My husband and I enrolled in a course with a company that uses Moorings boats and the Inn. For anyone interested, I would avoid the Moorings Mariner Inn and even Moorings, if at all possible.
We have had nothing but rudeness, delay, lost data, and general grief from the Moorings Mariner Inn and the Moorings Charter — a division of TUI — Tortola staff.
The Mariner Inn Staff couldn’t find our prepaid hotel reservations, both when I called and emailed to confirm and then, again, when we arrived. The first night they gave us a “garden view” room with several generations of roaches, a broken front door lock, broken and filthy tiles in the bathroom. We upgraded one night and had already paid for one night (through the school) in a much improved Marina View Room. While not expecting luxury, the first room should have been clean and the locks should have been intact. I would like to say that Aisha tried her best and had a cheerful, helpful attitude. Young “George” was also a great help and right on the spot when we needed him.
The day prior to our class beginning, another woman was at the front desk. She told us that the welcome letter with our first day’s class itinerary did not exist. Somehow, she later found and brought us the letter, but began her explanation about finding it by telling us that it was identical to the letter we had presented on check in, confirming our reservation – of course, it wasn’t.
The restaurants are disorganized – the main one by the hotel was closing when we arrived, but deigned to make us sandwiches. After eating, we went for a walk and we found out that Charlies was still open and serving dinner!
Charlies doesn’t open until 12 noon, on the dot, by the way. And you will be told that you should have made reservations, even if half the tables are empty.
As for Moorings: the Charter company leaves much to be desired. On day one of our school, there was delay and confusion as to which boat we were assigned to. We and our instructor lost valuable time. The pricey pre-provisioning was scrambled, too. The ice was placed in the refrigerator and the veggies in the freezer.
We had planned to make a 2 week vacation out of our trip, going out the same day that we finished the course. On turnover day, we brought back the 39 ft Powercat, “Hull 18” by 9 AM, were all checked out and off the boat by 10, and were told we’d probably get to go out on our second week by noon. We paid nearly a $1000 for the extra night, and specifically told the staff we planned to leave on the turnover day.. However, after sitting with the ants in the lounge for well over 4 hours — we were told that we had a “6 PM start. In other words, that “extra night” doesn’t start until it’s far too late to leave the dock.
I will not come back. We will do everything in our power to avoid giving the Moorings company another penny of our money.
Edit 3/30/12 5:15 PM AST photo added — BBN
Just 2 the Horizon 