Thread: Cruise for seniors in jeopardy after travel agent fails to forward cash

By Tom Stieghorst
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted December 27 2006

Several groups of South Florida travelers are facing the loss of a long-planned cruise because their travel agent did not forward their money to the cruise line.

About 160 seniors were booked on a Jan. 7 trip aboard a Costa Cruise Lines ship through Coral Springs travel agent Ernest L. Grossman.

Cruise for seniors in jeopardy after travel agent fails to forward cash: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Well this is just plain sad. Hope they find the guy and send him to room with Saddam.

Make your payments with a credit card.

Those that did, have some recourse.

Those that didn't, don't.

My sentiments too Reggie...it is a shame...and maybe some of the elderly or older folk just don't have a credit card...but at least they could see on their statement that the final payment was actually made and charged by the cruise line.

I do hope these people are able to cruise!

It seems that the elderly are the most vulnerable and as such are frequently targeted. It's really a shame that this, can I say SCUMBAG, beat these people out of what was to be such a wonderful cruise vacation.

Reggie

I would think that someone knew a while ago that there was a problem.
2 weeks before sailing seems like a long time to wait to tell them that their final payment was not made.

There is another thread on the board that discusses the use of REGISTERED Travel Agents vs. unregistered ones.

This excerpt from the above linked article is particulaarly interesting, in light of our recent discussion here:


"Cruise Associates International is a fictitious name registered by Tamarac Travel Agency Inc. Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said neither is registered as a seller of travel with the state.

Compton said Tamarac Travel was formerly exempt from registering, but is not on the most recent list of exempt agencies. "They should not be selling travel," she said."

Here's the link to the thread mentioned in the above post:
http://www.cruiselinefans.com/cruise...stered-ta.html (Would You Book with an Unregistered TA)