Kennedy Kruises & Travel

.My family has been devoted customers of Kennedy Kruises & Travel for all of our travel needs ranging from New Zealand to the Bahamas and we can always depend on Melodie to provide us with reliable trip planning from beginning to end. Every year, Melodies arranges around 3 – 4 trips for my family and has always been an incredibly pleasant and friendly travel consultant to work with. Not only is she quick and efficient in arranging our travel, but she is also very flexible, supportive, kind, and responds to all of our emails and inquiries in a timely manner. I have to admit, we haven’t been easy customers given our tendency to change our minds about itineraries or decisions to embark on last minute vacations; however, Melodie proves this to be no challenge as she takes care of all of our needs with sincere enthusiasm and a great attitude. Not to mention, she is probably one of the most caring and personable travel consultants you can work with — we have truly been thrilled to work with her over the past few years and look forward to the many more to come!

Melodie planned a trip for us to Australia and it was a trip of a lifetime! My oldest son applied for and was accepted to study abroad — the whole family wanted to drop him off. I had no idea where to start planning a trip, so I called Melodie. Everything went off without a hitch. My youngest son is going to study in London in August — she was my first call to plan a trip to Ireland and England.

We are stalwart fans of Melodie. She has planned many trips for us over the last 10 years & we always enjoy working with her & have recommended her to friends & family. She did a phenomenal job planning a 2-​wk trip to New Zealand for us & 2 friends & we have enjoyed several cruises thru her as well. Very knowledgable, very helpful & always fun to work with.

I have been on at least ten trips planned by Melodie in the last 15 years. She’s always been professional, knowledgeable, and helpful, and stayed within my budget.

As documented in the San Jose Mercury News Travel article
we hired Melodie Kennedy of Kennedy Kruises & Travel (CST# 2 021 188) in Menlo Park, CA to arrange a trip to Australia to visit our daughter in 2013. Not only did she misinform us about numerous items during the travels she adamantly refuses to be transparent regarding how she spent our $ 10,853 fee. Some examples of her incompetence are as follows:
I asked to her clarify overnight parking rates at our Sydney hotel in order to make a rental car decision. When she informed us that parking was $ 3/​day we decided to rent the car on an earlier date. The actual parking rate was $ 29/​day. I assume that any «Australian specialist» would have an understanding of reasonable rates and would have personally questioned the rate before misinforming a client.
During an initial call with Melodie, I mentioned that my wife is a foreign national. She said that VISAs would be no problem and that she would apply for us and even pay the fee. A week before our departure she panics and finally informs us that I must personally apply for a VISA for my wife, fill out the documents, UPS the documents to the Australian Embassy in Washington DC and pay all fees to expedite the VISA process. Again, I would assume that an «Australian specialist» would understand the VISA requirements or at least verify any non-​US requirements before making empty promises to their clients.
Melodie arranged for a diving trip in the Great Barrier Reef. When I informed her of the rates that the service provider she chose, Poseidon Cruises of Port Douglas, quoted us directly her response was «that would be one huge bargain». She however refuses to clarify how much I actually paid for the diving trip.
After various mistakes Melodie Kennedy made came to light, I questioned her numerous times how she actually arrived at the total price of $ 10,853 that she charged us. I provided her opportunities to clarify but to no avail. Her only response is that, «The rates charged for your trip were fair.»