Legendary Journeys Consumer Reviews - Page 2

THE VILLAGES, FLORIDA -- This is an opportunity for Legendary Journeys to do something about a false promise before it is too late. Hopefully someone cares enough to help our travel agent with her inability to get a response from the travel itinerary group, which seems to be overwhelmed and too busy to meet their scheduled commitments.

We leave Saturday, April 2 for a three-week trip to Europe, staying overnight in three different countries and a river cruise. This is a long and complicated trip with transfers, bus, ship, airplane, etc. At the last minute we did receive our airline reservations. Of course at the last minute a couple of flights do not have seat assignments, reservations made too late to get seat assignments, but so far we are able to get there, but no idea what we are doing when we get there.

We were promised our itinerary yesterday by 6pm by our travel agent, who seems to have little control over the response of her organization. Of course, it's impossible to contact anyone at LJ on a Saturday. So, hopefully someone will read this and help out so this turns out to be a good trip instead of some of the disasters I have read about. Better to write before and give them a chance to make things right before they go too wrong, right?

Oh, did I mention we made these reservations in December, 2015? One would think it's enough time to plan and issue the itinerary 7 days in advance as promised. Thanks for your help. Hopefully the follow-up will be positive with great reviews for LJ.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- I booked a tour for my family and myself, paid for 4 people plus an optional Grand Canyon Train tour. This tour was from Oct. 5th-Oct 12th, right at the beginning there were problems. I dealt with ** at the Summerfield office, what a case she is, doesn't know anything but to take your money. The whole experience was a nightmare and a rip-off of false advertising and a scam.

We were to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fest, then stop at the Petrified National Forest, Grand Canyon, and on to Las Vegas. The balloon fest was cancelled the day we went and the tour company had no back-up schedule to go the next day even though we were still there. We had to find our own way back and pay extra to see what we already paid for. Everything was rush, rush and you had no time to walk around and see other things.

The hotel they put us in was doing renovations and we were supposed to have a handicap room and it was not done, in fact the room was the farthest from an elevator and exit. Also, there was no safe place for eating. Then we left there and did a quick drive-through of the Petrified National Forest. That night we were put up in a hotel outside of Williams to go to the Grand Canyon the next day, instead of putting us in a hotel in town where we could sight see and make use of the trip. The only place to eat was Denny's and they only had 2 people serving so that was another nightmare.

We were expecting the Grand Canyon Train to take us around and through the Grand Canyon, well that was a rip-off, because the only Grand Canyon you see with that train is in the name of the train. They charged us more through the tour company than the actual tickets cost and you saw NOTHING. Because we paid extra for a no nothing train ride when we got to the Grand Canyon we only had 40 mins. and no time to take the free shuttle to other spots of the Grand Canyon.

To get to the Canyon view point from the train required walking and steps, well my mother was handicap and there was no wheelchair for her when we got off the train, it took all she had to try to make it where we had to go and then less time to look. The tour guide was no tour guide, she didn't help with handicap at all, she gave no information during the bus travels, and was not around when you needed her.

The hotel in Las Vegas that was supposed to be handicap was far from anything and meant she couldn't leave the room because it was far from an elevator and exit. They put us in the dumpy, far away from everything Riviera to save their expenses but of course still charged us a fortune. We had to keep paying bus fare to try to get to anything on the strip and then it rained and flooded the couple of days we were there. Then the flight home was another disaster and they put us on an airline where you had to pay for every checked bag and they had nothing ready for handicap assistance like they were supposed to.

The shuttle from the hotel to the airport was an hour late, for a 7:00 am flight we were told to be outside with our bags at 4:20 am, the shuttle didn't get there until 5:15 am. The trip was told to be 8 days and 7 nights, but that also was not true because day one you fly out late and get in with no time to see anything and the last day they booked us out so early that again another you saw nothing except an airplane all day long.

I have taken many tours with other agencies and this is the worst I have ever dealt with and been through.. Everybody I talked to that took this tour was very pissed also and said they were writing complaints and never going with this company again. There are so many more bad things about this company, but I only have so much time and every time I think about it I get more **. The owner of the company claims there are not complaints or bad things about the company but that shows he doesn't have a clue or doesn't want to deal with all the problems. I would not recommend this company to even an enemy it's that bad.

BEWARE DON'T TRAVEL WITH THEM YOU'LL DEEPLY REGRET IT. I wrote a complaint to the owner and told him I wanted a refund, of course I haven't heard a thing, so I'm trying to warn everybody I can. I'm also going to send a complaint to the BBB, they need to be shut down now.

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA -- LEGENDARY JOURNEYS. All their fliers state "From $xxx per person per day INCLUDING all taxes and fees!" About 4 months before the trip was to depart Legendary Journeys offered lots of options like trip excursions, hotel location, buddy charge (same hotel and air). All this should have been made available when we paid a deposit for the trip. Even though about 19 signed up together we were not a group according to our agent, but lo and behold those people were listed on my invoice as additional traveling companions.

Pre Trip Concerns: 1. Trip Insurance (refund due) - On May 17, 2007 our agent sent an email instructing me to complete the attached forms and mail them back with a check for trip insurance if I wished to purchase it. Which I did not. When the Final Invoice came I paid it. I later found that Legendary Journey put the charge for trip insurance on the invoice. When I called and asked for a refund I was told there would be a $100 charge and I would only get a $380 refund from the $480 charge for trip insurance. There was never another communication between me and Legendary Journeys concerning trip insurance and when I called about the charge.

2. Bus transportation. - Free Bus to ship we were told and on the invoice says Boca Raton (I-95) where in actuality it was SW 10th Street in Deerfield Beach which is in the next county and the travel documents that we got 5 days before we left said pick-up would be at 8 am for a 50 mile trip and that people could not board the ship before 1 pm. A 4 hour wait in the Florida sun.

3. Hotel Switch - Approximately 3 weeks before the trip I tried to find out if I was in the same hotel as my in-laws as my father in-law fell. I wanted to be closer to them if they needed help so I asked if we were in the same hotel. I kept getting "hotels had not yet been finalized" from our agent. I called again and again she was out sick but the person who I spoke to gave me the information and I found out that we were not in the same hotel.

So I called asked if we could switch but I was told that I had not paid the $49/pp so it could not be done. I asked if anyone cancelled their trip that was staying at the Hotel Byron where my in-laws were staying, I was denied that information as it was confidential. I asked if I could get a list of people who were staying at the Hotel Byron so I could offer a financial incentive to someone to switch hotels but I was told that the lists were confidential (that turned out to be a lie as lists of people and their hotels were publicly posted on the Lido deck for all passengers to see).

About 10 days before we set sail I called the Hotel Byron directly to see if they had availability to which they replied "only singles". A day or two later I get a call from someone at Legendary Journeys saying that they heard my concerns from the travel agent and they wanted to see if they could help. I told them I called the Hotel a day earlier and was told they only had singles but maybe he had more pull then me. He told me that before he made the call I had to agree to a $99/pp charge. I agreed and I got a call less than 30 minutes later that he was able to get us a room. Hummmm. I have the phone call on tape as well as emails to substantiate this.

4. City Center (Refund due) - About 4 months before the sail date and were told that it was advisable to be in City Center to be closer to downtown or we might far enough away from everything it might take a taxi to get everywhere and that could be expensive, the charge would $129/pp. It turns out that our hotel was not in City Center as were most of the hotels that were selected by Legendary Journeys.

5. Fuel Surcharge (refund due?) - Everyone paid this which was refunded to everyone. Question is how long long did Legendary Journeys have the money in an escrow account before Carnival Cruise Line was paid. If this is the case why is Legendary Journeys not refunding the interest that was accrued in escrow?

Excursions - Bad trips: 1. April 29th Dutch/French St. Maarten. Supposed to be a tour of both sides of the Island the we only did half as we were told by our driver that due to Carnival the shops would closed. You would think that a tour company would know that in advance.

2. May 9th World Famous Cinque Terra Ports. Days before we arrived in Livorno we made aware of a possible train strike which might affect the trip. We got off the boat, followed the Legendary Journeys tour flag for the Cinque Terra Tour to the bus. As soon as the bus took off we were handed a printed piece of paper that stated due to the strike we were going on another tour and that we had no recourse against Legendary Journeys. We asked that we be returned to the ship and were refused. We were driven to the city of Lerici about 90 minutes away.

We were dropped off about 10:30 am and were told to be back at 2:15 pm at the same spot to be picked up and we were on our own till then, no tour guide. The shops in the town closed at 1 pm for siesta and the only other tourist venue was a castle/fortress to visit (additional cost to enter). When we were picked up we were driven to Forte dei Marmi we got there at 3 pm, we told to be back at 4:30 to be taken back to the ship also, we were told we were on our own again. No tourist venues here and the shops were closed until 4 pm for siesta.

When I got home I did a search and found this but was not offered by Legendary Journeys: "From Lerici, you can take boats across the gulf to the Cinque Terre, five villages strung along the coast north of Portovenere. A leisurely
walk between two or more of the villages along the footpath which connects them will provide some absolutely breathtaking views of the sea and the surrounding mountains."

If you do an internet search for these cities and select things to do you get " NO THINGS TO DO LISTED." Carnival Cruise lines did arrange alternate transportation to Cinque Terre but not Legendary Journeys. Also, I am sure that Legendary Journeys got a refund for the train ride part of the excursion.

3. May 10th Vatican City, Sistine Chapel & Rome Orientation Tour. We did the Vatican and Sistine Chapel after lunch we got on the bus for orientation tour of historic Rome including the Forum and Colosseum. What this consisted of was a drive by of the just the Colosseum we did not go by the Forum. According to Webster's the definition of tour is: "a journey for business, pleasure, or education often involving a series of stops and ending at a point."

4. May 12th Best of Pisa/ Enchanting Lucca. In Pisa when we were on the tour of the Cathedral, the Bapistery, the Leaning Tower & the Monumental Cemetery we were charged admission to the Cathredral. Next you will visit Piazza dei Cavalieri, which in the Middle Ages was the political and commercial center of Pisa. We never made it there.

Discrepancies in LJ's Brochures. Between mint (#1) one to select excursions which was sent in about 4 months before we departed and the one given in our state room yellow (#2) 1. #1 It is impossible to purchase these tours from ANY Legendary Journeys Representative WHILE ON THE SHIP. This is your only notice of the limited sightseeing available. #2 They list the excursions and the amount of spaces left for each one.

2. #1 Legendary Journeys designs all tours primarily for seniors, you may expect moderate to normal amounts of walking on some excursions. #2 Parking at the Vatican requires significant amount of walking to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica as vehicles are not allowed in proximity to the museums. This is false as buses were dropping off tours right in front.

3. #1 All Guests will be off the ship by 7 am. It was a nightmare for example when giving instructions for debarkation the cruise director said sorry that he had to use "L" word. 4. #1 Allowed 1 Carry-on bag and 1 checked bag. #2 Allowed 1 Overnight bag and 1 checked bag. If you had an extra bag Legendary Journeys wanted an extra $39 it was waived for me after I pointed out the discrepancy, but about other people, I do not know.

4. #2 Please remember that Legendary Journeys will be the ONLY company offering any tour options in Montecatini. This is false as we visited the tourist bureau 100 yards from city hall on Via Verde where tours were available. 6. #1 Describes the trip to Venice. #2 Urgent notes Regarding Venice Tour - long ride 4-5 hrs each way. I wonder if anyone got a refund.

   7. Flyer states 6 days 5 nights in Montecatini and you get breakfast and dinner daily in Montecatini. If on the last day you get picked up at 2 am for a 4hr trip to the airport in Rome how do I get my breakfast and dinner. Also what a great way to spend your last day.

STAY AWAY FROM LEGENDARY JOURNEYS.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- Legendary Journeys definitely outdid themselves with the Costa Rican trip. It was 7 days of wonderful, exciting experiences. Our guides Philippe and Juan Carlos were excellent. Hotel was fantastic and the value was unbeatable!

SUMMERFIELD, FLORIDA -- We also had a horrible experience with Legendary Journeys on a 16 day land and sea trip to Alaska. I have written about it so many times I am not going to tell the whole story. However, I also dealt with ** in the Summerfield office and was completely disgusted that she never contacted us when we returned to see how our trip was. I copied her on all my emails to the company about the many problems we had and we never heard from her!

SARASOTALARGO, FLORIDA -- The trip wasn't bad, we just had a problem with the write up on the flier. Such as "after breakfast we will all meet..." Breakfast wasn't at a restaurant or at the Killington Resort it was what we made in the condo. On the way to the "Resort" (which was a condo near the resort) the tour guide gave us $35.00 each to go grocery shopping for food we had to prepare in our condo. We were also told we would have a tour then the next day would be a leisure day so we could relax and rest up for the next day to sit on the bus for 3 hours to go to the next touring destination.

My husband has an illness that he needed the resting day before the next trip day. We read that on the flier and we felt we could do this trip. When we got on the bus the tour guide said she was changing this around and we would be touring three days in a row. If we went on the weekend it would be too busy to get the bus in and out. There would also be double the amount of people there so it would be too congested to tour around. If we would have known that, we wouldn't have taken the tour because of my husband's health problem.

My advice to anyone booking with Legendary Journeys ask questions about everything, like "are you making your own breakfast or eating in a restaurant?" What is the name and address of the resort they say you are staying at, will the tours be as stated or will the tour guide have the option to change it around. Overall the trip was enjoyable, just be careful about the wording and phrasing they write on the FLYER DESCRIBING THE ITINERARY OF THE TRIP.

VILLAGES, FLORIDA -- I have to admit, we were impulsive in booking the cruise from Sydney to Hawaii with a group of friends, who actually originated and advised us to book with "LJ" who was marketing it as discounted rate for groups! This blunder was committed in April 2012 when we deposited $3,000.00 for a cruise we would take in April 2013! Yes, I know, we were fools to have let LJ sit on our money for a WHOLE YEAR! But then there is always first time for everything, right?

This was our first and last time to be scammed by LJ. Also, to top their scamming, LJ 'Reservation Agent' informs us since we are on the east coast, we have to pay $300.00 each for flying from NY! Stupid us! We did. After this absolutely no communication from so called 'Reservation Agent' for 9 months and year 2012 is gone. Come January 2013 we are supposed to pay balance for the cruise - guess what? No reminder or call/email from this scuzzbucket of 'reservation agent' - we still did the right thing and paid balance and called him up to get further details about flights/hotel etc. of which he provided none.

It went on back and forth till end of March 2013 when Royal Caribbean emailed us with confirmation no. and 'check in' online since we cruise with them often. So now we emailed this LJ idiot again about flights etc. Turns out LJ air dept. had booked us on outlandish routes! How about on return from Hawaii, we had to wait 11 hours at Honolulu airport to catch a flight to SEATTLE and next day from Seattle to New York!! So it took us 2 days to fly within US! Upon questioning his answer was "he doesn't do the air reservation and for additional 600.00 he can have the flight changed to direct flight!!!" Say what?? We already paid $600.00 in 2012 as penalty for flying from NY!

Then, he had no clue as to what hotel we would be staying in Sydney till seven days prior to our departure of April 14, 2013! I must have called him relentlessly so many times and he had the nerve to threaten to hang up on my husband because he was angry about ** asking for additional 600.00 while American Airlines was ready to change our flight for half that price! This company should not be in Travel Business. They are nothing but extremely incompetent, rude, ignorant bunch of scammers and the owner is the head scammer. All I have to say to my fellow senior travelers: "Beware of Legendary Journeys - you have been warned". Thank you.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- After a bad mis-communication experience with ** at LEGENDARY JOURNEYS our friends sent us an email with new quotes for us to join them to Australia. We are now, again, getting her sly tricks with the "check/cash discount" figures.

A month ago we almost booked this trip with our friends but canceled the last day when Ms ** told us a different trip price than we had discussed. She said she didn't realize we wanted the WHOLE trip with our friends and that the price was $2300 per person more! Wow! This after I had been talking with her for a week about every aspect of the trip. We have never traveled with an agent or cruised before and although our friends booked months previous, Ms ** quote to us was similar. Additionally, it occurred to us that the industry was struggling this spring with two cruise liner mishaps in the news. We thought our quote was good. WE DID NOT GET IT IN WRITING FROM HER. OOPS.

So now we are back to booking based on the figures in our friend's email from his conversation with Ms **--AND CONFIRMED over the phone by my husband before giving her his credit card number. Oops. Not in writing again from her. Now she is adding the $100 ($200 dbl) cash discount to the cabin price which she quoted before the discount. She, and her math, and explanations circle how we (our friends and us) misunderstood the discount. She always quoted all the items and lastly, the discount. It was always separate, though now she seems to think we don't understand that she is changing the cabin/cruise price.

What a run-a-round! Don't know how the rest of the company is, our friends say it is OK, but don't anyone deal with this agent. And get your quotes in writing. Of course that is basic. :-(

STUART, FLORIDA -- My husband and I booked a trip in July 2007 with Legendary Journey/Royal Caribbean for March 30, 2008. The cruise was to include Ireland, Azores, Paris, London, Amsterdam and the Tulips in Amsterdam plus hotel for two nights in Amsterdam.

Trip was paid, side trips were booked. Oops, everything was changed and not even Legendary Journey knew about it until I called to tell them. In mid-January, Royal Caribbean "dropped" Ireland, and changed Cornwall to Dover. No replacement was made and now we are spending 9 days on the water which is 75% of the trip. Ugh! This is not the trip I purchased but, it was too late to get a refund. I wrote to the Attorney General Office in Florida at that time and have not gotten a response.

I called, e-mailed Royal Caribbean and have gotten "0" except that they have the right to change the itinerary. I feel that this is a "Bait and Switch" since no replacement was made for the dropped Ireland except for more water time. Legendary Journey has looked the other way and refused to fight for any compensation.

Today, was the last straw (13 days before departure), the hotel that is booked for Amsterdam is 66 miles from Amsterdam in the middle of nowhere. I asked where the upgraded hotels would be and never got a response from Legendary Journey. Legendary Journey also booked us the late dinner when I asked for early and booked our return into Orlando instead of Miami. This is the last time I will book with Legendary Journey and the last time I will sail with Royal Caribbean. This trip was expensive and has turned out to be a very expensive disaster.

I thought the reason to book with a travel agency was that they took good care of their clients since it was important to have repeat business and a good reputation. I guess they don't care!

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- We too booked excursions through Legendary Journeys. The descriptions we received said that the excursions offered were less expensive than those offered on board the ship, and that by booking ahead we could be sure of getting the trips we wanted. We paid $474 for 3 excursions for myself and my husband. They all went - but not to the places that were described in the brochure. We weren't told that they were being diverted until the busses pulled away and were blocks away from the pier in unfamiliar territory. The excursions were all OK but we never would have chosen them, as we had already done them on previous trips.

We complained to the excursion people on the various busses, but were ignored. When we got home we wrote letters to the company and they went unanswered. I should add that we were to have a bus pick us up at the pier when we returned to Ft. Lauderdale to take us home. No bus. 2 hours later, still no bus. At that point I called and was "lucky" enough to get through to someone who "authorized" me to rent a car to get home, but she stressed that each party had to call to get authorization on a case by case basis. She also said I would be reimbursed immediately.

I just got reimbursement 2 weeks ago, the trip was in February, it is now June. I only got reimbursement after faxing bills, which was understandable, but I had to follow up with multiple phone calls almost every day for the 3 months that I had to wait for reimbursement. I have received reimbursement as I mentioned for the rental car, however, the check bears the notation that if cashed the company is released from any and ALL claims. I have no intention of cashing this check until we decide if we will take this to court.

I have not to this date had even so much as a letter about the excursions. We did receive a $25.00 voucher for a future trip. Either way I guess my idea of "immediate" and their idea of immediate is quite different. Also their idea of "expecting things to have glitches" means that they don't have to live up to their end of the bargain. I might add that their agents are great, but they are not told the truth to pass on to customers, they only tell you what you hope to hear. The management lets them down too.

I notice there is a place for the company to respond to this posting. If they do, it will be wonderful, and will be the first time they have addressed this issue. Meantime, they have about 100 or more people that booked one or more of these excursions who all know what happened. We are in touch, and are deciding on whether we wish to proceed and how.