HumbleTraveler

My Original Post has been removed and edited. Personal Opinions have been removed or identified. Please accept my apologies. I guess we're all a little upset by all this. Here is the revised post: Hi Everyone, Vantage is toast. It seems reasonable to presume that they have few if any assets to satisfy or refund requests. I started this series on Cruise Critic when I discovered that Vantage was selling ocean travel on the Ocean Odyssey which hadn't been built yet. Since then, much has been learned. We didn't believe Vantage would honor most, if not all, of their river and ocean voyages, so when our "Pearls of the Dalmation Coast" was cancelled (there was no boat), we elected to transfer our funds to the "Trans-Canada Rail Adventure". The "Rail Adventure" was scheduled to depart on July 19, 2023. We kept in constant contact with the Rocky Mountaineer train folks, and VIA RailCanada to confirm that our Vantage rail "adventure" was still scheduled. One week ago, we learned from the Rocky Mountaineer that the 57 Vantage passengers on the Rocky Mountaineer portion of the trip no longer had reservations. That was a very bad sign, as Vantage had already cancelled all the rail trips in May and June. The excuse the Vantage used for cancelling the trip is not worth repeating. Yesterday, June 3, 2023, at 6:03PM we received an "Alert" from Vantage asking us to check our portfolio for the upcoming "Trans-Canada Rail Adventure." Yes, you guessed it. The trip was cancelled. Their excuse was meaningless. They listed options, including a refund, but who are we kidding. In my opinion, Vantage Deluxe World Travel is a FRAUD and a Ponzi Scheme. In my opinion, their actions may even be criminal if they intentionally defrauded their customers. The only hope is a lawsuit by one of the Attorneys General with PUNITIVE DAMAGES. That way, we might be able recover some of our losses from the owners and directors that run Vantage. Good luck to all.

On April 19, 2021, when my wife and I, along with six friends, booked rooms/suites on the Vantage Deluxe World Travel "Ocean Odyssey" for the "Pearls of Greece and the Dalmatian Coast" 16-day cruise from Athens, Greece to Zagreb, Croatia scheduled to depart on October 18, 2022, we had no way of knowing that the "M/S Ocean Odyssey" HAD NOT BEEN FULLY BUILT YET. In order to get the lowest published price on our expected voyage, on April 15, 2021, my wife and I paid Vantage $13,368.00 for the October 2022 cruise (which along with prior loyalty credits and early purchase credits total $17,398.00). It was a HUGE mistake. The M/S Ocean Odyssey was being built for Sunstone Ships by China Merchants Heavy Industry of Jiangsu, China. On or about May 12, 2022, China Merchants Heavy Industry "walked out of the contract" to build the M/S Ocean Odyssey according to Mr. Lund of Sunstone Ships. Calls and emails to Sunstone Ships regarding the status of the Ocean Odyssey were referred to Vantage Travel; However, Vantage Travel customer service agents refused to verify the location of the Ocean Odyssey whenever they were asked. On September 7, 2022, a senior representative for the Norwegian designers of the Ocean Odyssey, Ulstein of Norway, stated that the ship was not yet completed, but that the "latest rumor from China is that the ship will be delivered by the end of September." If the "rumor" is true, that would leave about 16 days for the ship to transit the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, reach Athens, undergo "sea trials," staff, and provision before departure on October 18th. THAT WAS IMPOSSIBLE. Yet, we have heard NOTHING from Vantage. Vantage Travel knew or should have known that the ship would NEVER make its scheduled cruises in August, September, and October of 2022. We have learned that on August 18, 2022, within days of a departure for the scheduled cruise on the M/S Ocean Odyssey, Vantage Travel announced to its customers without prior warning that, "Despite our very best efforts, the m/s [sic] Ocean Odyssey will need more time to come into service," and the cruise was cancelled while some customers were driving to the airport! Vantage went on to say, "Passengers affected by this delay will be automatically moved to the next available itinerary. Please visit "My Portfolio" for the latest trip updates." This is a sham! If you go to the Vantage website, you will see that all the cruises for the M/S Ocean Odyssey are "SOLD OUT" through 2024! For those of us who were scheduled to depart on the October 16, 2022, "Pearls of Greece..." cruise, the lack of communications from Vantage was staggering. No one answered the phone. If you did finally reach someone, they indicated that they would "send a message to management," and you never heard another word. Vantage is not refunding fares as promised (read the reviews in TripAdvisor), but they are still pushing "room upgrades" for cruises they KNOW aren’t going to occur. FINAL STRAW: On Monday, September 12, 2022, most of our travel companions who booked airfare through Vantage were notified by the airlines that their bookings had been cancelled by VANTAGE, and that the funds had been returned to VANTAGE, yet still no word from Vantage Travel itself. Some of us finally received notification from Vantage that the cruise was cancelled around September 17th, 2022 – only about three weeks before departure. FYI, as of the date of this review, the ship's AIS "Automated Identification System" still shows the M/S Ocean Odyssey moored dockside at the builder's yard in China. What a Joke! PS: The picture of the M/S Ocean Odyssey supplied to Cruise Critic by Vantage is an artist's rendition. Not a photo of the vessel underway.