Open Forum

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

I have taken one trip thru EF, to New York City, and I totally agree with Jeana Whitaker experiences. It's even worse in the USA because most European guides have to be certified. My guide in NYC knew nothing about the city and learned a lot from me as I gave the information to my students as we rode the bus past many attractions they would have liked to have seen.
We had the LAST row in all the shows we saw. And they were all shows that I didn't request. We ate a national chains after being promised family style meals in Little Italy and Chinatown. They promised the Marriot Marquee Hotel (which I questioned), and then put us in a hotel too far from Times Square to walk. They took money from a student and her father, knowing the hotel was sold out.
Never again!!!

I also studied at the Globe as an ESU Shakespeare Scholar. I'd recommend that you look into it! Get in touch with your state ESU Branch.  https://www.esuus.org/esu/

------------------------------
John Perry
Drama Instructor
Atherton High School
Louisville KY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

While I have not personally travelled with EF, I have worked very closely with my colleagues to plan trips - I am a Spanish teacher by day, and we've planned several trips to Spain and Costa Rica in years past.  It is a shame, but unfortunately, EF has not changed... we had tons of trouble YEARS ago, but somehow, they are still in business.

After a horrendous trip with EF - we now use a company called Passports - which has been nothing short of phenomenal! I would highly recommend them for any trips abroad.  

A few things that I will note:
-It is common practice for any tour group to combine smaller groups together.  If they have to contract a coach bus, the only cost-effective way to do so is to fill the seats.  Use this as recruiting information - and hopefully you'll have enough... or partner with a neighboring district where you can collaborate and plan together.

-I am convinced that EF is hanging in there because they do usually have the lowest prices.  Many packages from different companies will visit the same cities/sites - so when looking at catalogs and websites, it seems silly to pay more for what looks like the same trip.  But - BUYER BEWARE - you will get what you pay for!  The cheapest, lowest costs... and not always what you'd expect.

-We too had problems with food - not just portions, but poorly prepared, not able to accommodate serving a group.   Of course, in our classes, we have talked about cultural differences in meals - but being prepared to handle students with specific needs - diabetics, gluten-free, lactose-intolerant, etc... can be a challenge anywhere.  

-And even though their pamphlets say "centrally located hotel" - we were also placed in the outskirts of the city limits -so "free time" had nowhere to go easily...  

Get everything in WRITING as you make plans - with excursions added on, questions or logistics... if you communicate via email, you can print that and have it in writing.  My colleague had some emails from the home office that she was able to show the tour guide to prove that we had indeed all paid to go on an excursion. Without that in writing, it would not have happened.

If you are looking for US based tour groups - I'd highly recommend Manhattan Tour & Travel - many PA Thespian troupes have used them for trips to NYC.  For trips abroad, check out passports.com  - they were great, in my opinion!

------------------------------
Melissa Mintzer
Willow Street PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

Sorry you had this experience.

I know you didn't ask for recommendations, but I thought I would chip in my two cents.

I have taken several European trips with CHA Tours. As with anything human, there were sometimes bobbles in the process, but I found them to be efficient, pleasant to work with, and effective in getting us our money's worth. When there were problems, they addressed and solved them to my satisfaction.

There was that weird thing about vegetarian being translated as "fish eater," but hey, it all worked out. :-)

Regards,

Bob

------------------------------
Robert Smith
VA Co-Chapter Director
James Madison High School
Vienna VA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

Has anyone had a positive experience with this group? We're scheduled to tour with EF this May for the exact trip mentioned, and now I'm very worried!

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

I have had two very positive experiences with EF and one negative experience.  The two times that I used EF to travel with students to NYC, the trip went really well.  Both times we had guides that were friendly, knowledgeable, and did there best to make sure we got to see the additional sites we wanted to during our "free time."  This past summer, we even had a airline mishap, where our plane ended up making an emergency stop, thus delaying us many hours.  Our guide and everyone at EF was super accommodating with something that was completely out of their control.

My third experience with EF was a trip to London--the same trip mentioned in the original post.  It wasn't completely horrible, but our guide was not at all experienced.  She would give us lots of wrong information--especially in relation to directions and Tube stops.  Our hotel was in no way prepared for us to stay there--it took hours for our entire group to check in.  And the meals provided were small.  Luckily, I felt really comfortable in the city since I had studied there during college, so we started just getting our tickets or whatever we needed from our guide at the beginning of each day and then I led our group around.  I spoke to EF multiple times on the trip about our lack of satisfaction--as did the parents who traveled with my group.  To my knowledge, no action was taken.

I am planning another trip to London in two years.  I imagine that I will use EF again because my experience with them in NYC has been so wonderful.


------------------------------
Sarah Gerling
Theatre Teacher and Director
Columbia MO
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2017 11:17
From: Maralie Medlin
Subject: EF Tours

Has anyone had a positive experience with this group? We're scheduled to tour with EF this May for the exact trip mentioned, and now I'm very worried!

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

Good Morning all!
I have never used EF tours, but a colleague of mine used them last year for a France trip. She experienced the same feedback that many others have already commented on regarding their services. The day before the group was heading to France, France and Brussels were attacked. Our school cancelled the trip due to safety. When the moderator contacted EF, they said that it was too bad, but we still had to pay them for the trip because they were not going to cancel anything. The school felt like they knew we were going to cancel which in turn gives them their monies for no work. As a teacher, I was surprised that the company would not be more accommodating because of the circumstances. EF left a terrible taste in our mouth, and we will most likely never use them again.

A suggestion I may add, is Casterbridge tours. We used them for a literature and history tour of England and Ireland. This was a few years back, but I would recommend them for consideration. Our tour guide, Pauline, was AMAZING. She was great working with the kids and was very punctual and professional. Everyone had a great time.

Hope this information helps.
Have a great day.

------------------------------
James Fry
Director of Student Life & Malvern Theatre Society
West Chester PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2017 11:17
From: Maralie Medlin
Subject: EF Tours

Has anyone had a positive experience with this group? We're scheduled to tour with EF this May for the exact trip mentioned, and now I'm very worried!

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

I used EF tours for a London Trip about 12 years ago and did not have a good experience.  So I switched to a wonderful company called Proscenium Tours, based in London.  I have now been on 5 trips with Proscenium and have loved them all.  We are not booked with other groups, we choose the shows (4 of them), including one at the Globe and one at the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as have backstage tours at the oldest theatre in London, the National Theatre and the RSC.  We also have acting workshops at the Globe and at the RSC.  SO - basically you ask for what you want and they make all the details happen.  I would be happy to share my recent itinerary with anyone who inquires.  If you contact Proscenium - ask for Susannah Kyte.  She owns the company, and has personally led several of our trips.  She has great employees and guides.  In terms of meals - now that I've done a number of trips I request the restaurants we have preferred. I'm happy to share our favorite dining places as well.  I can't speak highly enough of Proscenium Tours.  

------------------------------
Diane Landis
Theatre Faculty
Minneapolis MN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-22-2017 11:59
From: James Fry
Subject: EF Tours

Good Morning all!
I have never used EF tours, but a colleague of mine used them last year for a France trip. She experienced the same feedback that many others have already commented on regarding their services. The day before the group was heading to France, France and Brussels were attacked. Our school cancelled the trip due to safety. When the moderator contacted EF, they said that it was too bad, but we still had to pay them for the trip because they were not going to cancel anything. The school felt like they knew we were going to cancel which in turn gives them their monies for no work. As a teacher, I was surprised that the company would not be more accommodating because of the circumstances. EF left a terrible taste in our mouth, and we will most likely never use them again.

A suggestion I may add, is Casterbridge tours. We used them for a literature and history tour of England and Ireland. This was a few years back, but I would recommend them for consideration. Our tour guide, Pauline, was AMAZING. She was great working with the kids and was very punctual and professional. Everyone had a great time.

Hope this information helps.
Have a great day.

------------------------------
James Fry
Director of Student Life & Malvern Theatre Society
West Chester PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2017 11:17
From: Maralie Medlin
Subject: EF Tours

Has anyone had a positive experience with this group? We're scheduled to tour with EF this May for the exact trip mentioned, and now I'm very worried!

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

I'm scheduled for Curtain Time in London next year, and I'm taking kids to NYC in a couple of weeks with EF. Last summer, I used them to take students to Greece, and I've traveled with them several times as a student too. This is absolutely a "get what you pay for group" but as a teacher who works in a Title 1 school, this is what my kids can pay for. 

I frequently talk with my kids about how this is not a vacation, but an educational tour, and as such, it means there's A LOT to do. This isn't the chance to lazily wander around the grounds of historical sites, or lounge on the beach, but it's an opportunity to get a taste of a location so you know where you want to come back to. I also talk about how compromise and flexibility is important in travel because no matter what group you travel with, there will always be mistakes, or issues, or closures, or scaffolding, or plane delays, or SOMETHING that goes wrong. 

Personally, EF is not my favorite way to travel, but it is a free way to travel (for me at least), and it's the best way that I can get my kids out of the classroom and into the world. Feel free to contact me with any other questions that you have! 

------------------------------
Katy Nuttman
Theatre and English Instructor
Auburn WA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2017 11:17
From: Maralie Medlin
Subject: EF Tours

Has anyone had a positive experience with this group? We're scheduled to tour with EF this May for the exact trip mentioned, and now I'm very worried!

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

When I was in HS (which was honestly not that long ago), I went on a trip through my school to Spain and Portugal using CHA Tours. I don't remember that many issues occurring besides delayed flights which were out of our control. In fact, I remember staying in great hotels, and we had a tour guide that was with us the entire trip in addition to local tour guides for each major city we stayed in. Again, this is coming from a student perspective so I do not know all of the logistics that went into planning the trip. But I had a fabulous time and looking back I wish I would have appreciated it more.

https://www.cha-tours.com/Default.aspx

------------------------------
Lynn Glener
M.A. Applied Theatre Candidate, CUNY School of Professional Studies '19
B.A. Theatre/Theatre Education, SUNY Potsdam '16
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

Hi everyone,

I'm fresh off the EF Curtain Time tour and thought I'd share my experience. First of all, we chose to travel privately (this means we were not combined with other groups and our students shared rooms only with our own group--it does cost extra, but I am CERTAIN this made a huge difference in our experience). The first two days were very close to what all of you described--super fast-paced, sub-par food, confusing itinerary, etc. But after a particularly hard day, I pulled the tour director aside and had a heart-to-heart about our frustrations. From then on, the trip ran smoothly and was AMAZING. Secondly, we added both Stratford and Windsor to our itinerary (they're offered as add-ons through the company and do cost more), and these two locations ended up being our students' favorite stops, so those are worth it. Thirdly, although some of our itinerary stops were messed up, our director made every effort to replace missed stops with just as good alternatives. For example, our teaching artist never showed up to our workshop (major flub here), so our guide took us to the British Museum, Covent Garden, and the V&A instead. The kids liked these just as much. I think what I'm trying to emphasize here is, yes, you will run into some disappointments and frustrations through this company, but the tour director makes all the difference. If he/she is open to your complaints and cares about your experience, you'll end up with a good tour. If you're travelling with other groups and have a tour director that can't accommodate the needs of so many, then, yes, you're probably not going to have as good a time. Moral of the story: pay the extra fee and travel privately. Then you'll get your money's worth.

Another point to note is that while we were there, the London Bridge/Borough Market attack occurred. Our tour director changed our remaining itinerary to keep us out of the area. We lost one of our plays due to traffic that resulted from the London Bridge closure, our Globe workshop, and our visit to Borough Market. These three items were super important to us, but we felt safety and peace of mind were more important. Our director ended up taking us to Oxford instead which, while a bit rushed, was still a great alternative. We also ended up getting better food as the director got to change our reservations. So, if you're traveling with this company, communicate clearly with the director. He/she will have some flexibility.

In the end, most of these tour companies are out to make a profit, and the easiest way to do that is to go cheap in the name of "student centeredness." I would use EF again to be honest but only if it was private travel with clear parameters in place before we leave. Now that I've been on one, I'd know exactly what to request and how to handle disappointments.

------------------------------
Maralie Medlin
Theatre Arts Educator
Gastonia, NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-24-2017 08:01
From: Lynn Glener
Subject: EF Tours

When I was in HS (which was honestly not that long ago), I went on a trip through my school to Spain and Portugal using CHA Tours. I don't remember that many issues occurring besides delayed flights which were out of our control. In fact, I remember staying in great hotels, and we had a tour guide that was with us the entire trip in addition to local tour guides for each major city we stayed in. Again, this is coming from a student perspective so I do not know all of the logistics that went into planning the trip. But I had a fabulous time and looking back I wish I would have appreciated it more.

https://www.cha-tours.com/Default.aspx

------------------------------
Lynn Glener
M.A. Applied Theatre Candidate, CUNY School of Professional Studies '19
B.A. Theatre/Theatre Education, SUNY Potsdam '16
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

I've never dealt with EF for tours but we just went to Italy over spring break with Explorica. It was exptremely well organized and the guide was very knowledgeable and even went out of his way to show us things that weren't included on our tour. I know it was European and someone said they had to be certified, but it might be workth checking into. I just checked their website and they offer a Broadway tour to NYC.

------------------------------
Ellen Augustine
Language Arts Instructor/Theater Director
Goshen IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------

Original Message------

I've never dealt with EF for tours but we just went to Italy over spring break with Explorica. It was exptremely well organized and the guide was very knowledgeable and even went out of his way to show us things that weren't included on our tour. I know it was European and someone said they had to be certified, but it might be workth checking into. I just checked their website and they offer a Broadway tour to NYC.

------------------------------
Ellen Augustine
Language Arts Instructor/Theater Director
Goshen IN
------------------------------

Original Message------

I've just returned from the Curtain Time in London tour with EF.

Contrary to some of the comments posted, I commend EF for exceptional service. We felt safe and secure every step of the way. It was an intense five days, packed with sights that were both pre-planned and included additional opportunities that evolved as the week unfolded (we toured, for example, the Tower of London and walked the Tower, Millenium and Westminster Bridges. Students used their planned spending money to experience a richly-guided Harry Potter tour and ride the London Eye.) They sat in the stalls (seats closest to the stage) to see an impeccably staged farce titled A Comedy About A Bank Robbery, and participated in a well-structured musical theatre workshop on Oxford Street. Because we happened to be going to Buckingham Palace on the day the Brits were celebrating the Queen's birthday with their annual Trooping of Colors event, we were among the crowds of people who cheered as the Queen of England rode past in her coach; and we saw the Royal Family stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace (albeit from some distance. . .) Students became masters of the tube by the end of the week. Of course, no tour is perfect and while there was an EF/Globe Theatre glitch that eliminated a promised tour of the Globe, we got to see the foundation of the Rose Theatre as a replacement experience.  EF then paid for students to participate in a tour the Globe on our last morning there. Our tour director was fabulous. I would go with EF again. If you have the opportunity to attend EF's complimentary weekend abroad for teachers who are traveling with students for the first time, do it. It's very informative (and you also have the chance to travel abroad and meet other teachers from the US.)

--

Dr. Jo Beth Gonzalez

Bowling Green High School

Teacher/Drama Director

419-3540-1011 ext. 1117

High School Theatre Transforms Lives!

Haven't taken a trip overseas. Not nearly that brave yet. But as far as a New York trip, we went with ProMusica this year and had very few complaints.

We got 4 shows (Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Spamilton-(my choice) ). We were in the mezzanine for each of the big shows, but I felt the balcony seats actually really the best choice for these shows (especially DEH, which I had seen 3 months earlier from the orchestra and missed a bunch of stuff you get when you're up high). 

There were only 10 of us and we were not combined with any other group. We has 4 rooms (2 rooms for adults, 2 rooms for kids by gender). 

We did 2 workshops- one was an improv workshop that the kids just loved and one was an anti-bullying workshop cleverly disguised as an acting workshop, where we had a guest teaching artist from "Come From Away" (Ceaser Samoya, who is amazing).

Food choices were amazing and varied.

We got one full day "off" of the tour to do our own thing. Because we had 4 adults, we were able to split the kids up to check off their NY "bucket list" items.

We also did the touristy stuff: Top of the Rock, Radio City Tour, Staten Island Ferry, Trinity Church, Pics in Times Square, etc.

The payment process was very simple. Parents were allowed to send checks in as payments on a really reasonable payment schedule. After one payment, a parent asked if online payments were possible and that got set up for us. We had an "angel" who paid for two of the kids out of his own pocket. No help from the school on that. 

We have already started planning next year with them.

------------------------------
Jodi Disario
Director of Drama
Willow Glen High School
San Jose, CA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 06-23-2017 20:36
From: Ellen Augustine
Subject: EF Tours

I've never dealt with EF for tours but we just went to Italy over spring break with Explorica. It was exptremely well organized and the guide was very knowledgeable and even went out of his way to show us things that weren't included on our tour. I know it was European and someone said they had to be certified, but it might be workth checking into. I just checked their website and they offer a Broadway tour to NYC.

------------------------------
Ellen Augustine
Language Arts Instructor/Theater Director
Goshen IN
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-19-2017 20:45
From: Jeana Whitaker
Subject: EF Tours

I often read discussions in this Forum from teachers seeking recommendations for group travel companies, so I thought I would share my recent experience with EF Tours.

We just returned from our spring break travel to London with EF Tours.  I had been working for over a year to make this trip happen.  Our tour was called "Curtain Time in London."  I was looking for a company that would specifically provide a theatre experience in London and even more specifically, a Shakespeare education that one can only get in England.  In the summer of 2015 I was fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks at the Globe with an ESU teacher program.  I got to experience Shakespeare performance in depth at the Globe and in Stratford and I wanted to expose my students to the same tremendous opportunities.

I work in a Title 1 school, so taking on something like this was pretty aggressive.  A trip to London for a week is just not something my students could ever even dream of affording.  After trying several different companies, I was sold on EF Tours and it was the worst decision of my teaching career.

They have serious problems with communication.  Like a used car salesman, they will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to sell you the goods.  A lot of promises were made that never happened.  Even the itinerary printed in the brochure changed from the time of sign up to the time of the trip.  We had a lot of difficulties with payments because my district requires that all payments go through them, so it is a more complicated process, but not impossible.  My students continually received robo-calls from EF threatening to drop them from the trip, added late fees and told them they were behind on payments, even though we had an agreement to pay them quarterly through the district.  My representative said that was just the way it was and the calls would stop after students had paid one-third of the cost ($1,000).  So they received these calls for about 5 months.  Then, when they received a payment from the district, they would distribute the funds to the wrong accounts, even though they were sent with detailed invoices that listed the students and their payments individually.  One student was dropped from the trip after paying $2,000 and another was kept on the trip even though I had told them she dropped it a week after enrollment and she hadn't made a single payment.  They told me I would receive a detailed itinerary 21 days before departure, but the only thing I received was the email address of our Tour Director in London and was told to email her for the itinerary, which I did and she did not respond until 5 days before we left.  I had students who were meeting relatives in London, based on our itinerary and they couldn't make arrangements because I couldn't give them the information I was promised.  

When you tour with less than 40 students, EF Groups you with other schools going on the same trip.  This includes hotel rooms.  Although I provided a rooming list, as requested by EF, when we arrived, they put ONE of my students in a room with THREE students from another school.  It was so awkward and they didn't use any of the information I provided them.  They even had a bed for the girl that dropped the trip 11 months earlier.  I ended up paying for a room out of my pocket for my students so they wouldn't be forced to be in a room by themselves with a bunch of football players from Texas.

From Day One, I told my account rep that our focus was Shakespeare and that we MUST see a show at the Globe while there.  The tour provides two theatre productions.  The day the season was announced I sent them the information for the show and contact information for the Globe to book us tickets.  I was told they would take care of it.  Months later, when following up, my rep acted as if this was the first time he heard of this information.  He then told me that the performance we wanted to see was sold out and we couldn't see a Globe performance, but they were arranging for us to see "Wicked" instead.  Needless to say, I was pretty steamed.  I called the Globe MYSELF and got the last 19 (the size of my group) available for the performance we wanted to see.  Sold out huh?  When I asked my rep, he said that he meant that they did not have 19 seats sitting together.  Grrrrrr.  EF tried to tell me that I had to pay for the tickets myself because it's not normally a performance that they book and that all three groups on the tour had to see the same performance.  I held my ground and they eventually paid for the tickets.  On the night of our performance, all three groups on the tour saw a different show, because, as it turns out, the other two schools had specific requests as well.  

The tour director breezed past all of the sights and made it impossible for kids to even stop and take a picture, yet we spent an hour at a Starbucks so kids from another group could get coffee.  The meals were included in the tour and they were awful.  We had to eat dinner at 5 pm and the serving sizes were quite small, even for European standards, so my students ended up eating out the vending machine each night when we returned to the hotel at 10 pm.

I know this post is long, and believe me, I have many more complaints, but I just wanted to give you some specifics in regard to our experience with this company. I know teachers that have had wonderful experiences with EF Tours, but mine was miserable from beginning to end and I thought it prudent to share with people looking for companies for travel.  

------------------------------
Jeana Whitaker
Theatre Director
Mesa AZ
------------------------------