Blarney Castle and Kinsale Shore Excursion

We were at the meeting point 10 minutes early as instructed on all communications, including one received less than 48 hours before the trip was due. After waiting 20 minutes I sent an message on the same chat the company had been using ask for confirmation of the meeting point. I received no reply. I managed to find a direct telephone number for the company on line and called them. I was told to make my way to the main office. The office was 25 minute car drive away. When I booked the trip all detail were exchanged about us arriving on a cruise ship, and pick up was confirmed by the company to be at the port. Once we released the office was in the next town my husband made another call to the office to be informed the trip had been cancelled. He was told they was an email sent the day before. However, the only email I received about a cancellation was sent after both those phone calls, me sending another message to the company and to Viator asking about a refund as nothing had been mentioned on the phone. I did then received a phone call back from the company after Viator had contacted them stating they would issue the refund now. I am confused to why Viator was not contacted and the refund wasn't issued the day before if they had tried to contact me then as they said they had.

We liked the places we visited. We liked Blarney Castle a lot, it has large gardens but you have to wait in a very long line to enter the Castle because most people want to kiss “the stone of wisdom”. The passenger pickup at the port was somewhat confusing because it was not known what the exact pickup point was, nor had the buses arrived at the indicated time. No one verified the list of passengers included in the excursion.

We had a beautiful sunny day temperature about 70. It was very busy and the line was long, but we got through the line up to the top. Kiss the Blarney Stone and got down inside of 90 minutes. It was well worth it. The man at the top who helped us kiss the blinding stone was great. We also bought the photos. Very happy overall.

Overall was an interesting and informative journey. Certain comments made could have been avoided when it came to other countries. But a good experience all the same and comfortable ride.

Our driver did not know the way and took two wrong turns that added 30 minutes to our driving time. He was not clear about when and where to meet so people got lost and were late to pick up places. Because we were behind there was no time for lunch. Either he didn’t know how to work the AC in the bus or it was broken, so we were all sweating. We left the bus in Cobh and took a commuter train back to Cork. It was that bad.