Apple Valcations

Could not be more disappointed with the way my vacation was run by apple vacations — truly hopeless company with a complete lack of customer service. Be prepared for cancelled flights, zero notice, 2 hour phone line holds and no one from the company available to help you through the mishaps they are directly responsible for. Pamela Judge in particular was unable to comprehend customer service at even the most basic level although it would be unfair to put the blame solely on this rep as each one I spoke to in person or via phone or email was similarly and frustratingly unwilling to listen or assume any ownership for their companies shortcomings. I wouldn’t wish the travel complications and out of pocket expenses incurred by my family on anyone. Please be weary of doing business with this company — based on my conversations with numerous other customers at four different airports, my bad experience is the norm when traveling with Apple Vacations. I personally see zero benefit in paying an agency to guide you through your travel when they take zero ownership or initiative to assist their customers.

Bottom line this company made the trip a disaster. This is a recap of the events that follow our return and all the miss communication by Apple representatives.
We are writing about our recent travel experience with Apple Vacations on 2÷14÷15 — 2÷21÷15. The costs we refer to evolved initially from significant time delay of 7 hours (9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) for take-​off of flight 251 due to mechanical problems (failure). During this time no food or drink was provided, thus necessitating purchase of food and/​or personal items in the terminal on ²⁄₂₁ from Cozumel Airport (CZM), after disembarking our flight 251 we were left standing without transportation and lodging. This request is the additional night stay in Cozumel, Mexico March ²¹⁄₂₂.
Departure was scheduled for 9:00 am. We sat in terminal until 11:45am while the mechanical repairs were underway.
Boarded the Flight 251 at 11:45am and sat at Gate 3 until 1:00pm.
Instructions were given to the Captian of our flight 251 to move away from the gate since his plane was interfering with other air traffic (coming and going) on the ground at the terminal.
The Captain then informed us that the reason we had stayed on the tarmac was because the mechanical problem which has associated paper work to be filled out and sign offs. The captain then told us «will you can image we are dealing with a government agency that requires a LOT of paper work to be filled out». This went on until 3:00pm.
Then around 3:30pm we were informed by the captain «that Apple Vacations and it’s backer have determined that they will cancel our flight today». There was no mention about BWI.
An additional fact is that BWI, our destination, was NOT closed, therefore IF departure was on time at 9:00am and NOT held up by a mechanical failure and the associated lengthy paper work, we should have been in-​route to BWI. Then there was a two hour wait in the BWI airport waiting for customs as the airline Xtra Airways didn’t alert anyone to our inbound flight on Sunday Feb. 22.
In addition, Apple Vacations had only one Amstar representative working to find us transportation and lodging. We were 111 passengers facing the most frustrating situation. The Amstar representative did finally find our group of 12 passengers six (6), a room at the Hotel Safari Inn Cozumel (see picture Reception). Then the representative put us all in line to purchase our taxi ride to this hotel downtown Upon arrival to the hotel being the second taxi, there were only five (5) rooms available which left us out.
At this point, 6:30pm in the evening, here we are downtown Cozumel with no cell phone to call for help, we threw in the towel after following all the directions of the representative. After a lengthy search we found The Hotel Casa Mexicana Cozumel and it only had one (1) room available. The following morning we checked out of hotel and having no way to contact the representative we waved down a taxi to go to the airport. Upon arrival NO charge cards were accepted by the cab so we had to pay with cash.

My review for apple vacations.
I booked my first vacation in 7 years this past October, 2013 with Apple Vacations. My trip was to Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana, and it was from Dec 27-​Jan 6^th.
The trip was awful. I was told that I was going to an Adult Only facility, when I got there not only were there children of all ages, everywhere, but of the five hotel rooms in my quad, four of them had multiple children in them.
When I arrived from the airport to the hotel, the hotel reception had me sit on a couch in the corner until someone came to help me from apple. No one ever came to help me from apple. After about 45 minutes of waiting and trying to communicate with the front desk (virtually no one spoke english) I walked around and found an apple desk no more than 100 yards from where I was sitting. Talk about being pissed off!
Apparently I was supposed to have gone through an orientation with apple when I first arrived at the hotel. I did not know this until the last day of my trip when I went to the front desk to find out when my bus was going to take me to the airport. The person at the desk told me that I missed my bus and was supposed to have checked some three ring binder in her office the night before my flight so that I would know when my bus was leaving the hotel. I told the woman that I tried to talk with apple the night before but no one could tell me what to do. They kept telling me to go to «this office» (the office that I was in currently where the woman told me that my bus was gone) and they would help me. But, of course, at 7pm in the evening the night before my flight, there was no one in the office to help me. The women asked me at this time if I remembered what I was told in orientation about consulting the «three ring binder». I said «what orientation are you talking about? I was not told I had an orientation!».
The hotel itself was ok, except that if you wanted a chair at the pool or on the beach you had to be up at 6:30am and put a towel on said chair or you would not have a chair for the entire day (this is because families with multiple children would occupy the chairs for the entire day… remember the NO Children/​Adult only issue???). When I am on vacation, I don’t want to have to set my alarm for 6:30am to get up to rush out to the chairs so I would have one for the day.
The all inclusive part was a joke. If you happened to get up and go to the gym at 9:00 like I did, and you get out of the gym at 10:30 or 11:00, you were totally out of luck for food, because the buffets were only open at specific times… so you better not be starving after the gym like I was, or your day was not going to start out well. On top of that, there was NO PLACE to buy food! If you didn’t have a reservation for dinner, and the buffets were closed, you were stuck with pringles and snickers from the gift shop, if they were open!!! You could not go to a restuarant and just buy a meal… unless you had a reservation, which you had to fight with the guy at the apple desk to get.
I explained all of this to Apple, and they sent me a $ 250 voucher that had to be spent on an apple vacation. My trip cost 4,000…and they want to give me a voucher to spend on another apple vacation? What, do they think that I’m going to chance another 4,000 trip with their organization for a WEAK 250.00 voucher? That’s like going to a restaurant and having a bad experience on a 40 bill, and them giving you a 2.50 voucher to come back.
People, don’t do business with this company.
G. R. Smith