Complaint Review: Celebration Cruise Line - Fort Lauderdale Florida

We got into this mess when we seen a television commercial about some light bulbs I wanted, I called the "As Seen On TV" 1-800 number ordered the light bulbs.

And was surprised by an announcement saying, " Congratulations, you and a guest have just won a 3 day 2 night to the Bahamas’" and for lake of better words ‘we swallowed the whole spill hook line and sinker’ like a couple of grade school dummy’s, not once telling our selves "If it sounds to good to be true, it is to good to be true".

We were just so happy and overwhelmed we had "Won a Cruise to the Caribbean".

So our very small order of light bulbs of $10.00 plus S & H ended up costing us around $3000.00 dollars that took the two of us over a year to save and make payments on with our only income being disability for this free cruise.

Yet after all the money, all the lies, all the horrible trouble we had with this whole ordeal the two of us full of faith and belief, we honestly were looking forward to our free cruise.

Having such joy in our hearts, because my goodness just look at how lucky we were, we Won a cruise to  the Bahamas, wow that just don’t happen to every one, Right?

Well as we very quickly and sadly realized we had been "Bamboozled", Scammed, Lied too, Taken advantage off, Ripped off, Been made fools off, because we were not the lucky “Ones in a million” we were just two of a million and one other people whom had fallen for the same line of bull crap, got disappointed, hurt and screwed!

We were not made aware of the "Time Share Orientation” a 2 hours tour where a sales person would talk to us about Vacation Village Resort in Weston, Fl. until close to two days before we left our home town of W.F. Texas to fly to Ft.Lauradale, Fl.

We actually stayed two day's at VacationVillage at the cost of $350.00 dollars we were pressured into and had to pay out.

Of course once there that 2 hour orientation turned into 4 and 1/2 to 5 hours of never ending high pressure sales speech, of course we over and over again said "NO" we can not afford it.

The two of us live on disability income, it took us a year plus just to save up and pay for this free cruise we won.

We can not and do not have the money/means available to buy into a time share, we were even honest and told the salesman, even if we had the money the ideal of time share just did not interest us at all.

We were pushed from one high pressure sales person to another … to another.

I myself at one point was in tears, crying from the many hours of stress and pressure.

I even told them I needed to leave, maybe go lay down in my car because I was not feeling well, that my partner could finish up with them.

I was told NO, they needed us both there to finish the paper work, so I had to stay.

We finely some how was able to get out of there with out buying the time share.

We “Thank God, we are sure only by his grace and glory we are not making payments on the stupid time share, we would not buy if we were wealthy.

So we did as instructed in a note "we still have for proof" told us to do,

"Please proceed to the welcome center immediately, located at the Ramada to have your cruise documents checked and have your vouchers validated. Please bring everyone in the party. All customers must go through this process in order to board the cruise and/or check in at your hotel."

Of course doing as we were told to do, only caused us to endure yet one more attempt by another high pressure sale man to convince us to buy there time share.

Good Lord Almighty, we were scared it would never end.

We were even more worried and scared because we stood strong to our answer of “NO” the same “NO” we had repeated for going on 5 hours now, backed by the out and out fact we did not and would not have the money to pay for the stupid time share.

We were sure by saying “NO” and “NOT” buying into the Vacation Village Resort Time Share, we would not get our Bahamas Celebration Cruise documents checked and they would not validated our vouchers. We would not allow us to board the cruise ship or even get back into our hotel room, we paid for.

As worried and scared as we were the answer was and had to be NO.

We could not believe it; this very rude and ugly man named Bryan the manager of the RamadaPlazaResortsWelcomeCenter, checked our documents and validated our vouchers.

In shock of what the day had been, we were so very tired, wore out, stressed be on belief, sad, sick, and starving we headed back towards Vacation Village Resorts to our room.

Thanking God that we were blessed to still be able to get to go on our free cruise.

A 20 mile drive back, that took 25/30 minutes depending on traffic.

Oh my goodness the endless miles upon miles of never ending needles driving we were made to do, just to jump through there hoops.

First when we landed at the Ft.LauderdaleHollywoodAirport we took a shuttle bus to the AlamoCarRentalCenter at Airport - tip required for driver.

From Airport/Alamo Car rental that cost us close to $200.00 dollars more than was told, we drove a 15 mile trip in traffic taking 25/30 minutes to the RamadaWelcomeCenter to receive our vouchers to stay at Vacation Village Resort for two day's that we paid for in full, and the Bahamas Celebration Cruise voucher we won? “Right"

Then we drove the 20 mile trip in traffic taken 25/30 minutes, once there of course a big mess but worked it out.

Once in our room we again had to drive another 5 miles down the road to eat at Lester’s Saw grass so we could use the meal vouchers we were given, ate the back the 5 miles, then bed to be woke up at the crack of dawn by screaming children in room A next to our room B, then the 5 miles back to Lester’s for breakfast 5 miles back to Vacation Village.

Then to the Time share orientation for 5 hours to drive the 20 miles back to Ramada Welcome center for documents and vouchers validated then the 20 miles back to VacationVillage.

To bed, up early to drive the 65 miles to Riviera Beach to board cruise ship.

Totaling a 160, nerve racking and demanding miles of driving/running around to suit there needs.

Once at Cruse Ship found out it would be a $16.00 per day parking fee of $32.00 for two day's.

Once inside we were asked to read and sign a sheet of paper informing us of a mandatory charge of $12.00 dollars a day per person for wait staff.

Plus a mandatory charge of $12.00 dollars a day per person for housekeeping.

Also a mandatory charge of $9.00 dollars a day per person for fuel/gas for ship, boom an $84.00 dollars charge upfront before we even board the Free Cruise ship we won.

Once on the ship we find out we are not allowed to spend cash money, but are given a room key card that is also a ship charge card that any and every thing we wanted was to be charged on the card.

Well we find our room and we are in total shock to see the 80 square foot or less room for two grown adults we are to stay in during our 3 day 2 night cruise.

Since we actually paid in full up front $200.00 dollars for a room upgrade only because when we called to book our cruise we were informed the free room we won was booked up and our only choice was to upgrade.

We could only figure if we were upgraded to that room our free room must have been in the boiler room. Or tiny little room was so freezing cold we had to have maintenance come just turn air off.

To find out latter that our side of the ship at least had air even though freezing, the other side of the ship had no air at all cold or hot.

Well we did our 3 days and 2 night cruise to the Bahamas and enjoyed it the best we could considering the whole situation.

As we were preparing to leave and went to front desk to settle up on the cost of what we charged to our room key charge cards to be shocked at the cost of $584.79 dollars spent in only three days we sickly paid the bill in full and went to disembark and started the touchier of working our way through costumes.

Hours latter we are out waiting on our rental car to drive the 65 miles back to the Ramada Welcome center where we had paid $55.00 dollars up front for a one night stay.

Once at the Ramada around 1:00pm we were informed we would not be allowed to check in until after 3:00pm the lobby was stuffed full of unhappy, sad, sick tired people so we just found a piece of floor and joined the crowd.

To stand in a long line at 3:00pm to get up to Ramada front desk to have to pay another $15.00 dollars for so called surcharges and taxes.

We stayed over night in a dirty room with a yellowish colored water to shower with, in toilet and sink and what appeared to be a possible bed bug situation, the room smelled/stank.

With no other option we dealt with it.

Checked out by 10:00am next morning to drive the 15 miles back to the Fl.HollywoodAirport arriving at airport by 10:30am and our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 6:15pm an unable to check our luggage until 3:00pm was a long 7-8 hours of waiting!

Needless to say that will be the last vacation we will ever take.

The whole thing was the worst pile of bull crap we have ever had to deal with in our lives.

Please “DO NOT” trust any of these companies for any thing, it is all lies!!