My boyfriend and I were scammed by the Florida based company Ramada Plaza Resorts. I will tell my story from the beginning and hopefully you will see my aggravation and others will be forewarned of this scam. I wish I would of researched into if this was a SCAM before we took the trip. Here is my story if you care to continue:
Back in August my boyfriend Aaron was called by Ramada Plaza Resorts trying to sell him this "Romantic Vacation Package". They claimed to be selling this in part with his credit card company. Unfortunately, he believed them. They painted a picture of blue sky's and moonlit nights - all for a complete package price of $598. This includes 2 nights in Fort Lauderdale, 2 night all inclusive cruise to the Bahama's and 3 nights in Orlando and a rental car - all first class luxury accommodations. All we had to pay is airfare. Wow - what a deal! Now I am the skeptic, so I didn't trust this situation at all. We got the package in the mail and looked at the video and brochures. All looked ok, but I still didn't trust it. We tossed it aside and kind of forgot about it for a while.
Then, in October we decided we wanted to go on vacation to Florida and remembered this "package" we had. I called the reservations number printed on the materials and spoke with a person named Adrian. Come to find out, the $598 Aaron had originally paid was for ONE PERSON. If he wanted a guest (real romantic alone, huh?) it was to be an additional $598. I requested a refund since this was not made clear at the beginning and they insisted we could not. I asked a million additional questions - including: There is nothing else we have to do except pay this additional $598 and we buy our own flight tickets and go? He repeated yes. I said, ok, lets do it for the week of February 9 to the 16th. Now the fun starts...
We start with the rental car. We get a little rental for the week - about the size of a Geo Metro. Now, we have traveling around the state and a weeks worth of luggage - in a Geo Metro? So, I agreed to pay for an upgrade for a larger, better car = $170 additional.
Then I requested if we could take the complete vacation in Orlando and skip the Fort Lauderdale portion. No problem, he says. We are to fly to Orlando, get our paid rental car (we only have to pay our gas, I was told), go the LUXURY RESORT hotel and have a good time.
We then go to the Luxury Cruise on the Ocean Breeze cruise ship from Imperial Majesty. This is an all inclusive luxury, romantic, first class cruise. We will have an Inside State room cabin with a double bed. All port fees are paid for. All is inclusive as we cruise to the Bahamas to spend a fun filled day in the city of Nassau. Adrian then tells me we can upgrade our cabin to the Outside State Room for $99 extra per person and he can guarantee a double bed in the cabin. What? Guarantee a double bed? What do you mean? What do we have if we stay with our Inside State Room without paying extra? Adrian tells me we have 2 twin bunk beds. WHAT? You people sell this to me as a Romantic Get-Away and are going to put me and my boyfriend in a room with twin bunk beds? At this point I was upset and wanted to speak to a Supervisor. I was put on hold for a bit and finally Don, Adrian's Supervisor, came on the line. I explained the situation and he started apologizing. It seems Adrian made a few mistakes. #1) There are double beds in the Inside State Room and since we were booking early enough he can reserve one, #2) If we were to take the upgrade to the Outside State Room (which meant we had a window) it was only to be $99 total, not per person, and #3) the ONLY additional charge on the LUXURY CRUISE TO THE BAHAMA'S would be if we wanted to do any "extra's" on the island like snorkeling or a boat ride. That seemed reasonable and felt the he was being honest. He seemed sincere enough and continued to apologize for Adrian's misleading words. He then asked the times of our flights and we advised we were landing in Orlando with Delta Airlines on Saturday February 9th at 10:30 AM and departing on Delta at 8:30 PM on the following Saturday the 16th. He said he needed this for the hotel and car rental information. Don then transferred me to a "Confirmation Specialist" who confirmed the trip and payments with Aaron and charged his credit card $768 for the remaining balance for the additional guest and the Alamo Rental Car upgrade. The total for this all inclusive first class luxury vacation was now up to $1366. For a LUXURY VACATION I guess this isn't too bad.
We called Delta Airlines, bought our plane tickets and were ready to go. Delta tickets: $670. Total is now $2036. This was all done on Monday, October 29
About 4 weeks passed and hadn't heard anything from Ramada Plaza Resorts about our vacation. I then called and spoke with a rep who informed me that we would receive our confirmation information approximately 4 weeks before we are to depart. I sat and waited until January.
On or about the second week in January, we get a letter with a paper stating our trip information. I decided to make a few calls and confirm again what I was told and see if we agreed. I called the number printed on the stationary. I spoke with a Coordinator by the name of Nick. Nick seemed nice enough and answered my questions. He confirmed we were staying in the Ramada Plaza Resort in Orlando in a double Queen Room. He also confirmed that we had a double bed in our Inside State room cabin on the Ocean Breeze. He also confirmed we had the rental car upgrade and paid all fees associated. I was ready to get off the phone when Nick jumped into his sales pitch on selling me the Outside State Room package for $99. He went on and on about how HE would feel more comfortable on the top of the boat and have a window to be able to see outside - basically giving me a Titanic scare. I advised that I was not interested in paying anything additional and that my only concern was that we did not have a twin bunk bed.
Now, I forgot to mention, that also in this wonderful package is the ADDITIONAL BONUS WEEKEND GETAWAYS! Sounds great! I was told that once we took our initial Florida / Bahamas vacation, we had 2 years to take advantage of these Bonus Weekends. Well, guess what, that too was misrepresented. I find out from Nick that we only had 2 years from the date of package purchase to take all of the vacations, including the weekend getaways - and it was to expire on February 16th. That's the day we are returning from Florida!? That didn't make sense to me either, because we bought the package, I thought and was told by their reps, originally in August. Now, let's say they are correct in saying that they told me it was 2 years from the original date of purchase, not from the date of the Florida trip, that still should bring me to August not February. So, Aaron called reservations back and spoke to who I believe was named Joan. Joan had her supervisor come on the line who stated all conversations were taped and they would pull the tape to prove that it was disclosed that it was 2 years from date of original purchase and not 2 years from the initial trip. We hung up waiting to hear back from them with the tape and instead we got a letter stating that the package will now expire on February 16th. How nice of them, they extended this package - I guess there was no tape, huh?
On February 6th 3 days before we were to leave, I was reading on the confirmation letter. On the letter it states that we are to pick up our Hotel Vouchers for our Resort Hotel Room at the Welcome Center. It goes on about the rental car and then it gets to the date of the Cruise. That section states we are to present our Cruise Vouchers to the Port Ticket Counter. No where did it state where we get these Cruise Vouchers. So - I call again to ask where I am to obtain these vouchers. The gentleman who answered the phone had a thick accent and I could not get his name. I asked him if I was going to get the Cruise Vouchers with the Hotel Vouchers at the Welcome Center which in understood, was at the Ramada Plaza Resort. He stated No - I got the cruise vouchers after the presentation. Presentation? What presentation? He said the Time Share Presentation. What? We were never told of a Time Share presentation! All of sudden, the computers there suddenly "went down". He took my name and number and said he would call me back when they came back up. I didn't believe him. I called right back. A girl answered and I asked if their computers were still down. She said they never were - I thought so... Anyway, I again explained to her that I wanted to know where I got the Cruise Vouchers because on my handy dandy day by day Confirmation Itinerary sheet it doesn't state anything on where to get the vouchers, only where to present them, and no mention of a presentation. She said that we have to go to a Time Share presentation to obtain them. I told her this was never mentioned in all the conversations, confirmations, nothing! She said it was in our material we received originally. I had all the material and video with me and asked her to direct me in the literature where it states that. She told me to hold. I waited about 5 minutes when a man named Attura came on the line. He said he was a supervisor and asked me what I wanted. I told him I didn't ask for a supervisor, just merely wanted to know where and when I was supposedly told about this Time Share presentation. He said in the original conversation and when we made our reservations. He said that it was again confirmed with us when they charged our credit card. I insisted that there was no way that it was ever mentioned. Aaron would of hung up right away (we get those type of calls all the time) and I would of never agreed to a Time Share presentation. He stated it was also in the material we were mailed with the video. I said I read that material front and back and I didn't see where it states a Time Share Presentation was mandatory, even in the Terms and Conditions. He then directs me to the last page in ONE of the books where it states "THIS ADVERTISING MATERIAL IS BEING USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF SOLICITING SALES OF A VACATION OWNERSHIP PLAN". One line in 4 booklets and a video. Does that ONE LINE state: To go on the cruise you must attend a Time Share presentation? When I SPECIFICALLY asked Adrian, Don, and Nick if there was any catch or additional doing's on my part and was told NO!? I was mad! Now, I am the one who does all the wheeling and dealing, confirmations and planning - not Aaron - but he was sitting near me during this conversation and took the phone. Attura just insisted we were wrong and have to attend this presentation to go on the cruise and there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to get a refund of the money already paid. He then said he could pull the tape of the conversation. Aaron was angered at the fact that we were leaving on 3 days and we were basically stuck at this point... But he took Altura's offer and demanded the tape be pulled. "Oh, um, well, that will take at least 7 days, " Attura stated. Fine - we still want the tape. We want proof that we were told. Today, as I write this, is February 18th - 11 days after that conversation. We still have not heard from Attura and there isn't any tape here.
On February 8th, the day before we were to leave, I was so uneasy about this trip that I decided to make more calls. I called the Welcome Center in Orlando directly to ask more questions. I asked about the Cruise Vouchers and this Time Share presentation. We were to go to the Presentation on Sunday, February 10th. They couldn't tell me how long it would be. I then asked if I could get the cabin number of my room for the cruise. I found the Imperial Majesty web site and the boat really looks nice. It also had a boat layout with the cabin types and numbers. I wanted to get a confirmed cabin number and confirm we did get the double bed we were told we had. They didn't know the cabin number but she did give me the telephone numbers for Imperial Majesty's Customer Service. I called the customer service number first. They told me they wouldn't have that information. They told me to call Ramada Plaza Resorts since they booked it they would know. I called Ramada's reservation department and was told they would have no idea. They book the reservation and then pass that along to Imperial Majesty who actually does the assigning of Cabins. I told them I called Imperial Majesty's customer service and they directed me to call Ramada reservations. She again told me she didn't know and couldn't find out and to try the Welcome Center in Fort Lauderdale. Ok - I called them. They, too, said they didn't know and they gave me the telephone number for the Imperial Majesty's Pier Check-In. They would definitely know - they are the people that check you in and give you your cabin info. I called that number and it rang and rang with no answer. I waited and tried in about a 1/2 hour or so with again the same result. I AGAIN called Ramada Plaza Resorts Reservations department in complete frustration and spoke to Rose. Rose again stated she didn't know and couldn't find out. I told her all the people I talked to and the misleading representation and that I was leaving the next day and do not want anymore surprises. I spoke WAY to soon for that one! She put me on hold. After about 10 minutes or so, she then returned and told me that I had 2 twin beds in an inside cabin on the cruise. I advised her that I had confirmed a double bed! She said there was nothing she could do except advise me to get to the port early and maybe I could get a free upgrade. A FREE UPGRADE? I was SUPPOSED to have the double bed already!
By now I was not confident about this vacation at all. Aaron came home from work and we discussed all that has happened. We noticed in the literature in tiny print that all taxes and gratuities were not included. Uh oh - what does that mean, right? This time I called the Customer Care Department (thought I would try something new) and now I spoke with Rob. I told him the story so far of all the misleading information and basically that I felt completely lied to and scammed. I wanted him to be straight with me on all of the additional charges that he knew of that I would encounter. Boy, did he have a list. He said that I would have to pay a Hotel tax that he guessed was about 11% a night, gratuity on the cruise, car parking per night fee at the port of about $10 a night and the taxes for the rental car which included a tourist tax and an airport tax, and any optional insurance. He wasn't sure of those figures. I made my list, sighed and again thanked him for his time. We were leaving in less than 12 hours at that point and knew we had made a huge mistake.
We now get to the actual vacation. We didn't really want to go, but we had invested over $2000 already and basically had to cross our fingers and hope for the best.
We arrived in Orlando International Airport on time and was transported by a shuttle bus to Alamo Rental to pick up our car. We had already paid $170 for the upgrade and didn't want any insurance. We have full coverage on our vehicles and brought a copy of our insurance policy with us. Aaron gave his credit card for the charge of the taxes which was $65. Total spent is now $2169. The salesman asked when we were leaving and again advised him, like we did with Don in reservations, that our flight was to leave on Saturday evening and we would return the car the afternoon of the 16th. He handed us a small receipt folder, which was stapled shut, and wrote the location if the car on the front. He stated that this was our receipt. We noted the car location and I carefully tucked the receipt away in an envelope which I planned keeping all the vacations receipts.
We located the car, which was beautiful. Clean, new, great condition. We were happy and hoped that the rest of the vacation would trend the same. We headed for the Ramada Plaza Resort where the Welcome Center was and where we would be spending our LUXURY VACATION.
Ok, bottom line, this was no luxury hotel. We entered and went to the Welcome Center desk. The man there, named Manny, gave us our hotel room vouchers and signed us up for the 7:30 AM next morning, Sunday, February 10th Time Share Presentation. I thanked him and took our vouchers to the hotel from desk clerk to check-in. It was approximately 11:00 AM and we had been up since 2:30 AM getting ready, driving to the airport, and waiting in line for 2 hours at the airport due to new security measures. We were exhausted and wanted to nap. We gave the voucher to the front desk clerk who informed us that check-in was not until 3:00 PM. I nearly snapped! When the reservations were made they specifically asked us when we were arriving! Stupid me assumed that would be for the purpose of making sure our rental car and room was going to be available! After a few phone calls and my huffing and puffing a room magically appeared for us to check-in early. A room with 2 queen beds. That was fine with me. They then wanted a credit card to charge the room tax which was 10% of their rack rate - $24 for 2 nights. Wow - we are getting a $120 a night room in the Orlando area.in Orlando you can stay at the Marriott for $50 - it's advertised everywhere! $120 a night room here! This must be a GORGEOUS room! Not! There were stains on the ceiling & the walls. The rooms were not on the ground level and there were no ramps or elevators for luggage - never mind if a handicapped person needed access. The chain on the door was broke, the decor was old and plain ugly. This was no where near worth $120 a night and definitely not FIRST CLASS LUXURY ACCOMMODATIONS. It was a bed, a roof and a shower. We again sighed and plopped on the bed. Total spent so far $2193.
The next morning we attended the extremely high pressured sales attempt. After nearly 4 hours we left. Waste of time... We got our cruise vouchers and went on with our day.
Monday, February 11th, we woke up, checked out and headed to Fort Lauderdale to embark on our LUXURY CRUISE! We got to the port and saw the ship. Now, I have seen the pictures on the Imperial Majesty web site and realized that they had definitely had a bit o airbrushing touch-up because this baby was not exactly looking the same! We got in line and checked in. We were advised, again, that we did indeed have 2 twin beds in our cabin. I calmly explained that we were originally told differently and could not understand how they could of sold us this package as a ROMANTIC GET AWAY and stick us in 2 twin beds! After a bit of back and forth they "found it in their hearts" to UPGRADE us to a double bed. Oh yippee - you gave me what I SHOULD OF ORIGINALLY HAD! They made it seem like they did me a favor or something!
We get on the ship and within the first 15 minutes we were there, no exaggeration, about 8 different waitresses tried to convince us to purchase a souvenir cocktail glass for $5.00 - and this was only on the way to our cabin! We made it safely inside without further attack. The room was as LUXURY as the boat looked on the outside. Extremely outdated, the mattress felt like something out of an old sofa bed, the room itself was a decent size, but again, not as expected from the description and played up sale. We were told to go directly to the front desk to get our "card". We were told this card was to be used as an "on-board charge card". No cash or credit was exchanged on the ship. All was to be out on this card and paid for later. This was to be used for gratuity and things bought at the gift shop, etc. Sounds easy enough...
We headed over to the Welcome Aboard Lunch Buffet. Now, we were told - 5 STAR CUISINE! Bologna and cheese is not 5 star anything. There were hamburgers - cold little hockey pucks basically. The best part is this: ask for a CHEESE burger and they take a piece of cheese, dip it into the hot water the hot dogs are sitting in and place it on the burger. When I saw that I just took my sad little wet cheese puck and turned away. The buffet line was in a U shape. At the curve there was a lady standing there with soda, bottled water and such. She asked if we would like a drink. We said yes, 2 cans of Coke, please. She handed us the 2 cans in front of her and then took out an invoice pad and wrote Coke - $1.75 x 2 15%. I questioned this immediately and she said that the soda was $1.75 a piece PLUS 15% gratuity! I didn't know we didn't get soda on the ALL INCLUSIVE LUXURY CRUISE. So, I asked for just water. Sure, she said, $2.75 plus gratuity! Whoa! AND - what's the gratuity for? You handed this to me! I told her I would pick it off the table myself if it would save me 15%! There was no arguing. Aaron signed the receipt for the 2 sodas. We then rounded the corner for the other leg of the buffet and right there in front of us was a table of Dixie cups of watered down fruit punch and water!!! They made you believe that BUYING the drinks before you turned the corner was your only choice! When I asked for water I was told $2.75 for the bottle! You see, I didn't ask for TAP WATER. It's all a word game - and the word game gets better as the 3 miserable days continue.
We sat and barely ate the nasty food and decided to explore the ship. They gave no map, no guide except for the poorly color coded deck diagram on the side walls. We went to find the pool - the relaxing luxury pool. NO WORD OF A LIE - it's a 5 foot hole in the floor. It was about 6 feet long and was 5 feet deep. I couldn't believe that it was barely the size of my bath tub, except 5 feet deep. We, along with about 5 other couples, stood there with our jaws to the floor. The decks were dirty, old and worn. Nothing as expected.By the words, tones and groans of the other passer-bys, I think the feelings were mutual among all. Now, I wasn't expecting ice sculptures or wonderful walk-ways as I would on a Princess or Carnival cruise, but come on! This ship was an over sized floating garbage can. I don't feel bad expressing this opinion either because all the conversations I had with all the individuals on this crappy cruise felt the same. We all had been scammed, lied to and mislead.
We joined the other sad sailors to the Lounge to get a Welcome seminar and an explanation on additional excursions we can go on at the Nassau, Bahamas location we were porting at the next day. One activity interested us. A Glass Bottom boat trip. It was said to be a ONCE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE! See the beautiful corals and fish on this magical excursion! All for an additional $49 a person. Unbelievable. We dragged our feet over and paid the fee for the trip. At least I will get some great pictures! After the Glass Bottom Boat Ride, we were to be dropped off at Blue Lagoon Island for fun in the sun! Woo hoo.
Dinner that night was surprising good. The food was tasty. I bought a bottle of wine for dinner - I mean, why the hell not, soda was about the same price at this point. There were bottles of water with empty glasses on the table. The water bottles were clearly marked $2.75 plus 15% gratuity. Great. I bought my $20 bottle of Zinfandel (plus 15% of coarse) and sat and watched as others at our table drank the water. Again, what is the Gratuity for? We open the bottles ourselves! We drank our wine and had our dinner and turned in for bed.
The next morning we were to arrive in the Bahamas. We went to breakfast and were told there buy the waiters that we should consider buying a bottle of water because they didn't sell water on Blue Lagoon Island - the location we were spending the day. Aaron and I were not sure to believe them, but again, we didn't want to find out the hard way. We bought a $2.75 small bottle of water, of coarse with 15% gratuity added. We went and waited at the area advised to for our glass bottom boat trip. There, again, they were pushing people to buy the water - no water is sold on Blue Lagoon Island! We don't want anyone to dehydrate! Get your water now!
We docked and went to the location where the glass bottom boat was. We got on with the other paying passengers from our ship and headed out. We got to the location and were told to head down stairs to be mesmerized by the beauty of the sea! The boat had 6 small scratched up plexi-glass / plastic type windows... Glass bottom boat my butt! There were brown coral, tires and soda cans on the bottom of this magical sea - along with gray striped fish. No beautiful pink and blue corals that were shown on the slide show that was used to sell this $98 trip. No schools of bright yellow and blue fish, nothing of the sort! We stood there all of 5 minutes as they threw bread in the water and we watched these gray fish eat it - over the tire of coarse. Another $98 wasted. I have video of this magical adventure too.
The boat brought us to Blue Lagoon Island where the rest of the passenger were. It was a pretty beach with hammocks and volley ball. But - the BEST PART of Blue Lagoon Island? I figured out how stupid I was and how smart this cruise line was. As all of us dumb feeling passenger stood there with our $2.75 plus water bottles we purchased, our eyes fell upon the cups of refreshing cool FREE water they had for us. The cruise employees did not lie, they all clearly stated that THEY DID NOT SELL WATER ON THE ISLAND. That's right, it's free. We all felt like idiots.
We went back to the ship and the rest of that day and night was basically the same. It got to the point that we drank the cold water from our melted ice bucket (YEAH - ICE WAS FREE! WOOHOO!) to save on gratuity here and gratuity there. On day 3, Wednesday, February 13th, we left that horrid excuse for an all inclusive luxury cruise with an additional $209 for the Glass Bottom boat, beverages and gratuities. Total now: $2402.
We got our car from the parking garage - another $20 bringing the total to $2422. We headed back to Orlando completely disgusted. We could have cruised to the Bahamas for a week on a real ALL INCLUSIVE cruise line for the amount we already spent! We returned to the wonderful Ramada Plaza Resort and checked in. Again our room wouldn't be ready until 3:00 PM. It was about 1:00 PM so we went out to get lunch and returned. I was tired of arguing. We returned at 3:00 PM and checked in. That night Aaron and I were so completely upset with the Ramada Plaza Resorts scam that they obviously successfully pulled on us that we decided to check out and stay the 2 additional nights somewhere else. We paid for the one nights taxes, another $12 and that brought our total to $2434.
Finally, we thought it was over. Saturday, February 16th, we returned the car to Alamo at about 3:00 PM. Delta changed our 8:30 PM flight to 6:40 PM so we were leaving earlier. We get in to return the keys and were advised at that time that we were supposed to bring the car back by 11:00 AM! WHAT? They KNEW our plane didn't leave until 8:30 PM! Were we supposed to return the car and hang out at the airport for 10 hours or so? Why didn't they advise us of this! Oh, my friend, of COARSE they advised us. You see, if I would have OPENED THE STAPLED RECEIPT they had given me instead of tucking it safely away in my envelope, I would of seen that typed on there was they line that stated that the car was to be returned by 11:00 AM that day. Another $68 please - $2502 total. Why did they ask us twice when our plane was leaving? Why wasn't the additional day charge TOLD to us when we checked in?
This was a complete nightmare - we couldn't wait to get home. It didn't matter how much fun or what we did in between because we were so stressed at the fact that we were so completely lied to and mislead on almost all aspects of this trip. We are not 2 dumb people and can't believe this happened. When we originally purchased this trip I did a search on Ramada Plaza Resorts and Imperial Cruise Lines and didn't find much of anything except advertisements for the trip. When I got home I did a search for "Ramada Plaza Resorts Scam" and boy did the hits add up! If only I had added the word "scam" in my original search, I would have never paid or gone on this God awful adventure!
Aaron and I feel we deserve some sort of refund from these clowns! Now, from that $2502, $670 was airfare that I was aware of from the beginning. That leaves $1895 total that I feel I was taken for. Right from the start they mislead then refused refunds. I don't understand how this can be legal. They lied and soaked us for money from every angle. I have sent letters to the Attorney General of Connecticut and also Ramada Plaza Resorts. I am also going to contact the BBB. I will let you know if I get any response.
Thank you for reading this long tale!
Sincerely,
Michele & Aaron
Griswold CT
Ramada
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