I wish I had done a little research before I bought into this because one quick scan and I would have known immediately that this was all a big scam. I cannot tell you how many times on my answering machine, I had a taped message from Imperial Cruise lines with the ships horn blowing. I actually picked up the phone one day and was stupid and gullible enough to think that a quick cruise with my daughter would be a great way to celebrate her birthday and achievements at school.
That date was 3-5-09, after having my daughter go and apply for a rushed passport, I called the company to book my cruise on 4-16-09. The first person I called, gave me another 1800 number to call. When I called that number, they said that there were no cruise dates available until after August 31st for the package I purchased (which was 2 day cruise paying the $59 port fees). I explained to them that when I purchased this package initially only 1 1/2 months ago, they told me the only dates that were blocked were Dec 24 through Jan 4.
After wasting my breath with this person, I asked to speak to a supervisor (all of this with intermittent holding periods of 10 mins or longer) I think they do that just to get your blood pressure cooking - Anyway Mr. Harry (Harry I was told was his last name) got on the phone and was very rude and condescending giving me the line that I was the irresponsible one for looking to get such an expensive cruise offer for nothing, he also told me that the company I booked from was not Imperial Majesty but a vendor call sales center with scripts they follow and no idea of what the cruise is or what dates are available. He also stated that Imperial is no longer sailing, that the cruise line is now Bahama Celebration even though they still have a website out there, the calls are directed to other scam artists. The only way I could go on the dates I wanted to was if I upgraded to a suite for another $500.
This is obviously a scam deal, they are getting your credit card number, charging various fees and jerking people around so that they end up going no where or from what I have read since they end up on lousy or mediocre at best cruises. I argued with him for at least 1/2 hour and got no where, he told me he had a board meeting to go to :-))) so he had to hang up. Forget about getting a refund but I am certainly not giving them any more money. I have called Discover Card and they have put in a dispute, not sure that this will work since apparently they are still in business when it comes to a method of disputing disputes, they probably have mastered that since I've seen comments dating back to 2003 now. I am also having them close this card and reissue another card, since now that they have my name and credit card number, who knows where they are selling this information and to whom.
I am typically not a person who falls for too good to be true schemes, so I'm angry at myself more than anything for being played a fool and have learned an expensive lesson and am only writing this in the hopes that someone else doesn't get screwed and fall for this scheme. Better off going to a reputable cruise line and make direct purchase than fall for this scam. I also had never been on a cruise, so thought that this was really a good marketing tool to get people to buy into longer cruises after having this experience. Definitely NOT SO!
Tina
Cary, North Carolina
U.S.A.