Globus Family of Brands review: Guest safety & overall concerns

I recently took the Greece & Aegean Islands Cruise tour with Cosmos. It was my first tour with Cosmos and I was excited to be going to Greece for the first time. After I’d booked the tour but before it started, I was disappointed to learn 2 things.
ONE: that Cosmos DID NOT provide included transport from the airport to the hotel at the beginning of the tour or from the hotel to the airport at the end of the tour, like every other tour company I’d traveled with. I would have to arrange for this separately or ask Cosmos to arrange it at an additional cost.
And TWO: that Cosmos DID NOT include luggage porterage of my large suitcase, again something that was included with every other tour company I’d traveled with.
When my plane landed in Athens, I collected my large suitcase from baggage claim and went to the arrival hall to meet my transport driver that Cosmos had arranged for me at additional cost. I slowly walked up and down the line of people holding signs three times. There was no one there with a “Cosmos” sign, a “Greece & Aegean Islands Cruise” sign or a sign with my name on it. I waited for about 5 minutes then left to find a restroom. Afterwords, I went back to that area, sat down for another 2-3 minutes, then slowly walked the line again looking for my transport to the hotel. I had been in transit for 14 hours, I was tired and all I wanted to do was get to the hotel, check in and rest a little bit. On my second pass down the line, I suddenly spot a man with a “Cosmos” sign. I walk up to him to confirm that he is indeed my arranged transport. He proceeds to yell at me, “where have you been? I’ve been waiting and waiting for you!” This was NOT the greeting to Greece I was expecting! He then grabs my large suitcase, turns and begins walking away without another word. So, I followed him. After getting in his vehicle and we were driving to the exit of the parking lot, he begins complaining that because he had to wait so long for me, he was going to have to pay extra for parking! Again, I DID NOT appreciate being treated in this manner. He was rude and abusive. Then on the drive to the hotel, I noted that he was often driving 20 kph over the speed limit and weaving in and out of traffic. I was afraid I wasn’t going to arrive in one piece, that we’d be involved in an accident. Is the safety of your guest any concern? Also of note, the vehicle was NOT clean. This is the caliber of people Cosmos hires to greet their guests when they arrive in Greece? This is the first impression you want your tour guests to have? Doesn’t Cosmos vet the safety of the drivers they hire? Shouldn’t there be some level of excellence met before they are given a contract? Or is anyone with a car hired? An EPIC FAIL as far as I’m concerned. Cosmos, you really dropped the ball on this guest service.
Next there is the issue of not including luggage porterage. Cosmos has to realize the majority of their guests are retired people. Some of which are physically challenged. Strong arming 50-pound pieces of luggage shouldn’t be something we have to deal with every day on a tour. Especially in a country of cobblestone streets (which make rolling a suitcase next to impossible), steps up to the front door of hotels, and maneuvering in & out of tiny, tiny elevators. After a day of challenging and exhausting walking, we are forced to manhandle our large luggage in addition to our carry-ons. As I stated earlier, luggage porterage has been included with every other tour company I’ve traveled with in the past. The lack of this service from Cosmos was glaring and left an extremely bad impression with me.
Seating on the tour bus is the next issue I’d like to address. I’ve been on dozens of tours with various tour companies. On all of the others, the tour director sat on the seat located in the stairwell at the front of the bus. If a local guide joined us, he or she would sit in the second seat located there. This allowed ALL seats on the bus to be used by guests on the tour. NOT on this tour. Antonis, our tour director reserved the front 2 seats on the right at the front of the bus for himself. Whenever there was a local guide, he took the 2 front seats on the left and the local guide took the 2 front seats on the right. By doing this, 4 seats were NOT available to guests. Instead, guests were expected to jam together like cattle so the tour director and local guide could be comfortable. WHY wasn’t the guests comfort the #1 priority?
I also noted that the bus held people from 2 different tours. “The Best of Greece” and “Greece & Aegean Islands Cruise”. There weren’t many people on the “The Best of Greece” tour and I guess Cosmos decided to jam those people on the bus with the people on the “Greece & Aegean Island Cruise” tour to save money on a second bus, second driver and second tour director. In doing so, guests traveling solo were forced to sit with a stranger on the bus instead of getting 2 seats to themselves. I was forced to sit with a stranger who kicked my feet and elbowed my ribs constantly telling me to move over because she felt she didn’t have enough room. I had no more room to move over since I was against the window, so I couldn’t, but that didn’t stop her rude behavior. She was also physically sick. She coughed constantly and by the end of the tour I was sick. Eventually I got 2 seats by myself, but after a few days the tour director, Antonis was insisting I accept a different seat mate. I refused. I was traveling solo. If I wanted a traveling companion, I would have brought one with me. I DID NOT have a traveling companion and I was NOT willing to have Cosmos assign one and force a travelling companion on me. I insisted on having 2 seats to myself. It wasn’t my fault Cosmos overbooked the bus, forcing solo traveling guests to double up with a stranger. If the second tour group had not been added to the bus, solo travelers would have had 2 seats. It’s bad enough that the travel industry discriminates against solo travelers by charging them extra to travel solo. But then to add insult to injury by forcing us to put up with a random, sick, rude, stranger as a seat mate on the bus for hours each day is beyond unacceptable. Another example of guest comfort NOT being given top priority by Cosmos.
Cosmos described the hotels as “hand selected accommodations”. Those words lead the reader to believe the hotels would meet certain levels of excellence, such as safety. The balcony / patio door in my room at the Rex hotel in Nauplia DID NOT LOCK. This is a safety issue. As a female traveling alone, it is especially concerning. I can’t believe Cosmos would put guests in hotel rooms that have safety issues. The balcony door in my room at the Maniatis hotel in Sparta also DID NOT LOCK. The balcony door in my room at the Olympia Palace hotel in Olympia also DID NOT LOCK. The balcony door in my room at the Apollonia hotel in Delphi also DID NOT LOCK. The balcony door in my room at the Antoniadis hotel in Kalambaka also DID NOT LOCK. When the room balcony is only separated from another room’s balcony by a short half wall that could be easily scaled by the person staying in the next room and the door isn’t locked, I lose sleep. See a pattern here? I sure do. Every room that a Cosmos guest stays in should have been inspected and PASSED before a guest is allowed to stay there. NO EXCEPTIONS! Safety should be the #1 priority. Does someone have to be murdered in their room before safety of Cosmos guests is taken seriously?
Does Cosmos take the safety of their guests seriously? It sure didn’t appear that way to me since this occurred SO MANY TIMES on this tour.
My stay at the Antoniadis hotel in Kalambaka was extremely disappointing. Upon arrival in my room, I was greeted by a wave of intense heat. In the matter of seconds, I had sweat running off my chin. I estimated that it was close to 90 degrees F (32 C) in that room. I was light headed from the heat and felt nauseated. I was afraid I would pass out from the heat. I went to the thermostat to turn on the air conditioning, but it didn’t respond. I opened the balcony door to allow some of the cooler air from outside to come in, but the room was located on an inside corner and there was no breeze outside, so cooler air was NOT coming into the room. I went down to the hotel desk to inform them of the situation. After telling the man at the desk the issue, he just stared at me. So, I asked if he’d heard me. He indicated he had and asked “What do you want me to do about it?” I couldn’t believe my ears. So, I said, I want you to fix the air conditioning. He said “I can’t”. I asked him to get someone who could. He said “I can’t”. I then asked to be moved to another room where the air conditioning DID work. He said the hotel was full and couldn’t do that. I asked for a fan and he said they didn’t have any fans. I explained how hot it was and that I was nauseated by the heat. He made no effort to resolve the problem except to tell me to open the balcony door. I could open the balcony door but since there was no breeze, this wasn’t going to solve the problem. The cool outside air was NOT coming in. Also, leaving my balcony door open all night is a safety issue. When I kept insisting he do something, he sent a woman from the desk area to go up to the room with me. She checked the air conditioning and also found it wasn’t working. Her solution was to open the balcony door. She shrugged her shoulders then left. By then it was time for supper. I went down to the dining room for supper and found the air conditioning working there. It was cool and comfortable. So, the air conditioning worked in the hotel, just NOT in my room. While I was eating Antonis the tour director came into the dining room so I informed him of the issue. He asked me what I wanted him to do about it. I said I expected him to find a solution! I couldn’t believe I had to tell him that. He went to talk to the man at the desk. He came back and said that when I was finished with supper I needed to go to the desk and the man there would go up to the room with me to check out the situation. When I finished eating I did just that. The man checked the air conditioner to confirm it DID NOT WORK. Then he opened the balcony door and told me the cooler air outside would eventually cool off the room. I explained there was NO BREEZE and that would take HOURS and that overnight it was a SAFETY ISSUE. Then he went back to the thermostat and TURNED THE HEAT ON! I couldn’t believe he did that! I asked WHY he turned the heat on and he said I’d want it on when the night turned cool. No, I would NOT want the heat on later. I told him I needed a fan to bring the cooler air from outside into the room. He said he didn’t have any fans. I told him this was COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE and he better find a fan. He turned and left. I shut off the heat. By this time, I was so angry and nauseated from the heat I was ready to throw up. Within 5 minutes there was a knock on the door and it was the man from the desk standing there with a fan! For someone who kept insisting they didn’t have any fans, he sure found one quickly. If guest comfort was a priority, I shouldn’t have had to get angry and insist on a fan before one was brought to my room. I took it, turned it on with the balcony door open to bring in the cooler air. It took the next 3 hours to cool that room off. And this was listed as a 4-star hotel on the Cosmos app! I don’t know what your idea of a 4-star hotel is, but the level of service I received DID NOT warrant 4-stars by any stretch of the imagination.
Communication of what to expect from the country and on the tour should be of paramount importance and of the highest priority of a tour company to their respective guests. Information given to a guest prior to signing up for the tour. Details matter. Guests should NOT be shocked by something on their first day in country. Sadly, this was NOT the case for this tour. On our first evening we were informed by Antonis, our tour director about the toilet paper situation. We were told to put our used toilet paper in the trash bin next to the toilet, never to flush it. I couldn’t believe I heard correctly, so I asked him to repeat that. WHAT? Was he kidding? Everywhere? Every day throughout the ENTIRE trip? Really? This was absolutely new information to me and NOT something I had ever read about anywhere prior to arriving there. While toilet habits can be a delicate topic to address, I feel this is a piece of information tour guests should have been informed of in the tour description prior to signing up for the tour. We have a right to know this in advance and it MIGHT be a decision point for some people. I certainly was NOT happy being informed of it after arriving when there was nothing I could do about it at that point. I noticed many other guests on the tour were shocked to hear this as well. Provide better, more complete information about a country in the tour descriptions! Communication with your guests is important!
Communication from the tour director is also very important. Guests should NOT be left guessing about the plans for the day. On day 3 of the tour after we had visited the acropolis in Athens, we were about 1 ½ hours into the bus ride when we stopped for a bathroom break. It was after we were back on the road before Antonis, the tour director told us when we’d be stopping for lunch, which wouldn’t be until around 3 – 3:30 pm. Since we had gotten up & had breakfast at 6:30 am, this was a LONG time for most of us to wait to eat lunch. We were NOT told in advance it was going to be that long and I for one was beginning to feel sick by the time we stopped for lunch. Details like that are VERY important and should be communicated to guests up front so they can plan accordingly. I have hypoglycemia and if I’d known it was going to be that long between meals, I’d have brought snacks to tide me over. I heard other guests complaining as well. When I mentioned it to Antonis, he shrugged off my concern and said I needed to become Greek and adapt to Greek customs. I DID NOT appreciate his flippant attitude or lack of concern for the welfare and comfort of the guests on the tour. This same lack of communication applied to the supper meal as well. After a couple of times when we weren’t given the opportunity to eat until after 9 pm, Antonis, the tour director told us 10 pm was the normal time Greeks eat supper and we should “get used to it”. I was unaware of this as were other guests on the tour. Forcing guests to “become Greek” overnight is NOT my idea of good guest relations.
The amount of walking and level of walking activity (leisurely, active, strenuous, challenging, etc.) should be clearly communicated with guests prior to signing up for the tour. This information was NOT listed for this tour. This is important information to have prior to booking a tour so a guest can determine if they are physically able to participate. Again, the majority of the guests are retired people. We’re older, some of us NOT in the greatest shape, joints may be in bad shape or replaced. We are NOT Olympic athletes! This is information we need to make an informed decision. I was horrified when we got to Mystra to see the almost straight up climb in front of us. There were NO steps, only rocks & loose gravel to deal with. There were NO hand rails. One guest fell and ended up turning back before they broke a bone. None of us were informed of the conditions prior to arriving there. Then we were assured by the tour director that the paths were clearly marked once we got up the mountain. They were NOT. He also did not go up the mountain with us to help with directions or answer any questions. I realize guests have the ability to decide whether or not they participate by going on the “walks”, gauging their own ability with what lies in front of them, but NOT HAVING that information in advance is unacceptable to me. As guests we should be informed as to what we are facing prior to signing up for the tour. Finding out we are faced with a climb straight up a mountain after we have arrived does us no good. It’s too late then. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Cosmos doesn’t care if we get to see anything or not, they already have our money.
Lack of included excursions on the cruise left me disappointed in Cosmos. This was part of the tour, yet when we arrived at most of the ports, if we wanted to see anything other than the harbor area, we had to pay an additional fee for an excursion. WHY wasn’t an excursion included at each stop as part of the Cosmos tour? The cruise was part of the Cosmos tour, therefore excursions at each stop should have been included. I find that completely unacceptable. Every other tour company I’ve traveled with has included at least one included excursion every day, at every site, no exceptions until traveling with Cosmos.
Then on the last full day of the tour when we were brought back to Athens, again, nothing was planned for the guests. Our only option was to wander around Athens on our own. Our tour director even left us to go to another tour! We had no one to ask questions of, help us in any way. I felt like Cosmos was saying “We’ve got your money, we’re done with you. See you later, bye.” I have NEVER experienced that with any other tour company I’ve traveled with. NEVER. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!
Guest safety, comfort, problem resolution, communicating details, managing expectations, smooth interactions, are all a serious issue for Cosmos and need to be addressed. Bottom line, it seems to me customer service is NOT something Cosmos cares about. All I saw was Cosmos trying to squeeze every possible dime they could from their guests at every turn with little to no regard for the guest. Guest comfort and appreciation was NOT a consideration or high priority. I will be sharing my Cosmos experience with all of my friends and family and posting on Facebook how I was treated. I was severely disappointed in the Cosmos experience.