We just got back from our Ramada Plaza Resorts Vacation. Our package included the cruise. We travelled with 2 adults and 5 children. We ran into problems every step of the way. The 'Welcome Center' staff were misleading, trying to get us to go on another time-share tour and luring us with incentives, then had us pay $40 as a 'returnable deposit'. The said the tour was 15 min. And they lied outright. The tour was 2.5 hours and involved them driving us around to properties. They didn't have a car big enough for the 7 of us, nor did they have carseats. They were not going to refund our money until I pointed out that I was going to report them and then they gave us our $40 back.
The first hotel was a very nice Sheraton. The other hotels were Ramada Inns and were just OK. I was concerned about the first Ramada Inn in Ft. Lauderdale because the door to the room was not shutting automatically behind you as you walked in, (it was not a heavy motel door) and that wasn't very safe for children in the room. None of the hotels allowed early check in. None had restaurants where kids eat free or any special deal like that. One room had a slight odor of mold, but they wouldn't change our room out because 'they were full'. They offered air freshener. Every Ramada Hotel had a framed certificate stating that they are not a part of the 'Plaza Resort Vacations Company and they are licensed to use the Ramada name in accordance with the franchise agreement'. Every hotel manager said they 'are not a part of the Plaza Resorts company' and every Welcome Center employee said 'we just work for this office and have nothing to do with the sales or reservations of the Plaza Resorts'. It was like a dead end at every turn.
We almost couldn't board the cruise ship because they didn't have the name of our middle child typed on the voucher (a detail that the telephone reservation worker said 'was not a big deal'). We had to wait over 30 minutes for the ship staff to check this out and we were the very last people to board the ship. The supervisor commented to me that the 'Ramada Plaza Resorts is the worst booking agency'. We had never cruised before. They make you give a credit card number for all your charges and 'automatic tipping' and charge $19.50 per person to it for tips (even for the baby). The tips, in part, go to people you don't even see. The food was not that great. There was only a sit-down dinner and a midnight buffet. We saw someone with appetizers once -it was cheese cubes, but they were all gone. The dessert buffet was your choice of 3 kinds of ice cream and sprinkles. It's not like the endless food you hear about on a major cruise line. The service was nice, but every single worker was from a foreign country and some didn't speak English so that was inconvenient. The rooms were small and musty. We were on the Imperial Cruise line.
I know we could have done it cheaper if we booked this ourselves and not paid into this 'deal'. We never upgraded anything over the phone prior to our trip - we saw a lot of people who did that and never received the upgrade.
If you do this, don't expect much. You will still be in Florida and that's nice. We decided to go ahead with the vacation instead of trying to get a refund because it looked like such a hassle. It turned out OK, but I would never recommend this vacation to anyone I love. We aren't doing the other side trips - it's not worth the hassle. Good luck and don't be afraid to speak up. We are still awaiting our $100 gas reimbursement they promised...
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