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Writer's pictureLuke

My first one star review!

After doing these tours for over four years I have gotten my first one star review. I have over 600 five star reviews and I appreciate all of the support! Even the review directly after the one star one was five stars (from someone on the same tour) and they replied to the complaints in the one star review for me ❤️. I feel bad giving this so much attention in the face of all of my positive reviews however the negativity bias is real and probably why you're reading this in the first place.


so first here it is:

My Response:


In short:

my response is that if you leave after 15min you of course will not feel fulfilled from the tour! This is a 2 hr program 15 min is 1/8th of the tour of course you're not going to see everything if you don't stay for the full tour! breaking it down further:

"Couldn't see anything besides oversize image of the moon" - In the first 15 min of the tour we usually start at twilight, where there's still a little bit of light to see around the area you'll be at, and get comfortable with the surroundings before it gets dark. I take the time to introduce the telescopes as this will be the only time you'll see them in good lighting. We talk about the differences in the types and styles of telescopes. If there is something that is bright enough to see in twilight (like the moon) I will set a few of the telescopes to look at it to show you the differences in the telescopes.


As for saying the image of the moon is "oversize" 🤣🤣 I don't even know what the complaint is there... understand telescopes make a larger image to see things up close... that's what a telescope is for... I guess if you don't want to see the moon up close just don't look at the moon in the telescope?


"telescopes were not working" - None were broken, some were just not set up. Again in the first 15 min we are just looking at the telescopes themselves in the last light of the sunset. I set up some to look through but, I cannot even set up all of the telescopes until there's at least a few stars out. We use a few computerized telescopes that need to be manually set up by pointing them to the first few stars so the computer can triangulate where the telescope is set up and take over. It sounds complicated but basically what it means is for the first few min we are only able to use the manual telescopes until stars come out. telescopes will sometimes break on the tour (they are complicated delicate instruments) but it's fairly rare I have dozens of telescopes and if one breaks I will set up a different one until I get it repaired. I always set up multiple telescopes every tour so even if one or two are giving me trouble we will still be able to see everything.


"never did the guide approach [our kids]" - again "never" meaning not within the first 15 min. We're happy to interact with kids and answer questions from everyone. There's a few points in the show where we actively seek engagement to break the ice and loosen people up and it usually happens within the first 15min so it makes me question if Sal even stayed that long. We also recognize some people are shy and would rather not engage so we try to walk the line and not be pushy with engagement. If you have children with special needs and would like us to "approach them" and give them extra attention let us know and we will be happy to do it.


"we left ... after the first 15" - while I feel like had they given it more of a chance they would have enjoyed it more, I respect knowing when something isn't for you and leaving. I don't want to waste any of someone's time and defiantly feel free to leave at any time.


"not kid friendly, even though it was suppose to be" - The tour is kid friendly. We do cover some Greek mythology of the stars/constellations that gets a little PG, but we clean these stories up a little when kids are in the audience. However Greek mythology isn't covered in the first 15 min so I'm guessing that's not even what the complaint is about. I'm thinking that they missed the disclaimer on my website that says: "this is a late night show geared for a developed mind requiring a good attention span, little ones often fall asleep." I do admit that disclaimer isn't prominent on my advertising materials so I am at fault for that. As mentioned before we do offer extra attention to kids that need it upon request but we do have to balance that with entertain the other guests. We do offer tours to the Girl Scouts and youth groups that are more geared towards kids (these usually only last 1.5hrs and are more question driven). This has made me think about how adults can also have shorter attention spans or just not have the time to seek out the info to see if it would be a good fit for their child. but given this is the first complaint I've seen of this in 4 years I won't be drastically changing my advertising just moving it up a little on the FAQ page. as well as posting it here:


Is this show suitable for children?
All ages are welcome! I just warn parents of young children: This is a late night show geared for a developed mind requiring a good attention span, little ones often fall asleep. As 2 year olds will probably be asleep the whole time, I offer it free for babies 2 and under.

The show is 2hrs for a reason we're trying to fit as much of the universe in that 2 hrs as possible and even with that we will fall sort so defiantly if 15 min of stars is all you can handle maybe this tour isn't for you. If you do book the tour and are not satisfied for any reason feel free to leave at any time. I offer a satisfaction guarantee with my tour so if you do come and for any reason you are not satisfied, just send me an email (luke@astrotours.org) and I'll issue a full refund. I also offer worry free booking so if you wish to rebook or refund your tour at anytime that is 100% fine. Sal never asked for a refund and never talked to me directly even after I reached out seeing his one star review.

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