Transatlantic Cruise 2008

We went on a Transatlantic Cruise on the Carnival Freedom on April 26th with stops in St. Maarteen, Funchal Madeira Portugal, Malaga Spain, Livorno Italy, and ending in Civitavecchia Italy on May 10th. After that we spent five days in Montecatini Italy before returning to Florida.

The cruise was a really fun time. We joined up with 30 or so people from Harbor Hills, in Lady Lake Florida. These folks were so kind to us "outsiders" and they treated us like friends and neighbors.

If you want to read a positive post, stop here. The rest is negative.

We caught a bus from Harbor Hills and traveled to Miami to begin the cruise. The bus was an hour late and the driver did not know where the port was in Miami. How hard is it to program a couple of addresses into a GPS? That is what happens when the tour company has the lowest bidder do their work.

The tour company is Legendary Journeys. What a joke this company is. It is not, however a joke to the folks who book travel with them. We traveled on another transatlantic cruise through Legendary Journeys two years ago and had no big problems.

This year they booked over 1700 people on this Carnival Cruise. They bit off more than they could chew. You know what happens when you to that? You either spit it out or try to swallow it and choke or puke. These folks puked, big time.

This company has what appear to be great deals. They advertise in the travel section of newspapers and also on the internet. What often appears to be a great deal turns into a nightmare as charges add and service declines.

Legendary Journeys offers a $100 discount if you pay by check. Don't do it. At least if you charge your trip on your credit card and there is a problem the credit card company can help you get what you pay for. Nickel and dime charges add up. These folks are pros at this.

In our case they offered what looked like a great deal on a 14-day cruise on the Carnival Freedom, from Miami, Florida, to the port of Rome in Italy, followed by a five-day stay in Montecatini, Tuscany, Italy. The cruise itself was great. The actions and lack of service by Legendary Journeys was beyond belief.

It all started with the manager of The Villages office in Summerfield, Florida. This office is located near the large retirement community, The Villages. With thousands of retirees this is an area for prime pickings for shady characters. Legendary Journeys fits the profile. The office manager is a really slick shyster. She has an answer for everything. That is if you can get in contact with her.

When I complained about return flight schedules she told me that the major airlines had cut back drastically on their flights from Pisa and Florence Italy, located about 30 miles from our post cruise location in Montecatini, Italy. I looked up the flight schedules from Pisa and Florence and emailed them to her. She never even bothered to answer my email. Our group was booked on a flight from Rome, some 3-4 hours away from Monetcatini. This required us to get up at 2 a.m. and catch a bus at 3:30 a.m. for a 10:40 a.m. flight from Rome. It would have been a lot more convenient to leave at a decent hour and fly out of Pisa or Florence. We know some folks who did this and arrived in Orlando before we did. Our day was about 30 hours and theirs was much shorter.

The Legendary Journeys chief representative on the ship and in Monetcatini was no better than the one in Florida. This lady had a serious case of attitude. A lousy attitude. She spent a lot of time telling the customers how busy she was instead of doing her job. It was lucky for the customers that some of the other reps, like Wally, in Montecatini, were on top of their jobs and went out of their way to help with no complaints.

One day, while in Montecatini, we had booked a tour of Cinque Terre. You can see a Wikipedia description of these places at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre
There was a train strike scheduled for the day of our tour so Legendary Journeys, acting like they had no prior knowledge of the strike, changed the tour to two towns accessible by bus. The first one, Lerici, was not too bad. But the second town was closed for siesta when we got there. The only place that we found open was a public bathroom.Although there was a train strike, ferry service is available to four of the five towns in the Cinque Terre. Another option would have been to reschedule the tour for a day when there was no train strike. We knew about th strike, as did the rest of the world, a week in advance. I am sure that this tour cost much less than the one scheduled. Big time rip off. Legendary Journeys said to read their terms of service. They puked again.

Would I do another transatlantic cruise? You bet. Would I book through Legenday Journeys again? No way.

No pictures with this blog post. I will post some pictures in another post.

END OF RANT