"free" cruise?

[beckzay]

Has anyone ever gone to one of those "free" cruise presentations? I've gotten many calls before from places offering a free cruise,but I got one the other day that sounded different. So, my husband (the skeptic of ALL skeptics, lol) called back to find out more. Turns out, it's suppose to be a new agency (checked the agency, it's a real agency here) that is running a promotion in hopes that you will use them for all future travel needs. All we have to do, lol, is attend a 90 minute presentation about travel. That's all they said. They didn't say whether it was for timeshares, vacation property, etc. They didn't ask for a credit card, but we did have to meet income requirements.

 

Anyone been to one of these things? Even ones for timeshares? I'm hesitant to go, but then again a semi-free cruise would be awesome.

[yogimax]

Most likely timeshare. They range from moderate sell to hard sell to very hard sell. You can figure the usual "value" of the premium at about $100. I doubt they are offering a free trans-atlantic cruise on the Queen Mary. Caveat Emptor!

[beckzay]

yeah, it's only a 3 night cruise to the bahamas...but still. Airfare included too.

[mrdood]

but the small print says - with purchase of a similar cruise, so it it buy one get one free, sometimes at brochure rate, which I have learned is terrible - in other words, it is cheaper to pay the "going" rate for two people than a bogo deal at brochure rate.

[gone_cruisin]

I had one that offered a 3 night cruise, but the catch was you had to buy airfare from the TA. Of course, there were black out dates for the cruise.....would have had to go during off peak season. If you're flexible, it might work.

[jbrecalde]

My husband and I recieved a "free cruise" from a timeshare presentation. It ended up being such a joke. They told us all we would have to do is pay port charges for anyone of about 6 different carnival cruises....mexican riv, a few western carrib, s. carrib, and e. carrib. You could choose whichever cruise and departure date you wanted. After you go to the presentation, they give you a brochure with a form to send in. Once you send it in, they send a "Cruise Voucher" back to you with a (non toll free) phone number to their reservation center. So, last month I called to see if I could make a reservation for March. They said that the voucher was only good for cruises from Jan-Mar and Sept-Dec. Also, you could only book an upper/lower room. So you figure there are only a handful of upper/lower rooms on the ship, so they book up within a few days of them starting to take reservations. I asked her if I could pay the difference for a standard inside room, she came back with a charge for about $500 per person for the upgrade.:mad: I told her that I could book the cruise myself for that price. She said that in April they would start making reservations for the Sep-Dec cruises, and I should call back then. IMO, Don't waste your time.

[msolberg]

Some friends of ours were offered and accepted the invitation for a 3 day Carnival Cruise as long as they would attend the timeshare presentation.

 

This was prior to 1996 as we had not been on our first cruise yet. They loved the cruise and bought the timeshare.

 

I think I would just pay for the cruise - I have a hard enough time going past all of the pushy vendors in Mexico without buying something.

 

 

 

Diane

[Ship Addict]

I have tried this a couple of times and it didn't work out either time. After you have paid all your "extra fees," you come out about the same as you would if you had booked it yourself. And the killer is, when you book with them, you don't even know for sure if you're going to get on the ship until about 30 days out. So I would rather pay a couple hundred extra and KNOW that boat will be there waiting for me!

 

And it sounds like the one you're looking at is the day cruise down to the Bahamas, spend a few days there, and take another day cruise back. They have Carnival all over the paperwork, but you don't really get to sail on Carnival. You get some other podunk line. Carnival doesn't do day cruises to the Bahamas.

 

My advice -- skip it and book something that's more of a sure thing!

[sportsterjohn]

My neighobrs got suckered into this. Basically, they put you on a Discovery cruise line ship which is basically a ferry from Ft. Lauderdale to GBI. They put you in a 1 star hotel and you still have to pay the taxes, fees and port charges. You can 'upgrade' to a decent hotel for a pretty hefty price. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with Discovery cruises or thier cruise and stay packages, however if you want a decent trip, book it yourself and select one of the better hotels. You won't save any money by using one of those 'free cruises'.

[scotrooper]

Nothing is ever free. I'd reather pay good money, and know what I'm getting, than pay for "free" crap.

[cruizinrican]

We kept getting the same calls from people claiming to be wanting to give us a free cruise and one day my BF finally made the appointment to go visit them and listen to there speel.

 

So we go and have to listen to 90 minutes of them trying to sell a vacation membership to a group of us for about $6,000!!! Some old folks purchased it but we never had any interest in what they were selling we were there to collect our free cruise and that was it! After the split you up into couples with an individual person who inturn asks you what you thought of presentation and wether you were interested in purchasing, we were asked why and we told them it was alot of money and we just were here for the free cruise. He then asked us what trip we were interested in receiving, 3 nighter or 7 nighter, we said 7 nighter. They then explained we would be responsible for the port and govt fees and a $99 processing fee at the time of booking and it was for the lowest cabin a Cat. 1A bunkbeds. We said not a problem. We would do anything to get on a cruise even sleep in bunkbeds! Though we were told we could upgrade to a cat.4A inside for an additional charge.

 

We left waiting on docs from them to arrive offering us the 7 nighter so we could choose where we wanted to leave from and they finally arrived about a wk. later. I choose the Carnival Glory leaving from Pt. Canaveral since it was the closest port offered to us. We then had to call a number and give our confirmation number to hear dates that were available for this ship. We choose Sept. 10, 05 to the western caribbean cat. 1A. They sent us confirmation of this ship and sail date in writing and we filled it out and returned it with money order in the amount of $502 ($251 pp) return receipt so they could not claim to not have received our money.

 

And in about the end of August, we received our cruise docs with a room number a Cat.1A. We were so excited, it had worked and we were cruising on a newer ship for $500!!!! Our room turned out to be so nice and we really enjoyed it! Without the extra bed on the ground, we had so muccchhh floor space! We loved our room and would travel cat.1A again though I prefer atleast a window. If the price is cheap enough, book it!

 

If this deal is offered to you try it, it worked for us and could work for you!

 

PS- An upgrade to a cat.4A was another $500 so we just stayed with what was "free"! After spending $750 pp it would no longer be free and quite expensive for an inside so we declined.

[jsaadat]

NO no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

[glrounds]

"If it sounds too good to be true . . . . ."

I met a couple on my 1st Glory cruise that got a little tipsy after the first port stop and preceeded to relate their stories on this point. The lady worked for a firm who's business was "selling" these "free" cruises. She went on and on about how these "poor ignorant basturds" would buy into the free cruise story. :(

She was particularly proud of "giving" them a cruise that would "save" them $899 (brochure rate), then add port charges, govt taxes, and their "processing fee". Then lock them into staying at a cheap run down motel (some with broken out windows) for an astronomical $160 per night. By the time the victims discovered that they could take this cruise for $249 and learned how horrible the room was . . . it was too late. She delighted in the scam ! ! :mad:

[dan40]

Write this down.

 

 

IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS.......

 

Dan

[Ship Addict]

I dealt with two different companies each time I tried to do this. The first cruise sounds like it worked the same way cruizinrican's trip did. You paid the $99 fee to start out and didn't pay for your cruise until you were ready to book. The reason why this one didn't work out was my fault -- I can't fault the company on this one. they seemed really nice and when I had to cancel my reservation they promptly refunded my $99. Can't remember the name of the company, but if someone else posts it I will recognize it.

 

the other company, however, seemed like a really big ripoff. You sent in your initial request letter and then they send you another letter in return. After receiving the second letter, you have only 30 days to book your vacation and pay all the charges in FULL. The dates you picked had to be at least six months out and you didn't know until 30 days out whether or not you got your dates. I called them and asked for an extension because we were not aware that we would have to pay so much up front, they said no go. Pay up now or you lose it. I decided I didn't want to deal with that company after all and blew the whole thing off. Wasted an entire day listening to some property selling scheme up in Huntsville to get a cruise voucher that did me no good! I was so upset after that I decided never to waste my time like that again.

[Royjas]

Heres how you get a free cruise- host a group of at least 16 people / 8 cabins & you cruise free. Cruise lines offer this as an incentive to groups cruising together. For every 16 people in a group one person cruises free (taxes are not included). So if you are a member of a church, club, organization, or having a family/class reunion, the ideas are endless for getting a group together & cruising for free.

[beckzay]

I've heard about the "free cruise" scams a lot, but the only thing that makes me think this might be different is that a Travel agency is offering it....as a way get you to come back to them for your travel needs.

We're going to take the chance and at least attend the presentation to see what it's all about. I will definitely remember all you have told me though and I'll keep my eye out for those things. Thank you!

[Ship Addict]

I've heard about the "free cruise" scams a lot, but the only thing that makes me think this might be different is that a Travel agency is offering it....as a way get you to come back to them for your travel needs.

We're going to take the chance and at least attend the presentation to see what it's all about. I will definitely remember all you have told me though and I'll keep my eye out for those things. Thank you!

After you attend the presentation, post the name of the company you have to go through to book your cruise. We may be able to give you a heads up whether or not this is the "good" company or the "bad" company! If you don't want to post it here, please feel free to send it to my email address -- midgetpdp at consolidated dot com. Looking forward to hearing from you!

[DiveCruiser]

Just remember they don't do it to lose money. Some are scams, others you get a cheap cruise for the first person but the second pays your way. Nothing in life is free, someone pays.

 

Bob