Vacations To Go

Vacations To Go misrepresents the quality of their properties, does not assist the customer when a problem occurs, and then takes full financial advantage of the vulnerable customer once they are far from home.

Several months ago I booked 9 days at El Tesoro in Ixtapa through Vacations To Go. Because of past experiences, I booked private transport from the airport to the hotel and paid VTG in advance. When we arrived in Ixtapa, our transport was not there and we were repeatedly and aggressively solicited to take taxis. After forty-five minutes, our transport finally appeared.

On arrival at the hotel, we were told that Tesoro does not make reservations, only requests. The Deluxe room with king bed and partial ocean view that I reserved three months ago, was not available. We were to be put in a room behind the elevator and moved the following day. After two hours of insisting that we either have the room we reserved or go to another hotel, Tesoro suggested that they upgrade us to a suite the following day. I was still very concerned because it was becoming clear that there were numerous problems (see below). Dionne, the supervisor at VTG was very haughty and told me that I should be grateful. She refused to send us to another hotel because it was too late in the day (4:30 pm).

The room behind the elevator was worse than a filthy rundown motel. There were fleas hopping on the bathroom floor, urine pooled on the floor on both sides of the toilet, pubic hairs stuck to the bowl, and dead bedbugs between the box-spring and the mattress of the bed, with a view of the back of a building.

My boyfriend insisted on another room. The next room was a deluxe room that was no different. It was equally rundown and filthy but I found no bugs. I attempted to call other hotels, but was unable to get an outside line. I tried to have the Tesoro switchboard place a call for me, but they hung up each time I called. There was no cell service. We had never been to Ixtapa, did not know where to go and felt very much trapped. I emailed my travel agent Chas at VTG and he reiterated that they would not help us.

The VTG website indicated that this All-Inclusive resort had four restaurants and several bars. They were all closed. Guests were eating in one area for breakfast and lunch. The night we were there, they ate the evening meal on tables in the parking lot. We did not eat.

The hotel is expensive enough, but does not have a water filter, so you will get sick if you drink the water. This was not indicated on the VTG website. The hotel provides two small bottles of water in your room when you arrive. After that, you must buy all of your bottled water for $2.00 per small bottle.

A make-shift bar in the lobby (two tables pushed together and holding several taps) provides a few beers and soft drinks. These are included. Bottled beer and soft drinks, mixed drinks and bottled water are all for purchase. Food is included in the settings described above.

We were both scared and disgusted, did not eat, and slept in our clothes on top of the beds, without unpacking our bags.

The following morning, VTG agreed to move us to Melia Azul for an additional $1,000.00, which we paid out of desperation. Melia Azul is a lovely resort, but it caters to Mexican families. This is their prerogative, but we did not know. Few of the staff spoke English and did not understand my Spanish, which admittedly is a bit rusty. Every transaction was difficult and exhausting. The only people who spoke fluent English were the Time Share salesmen who sat at the concierge desk and turned every question into an opportunity to pitch the Time Shares. It was despicable!

I have traveled extensively in Mexico and have never had such a difficult time. We left and came home early. There were a number of problems with the two resorts mentioned, but VTG did not advertise them honestly and took full advantage of our vulnerability once we were in Ixtapa. Save yourself a lot of heartache and money and never use them.

I booked a cruise 6 months ago on SeaDream II in the eastern Caribbean route. I paid in full. Two weeks before departure, I didn't receive documents. I contacted agent, R.L. via email. He had us re-enter our information on the cruise website and got us E Documents.

Six days before departure, my husband got a massive tooth infection. We contacted RL twice via email in the next three days, asking frantically what to do. No response. We finally called the cruise line directly, letting them know we couldn't make the flight, as my husband had been issued a "no fly" by his doctor.

Later that day, a supervisor from VTG contacted us. She has contacted the cruise line, requesting a re-booking, only to be told we were a "no show" at the dock. Apparently, the home office of the cruise line does not communicate with the boats. That is how we've been left. We did pay for this on our American Express card and they have opened an inquiry for us. Hopefully, they will be able to persuade SeaDream to rebook.

I have written to Alan Fox, CEO of VTG, and have not had a response yet. After reading the complaints on this website, I am not hopeful. We have notified them in writing of the chain of events and that we are holding them responsible for the cruise line's refusal to rebook. We will be investigating a filing in Small Claims Courts in Houston, TX in order to recover our funds, if they do not take action to rebook our trip. Never use Vacation to Go to book a trip!

My friend and I booked a cruise of the Black Sea and I was a bit apprehensive about what the quality of the ship would be. Vacations2Go assured me that it was a good ship and that was most assuredly true. We were extremely happy with all aspects of this cruise and have already recommended this company and the cruise line Azamara to friends.

VTG agent booked the SC class cabin; VTG agent and I had a long discussion about the SC cabin and the big deck/corner placement. There was no miscommunication. We were both in agreement that this particular class cabin (SC) was spectacular for enjoying the Alaska scenery and entertaining professional colleagues. I felt lucky that he was able to provide this category cabin and I told him so. No mention was ever made by the VTG agent that I might later be moved/upgraded to SB or SA. I would have remembered that. I had my heart set on the SC and the agent knew it without a doubt. No miscommunication.

A month ago I, confirmed our booking by registering on the HAL website. My boarding pass states:

"STATEROOM: To Be Assigned"

To me, that means I am guaranteed the SC. But obviously that was not the case after I called VTG today and learned of my "upgrade" and room assignment. I want my original booking of the SC category cabin.

Thank you!

I and two other families booked a Disney trip through vacations to go, specifically Blair ***. I have booked with them for many years. Recently, Disney advertised a 30% off special. On May 11th, Karen **, one of the families that booked with us, called Zande, a minimum of six times to ask if the special would apply to us; Blair's day off was Wednesday. Zandre is Blair's supervisor. She eventually called the 800 number and spoke to a random operator. Karen explained about the discount and the operator told Karen to tell us to call in the morning. I called both Blair and Zandre numerous times, to no avail. Sometime afternoon, I finally spoke to Blair who stated and I quote "I am working with Zandre right now, looks like you will all get refunds."

On Friday, May 13th, Karen ** was informed that she was going to be credited for $939.00. As soon as I heard this, I called to see what my refund would be. Apparently, Blair only put the family in for the refund on Thursday. He never got to put mine or the other families paper in. He submitted it on Friday, May 13th, twenty-four hours after it was submitted.

On Monday, May 16th, I was informed that it was too late for my refund. Zandre informed that the hotel was booked and won't be allowed. I then looked at other travel agents and sites and found that there were indeed rooms available through both Disney and Go Travel.

I informed Zandre and Blair of this and they simply said that this was unfortunate and that Friday was too late. My issue is why did they wait a whole day to submit my request. Why wouldn't he have put in formy refund the exact same time as the other family that go with the refund. I am getting nowhere with vacations to Go and Zandre ** and Blair ** have just become downright rude with an oh well attitude. I had loss on a financial refund.

I have just finished making a European cruise booking with Vacations To Go. Their service was fantastic! Because I am in Australia, contact was by email with several emails crossing the Pacific over 2 days. Honestly, you would think I was their only customer, such was the speed of their replies. I can't say enough good things about them. Great product knowledge and helpful advice. From a very, very happy and satisfied customer.

I booked a 10-day Baltic Cruises with Vacations To Go. They were absolutely faultless. Many phone calls and emails between the company and us took place. The service was second to none. The salesman was so competent and knew the product so well. Really, they were absolutely fantastic.

I purchased a Panama Canal Cruise on Celebrity Cruise Lines though Vacations To Go/Alan Fox Travel in late September on one of their 90-day ticker ads.

About two weeks later, the same cruise dropped their price by $300 for the two of us. I asked if we could get the reduced price or a cabin upgrade or an on-board credit. Brittany told me that since I paid the full fare up front, there was nothing they or the cruise line could do. I know that it is a lie as neither party wants to do anything about it; they could if they wanted to. I also was never given the option of paying a partial payment, so the answer I was given was false.

I advised them that since they were being stubborn and vengeful to me, I will tell the cruise staff, like the waiter, bus boy, cabin steward, Maitre 'D, etc to get their tips from Celebrity Cruise Lines as they took my $300.

Do not use Vacations To Go or Alan Fox or Celebrity Cruise Lines if you care about customer satisfaction.

I booked a cruise with this company Vacations To Go. They never informed me that I was booking a repositioning cruise and that I would be left in Panama, the country of Panama. I asked the travel agent to look for flights for me when booking the cruise leaves Ft Lauderdale, Florida. At no time did she ever tell me that this trip was not a round trip cruise.

I booked a round trip ticket From California to Florida and Florida to California. When I complained, they said that they would listen to the recorded calls. I was grateful because I knew I would be vindicated. To my shock, they played a overdubed poorly; I might add version of the call in which you can clearly make out the portion that they added. Patti ** loudly piping in retiring flight from colon Panama. This was never said during the call.

My friend Shirely ** used this company as well as she is traveling with us. She used a different agent but was shocked by the same realization after receiving her confirmation she never knew that she would be left in Panama. We asked for Vacations To Go to pay for our air back to the States because of their huge oversight then, they tampered with the tapes and behaved poorly. We are still going on this trip because changing it would have been costly and there weren't any decent alternatives. Our flight expense was major and the change charges, etc.

Anyway, I'm sure this happens to a lot of people but simple communication would have solved a lot of problems. I know we all would have been very aware of a cruise that leaves us in Central America, if we were told. We had to pay 1,600 dollars in additional air and $300 in hotel fees, totalling to $1900.00.

I have used them in past; they have good to great prices but as usual no human contact or any help at all. I just got back from Princess Alaska Cruise Tour which was great. However, vacations to go did not quote us a cheaper price than on the Princess web site; I found this out after paying them. I wrote to the agent, his supervisor, and finally to Mr Fox and never received a reply. Goodbye to you, vacations to go. Beware, check all options!

The agent in charge of our three week vacation to Europe allowed us to leave the US without proper reservations for getting from one country to another on two occasions and failed to complete reservations in two hotels in Belgium that we had prepaid through them. Emails, phone calls and faxes of our information fell on deaf ears and we were forced to find our own transportation in order to make our tours on time. No one on their staff even seemed to care that there were four of their customers who had paid nearly $20,000 for this trip were stranded. "Work it out on your own and let us know when you get back" was their answer.

As a result, we had to adjust our travel plans, lose two days in travel and pay top dollar for plane tickets and a euro train costing nearly $2000.00 beyond what we had agreed to pay in advance. The only refund we received was for one of our hotels in Brussels not included in that two grand. Even with travel insurance, they told us it was not their fault or responsibility to be advised. If you book through this company and you have a problem, it will be your problem.

I booked an Alaskan Cruise for 5-21-2010-5-28-2010 and Mr M told me on three different occasions the room I was getting would sleep 3 adults with two beds and a couch that made into a bed. It was on the Royal Caribbean Web Site showing the couch and the two beds. When we got on the ship it had two beds and a pull down bunk and ladder for the third person which was not what I wanted or paid for. I have sent several e-mails made phone calls to Mr M and to Royal Caribbean about this and he said there is nothing he can do. Royal caribbean admitted the web site showed the couch and offered me a 10% discount on a future cruise, which will be never. I have not received a return phone call from Mr M with Vacations To Go even though he said he would be back the next day. I would never use Vacations to go or Royal Caribbean again and would strongly advise any one to go elsewhere.

We reserved a vacation for 4 to Nassau in the Bahamas. We called to cancel the trip and were told that $200 would be non-refundable. We were also informed that it may take 30 days for the refund. It is now 40 days later and Vacations To Go is still holding over $4,900 of my money. I have incurred financing fees and I will never use or recommend Vacations To Go to anyone. I have now incurred $100 in financing fees on my credit card.

COMPLAINT SUCCESSFULLY RESOLVED: We had reported in March that we had lost $12,000 for a cruise we were removed from due to a visa and yellow fever shot issue in Brazil. Please note that Vacations to Go exercised excellent customer service by later refuning us $6,000 in cash and giving us a $6,000 voucher towards another cruise. We appreciate their response at moving to resolve this and we need you to now remove my complaint from your website or at least add this comment to it. It is only fair that they now get credit for making full restitution. Thank you.

We attempted to try to contact Charles H at least 7 to 10 times with no return call. Then we finally got off hold of him he told us the deadline passed and we would loss our money and cannot no longer go on a cruise a different time. How convenient to steal ones money. We would have been happy with just rebooking the cruise. This is not our responsibility because of the swine flu issues this is the cruises problem and we paid for it by giving away free money to Carnival Cruise. We are hard working honest people who have not had a rest in a long time. We were planning to take more cruises this if we like it, but I will never trust this co again. Unless they do whats right and give us the cruise we paid for.

We booked a three day cruise for May 21 to the 23 with vacations to go. This was our very first time to be able to take a cruise. We wanted to see if we would like it and then would plan to take more in the future. We were told three weeks later after we booked that we would have reschedule or go to Catalina cruise that because of the Swine flu we could not go to Mexico. We were told by the person we booked it with we could rescheduled the cruise. My friend called and the agent returns the call once and my friend was in a meeting and could not answer the phone so we did not get to talk to him.

After several daily attempts to get a hold of this person we spoke with someone in and were told we waited too late and could not reschedule the cruise and could only go to Catalina. At the time my Mother took ill and I would not be able to go to Catalina and we did not want to go on a cruise without going to Mexico. We were told it was too late we could not reschedule and would not get a refund on our 700.00 dollars. We would have been fine with changing the date and to go another time.

This is outrages that are money was taken from us without any compensation, because a service rep from vacations to go would not return our call. How convenient we finally get a hold of someone to talk with us and we are passed the deadline to change dates our get money back. We are very hard working people and neither of us has not had a vacation for years and was really looking forward to getting away. This is no justification for not refunding our money or letting change the date. This is no fault of our because of the Swine flu and cruise business should be responsible not us for the loss.

Thank you for your time.

We booked an 8-day, $ 12,000 Silversea Cruise through VTG which departed 2/21/09 from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro. When we booked the tour we were not verbally informed nor was it brought to our attention clearly in writing that we needed a Visa/ Yellow Fever shots to get into Brazil. Please note that Silversea sent several notices to VTG to remind us that we needed this and none of these notices were forwarded to us. Because of this oversight, we were removed from the ship after only one day. Please note that on a ship of 296 people, we were the only ones that had not been made clearly aware that this was a requirement.

Other passengers on the cruise indicated that they received several reminders from Silversea either directly to them if they booked through Silversea forwarded from Silversea through their travel agencies. We confirmed directly with Silversea that they had sent reminder notices to VTG and these were not forwarded to us. The only reference from VTG to our need of a Visa/Yellow fever shot was literally buried in the middle of an online document which was highlighted in red AFTER we made our complaint. There are only 5 countries in the world that require a Visa for entry we have since discovered. Any reputable travel agency would have clearly, verbally, and in clear writing called this out.

We have lost $12,000 for the cruise and also money on airfare, hotel, and ground transportation for this entire trip. We also had to experience the absolute humiliation and nightmare of being dumped in Uruguay and having to find our own way back to Buenos Aires. We have tried to resolve this through VTG and we have received absolutely no consideration. We have talked to Dorothy Weaver our Travel Agent (800) 338-4962 x 7232, Dalia Shaffer her supervisor, Christine Parsons in Customer Service (800) 338-4962 x7314 and Sorrell Warren, Director of Customer Service. We have asked for a full refund of the $12,000 we spent on this cruise and VTG has refused.

Holland American Cruise Line--Paid $5700 for 32 days from Hong kong to Vancouver plus $5.00 per day fuel charge after the fact(i do not mind that so much) but then they phoned up and this was after i paid for the cruise and said that there was another ---get this $500.00 extra because they could not get me there for the day of the start of my cruise so i have to arrive a day early and pay for my own hotel ---airline booking problems---and get this i made arrangments LAST SEPTEMBER for this cruise---not at all satisfied---they said the would give me $150.00off---but that turns out shipboard cridit--i still had to pay the total amount extra on my visa---never again will i cruise on Holland America(and this will be no.9 and will be the last)Being 78 yrs old now i do not need this kind of treatment it is very depressing

Our vacation to Cancun was initially booked with Suzette Walsh. To make a long story short, she could get nothing correct and I asked for a new agent (after being told I couldn't cancel arrangements as the trip was purchased to Fun Jet) Stuart Gillan assured me all was well .... up to 3 days before we left. Upon arriving in Cancun, our room arrangements were incorrect; we had 1 room for 4 people, not the 2 rooms we had requested. Fun Jet agent marched us out to the street to use a pay phone to call Texas (vacations to go) where it was almost impossible to reach the agent or a manager. After much upset and arguing, we finally obtained a 2nd room and stuart agreed to pay for the room as Vacations to Go had erred.

We checked out on Saturday only to find the funds had never been transferred. Stuart was no where to be found; thank goodness for Tran from FunJet who stepped in and had the funs transferred from Houston, Texas to Cancun. Cancun and the RIU Caribe were wonderful; the folks from Vacations to Go have a lot to learn about customer service. Upon my return, I emailed the president and Ceo, Alan Fox. Never rec'd any further contact from the company. Talk about poor customer relations. I will NEVER deal with this company again and will urge all my friends and co-workers to stay away from them.