My mother did this Ramada thing. I am not sure when she actually booked it, but she had didn't work out and I believe they charged her a $200.00 cancellation fee, not a refund, a cancellation fee. She asked my daughter to go w / her in June after school was out and since my daughter is 17 I thought I would go b/c I always wanted to take a cruise. It was like going through an act of congress to add another person.
It started out with "you will need to upgrade the 'free' rental car because it is a Geo Metro and you will need more room". At first she wasn't going to, but I thought we should so it cost, I think, $69.00 to upgrade. So then she had to "upgrade" the cabin on the cruise, not sure how much that was. Then came the "upgrade" to the Oceanbeach Resort on the ocean for 2 days, the day before we leave on the cruise and the day we get back from the cruise.
Finally think everything may be in order and scheduled but when I went to Carnival's website to do the funpass, some problems started but she called Welcome Center and was assured everything would be fixed and accurate. My name was spelled wrong, first and last, and I have a really easy name and my daughter's name was also misspelled. I got a really good deal on the flight through Yahoo travel, a travel agent would have charged over $100.00 more. She gets the packet and it has Orlando and we were going to Ft Lauderdale - but that was "supposedly" worked out.
Get to Ft. Lauderdale and go to Alamo for our "free upgraded midsize car" and she has to pay $139 in taxes. WTF? Get out to the car and it is a Chevy Cavelier&which was subcompact, but did find a 4 door at least so we dealt w / it.
Welcome center was disasterous - she didn't know anything about the tour until we got there. Picture this, if you will, we got there around 3ish on Thursday and he tells us we are staying at the Oceanbeach Resort that night, down on the beach, but she has to take the tour at 8:30 AM over an hour away Friday morning and it is about a 2 hour tour which would meant we would have had to get up at 6 am, check out, do the tour, then drive down to Miami to catch the ship. And we would not be able to get the vouchers for the cruise if she didn't do it. Get to the Oceanbeach and it was gross, like everyone said - unbelievable.
We go to Miami Friday anyway with the cruise info we had - cruise was nice - parking was $36 for the 3 days, and costs about $500 for the three of us for all the port things and ship stuff. When we got back she took the tour, which was not a big deal - but trying to do it Friday was impossible, especially with tornado warnings and tropical storms on the Gulf coast which is where we were suppose to go.
Turns out The Rock, Vin Deisel and some other babes live near that timeshare thing. I didn't go, I would have bought into it if I did, but she didn't either. I did have one in Mytrle Beach about 8 years ago and it was great, I just went traded to places in Florida most of the time - some are definitely worth it!!!
The rooms and the car "upgrades" were crap and when she complained and demaned to tak to a manager, they said she could write a letter if she was unhappy. My daughter was pissed that people were getting taken advantage of, a shame she has to learn that is the real world - and people have no problem screwing you over for a buck! I believe they told her she has 10 vacations all together - w / how many more "upgrades"?? I think someone should do something about this scam - not refunding money, always upgrading and adding more and more.
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