I had attended a DC tour to Nikolaev a little over 5 years ago. Yes, it was a bit expensive - $4600, but that was the price to meet Ukrainian ladies face-to-face rather than trying the old fashion way of writing a million letters. So, I put down my money and gambled on a chance for success.
The success rate was not as high as advertised. Of the 13 or 14 guys that went on my tour, only two guys actually were able to start a relationship and to get engaged. Yes, the promise of meeting a lot of women was met, but there were women who were not vetted as Mark claimed. Some women were total walk-ins, and many were not listed in their database, which meant they were not registered with DC. Some ladies were totally bored through the two-day speed-dating process; one was on her phone all the time reading, another was reading a book and did not participate in any of the conversations. They were there for the free food and drink only.
A lot of the women do try to extract money from the men on tour. This not only happen to me, I had heard this from other guys on my tour as well. The woman I met wanted me to provide her daughter $500 a month to buy her affections, which I promptly said 'no'. Her daughter was 24 and was married. I asked: 'why couldn't her husband provide for her?' Needless to say, the relationship with this woman crashed and burned. This leaves one with the feeling that there are no honest women in Ukraine, but this is not true. I simply chalked up my tour to experience and stored it away in my drawer of experience - live and learn.
The upside is that I did have a great time in Nikolaev. All the guys who came on the tour were good, upstanding guys who I enjoyed meeting. My translator was first rate and I enjoyed her company as she had a good sense of humor. All in all, it was a great vacation for a week's time and I had good memories as well, even though I did not meet the girl of my dreams.
Being retired early now and I live in Ukraine 6 months of the year near Kiev, I have really learned a whole lot more about Ukrainian culture and its women. What I discovered is that if you come here to Ukraine and live for a time and don't subscribe to any dating sites, just live each day, you will meet women here by doing nothing. There are lots and lots of single women here of all ages. Another thing I discovered is that if you frequent many of the same places, like the gym, restaurants, even a museum, women will approach you. Yes, that's right! You can meet women here by doing absolutely nothing... Even if you don't speak the language to conversation level, it still works. Many of the women in Kiev speak English to various degrees of fluency. Also, living here in the land of beautiful women, I have also grown somewhat immune to the Ukrainian beauty because you see so much of it everywhere you go no matter where you are in Ukraine. I don't go ga-ga over them when I see or meet an beautiful woman here; I am very relaxed when talking with a woman here. However, if you choose to meet women here, they are indeed very approachable compared to the USA. The key here is just be yourself and don't put on any pretense and you will do just fine. Just always be neat in your appearance and dress, and always have good personal hygiene and you will do just fine; the women here do notice all of this about you. I find it a relaxing and enjoyable experience compared to the online dating world - no BS. I could never go back to Internet dating again, never.
So, guys, there are alternatives to DC or any other dating website out there. However, the choice is all yours - you decide what is the best option for You. DC wasn't the best option for me, but for some guys it was. It's really Russian roulette using any dating sites today - put your money down and spin the wheel to see if you get lucky. Best of luck, guys.
I'm a happy customer from the March 2016 tour that is now married to a wonderful Ukrainian woman. I would not change anything about choosing Dream Connections or going on tour. I did check my ego in to the coatroom and followed the Dream Connections training as best I could. Almost three years later, to my fuzzy knowledge, 9 out of 18 guys who went on our tour are now married or engaged to a Ukrainian lady. 2 men married women from other towns in Ukraine and did not meet them through Dream Connections. That number is a little high for most tours but we had about half the guys in their late 40s and early 50s who were a bit more seasoned and experienced. We bonded well as a group and I am still Facebook friends with several guys who did not find that special person on this tour. 3-4 guys from the tour are now close friends and our Ukrainian wives are close friends.
The company has a training program 80% of which is free by watching the weekly webinars, even if you don't go on a tour, the knowledge learned during the webinars is valuable in life not just in dating international women. While on tour, the company has a very good system to allow you to meet Ukrainian women who are serious about meeting the right man for her desires. I was the oldest guy on my tour at 59, so more than half of the 90 women in the Meet and Greet events were below my age. But I still got 25 phone numbers from the ladies and dated about half of them. I dated age appropriately and even when on a few coffee dates where the lady was 20 years younger than me. But having young children were not in my list of desired traits, so I had those dates simply for fun. The Dream Connections company is the most transparent company in this industry. They document each Meet and Greet event with pictures and videos. You can see the difference between profile pictures and how these ladies actually look in person. Some are different, but most I would say look as good or better in person. Do your own research and ask this company the tough questions. I think most people will come away impressed. And the after tour support was very good. But then again I was able to live in Ukraine for 8 months while I dated my wife and we waited for her K-1 visa. I made friends of many of the staff members. Being a nice guy all the time, does pay off in the long run. Some guys forget that, I think.
Dream connections is well run and delivers on everything they promise. Their transparency is great as all their tours our at you tube so you know exactly what to expect. I know a lot of guys who complain about the quality of the ladies looks wise as if it was a bait and switch but their you tube videos show what to expect so not sure if thats a valid complaint.
Unfortunately I didnt meet my match primarily because after my trip back to see her, she did things like never looking into my eyes and not showing any affection, and she was always asking me for financial support as if I owed it to her. So these things taken togoether convinced me she was more into me for financial reasons than love. And actually, from what Ive learned from talking to other guys on my tour and who did previous tours is that most ladies expect financial support. Its a cultural expectation especially if youre a foreigner cause to them, all foreigners are rich. And this is the issue they and other agencies wont tell you about in fear of losing business. Match guaranty is the only agency Ive seen that is openly honest about this issue and have done a video about it. DC has three videos on the issue of financial expectations but all three videos only insinuate that you should offer the ladies help with expenses on dates of course (taxi etc) but also if she needs help with costs of Skyping you (internet connection costs or having to use a Internet cafe) or other small expenses. But their videos do not whatsoever prepare you for this huge financial expectation issue where most (not all, but most) expect it or wont be happy with any less than $100-$150 a month, sometimes more. (Joe w match guaranty quotes $100-$150/mo in his video on financial expectations) and blogger Veronica Olsen also admits this expectation in her videos on dating in Ukraine. Mark himself admits to paying $500 /mo or $600/mo to his lady and is open about admitting that (he says so she would not have to work and could focus on him more). When my girl complained that $150/mo wasnt enough Mark advised sending her more. In his videos he wont talk about this issue directly but in private, he will advise guys to just send support or send more support if she complains. Bottom lime, if you date in Ukraine, expect to get hints for or to be asked for financial support. If you have doubts about this as true, I strongly advise you to ask other guys whove dated there about this or read more about it online. But again, not 100% of the ladies will do that, about 70% will though. Im an experienced international dater and I never encountered this issue in Asia or Latin America but almost every guy Ive met who dated in Ukraine has experienced this issue. And on the departing bus ride to the airport, half of the guys in the van said they either have started or plan to start sending support, and this isnt something American or western guys usually think of doing with women so obviously their ladies gave the hint or directly asked for support. Ive learned to accept it as part of Ukraine culture so Im ok with it and plan to go back to Ukraine though with different agencies than DC this next time.
Update Spring 2018: After more than one year of research about dating in UA and EE this review needs a final update.
DC's intentions might be more genuine than others but for months they had & still have known scammers in their database. After all there is hardly any chance that DC does NOT know about this fact and the whole Nikolaev dating scene - Nikolaev is nicknamed "the city of scam" among insiders
This has been documented pretty well by an organization - so his database is a mix of paid pro daters / scammers and maybe(!) some legitimate women. If you are lucky you can find her on their events and there might be genuine success stories - but why would you want to pay thousands of $$$ for something that might just end up as an illusion.
Original Review:
DC has one of the better reputations in the whole jungle of dating agencies with Ukrainian beauties and they have a different approach as well. What I like about DC though is their very open and honest information policy of their work like hardly any other agency - you can find tons of YT videos, interviews and all of them feel real & genuine. They wont give your information to the ladies of your interest until 3 weeks before their tours begin. Of course you see the profiles and the pictures of the lady but you dont get in contact with them before.
The question you should ask yourself is: are you ready for this kind of dating as it is completely different when you start off with PPL (pay-per-letter) sites. This shall not sound negative but you simply have to be the type who likes this. You pay like 5k$ / group tour or 8k/ individual tour before meeting your lady - not a small amount, right. On the other hand ask yourself - what is better? Losing months or even years writing letters, sometimes dubious chats... or... meet somebody in reality?
Personally, it was absolutely not my style in the beginning because I dont like "blind dates" and wanted to be like 100% sure with letters before going on a trip - but this apporach is too complicated and wrong actually imho - this is an individual decision though, you should take this type of dating approach into consideration! I realized that PPL sites mainly lead to... "exactly nothing" rather than wasted hopes, money and especially time which becomes a even major factor when you have tons of responsibilities in life and you get older (I am now in my mid-40s)... you have to get on a plane and fly over to meet in person otherwise you will create illusions, fall in love with pictures and if after months you really meet in 1 / 100 cases you will be disappointed because nothing is like it is compared to the picture created in your mind.
Update May 2017: I have to update this review a bit again - why? This whole (online) dating scene is big business good agencies have to pushed - no, there is no guarantee that DC gives you 100% success - why, because you get acquainted with the ladies, not them - it is your search, prepare yourself, inform yourself - be ready and be there! Then you will succeed!