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I Just Got a Free Cruise; The Follow-up Story

Cruise Ships

Is a “Free Cruise” really free???

In an earlier blog, I talked about the real value of a so-called “Free Cruise“. Recently, I received one and wanted to go through the whole process so that I could describe it fully to you so you could save yourself the wasted effort trying to get a free cruise that will turn out to NOT be free.

To start with, I received a “Free Baja Cruise” certificate after attending a timeshare presentation.  I did not buy the timeshare, but figured that I could use a free cruise, and the two hours spent listening to the presentation would be worth at least $360 in savings on a cruise.  Where else would I earn that kind of money?

I read the cruise certificate, front and back, noticing that they estimated that I would have to pay about $179 per person for port fees and taxes, otherwise the cruise was free… unless I wanted to upgrade to a better cabin or travel during a busy season, which is most of the year here in California for these Baja Cruises.

The process was different with this certificate, than others that I have seen, in that you are given the choice to either send in the certificate or to log into a website to “Register” your certificate.  You have to register this certificate within 60 days.  If you miss this step, or are late in doing it, the certificate is worthless. I could argue that it is worthless at any time, but, unless you do this first step on time, you have no recourse. Keep in mind that the certificate is only good for one year so every day that you delay in getting the certificate registered, means that you have fewer days to select for your vacation.

After you register, you receive a letter explaining that you need to send in a $100 reservation deposit. With this company, you will receive an email as soon as they get the check so that you can immediately log on and start picking the dates you want to cruise.  In this example, you had to pick your first choice 60 days after the date that they log in the deposit.  You need to pick two more dates, one of them at least 30 days after the first one and the last one at least another 30 days later.  Now you wait.

Generally, about 45 days before the first date you have selected, you will receive a letter telling you that it is time to log in and finalize your cruise date. They tell you that you will be responsible for the taxes and port fees as noted on the back of the certificate.  They also say that after you decide if you want to upgrade to a better cabin, then they will check your dates to see if there are any available cabins of the type you have selected.  If there are cabins on all three dates you selected, you can choose which one you want.  If only one of the dates have the cabin you selected, then you are stuck with that date.

Now, before we move on, I did a little homework on my own to figure out how much I would pay if I bought this cruise through the cruise line or a travel agent.  This cruise was a 4 night, 5 day Baja cruise out of Long Beach. I also looked up the cost for upgrades because I knew that they would be trying to up-sell me to a better cabin.  I also checked the taxes and port charges listed on the cruise line website.  I also knew that this free cruise would be for the cheapest fare available, an inside cabin with the bunk beds. (They call it 1A-Upper/Lower online because that does not sound as bad as bunk beds.  Also, you should know that they don’t have very many of these cabins on the ship, so your chances of going the cheap route is very limited. You will very likely have to upgrade to use the certificate.)

Online, I found that this cruise was advertised at $279 + $41.36 in taxes, per person, for a 1A-Upper/Lower cabin. Further research showed that of the $279, there is $99 in port fees.  So the real cost is $180 + $99 + 41.36 which is important because that means that my free cruise only covers the $180 per person for the cruise.  Therefore, I would expect to have to pay $140.36 in port fees and taxes per person, plus any upgrade that I wanted.  I did not want to sleep on bunk beds and would have been willing to pay the advertised rate for an upgrade to an ocean view cabin. Online, the advertised fee for an ocean view was $319 per person, plus taxes, instead of the $279 per person, plus taxes, which is an additional $40 per person.

So, now I think that I will have to pay $140.36 in port fees and taxes, plus $40 for the upgrade, per person, for a total of $180.36 per person or $360.72 for my free cruise.  Not free, but I am saving about $360 over buying it myself.

To my surprise, that is not what happened.  I was talking on the phone to person about what I want to do and was I ever surprised that they are charging $125 per person for the upgrade that is advertised at $40 per person online. Also, they will be charging the full $179 estimated fee for taxes and port charges.  That means that they want $304 per person or a total of $608 for the free cruise.  That is almost $250 more than the $360 that I was expecting.

The craziest part is that I could buy a senior citizen rate, because I am an old guy, that would give me the ocean view for $279 plus $41.36 in taxes.  The whole package would cost $640.72 for the two of us.  Best of all, I pick my dates, I do it all online, and I don’t have to deal with someone from some sort of call center that cannot really provide the full service that I deserve.

Keep that in mind when you are ready to take a cruise. Talk with a travel agent like me who can look at all of the options and will give you the service you deserve.  Best of all, you won’t have to sit through a timeshare presentation to get a certificate for a “Free Cruise” that isn’t really free.

One last thought.  I did not listen to the call long enough to get into the discussion about travel insurance but I am sure that it would have been twice as expensive as what I could get directly through the cruise line or from a good company as Travel Guard.  Don’t forget to make sure you get travel insurance to protect your investment in a carefree vacation. If you don’t know why, look at my earlier blog about travel insurance and medical emergencies.

I guess it was true; there is no free lunch, nor a free cruise either.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

Can Team Edwards Travel Save me $$$ if I Am Using My Timeshare?

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Can Team Edwards Travel save you money?

Maybe Yes, Maybe No

We all know that time is money, and that knowledge is king! And good travel agents, like Team Edwards Travel, can save the consumer time and with their knowledge, money. People in general associate the web with great deals, while in fact, great offers and amenities can be had by using an agent as well. But remember, pricing is not the only issue; the real issue is who will be there when things go wrong? Will you be able to get in touch with someone on that online site?  Wouldn’t you just rather call your agent, and let them take care of the issues?  Service is the hallmark of a good agent.

Now, let’s get on to the question at hand to see if your travel agent at Team Edwards Travel can save you some money. If your timeshare is within driving distance from your home, you probably won’t save any money if you use your travel agent to book your activities, but you can probably benefit from their knowledge of the area.  They may have some great ideas about things to see and do that you may not have experienced before. That is another reason for working with Team Edwards Travel because we love to travel and love to share our experiences with you.  You will have more fun and save money too.

For example, on our last trip to Seaside, Oregon, we took several side trips and visited some great sites enroute that I am sure you would love to do as well. Like, checking out the Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville, sampling cheese at the Tillimook Cheese Factory. We also took a great day trip up to Seattle for a visit to The Pike Place Market as well as to see a Cirque du Soleil show.  If you don’t know what is happening in the area, you might miss out.  Ask your agent what is happening.  We may have some great ideas for you.

If you are flying to your timeshare, I am sure that you can save money by having your travel agent book your airfare and rental car, excursions, shows, etc…

As noted in an earlier blog, your travel agent needs to book a package of products in order to save you money and to get paid a commission, otherwise they have to charge you a service fee for their time and effort. They are not in business to work for free.  They are service providers and expect to get paid for providing their services.

As an example, we travel regularly to Hawaii to make use of our timeshare.  In fact, we will be enjoying our timeshare again this fall.  This is a perfect example of where Team Edwards Travel can bundle the airfare, rental car and a couple of excursions, and save you some money.  We can also suggest some great things to do.  When we visit Kauai we really enjoy taking the time to see the Napali Coast either from the air or from a boat.  Both are great excursions!  It is a great hike too if you are in shape and ready for a workout. Booking all of these together saves money.  On this trip, we will try out the Smith Family Garden Luau on Kauai and let you know what we think.

On Ohau, we like to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center which is a great day trip, ending with a luau and a show.  Don’t forget the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. This is another area where combining the airfare, car rental and the excursions will save you money. On this trip to Ohau, we will check out the new Disney facility, The Aulani, and let you know what we think.  It’s Grand Opening will be on August 29th; so if you are a big Disney fan, you will want to vacation there the next time you go to Ohau.

Just make sure to contact us before your next vacation, so that Team Edwards Travel can show you how we can save you money and increase your enjoyment.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel

I Just Received a Free Cruise Certificate. Is it Really Free?

Cruise Ships
We have all been there. Go to a 90-minute presentation and get a free cruise as a gift for attending.  Of course, it always takes twice as long to get through the presentation, and sometimes the certificate is not worth the time, especially if you ended up buying a time share that you cannot really afford or won’t be able to use, and that will require you to pay a maintenance fee every year, even if you don’t use it. That is a different discussion though.  Back to the free cruise certificate for two.
cruise-ships

So, is the free cruise really free?

The best answer is “sort of” or “it depends” because it really does depend upon who issued the free cruise certificate, which certificate the sales rep gives you, and the terms of that certificate.  In fact, I have found that the value of a free cruise certificate can be anywhere from $175 to $1000.

I am not qualified to give you tax advise, but keep in mind that, in most cases, you will have to fill out an IRS W-9 form so that the give-away company can write off the value of the certificate and send you an IRS-1099-Misc.  You will have to claim the value of the cruise as income on your tax return.  Remember to look up, print out and save the information about the cruise you take to argue against whatever the marketing company puts on the IRS-1099 Misc. they send you next January.  You don’t want to pay taxes on a free $1500 cruise if its real value is only a couple hundred dollars.

To really answer the question, “Is it really free”, you first need to understand how cruise lines price their cruises. If you go online to www.Carnival.com or www.NCL.com or www.RoyalCaribbean.com, you can get the price for a 3-day, 4-day or a 7-day cruise.  When you look at the pricing, remember that the price is per person based upon double occupancy.  You also need to know that the advertised price includes the port fees but does not include the government taxes.

Please also remember that Carnival or the other cruise lines don’t have any connection with the “free cruise certificates” at all.  These certificates are sold to timeshare companies and auto dealers, and realtors, etc… as incentives to get buyers into their place of business or as gifts to their clients for making a purchase.  The incentive company manages the certificates and the booking of the cruises when the certificates are redeemed.  They will also sell you upgrades, travel insurance, etc…

VisionOfTheSeas

As an example, I will use Carnival Cruise Lines 4-day Mexico cruise.  It is the most often found cruise line that is used for free cruises on the west coast. Their 4-day Mexico cruise goes from Los Angeles to Catalina Island, to Ensenada, Mexico then back to Los Angeles.

If you check online you will see that this 4-day Mexico cruise is priced from $229 to $539 depending upon when you take the cruise.  In the travel industry the prices are based upon the peak seasons vs. the off-peak seasons.  The port fees and travel agent commission are included in the advertised rate.  To calculate the cost of the least expensive cruise to an online buyer, just add the taxes, which are $35.43 in this case, for a total cost of $264.43 per person, double occupancy.  The cost would be the same if this online buyer had used their personal travel agent.

Also, with either the free certificate or a regular purchase, you should also buy travel insurance so that you don’t lose anything if you cannot make the cruise.  And, don’t forget, that unless you live in Los Angeles or Miami, you will have to drive there and that means $$ for gas, or buying two round trip tickets plus the cost of a cab or transfer from the airport to the ship terminal.  That will run another $625 for the cheapest tickets I could find on Southwest, round trip from Sacramento to Los Angeles. They may be more or less from your hometown to the port.

Keep in mind that the higher-cost cruises will be during the summer months and Christmas break.  Generally, the certificates do not allow you to choose those times unless you pay a premium.  The fine print will say that the certificate is good for off-peak sailing dates. Remember, they really want to sell you an upgraded cruise.  Often if you check the cruise line directly, the cost for a peak week may only be a few dollars more than a non peak week. Through the incentive company, they will charge you about $199 for almost any week that they consider a peak week, even though it is not more expensive with the cruise line.

The agency handling the free cruise certificate and booking the reservation will charge you a service charge of at least $20 plus the $35.43 for taxes plus the $99 port charges, which means that you really did not get a free cruise.  In this example, the cruise, which would have cost you $264.43 per person to buy on the open market, will cost you a minimum of $154.43 per person.  In this example, you would only save about $110 per person.  So, you could expect a total savings of only $220 over buying the cruise online or from your local travel agent.  Remember to print out the online cost so that you can argue if the IRS 1099 you get shows a value of more than $220 for the free cruise.

Now, I can fully appreciate saving the $220, but what do you really pay in frustration and hassle for the $220.  Lets read the rest of the small print on the certificate.  You have to use the free certificate within 1 year, you have to return the initial document within 30 days, you have to pick a first choice date 60 days from the date your certificate is authenticated and your deposit has been paid, you have to select 3 dates, at least 30 days apart.  They will then choose your cruise date and let you know a few weeks before you cruise, and you cannot travel during the peak season or during any holidays without paying an additional fee.

You have to decide if the cruise is really free or not.  If I am only saving $220, I will shred the certificate, call my travel agent, and schedule a cruise that really fits my time frames without all the hassle.  Vacations should not be a hassle.

On the other hand, if you “won” a 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise, the costs and savings are often more complicated, but could be enough to make the hassle worthwhile.  If you book your 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise online or through a travel agent, or even with the free cruise certificate, you will pay about $160 for the port charges and about $56 in taxes, about $220 per person.  If you check online, you can find a good 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise for about $750 per person, taxes and port fees included.

Some of the incentive companies sell “free 7-day cruise certificates” to the travel companies or timeshare companies that have more costs hidden in the small print so that more money goes out of your pocket and into theirs.

For example, I have one “free 7-day cruise certificate” that charges the port fees and taxes like all of them do, but also charges an initial $20 processing fee plus a $50 per person agency processing fee to make the reservations plus an additional fee of $55 per person per day.  On this “free 7-day cruise certificate” I would have spent about $1330 for a $1500 cruise.  We would only save about $172 for two people on this 7-day cruise.

I saw a certificate from another company, which would only cost me about $440 in port charges and taxes for two people and a processing fee of about $20.  Since there were no additional per day charges, that certificate would save me over $1000 on that $1500 cruise.

Needless to say, I would shred the first one and consider using the second one if I could get dates that would work for me.

So, in conclusion free cruises are not free.  Some save you a little money but are not worth the trouble.  Most require you to jump through dozens of hoops, all in the hope that you give up.  That way, the incentive company wins because they sold the certificate to the timeshare company, and they don’t have to deliver.  The timeshare company probably won too.  They got you to come to the presentation and maybe even sold you a timeshare.  You are probably better off if you ignore the free offers. If they give you cash money, maybe it is worth spending an hour or two with them, but it is not worth it for a travel certificate that is more trouble than it is worth.

Finally, if you did buy that timeshare week, please use it.  Don’t let your travel budget go to waste.  You won’t be the only one to have bought the dream of glorious vacations in a timeshare condo resort.  We did.  We use our timeshare weeks every year or give it to one of our kids to use.  We never let it go to waste.

In fact, with the points-based timeshare week, we can book 2 days in the timeshare before we board a cruise out of Miami to enjoy the Caribbean, then book another 2 days upon return to really turn it into a relaxing vacation.  No hoping that the plane arrives on time so that we can get to the ship on time, or no booking an expensive hotel the night before the cruise.  We can spend a day at Disney World before the cruise and a day at Universal Studios when we return. That still leaves us 3 days for a weekend getaway later in the year.

In my humble opinion, if you really want to take a cruise, I recommend that you give one a try.  They are, dollar for dollar, the cheapest vacation you can buy, other than driving to mom’s house for vacation.  Call Team Edwards Travel and have us book you on a 3 or 4 day cruise to see how much fun it is, when you do it without all the hassle, with a travel professional covering your back.  You will be happy you did and you will be ready to book that 7-day cruise to the Caribbean next year.

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Turning Dreams into Memories,
One Vacation at a Time.
Bon Voyage!!!

As you might guess, this document is a compilation of information from our travels as well as from other travelers. I hope it has been of value to you.  Check out the important links below.

Don’t hesitate to email us when you return from your trip with any suggestions that will make this document better for you and your fellow travelers!

You may also want to visit our Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/TeamEdwardsTravel