The shuttle driver, Emmitt, was great. He called us to verify our pickup hotel and picked us up on time. We felt very safe and comfortable during the ride to and from the hotel with Emmitt.
Once we arrived at the Sunbuggy facility it was very disorganized. Lots of confusion by many of the participants, poor communication by the staff. I would describe it as a muddle huddle. We all made it back on to the shuttle bus for approximately 1 hour ride to trail head. Again great job transporting us to trail by Emmitt.
Once we got to the trail, many participants, including our party, found the wrong vehicle had been brought out for the ride. Some had reserved 2 seat dune buggies others of us had reserved 4 seater dune buggies. Sunbuggy had upgraded us to 6 seater UTVs at no additional cost. We were fine and happy with the upgrade; but, many were not. Again, problem was communication. The change was not discussed until after we had driven an hour in the shuttle to the trail site. Paul, the trail guide tried to satisfy everyone by communicating issues to Sunbuggy office. Sunbuggy did try to remedy problems by sending out 4 seater dune to replace 6 seater UTVs but it delayed starting the trip a bit. The 6 seater UTVs had no mechanical issues but some of the 2 and 4 seater dune buggies had problems when trying to start. At least one of the 2 seater dune buggies had to be jump started several times. The whole group would have to wait as some of the staff went back to jumpstart the 2 seater. This resulted in many stops and starts as staff went back and forth.
The biggest issue I feel, was poor communication when we arrived at Sunbuggy facility on the process of getting registered, getting helmets, gloves, t shirts, bandanas and watching training video. All very lax and very poor communication. Also any changes with regard to equipment should be communicated well before seeing at the trailhead.
Another issue was with the equipment. Some of the dune buggies had mechanical issues and resulted in starts and stops and delays to the whole group, which was rather large.