Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I'm not exactly sure what to say about the two weeks I lasted at Med Experience. The first week, "The Ultra Party Route" was beyond a disaster, I mean even taking into account some of the rubbish I had to deal with at Fez travel in Turkey. This was bad.
Day one, we meet out some eighty or so guests down at the Marina in Split, and it is hot, and there is no shade and no one had scouted out a place for us to set up, and this is where we are supposed to be meeting people. The most important aspect of tour leading in recon. Scout things out first, so you don't end up looking like a moron later in front of all your guests. Not only that but more than half the yachts weren't ready and some people were waiting around for close to five hours. We also had to find and distribute the tickets for the Ultra Party Festival. A task given to me, which was made all the more difficult by the fact that I was given two inaccurate lists to work from.
By the time everyone was settled on the boats it was around 6pm and we had started at 11am. We were supposed to escort the guests to the festival and all go together, however after that fiasco, the clients understandably wanted nothing to do with us. So Greta, the boss and I all went together. It was horrendous, it would have actually been an awesome festival if it wasn't for the awful music!
I only stayed for about an hour and went back to my yacht to prepare for what I was sure was going to be a week of hell. I was not wrong.
The guests on this tour, already angry with us, were pretty awful people anyway. The only way I can think to describe them is a bunch of bronzed, rich, spoiled brats, who had no idea what they had actually signed up for. Great, I thought, it takes roughly one week to come back from something like that as a tour leader, and we only have one week….and these are the worst kind of people.
It continued on like this all week, Greta and I often commented to each other how poorly this had been organised and now the boss was taking it all out on us as if we were supposed to magically come in and fix it all.
Even with this attitude he wouldn't let Greta and I change anything, except offer to make fresh lunches for the clients, because the stuff he ordered from restaurants in the towns was absolute crap.
The second week was better, Greta and I had been looking forward to the boss going back to London so we could attempt to fix the tour and make it our own, but alas this never happened. I'd pretty much given up on it at this stage, the only reason I hadn't walked out is because Tim had booked on the tour after this one.
The people on this tour were much nicer and the people on my yacht were really nice and all seemed to really like me. Especially when we got to Korcula and I gave them all a walking tour and took them up to the Tower bar for drinks and sunset. We had a great night at Dos Locos and then we moved on the Gaudi, where I had managed to set up a foam party before arriving, which everyone from the tour went to and loved. Most people said it was the highlight of the tour.
In Hvar, we all had a big night and one of the girls had a 21st and got so drunk I had to take her to hospital. I was gutted because at that point I had actually been having a lot of fun dancing with Jaksa the skipper manager and drinking with the other guys. Duty calls though and I ended up having to take this girl to the hospital. I practically had to carry her to the taxi area (not a short distance as cars are not allowed in the other town) and then I had to talk to her to make sure she didn't pass out on the way to the hospital. Once at the hospital, I was greeted by a rather unfriendly matron type woman who looked at us all in disgust, however quickly gave me some respect up learning I wasn't drunk. She hooked the girl up to some saline and gave her fluids until she was at least conscious enough to walk.
Then I had to get her back to her yacht which was moored at the island of Pamizana, meaning I had to get someone who could barely walk into a water taxi at night. Fun, I did manage it and when I had put her to bed, I went to bed myself, wishing I had not signed up for this and had stayed in Russia.
Upon arrival in split however, I was saved (sort of) when the boss, mercifully terminated my contract and basically threw me out onto the street. It was pretty obvious this was going to happen, as I was originally supposed to lead this tour on my own and he had brought in Greta at the last minute who is a mate of his. They also offered Tim his money back, so I didn't have to worry about that either.
I gathered up all my stuff and checked myself into a hotel in Split, and skyped Tim who couldn't believe what was happening. We tossed around some ideas of what to do and I realised how calm I was about the whole situation. Let's face it, I've had worse. Tim said he needed time to process the information….I guess I did too. As of tomorrow I was stranded in Croatia, what to do?
- comments