Dear Brendan Folks,
I wanted to write you about our Brendan Irish Jaunt tour for several reasons and the feedback form that was provided didn't give me adequate room to tell you about our experience. I am home now and wanted to get this to you while it is fresh in my mind.
Overall I'd give the trip 2.5 stars. There are reasons why you didn't get a 5 star rating and I'll list them here so that you can use this for future improvement:
1. Our airline accommodations through Delta were excellent. We knew we were in for a very long flight from Phoenix to Dublin connecting in Atlanta and had prepared for that. However what we weren't prepared for was not having a shuttle available to take us to the first hotel until noon. We were told by your man at the center that the shuttle wouldn't be there until noon. We sat at the airport waiting for the shuttle for three hours.
2. When we arrived at the Burlington hotel we were told by the hotel staff that our room wasn't ready. After a very full day and night of travel (and waiting three hours at the airport!) we were unable to get changed or cleaned up for that matter. I know I could have done with a shower and a shave at that point and Lisa was very tired and wanted to rest prior to our 2:00 p.m. tour start. We were told by the hotel staff that our names would be called. Nobody was called prior to the tour at 2:00 p.m. We were later informed that the reason our rooms weren't read was because of item 4 below.
3. The first tour at 2:00 p.m. was rushed. There was much confusion as to locations for pickup etc. I felt "hurried" the entire time we were on the first day tour and opted to skip the pub crawl because we had not had the opportunity to get changed or cleaned up yet nor had we eaten anything or were given the opportunity to eat. Lisa and I were both very hungry. Given the fact that we hadn't had any time to "decompress" the entire afternoon was a blur. Anna our guide was hurried, harried, and seemed always in a rush to get us to the next spot. We had almost no time to even take photographs. The most impressive event in Dublin (The Book of Kells) was so rushed that I barely remember seeing it.
4. Finally we arrived back at the hotel and were given our room. After a day and night of travel and a very hurried afternoon of touring Trinity College we finally got to eat and thoroughly exhausted we went to bed around 10:00 p.m. At 2:00 a.m. we were awakened by a horrible yelling and screaming and horns blowing in the parking lot. Apparently the hotel was the headquarters for the Tipperary Hurling team and yes the entire team was in our hotel for the National Championships. At one point there were over 900 revelers in our hotel lobby as early as 4 a.m. in the morning. The partying, screaming and horn blowing went on all night into the early morning hours. There were still partiers in the lobby at 7:00 a.m. Because the rooms didn't have air conditioning and were hot we were forced to open our windows and of course the sound permeated every area of the room. We simply couldn't sleep much. I got every bit of four hours of sleep when I should have gotten at least eight or more. This affected several of the people in our tour and nearly everyone was suffering from sleep deprivation the first few days as a result. This was nothing but poor planning on Brendan's part. Knowing that this was the HQ of Tipperary's Hurling team you should have made other accommodations immediately available. Lisa and I resent this failure on the part of Brendan and feel that your poor planning in this regard cost us some major enjoyment of our trip. I would also recommend to anyone not to stay at the Burlington under any circumstances. We were entirely dissatisfied with the hotel, its staff, and the facilities.
5. The tour featured Bunratty Castle as an optional excursion. The cost versus benefit was horrendous. It was the worst meal that we had on the entire trip. The ribs were so salty as to be almost inedible. The chicken (which was rationed out at one small piece of white meat per person) was good but not nearly enough to cover the 65 euro that we spent per person to attend. The show was just "okay". It wasn't great. I've spent much less money on local "Dinner Theater" shows in my town and gotten much better food and entertainment. I strongly resent the fact that Brendan gave this most expensive and least impressive diversion as an option for the tour and after polling the rest of the attendees I found the only people who liked it were one couple out of seven. I depended on Brendan to give us good recommendations for our entertainment dollar and was sorely disappointed with your recommendation and felt that we were "ripped off" by the Bunratty event. I strongly recommend that future tours not include that suggestion for the sake of other Brendan clients (at least the ones who have any taste at all.) read more
