I received the fancy booking brochure in the mail that said reply in 72 hours. I did, was offered the trip for $698/person. I declined, they persisted, I declined and hung up. Two days later, got a call from Joe Grasso with Ramada Plaza Resort, offering me the same trip for just over $300, with $118 booking fee total, NOT per person as previously. I made a split second decision, wrote down ALL details, and took the offer.
Arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at the address listed above, and it's in an extremely run down section of town. Went and had a nice meal on the north side of town. Next day Joe told me it would be a 90 minute time share tour, WRONG, try 4 hours. John and Dan (bald manager/twit finance guy NO NO NO, is all I kept saying, finally got pissed and that sort of sped things up. But we decided never, never, never to do a tour again.
Got our cruise vouchers, and hit the beach. Next day, checked in with Eddie Trotta, a sweet chopper builder on Sunrise Blvd, then got to the ship... Er... Um... Vessel... Well... Um, boat.
Finally on the boat, after an Anti-booze Xray scan, all the holding pen pit stops and check points, we were on board. Its small, and we had a room on the lowest deck up front, not bad really. The first night after departure, they set us up in the dining room at a large table with 4 other couples. It didn't take long, and we discovered we all were there on time share scams. We concluded the whole boat was full of time share tourers. Anyway, one of the best elements of the trip was connecting with another couple we sat next to at dinner. We had so much fun together. Once again proving how important we are to each other, friends.
The cruise experience was good. Service was great. TIP, do not buy their scam excursions! Get off the boat in Nassau and hook up with a local city guide tour, took us for a 3 hour tour through Nassau, including coral staircase, two forts, up town, ghetto's, some great shopping, and finally he took us all through Atlantis. Very nice resort. We spent like an hour there. We tipped very well.
After the cruise, we left for Orlando to finish the trip. (We drove from GA.) so we got two free passes, two days, to Universal. At the Amerihost motel in Kissimmee, we got hit up again for a time share tour, they offered us $50 to sit through another "90 minute" tour, NO THANKS. The Amerihost was comfortable. Keep your doors locked, and be prepared for them playing loud Karrioke music until 11PM EVERY night in the bar/courtyard. Its loud, and calling the front desk does no good.
You decide, we took the trip, and for the price, were moderately pleased with the overall time we had. You decide what your tolerance level is for all you may experience.
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