Gazelda

DO NOT BOOK WITH VANTAGE TRAVEL!!! 1. Last May 2022, we booked a cruise "AMAZON RIVER CRUISE: Manaus to Nassau". Two days before Christmas, on our "Portfolio" which we have to initiate as opposed to notifying us by email, Vantage states they are changing the cruise to "Passage to the Caribbean" totally removing the Amazon River. We asked for a refund and were told there would be a 65% penalty! They claimed that the dock in Manaus was unusable and our passengers would be unable to use the tenders. A lie as other cruise ships continued to visit Manaus. 2. We booked our air with Vantage; finally in January they posted our flights. We were told they would be ticketed February 11. They were not. We called and were told February 25. American cannot upgrade a flight until it has been ticketed; by the time our flights were ticketed, we were on a wait list. 3. The cruise was now from Belem, Brazil to Nassau with five (5) days at sea. The Ocean Explorer is a small ship holding 160 passengers, 7400 GT. Due to its small size (good for the Amazon!), it gets bounced around in the Atlantic. The pool had a leak so was unusable. Entertainment was a single piano player, a few lectures, a movie and a few trivia or bingo games. 4. Our first stop was to be Devil's Island. "Access to visitors is strictly forbidden on the now uninhabited territory. The currents are so strong that no ships are allowed to dock here; it is unsafe for visitors.Jun 6, 2019" Instead they dropped us off at Isle Royale using Zodiacs (far more unstable than tenders!) and there was no tour. Bait and Switch! 5. The schedule had us stopping in Trinidad, which was NOT on our itinerary. Vantage removed St. Lucia, which many had wanted to visit. We learned that even the Captain did not know that St. Lucia had been removed from our schedule! 6. Whenever we called Vantage, we could be on hold for over two (2) hours listening to the same few songs over and over. When we did get through, the personnel either did not know the answer or gave an incorrect answer. Or referred us to another department with the same results. 7. We tried emailing Vantage; we received a response that they had received our correspondence but no other results or communications. No explanations. 8. The result: we overpaid for a cruise we did not book but were forced to take or lose a lot of our money. Most of the other passengers had similar stories and were very disgruntled. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY AS YOU MAY NOT GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR.