This is long - but you need to know. No one showed up as our guide. They threaten you to be on time or you lose your tickets ans money. We had 6pm Eiffel Tower tickets with dinner on the 1st floor and then a Seine River Cruise afterward that we had paid $1K for up front. They told us - no refund and if we are late to the meeting point, too bad. No one from La Vacanza Travel or Pariscityvision texted or emailed or called us to confirm our meeting place, give us a tour guide name and/or description- just no communication at all. So that afternoon, we dressed up for our romantic evening, arrived one hour early only for the meeting place of Place de Sydney ‘on the corner of Ave de Suffren and Rue Jean Ray’ to be hard to find. No one speaks English and we had received no correspondence from our tour guide or Parisvision Staff or La Vacanza Travel. There was no phone number to request where to be. Finally after running all over the Eiffel Tower Park Area trying desperately to ask where this meeting location was and no one being able to speak English - the security guard at the Eiffel Tower check point (who did not speak English either) insisted on us going thru security and to the Eiffel Tower. We stood in line (the clock is still ticking and our window of meeting time is closing on when we were supposed to supposedly meet our Pariscityvision staff) and we went thru Eiffel Tower security only to realize this was NOT where the Pariscityvision staff would be. We ran then to the Eiffle Tower exit (I in heels with a fractured foot). Once outside the gates again, we Again tried desperately to ask everyone if they spoke English or if they knew where this meeting location would be (giving them the address we were given in our email). No one spoke English or else, they were like us and had no clue where our meeting place was. The meeting place was listed as Place de Sydney 75015 on the corner of Avenue de Suffren and Rue Jean Ray. Our Uber took us to Place de Sydney. But we did not see and could not find this meeting place of ‘the corner of Ave de Suffren and Rue Jean Ray.’ No one knew where it was either. And Here we were, STILL, The window was closing on our meet time and we were going to lose our $1K tickets and fun evening we had dressed up for and looked so forward to. I could cry. I was in pain with my foot from walking/running in heels with a hairline fracture for so long and was panicked trying to find our guide and this meeting place that did not seem to exist. Meanwhile, No one from La Vacanza Travel or Pariscityvision staff called us, no one texted us and no number was emailed or given to us to be able to contact them. Finally, I saw a Paris City police van with three Paris City Policemen inside. I ran over to them panicked and asked if any of them spoke English. One said, “a little - broken” and so I explained again our situation and asked him if he knew the meeting place address location. He pointed us in a direction - told us to go this direction until we hit the street as then turn left and we would be at the corner location…. So we dis as he instructed and we literally had to jump (mind you in heels and a dress) not one, but two fences to get to the street location. We got there and there was indeed a small sign that said ‘Pariscityvision’ and a crowd of people with two guides. Again, we explained our situation, and asked if we were on their list of guest for the evening to redeem our voucher for tickets and both guides said, ‘sorry, you are not on our list.’ At this point I did not know what to do. Again, I just wanted to cry. It was 5:55 p.m. and we were supposed to be eating dinner at 6:00 p.m. in the Eiffel Tower. We had no guide and no one seemed to be in our predicament. I kept asking the Pariscityvision staff and trying to explain our desperation and they seemed unconcerned. I was persistent though and made quite the scene making it hard for them to continue to ignore me - but it was embarrassing for me - as everyone seemed to be starring and I am sure thought I was a lunatic being so panicked. Finally, one of the guides gave me a phone number to call for Pariscityvision staff I supposedly. I dialed it and Nothing! “Beep, beep, beep.” I then continued to complain and be the squeaky wheel and the other guide FINALLY stopped to really listen to what I was upset about. I told him that his Pariscityvision staff partner had given me a bad phone number and we had no way of contacting anyone with Pariscityvision and was there not some way he or someone could call them and find out where our guide was and why no one had contacted us or no one was there to meet us with our tickets we had paid $1K for. FINALLY this kind man did his job and called the company for us. Come to find out, our girl guide (and I do not know her name) was having trouble getting the tickets and that is why she had not shown up. She finally did show up about 6:30 p.m. with our 6:00 p.m. dinner tickets and Seine River Cruise tickets. All of this could have been avoided if she had just made a phone call, sent us a text, or sent us an email. But no, we are left panicked, trying to find the place, not knowing where she is when we finally find the meeting place on our own and fearing we have lost our money because all La Vacanza Travel does is send you reminders about how YOU canNOT be late or you lose your tickets and your money. All in all, it started our evening off very stressed and for me in a lot of pain. I would NOT recommend this group ever again! I feel we should get our money back for all the stress. The Eiffel Tower experience was ok. We were late getting in for our reservations and had to therefore get a less than great seating location for dinner. The Seine River Cruise was nice. The whole thing just got off to a bad start which made it hard to enjoy a romantic evening as we had planned. Again, the whole thing could have been avoided if La Vacanza Travel and PariscityVision Staff would have just communicated with us as customers better. We have been on several tours here in Paris and all others went very smooth. The staff emailed and/or texted us and the meeting place was very clear. We gave each of those other tour group guides and companies 5 stars and glowing reviews. But not the case here and why so poorly handled for this tour was and is beyond me. Please work on this for your future customers. Location meeting place needs to be better marked and communicated and a follow-up text from the guide the day of (especially if there are complications with arriving on time or not able to get tickets or some such). You guys threaten us over and over that we MUST be on time or we lose our tickets and money - yet your staff can’t even call us when they themselves are late to meet us and have us panicked thinking we have done something wrong. It would be different if it were just $50 or $100 or $200 bucks - but when you have dished out $1K in advance, I feel the least you can do is have good communication with your customer.
It was a wonderful time. My daughter and I had a fantastic time. We enjoyed an awesome 3course meal. We relaxed with champagne and later enjoyed wine.