BOAT FROM HELL: STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!
Do not be fooled by Santa Maria Cruises marketing tricks. We paid $150 EACH for one night on a ‘luxury’ cruise and it was a sham from start to finish. First of all, the boat is old. It’s rusty and all the fixtures and furnishings look decades old. Secondly, the boat is filthy. We walked in with crumbs and food all over the stairs, the windows had smears and there was a smell of stale food and cigarettes. You’ll soon realize why it smells of cigarettes because every single staff member smokes and they smoke everywhere on the boat especially inbetween serving you food!
As you can see from the pics, everything was bad: food, service, the room, and the overall experience. It was hell on earth.
We were told that we’d have a luxury bedroom but there was nothing luxurious about it. The lampshade was broken, there was no water for a shower or to flush the toilet. We couldn’t even enjoy the rooftop in the evening as the lights were broken and there was no atmosphere because all the other guests were miserable too. To add insult to injury, all you could hear along the bay is the laughter and music coming from all the other guests on cruises having a great old time.
Worst of all, I hurt my foot on the floor because of a nail sticking up (pictured) and this is a serious health and safety risk. What happens if a child stood on that? This should not happen anywhere not least on a so called luxury cruise.
Do you want to hear the worst part?
The staff workers were sweating that much that droplets of sweat from their face and body were dripping onto the food as they were serving guests. Believe me, it was revolting.
Also, our elderly parents could not eat the food, it was disgusting, they were given just one small bottle of water for free and that was it. We also had to pay $9 for 4x tea bags and hot water.
The kind tour guide who was with us apologized for the state of the room, food and the overall service on the boat. He even refused to take a tip from us because he was that embarrassed by the quality we received.
It’s a joke.
When we contacted the company to complain, they pretended to care and said they’ll give us a part refund then never honored it. They expected us to collect the invoice from the hotel but the hotel was in on the scam too as they never helped or called us back. Please don’t give your money to this company. The state of the boat in the pic should be enough for you to know it’s terrible! If you look closely, you can see one of the staff preparing food beside a big pile of bins at the back of the boat. Seriously, stay way!