My saga starts in July. I received a postcard in the mail advertising a free cruise if I attended a travel presentation. When I called to book my appointment, I asked repeatedly and was told that the free cruise was valid on any major cruise line, out of any major US port, anytime within 12 months of when I attended the presentation. Sign me up! Only problem, that information is NOT true.
First of all, you cannot travel for free on any major cruise line. You can only travel for free on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, or Norwegian. I had asked multiple times if Disney was included and they always said yes, until of course, the time came to actually book it.
Second of all, you cannot travel for free during peak season. Apparently, peak season is January - September, leaving you only three months of the year during which free travel is valid. However, these dates are never specified anywhere on the paperwork. Only "peak season" is mentioned.
Third of all, it is virtually impossible to get any information from the company. When I received my travel certificate, I had to select two cruises for which I wanted to receive quotes. I called and asked if the cruises I was going to request quotes for were valid under the terms of the promotion. No one would give me that information and said they couldn't give it to me until they received my paperwork. I had to submit my paperwork blindly without knowing if the dates I was requesting even had a chance of being free. Then, you hear NOTHING from the company. NOTHING until 60 days (or so they claim) before the cruise is scheduled to depart. How do I know this? Because when I called, they said they had my paperwork, but no one could give me any information and I would not be contacted by them until 60 days out.
60 days out rolls around... No phone call. Finally, about 45 days before the cruise I had blindly requested was set to leave, they called. The quote for my "free" cruise: $1886! Now, I had asked two add my two children, assuming they would be charged as a typical third and fourth passenger with two adults still free. Apparently, that is not the case. You have to pay full price for all travelers if you do anything at all outside of their two people in an inside cabin allotment. I asked them to requote me for two people in an inside cabin. They said they would have to call me back. It took a week for them to call and the price was still $1100.
Why not free, I asked? Apparently, it was peak season, which as I mentioned, no one ever outlined.
I asked to speak to a manager. This was Friday afternoon and she was not in the office. It took until Wednesday (March 28) for her to call me back. She told me they could only give me two quotes and that is how things work. She would not quote me anything else because they can't go back and forth with people so many times. Well, if they had just given me actual information any of the previous times I had called, we wouldn't have needed to go back and forth at all.
The only "compensation" they offered me was to refund my $99 per person (a deposit toward taxes and port fees) in the form of a travel credit. They of course would keep the $50 processing fee. I didn't want a travel credit with a company that makes it impossible to book a trip.
Bottom line: the free cruise is neither free nor are you actually able to book it. The customer service is a joke and the manager, who didn't really help me at all, claims that she went "above and beyond." Well, I guess it's not hard to go above and beyond when you are starting at rock bottom.
Do not book a trip of any kind with Ultimate Executive Travel. Do not get caught into believing you will get a free trip, because you won't. And never in a million years would I recommend actually joining their travel club! If this is how they treat prospective members, I can't imagine how horrific their treatment of actual members must be.
P.S. Don't believe me? Just google "Ultimate Executive Travel" and see all the scam notices that come up.
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