Trip Assurance "Free will cost you" Saint Petersburg Florida

My fiance got a call after a vacation to Florida that she had won a cruise and trip to the Bahamas. Her and I listened to the pre-recorded message and everything sounded pretty good. The fee pricing seemed high, but a trip to the Bahamas would be more expensive than the fees, so we thought.

We went ahead and paid the initial $29 fee and another $69 fee at the time of claiming our prize. We got off the call and moved on with our day.

A few days later we received our vacation package in the mail. Which was from "Bahamas Vacation" and had nothing in it about "Travpro". This is when I had time and I looked into all of the fees and realized a few things. First, the original trip was given to me by Trav-Pro,the mailing came from Bahama Vacations which seemed odd.

Secondly I reviewed some previous receipts from a 5 day cruise that I took less than a year ago. The total of my 5 day cruise with Carnival totaled $489 to include port fees, taxes, and gratuity. My "free" cruise for 31hrs (which is 2 days and 2 nights according to the package) would cost me $572. This was just to get on the cruise so who knows what else I would have been hit with had I actualy gone.

After these findings I noticed an opt out clause where I could take my own transportation to the Bahamas and still utilize the All-Inclusive Wyndham Resort. I thought that sounded better so I immediately called and cancelled the cruise portion. Now that they almost got me on the cruise, I decided I would look into the Resort.

I found that it would cost $69 a day per person for a resort fee for my free vacation. Not bad, however now I have to pay a $100 "alternative travel arrangement deposit." I totaled this up to cost $890. This doesn't seem bad until I went to the Wyndham resort to see how much I could book this exact hotel for on my own.

I plugged in some random dates and found that I could book this same resort for $749 for the same amount of days/nights.

Now, all of this was explained and the charges outlined. However, the term "free" is being deceptively used to explain this vacation. Also, this business will express that the port fees they are charging are very low compared to flying into the Bahamas. (Bogus) Two reps. from this company explained this to me and to my research it costs absolutely nothing in tax or fees to fly into the Bahamas.

This company is very good at making there money off of giving away very expensive "free" vacations. I congratulate them on their deceptions and the fact that they are very good at covering there asses. 

All told this would have been a $1462 "free" vacation. I could take the same vacation on my own terms for less than that. 

Please people, stay away from this stuff. They almost got me on this crappy deal, luckily they didn't and hopefully they won't get any of you now.