REVIEW: ETA Motorcycle Cruises , LLC // Additional Info

This is the yet another in a series,  about our trip.

• Post 1:Two Straps ...
• Post 2:No Straps needed or possible
• Post 3:Motorcycle Cruise in the Caribbean ... a great time .... well, almost
• Post 4 REVIEW: ETA Motorcycle Cruises , LLC
• Part 5: ETA Insurance Maze

 After posting my first review, I of course realized that I wish I'd covered this or that.. but ...  left it alone and moved on.   However, last night I had an interesting chat with another person that was on our ETA Cruise earlier this month and to my surprise, they echoed many of my own concerns.   Up until yesterday, I'd kept most of all this (ETA related Blog posts) to 'myself'.  I mean, they were here, but I didn't send them all to the folks were traveling with us.  I didn't post them to the ETA related pages out there.  I simply, posted them to my own Blog as I always do.  They will be searchable in the near future as Search Engines index them.   My main concern is I didn't want to be the 'downer' for a group of folks that had a great time.  Kicker is ...  not everyone did.

Spent over an hour on the phone last night; wish I'd taken notes!  I wasn't even planning on writing about this today. I sure as hell am not going to quote the person or others.  But, so many things came up I find myself compelled to put them down for future reference.

I'd wrote about how Wallach had confronted me out the gate at the fist meeting in the hotel.  I intentionally kept it in check on my end.  I mean, we've got TEN days to go with this group.  Me telling Wallach to fuck off, or getting in his face, or whatever would have served zero purpose.  Instead, I chimed in , didn't back off and thought to myself "here we go ...   we're going to have some fun this trip."  I never expected all the BS to go down, but I knew I'd have to keep my emotions in check moving forward to ensure we all had a good time.  Apparently, when he did that, others in the room especially the person I was chatting with last night thought something along the lines of 'oh crap .. here we go!" .  It was right after that a couple of others started making 'strap' jokes.  I wasn't alone; I thought I was .. but I wasn't.

On the first day of riding I'd mentioned the crappy parking situation we had on the grass and rocks on an angled hill.  Well, this other person was echoing the same concerns saying they'd wondered why the hell we didn't park on all the available concrete!  Why put ourselves in that situation?  My wife has brought this up many a time ...  "why didn't we just park on the road like all the other times?" . Others in our overall group are Road Captains back home. Certified Road Guards.  Lead large rides.  On Day 1, they were questioning WTF we were doing.  Huh.  I thought it was just me?

On day 2 of the Island rides (Barbados) turns out Steve pissed off a few as we pulled back into the Port area.  This was outside my purview and I wasn't aware until last night.  He mouthed off to other "cruisers" walking by us all as we parked AND some in our large group.  Apparently he crossed the line and from that point on, others had a huge problem with him and his attitude and it changed things up moving forward.  Again, I thought it was just my small group from the previous days parking incident.

Day 2 highlighted a battery situation one of the riders had.  Not only did we have one bike not make it on the ship (older HD that developed compression issue on the trip down?) but one of the folks had a nice RG that from the first Island Ride day .. displayed weak battery symptoms.  He got it jumped on Day 1 and Day 2, BUT..   it was getting worse.  Turns out it's a bitch finding an HD battery on any of the islands, but on Barbados apparently someone had been  located that could deliver one.  Now here's the part that I didn't know about until last night.  I was under the impression that the guy that had it (I remember now that Interstate Batteries had one), was at work and couldn't get to us before the ships left.  Oh no; that's not how it went down.  Apparently, at our last stop, the guy was literally a few minutes out but Wallach wouldn't wait for him.  WTF? He was literally MINUTES .. as in 2 or 3.  Hell even if it was 10, why not wait?  Why not ask the group.  Nope.. we headed back to the port where we would park the bikes and meander around.  Well, most of us. One guy was probably livid he was short a new battery?  That battery issue would haunt him for Days 3 and 4 ; he couldn't ride with us.  Bike was dead in the water.  On day 5, he rented a Spyder.

Daily Routine.. .Jump starting the FLTR

 
During the cruise, the entire ETA group was seated in the same area at various size tables.  After our incident, some of my folks didn't want to attend those dinners anymore.  I pushed hard to get us there despite the drama BS for one reason.  We were sitting with all the others.  I didn't want to create more drama.  I didn't want it to appear we were stirring up the pot.  Now, I wanted to go somewhere else, but we showed up every night but one.  On two other nights, the group attended specialty restaurants.  This was pushed hard by the ETA folks.  However after our Monday night drama BS, we chose not to attend.  We successfully had these removed from our bill for first night, and cancelled in plenty of time for the second one.  We were convinced that somehow Wallach and his team ate free at our expense (the up charge) and wanted no part of it all. Turns out ... we weren't the only ones!   At least one of the other couples quit going to all the group dinners due to Wallach, as well as the specialty dinners.   Unknowingly to me at the time, we weren't alone with our issues with the ETA management.

Day 3 brought up an interesting situation.  Due to the previous drama, 5 out of 6 folks in my group opted to head out on an offsite excursion that cost a lot of extra money and gave up some of the benefits of what was previously paid for in cash to ETA. A few other things happened on this day that I didn't mention previously.  First is .. there were five bikes left in the hull.  One was the RG with the battery issue. Two of them belonged to my group, two to another couple.  The other couple opted not to go because the slow riding that caused one of the guys knees to become inflamed (he recently had surgery on them).  All four bikes were left in a corner. The RG was parked there after if failed to start.  Now the interesting part.  ETA took it upon themselves to move all the bikes in a different configuration for the following day without owner's permission or giving them a heads up to help with the process.  Why is this a big deal?  Two reasons.  First ETA states it's not their job to park bikes; they are there to guide the process.  Secondly, if ANYTHING had happened, ETA and Celebrity have stated they are not responsible.  And yet....   they took it upon themselves to move private property.  See the problem here?  Over a $100,000.00 in bikes just moved as they saw fit. Second thing that happened unknown to me was one of the riders bumped heads with a Road Captain and Wallach over ride safety.   ETA wanted folks to 'close the gaps' but in some situations it wasn't deemed safe by experienced riders within the group and they said so.  Whoops; how dare one question ETA?  And the third thing happened this day that I forgot to mention.   At just about every stop we made on all five Islands, ETA used it as a marketing tool.  Parked us a certain way.  Group pics.  Videos where Wallach pushed ETA for his future Facebook videos.  But on this one, we stopped at a beautiful overview of the ocean on the edge of a mountain.   Before we left, the owner of a bar and grill off to the edge ( hey .. it was his parking lot) starting playing loud music.  Not ridiculous.. but..  you could hear it well.  Wallach got pissed off at the guy.  Even asked the officers with us to get it turned off (unsuccessfully I might add).  Wallach does his big ETA video with us in the background and even MF's the grill owner in it.  Incredible.  Icing on the cake was as we were preparing to leave one of the riders in our group was over at the grill talking to the owner and apologizing for us all, and was going to tip him.  But, Wallach is now screaming at him and berating him to get back on his bike.  Huh.

St Lucia .  We took over the parking and Wallach pissed off the owner.

 
Day 5 on the Islands.  This one started off with a bang .. or not.   One of the riders had a bike with no fuel gauge.  But here is the kicker.  They were 100% aware that they should have more fuel but weren't allowed to do so the day before.  They were concerned that morning. They were towards the rear with a sweeper behind them.  We had been on the road for just a few minutes when the bike's primary tank went dry and the bike pulled off the road to the shoulder.  However, the sweeper blew right past it and left the bike hanging.  What?  In fact,  about 15 minutes later when we got to the gas station someone finally realized we were missing a bike.  Wallach had no clue.  The sweeper didn't say a damned thing.  People were scrambling when that bike (rider had switched to reserve and got it started) and two Spyders rolled in.  Two of the folks in our large group were getting rentals due to their bikes not being roadworthy and connected up with the bike left behind.  Nice coincidence!   BUT... what if the Spyders and their guide hadn't been there?  Hmmmmm...

On days 2-5 on the Islands we were offered lunch.  Now, we were never offered lunch on Monday, day 1.  Why?  Don't know, but we were on our own (in all fairness we were never told we'd be given lunch that day).  But, for what we paid.. .you'd have thought a food truck or pickup with some grub in the back would have rolled in?  JS.    Now, here is why I bring all this up.  On the phone last night, it was brought up they were unaware of the additional costs for the lunches on the Island, that had to be in cash , $125 per person.  They were right; that wasn't included anywhere that I'm aware of.  Hell, I don't remember where I saw that tidbit of info.  I believe I saw it on a ETA FB page somewhere a week out where someone asked about it.  But, if you weren't prepared, you didn't have the cash and it wasn't in your budget?  I agree with the person I spoke with last night.  They felt it was a rip-off as did I.  You simply didn't get your money's worth unless you were a huge eater.  We were told to bring cash (unknown $ amount) to purchase DVDs, but .. not an issue. None of us were ever offered a DVD.  Wallach took a ridiculous amount of video to create marketing videos for Facebook.  But, you can't natively download any of that.  Huh.   Another thing came up that I don't agree with, but I'm guilty as charged.  They were shocked that not only was drinking allowed on these runs, but it seemed to be almost pushed.  Have another!  Don't forget to tip! Etc, etc.  At home, they intentionally stay away from the bars while riding.  I get it.. but.. like I said... guilty as charged. But, for a company that brags about their safety record and how they care about nothing but their guests Safety ...    Valid Point!

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