Grand Circle Tours
 

I'm considering a China trip. Have any of you used Grand Circle Tours? Prices are good. Too good?

We have traveled with Grand Circle and with its small-group affiliate, Overseas Adventure Travel.

Excellent value for money. They keep every promise they make in their literature and on the web site. Highly reputable and responsive. Not the ultra de luxe; just good value. Others may disagree, but our experiences have caused us to use them several times because they have delivered.

We have taken a number of Grand Circle trips and they are well done with excellent guides and they will work hard to make sure everything goes well.
We did not take their tour to China, but chose to go with Pacific Delight which specializes in China. The prices are similar, but their tours include almost all meals and they offer many more things to do and see in the different areas. The guides were excellent and the accomodations quite good, but not lavish. They also offer many more tours of different lengths to pick from
We were gone three weeks and enjoyed the trip.

I have taken 2 tours with Grand Circle and they were both excellent. The China tour I took was a 12 day tour (9 days in the country) and very fast paced but everything was as promised. Excellent guides.

I then took a longer Thailand tour which was also excellent. I'm planning (I hope) on their Eastern Europe trip in September.

You cannot beat GCT for value. I had no problem with hotels, all meals were included except the last night but I was ready for American food, such as it was. I don't think the prices are "too" good. I really would not hesitate to travel with GCT.

If you'd like my China diary please e-mail at [email protected]. I'd be happy to add any pros and cons.

And, my friends took the longer tour that included the Yangze river and absolutely loved it. Nancy

We have taken four Grand Circle tours, three of which were or included river cruises. We have two more booked. We had planned to do the Yangtze River cruise with them in June 2003, but the trip was cancelled due to the SARS epidemic. We plan to rebook, probably for next year.
Grand Circle's target audience is the older travelled, so their pace is more relaxed than some other companies. We are in our late fifties and are usually on the younger side of the travellers, but have never been the youngest. Grand Circle always employs program directors (their term for guides) that are native to the area, and give a lot of emphasis to the local people and culture. The ship that they use on the Yangtze is apparently the same design as the one we sailed with them in Russia. The accomodations are basic but adequate.
Their prices are good. This is what drew us to them for or first trip, Egypt and the Nile. We were ready to book another trip that was cheaper, but when we compared apples to apples, between it and Grand Circle, the Grand Circle trip was a much better value. If you have further questions, please either reply in this forum or Email us.
Jack and Ann

"Excellent value for money. They keep every promise they make in their literature and on the web site. Highly reputable and responsive. Not the ultra de luxe; just good value. Others may disagree, but our experiences have caused us to use them several times because they have delivered."

I had to laugh out loud when I read this post, especially the part about keeping every promise on their website!!!
3 couples of us booked a trip with GCT on Jan. 2 after seeing a vacation package advertised on their website. It was to be a joint 40th anniversary celebration. We booked with them directly over the phone for a trip scheduled for June 2, 2005, and made the deposit. Since then, we've received our confirmations with original prices quoted, our travel booklets, filled out our passport info, and got our final invoices last week, on Feb. 8.
One of the couples called that very day to put the remaining balance on their credit card and were told the invoice price was wrong, that they owed an additional $1400! This couple argued that there must be a mistake, they had several invoices with the original, quoted price on them. They got off the phone without paying the balance, and called to tell us about the situation.

Couple #2 called GCT the next AM to see what was happening, and were able to make their final payment as per their invoice, no problem.
Later that afternoon, I received a call from GCT that the price posted on the website had been erroneous, that it had also been wrong in their computers, and indeed we owed an additional $1400 for the trip, above and beyond what was on our invoice. When I informed them about couple #2 completing payment earlier in the day, the person got off the phone, checked it out, then called me back and said it was STILL wrong in the computer, and that they also owed the additional money! When asked, she said GCT found out about the mistake on Jan. 27. However, even though it was admittedly THEIR mistake and we had booked in good faith, they refused to honor the price on their website and on the final invoice!!!!!!

This is definitely NOT a company any of us will ever try to do business with again, no matter how attractive the trips sound.

And for you who have been fortunate enough to have good luck with them, that's exactly what it was!

If you read their fine print, they state that they reserve the right to change the price of a trip due to erroneous promotions, along with many other loopholes. Isn't that a great way to treat customers?!

Check them out on consumeraffairs.com for some of their other tricks!

There are numerous posts on cruisecritic.com and frommers.com citing other questionable business practices, some resulting in lawsuits.

So, if you feel comfortable booking a trip with a company that can change the price at their whim and give the customer no rights at all, that's up to you. Just READ THE FINE PRINT!

As I said in our earlier reply, we have travelled with Grand Circle four times and have two more trips booked and paid for. We have had occasional billing problems, but they have been promptly rectified. We have encountered other GCT travellers that have received refunds due to reductions in price after booking, so the price adjustments appear to be a two way street. With anything in this world, you have to read the fine print.
We are currently looking to get dates on the 2006 China and the Yangtze trip, which we will probably book when it comes available. We already have our two trips for this year committed.

I booked a trip to Bali with Grand Circle. They cancelled the trip due to low attendance and then never sent a refund. It has been over one month and still no check. Not happy with GCT :(

Milliman,
Do you think there's been a change in management recently that's brought about such poor treatment of customers?

I'd always thought it was a reputable business, and a group of us was already planning future trips with OAT. We're so disappointed that it won't happen now. There's no way any of us would even think of booking with them again.
They really need to get their act together if they want to keep their reputation afloat. We're also still waiting on refund. Try to post when you get yours, and I'll do the same.

Good Luck!

About GCT, sorry to hear of some real problems. We are scheduled for our 4th trip with May 27 departure to Eastern Europe. Our previous experiences have been very positive. Of course, many on Fodors talk are individual travelers and also younger, so don't do group tours and may be disdainful of them. Yes, there are some disdavantages being in a large group but we feel there are real plusses. And that GCT has been a good bet, including a good value.

Bill in Missouri [email protected]

Note that the Better Business Bureau in Massachusetts revoked Grand Circle Corporation/Overseas Adventure membership on 10/27/05 due to lack of diligent efforts to eliminate a pattern or trend of customer complaints called to the company's attention. Check it out for yourself. I have traveled with both in the past but would be vey wary at this time.

Sorry to hear about customer complaints for GCT or OAT requiring BB action. We've had nothing but good experience, but then no problems to be resolved. Can you give a reference for the citation you mention, ABPalmer? Any refutation from the accused?

ozarksbill

I just ran into a former university colleague who's been on 8 GCT trips, including one to Antarctica. She had nothing but praise.

Ozarksbill, I found confirmation of what AFB(?) said:

http://www.bosbbb.org/reports/reliab...mId=0000003848

I'm appalled! Needs further looking into and response from GCT. To access the report...just leave out 000000 to what cmt has posted (hence Firmld=3848).

The specific complaint from BBB reads that GCT failed to fulfill advertised amenities and itineraries and changes were made on the trip. Also that adequate substitutions in hotels and activities were not provided. And that refunds and reimbursements were not received with an unsatisfactory service seeking to resolve issues.

I will withhold judgment till further notice because while I do know certain changes are made they are often for the better in my experience. Furthermore, our guides supplied extra tours and suggestions. Some tour guides I have heard may be subpar (and we did hear bad reports last June about some tours where there were seemingly difficult travelers) but the four trips we have had in the past were top notch.

ozarksbill

On 10/27/05 the company's membership in the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Massachusetts, Maine & Vermont was revoked by the BBB due to violation of BBB Standard of Membership "Make diligent efforts to eliminate the underlying cause(s) of any pattern(s) or trend(s) of customer complaints which the Bureau may call to the company's attention."

Which tour company are you referring to?

Thanks

Oops! Sorry, I just reread the messages & see it is obviously GCT you are referring to. I was thinking of a thread I read previous to this one that made reference to a number of different tour companies.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=27

Check out this on the Asia form.

Yesterday I talked with a friend in my hometown who had nothing but praise for a GCT tour to Eastern Europe, just back from the same one we were on in June. After alerting a GCT rep about postings on Fodors, I did get this reponse which I am posting on my own, i.e., not presuming to speak for Grand Circle Travel. It is not their policy to reply to internet chat comments.

"The Better Business Bureau received 53 complaints from our travelers in 2005 which is more than the BBB guidelines allow. However, the BBB does not consider the size of the business or the number of clients. With the 155,000 travelers we've had in 2005, 53 complaints is less than 1/10th of 1%.

In fact, for the past 3 years 97% of our travelers have rated their experience Good or Excellent so we're confident that the change in our BBB status does not reflect a decline in our services.

Despite our concerns with BBB's consideration of limited facts, having even 53 make complaints is not satisfactory. Based on feedback received we have made major and relevant policy changes that will dramatically reduce the number of passenger complaints:
Protecting against taxes and surcharge increases.
Clearly communicating overbooking practices and revising guidelines.
Not enforcing cancellation fees due to date changes.
Revising terms to clarify policy."

(contact can be made with Joshua who emailed this to me...GCT 877 220-2610 ext. 5019)

After giving extensive thought (and comment) to a complaint posted a while back on this board about GCT's affiliate, OAT, I would offer this comment:

As Ozarksbill's comments attest, both GCT and OAT have their fans. I've read several people comment favourably about the guides, itineraries, hotels, etc used by these companies. On the other hand, even just the one complaint that I read points to a weakness in the booking phase. Although it seems only a few consumers each year are affected by this weakness, the weakness is serious enough that I feel compelled to warn you.

I suggest that if you want to use this or indeed any other tour company, that you be proactive, and take the initiative to minimize your likelihood of running into difficulties.

Specifically, I suggest you:
politely but firmly request - in writing - that while you understand the company practices overbooking, you wish to be apprised immediately, in writing, at the time of initial deposit, whether you are on the primary list for tour space or whether you are in fact on a waiting list for the specific tour departure you've chosen. I suggest this since, at least according to the person making the complaint I mentioned, her being waitlisted was not done subject to her final approval, but done without her knowledge. As a result, again according to her, it came as a shock to learn, at virtually the last minute, that the tour was overbooked and she was to be bumped. Whatever happened, it is clear there was a communication failure, and a serious one.

Ozarksbill quotes the company as saying they wish to improve their communications re overbooking practices. Yet in the complainant's instance, apparently, the company didn't so much fail to communicate the practice (the policy is published on both GCT and OAT websites) as fail to communicate when specific tours were overbooked as soon as this information became known to them. Waitlists are one thing, and I understand why companies overbook, but given the inflexibility of many people's vacation schedules, these consumers need to be apprised of a tour's overbooked status as soon as possible. This is so that they can make the decision for themselves as to whether the given tour they've chosen is desirable enough that they want to risk being bumped from an overbooked tour, and at a time when it is too late to make alternate plans.