Free Cruise Tickets???

[ciship]

Just bought a car and they gave us "free" cruise tickets as their incentive. I have to send the certificates in to a place in Atascadero, California with a $35 registration fee and then they tell ME where I can cruise and on what ship!

 

Anyone had experience with this kind of deal? Carnival is the only cruise line that they offer. We are given a 4a inside cabin (but we can upgrade for a fee) and we have to pay the port fees and taxes ($189 per person).

 

Anxious to hear opinions!!

[Cruising89143]

How long is the cruise?

[tef43]

There ain't no such thing as "free."

[ciship]

The cruise is 5 day/4 night. We are going to upgrade to a 7 night cruise instead. We live in smack dab in the middle of the U.S. so it costs a lot for us to just GET to a port. If we are going to pay that much to get to a port, we arent going to waste our time on a 4 night cruise.

 

Anyway........I guess no one has any info for me......hopefully someone will perk up that got one of these from a car dealership or some other benefit.

[PlanningToCruise]

There ain't no such thing as "free."

very true, whatever the dealer paid carnival to get the "free" cruise vouchers, they add that in your cost of the vehicle.

Since you have the vouchers now, I'd definitely upgrade to a 7 day..

Have fun

[dms_cruisers04]

This thread, http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=187948&highlight=free , although not from a car dealer, does speak about the free cruise voucher.

[ciship]

This thread, http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=187948&highlight=free , although not from a car dealer, does speak about the free cruise voucher.

 

Thanks for the link Mike. My experience has been way different than what I have read from that link thank goodness (so far)! I don't have to go through any "presentations" and I have talked on the phone twice already with this company and they also gave me their email address. They have returned my calls promptly as well. Cruise tickets are sent by Carnival to my home, so I don't have to worry about being stranded at the port either. Hmmmm......I'm always leary......going to have to keep my eyes wide open on this one as well!

 

As far as the deal we got on the car?? My husband is a piranah.....relentless with sales folks. We paid well under our bottom dollar price.....but, I'm sure that is far from the case with others unfortunately.

[PACURN]

How interesting. I have to agree with tef nothing is free. The DH is a service manager and has never heard of this. I'm sure there are limitations and stuff. Good luck to you.

[dms_cruisers04]

Thanks for the link Mike. My experience has been way different than what I have read from that link thank goodness (so far)! I don't have to go through any "presentations" and I have talked on the phone twice already with this company and they also gave me their email address. They have returned my calls promptly as well. Cruise tickets are sent by Carnival to my home, so I don't have to worry about being stranded at the port either. Hmmmm......I'm always leary......going to have to keep my eyes wide open on this one as well!

Sounds good so far anyway. Hope it works out.

[Canne12]

with any information you have- travel agency name, phone number, address.

 

Let us know if you find anything.

 

I think the car dealership should've covered that $35 fee!

[Ship Addict]

The free cruises are great IF you can follow their instructions to the letter. Who is the marketing company you are dealing with? I have dealt with two in the past -- Spirit Incentives and Infinity Incentive Group.

 

Spirit Incentives seemed like a reputable company to me. I had to pay the $100 deposit when I booked, but when I had to cancel the reservation, they promptly refunded my money. I wasn't asked to send them any more money until they had confirmed that I was booked on a cruise.

 

Infinity Incentives really pi**ed me off. I didn't find out until after I sent in the original "booking request" form that I had to pay for the entire trip in advance. They wouldn't extend my deadline or anything so I could have more time to gather the money. So I lost that trip.

 

The one thing I didn't like with incentive cruises, assuming everything else goes well, is the fact that you have to wait til about 30 days out before you know for sure if you are going to get on the ship or not. I think I would have been heartbroken if I got all excited about a cruise, did a bunch of new cruise clothes shopping, etc., and then found out I wasn't going to make it on the ship.

 

All that said, I would not go through all the garbage to get the "free cruise" anymore. I have tried twice and failed, so now instead of investing all that time and energy in getting a few hundred dollars off a cruise, I think I would rather just fork out the additional money and KNOW that I will be on the ship and sailing of my choice.

[HeidiHo]

Have you been quoted how much it will cost to upgrade? Just be careful that they don't overcharge you to upgrade and now it's costing you as much as it would have if you had gone on your own. I don't have any experience with this but I do think I've read here that people have tried this but were charged an arm and a leg to upgrade.

[GoinCruisin]

I don't have to go through any "presentations"

 

No, you just had to buy a car :p LMAO!! Good luck!! Hopefully you will end up with a good deal in the end... keep us posted!!!!

[ciship]

with any information you have- travel agency name, phone number, address.

 

Let us know if you find anything.

 

I think the car dealership should've covered that $35 fee!

 

I checked to see if they were on the Ripoff report website. They were not, but man I sure learned a lot about Carnival on that website. Interesting that Carnival was on their SO much more than any other cruiselines!

 

I already know that Central Coast Travel - Certificate Division doesnt have a website. They told me that when I called, but she offered me her email address if I wanted to communicate without having to call and pay for that expense. They are in the yellow pages and a legit address.

 

I'm going to check them out with the BBB this afternoon.

[ciship]

Have you been quoted how much it will cost to upgrade? Just be careful that they don't overcharge you to upgrade and now it's costing you as much as it would have if you had gone on your own. I don't have any experience with this but I do think I've read here that people have tried this but were charged an arm and a leg to upgrade.

 

No, we havent gotten that far yet with the bookings. I'll keep you posted.

 

Midget, I saw Infinity Incentives on the Ripoff Report website. I hate it when people have to learn the hard way. I hope I don't follow suit!! :(

[dms_cruisers04]

No, we havent gotten that far yet with the bookings. I'll keep you posted.

 

Midget, I saw Infinity Incentives on the Ripoff Report website. I hate it when people have to learn the hard way. I hope I don't follow suit!! :(

After checking a few of the comments about Carnival at the Ripoff Report I don't know how much faith you should put into this website. I only looked at three of the "complaints" and all three were about costs, mostly about tipping, and that they were never told. I really liked one that said they were upset because in order to get their cabin cleaned and to be able to eat in the "formal dinning room" it supposedly would have cost them extra. :rolleyes: Seems it's Cruise Critic for Dumbies. No offense Ciship, I'm just saying if this is an open forum that anyone can just write complaints about companies on, it's pretty much going to be filled with posts from cheapos and whiners.

Definitely check BBB.

[Wennfred]

Good luck, I went to a hostile Trend West Time share presentations that took 3 hours and after telling them NO, NO, NO, they slammed the Cruise Certificate on the table and walked away:mad: , Finally I was out of there.

 

The Company that dealt with the Free Cruise was out of Canada, after submitting my certificate I recd another letter indicating the Dates and times for the Cruise I selected, it was a 3 Day cruise on the Carnival Paradise out of Long Beach, schedule for 25 Feb 2005... This I had booked with them around Sept. 2004, After many many calls around Jan and Feb about my Docs or any info, I finally got to talk to someone, they told me that They had lost the paper work, or the guy that was working on my Trip got fired etc. and that Feb 25th was out of the question and I had a year to still select a cruise etc... I told them to re-emburse my Port Charges and to forget it as I figured this wasnt going to ever happen.

 

Again, Good luck with this, This Agency out of Canada, the name started with the letter O.

[ciship]

After checking a few of the comments about Carnival at the Ripoff Report I don't know how much faith you should put into this website. I only looked at three of the "complaints" and all three were about costs, mostly about tipping, and that they were never told. I really liked one that said they were upset because in order to get their cabin cleaned and to be able to eat in the "formal dinning room" it supposedly would have cost them extra. :rolleyes: Seems it's Cruise Critic for Dumbies. No offense Ciship, I'm just saying if this is an open forum that anyone can just write complaints about companies on, it's pretty much going to be filled with posts from cheapos and whiners.

Definitely check BBB.

 

I thought the whiners were comical as well. People just don't do their research like they should (thus the reason that I am going overboard with mine!!)

[ciship]

Ok the BBB out of Santa Barbara, California lists the company as "Central Coast Travel and Automotive Incentives".

 

They are not a member of BBB, but they have only had 1 complaint issued and the BBB reports that Central Coast made a "good faith effort to resolve" and took care of the customer. The complaint was regarding "sales".

 

I DO wish the BBB would be more specific and show the actual complaint....but that still helped a lot!

 

I'm going to continue on with this......at least for now.

[colette5479]

This happened to a young girl who I work with. She bought a new truck and got a "free" cruise. Since I was the only person she knew who went on cruises, she asked me to check it out for her. She had her pick from two CCL ships out of Florida...the Fantasy and another one maybe out of Miami. It was a 4 night cruise. She would be responsible for: air, port charges and taxes, and gratuities. She's a young girl of 18 who struggles to even make the truck payment and there was no way she could do this. It would have cost her less money to book the Ecstasy out of Galveston and drive rather than take the "free" cruise.

 

I do hope your experience is different and I'm glad to see you are doing your homework! Keep us posted!:)

[ciship]

Yes Colette, that is exactly what my deal is as well. We don't mind paying the port taxes if they want to cover the cabin for 4 nights! We are paying extra to do a 7 night cruise instead. Makes it more worthwhile to get to a port from where we are.

 

We cruise once or twice a year anyway........so, we might as well let someone else cover some of the costs!

 

Thanks for responding to this thread.

[colette5479]

Then it sounds like it could be a great deal for you! If they would have let my co-worker sail out of Galveston, I would have told her it would have been a great deal....and only an eight hour drive.

 

I hope it does work out for you!:)

[PlanningToCruise]

I'm going to continue on with this......at least for now.

and you should. I was in the car biz ( which is why I posted that the cost price of the voucher was in the "cost" of the vehicle, which is how it's done) We did 2 promo's with cruise voucher's. They're 100% real (at least from any reputable dealership)

I had about 15 customer's actually take various cruise''s and even let me know when they returned how much fun they had. This was back in the late 80's, I"m sure it works the same way. I can tell you that what the dealership pay's for it ( which they add to the cost of the vehicle) is LESS than what you would pay even paying a discounted cruise rate:) it's worth it.

[poborobbins]

I'm researching AIM Cruises and it sounds like you got one. I'm considering buying a block of these tickents to offer in a similar manner. Have you gone on your cruise yet? Are you able to offer any feedback about the experience?

 

I see your travel agent is CCT, ours would be (depending on where the sales rep is located I guess) Pacific Coast Travel.

 

I am skeptical because I am not able to find *anything* negative about AIM online and I'm also not able to find anything positive that is not written, or published, by them while they claim to have been around for a long time.

 

But the program seems legitimate. It's not advertised as being free; although, I'm not surprised the car sales person told you it was free. It also seems like it may be a good value for what you get. 5 day/4 night cruise packages can range from hundreds of dollars to thousands depending on where you go and I'm looking at giving these away as part of a promotion. The package I'm looking at is a minimum purchase of 30 tickets at $159 each.

 

I hope to learn good things.

[E&B]

I'm researching AIM Cruises and it sounds like you got one. I'm considering buying a block of these tickents to offer in a similar manner. Have you gone on your cruise yet? Are you able to offer any feedback about the experience?

 

 

 

I see your travel agent is CCT, ours would be (depending on where the sales rep is located I guess) Pacific Coast Travel.

 

 

 

I am skeptical because I am not able to find *anything* negative about AIM online and I'm also not able to find anything positive that is not written, or published, by them while they claim to have been around for a long time.

 

 

 

But the program seems legitimate. It's not advertised as being free; although, I'm not surprised the car sales person told you it was free. It also seems like it may be a good value for what you get. 5 day/4 night cruise packages can range from hundreds of dollars to thousands depending on where you go and I'm looking at giving these away as part of a promotion. The package I'm looking at is a minimum purchase of 30 tickets at $159 each.

 

 

 

I hope to learn good things.

 

 

You just replied to a 10 year old thread.