tour unforgettable was our driver / guide. Prince was the factor responsible for turning an almost disaster into a very pleasant experience in Africa.