The first time we booked a vacation through Fran Moeckler of Beemster Travel was not perfect, but it was ok (see: http://ericasworld.logic.net/cruise_01-15-2004 ), so we decided to use her again for booking our Wedding Cruise. It ended up being a mistake. It was more of a hassle than it would have been to book it ourselves.
January 18, 2005: We contacted Fran, explaining that we were planning to get married in about a year, on a cruise (like RCCL's Navigator of the Sease in January or February), and we wanted to know what she'd suggest for choosing a cruise, what the discount would be depending on how many people came with us, how we could accomodate my Grandma's and Ed's Mom's special needs (wheelchairs, oxygen), etc.
I got a call back with pricing for the cruise I specified: $819pp for an interior cabin, $1004pp for an exterior room. I talked her down to $769.45/$954.45 and Fran said she'd be sending us a packet of information and sign-up sheets to include in our wedding announcements. First deposits were set as due February 18.
January 26: I asked about the cost of a room for 3 and I hadn't gotten the packet yet, so I emailed Fran asking if it'd been sent because I wanted to get my announcements out.
January 31: I expressed to Fran that I wanted all of our cabins as close together as possible and found out that Fran won't/can't book the wedding for us, we have to do that ourselves through Royal Caribbean, so I got started on that.
February 10: I emailed Fran stating that I was getting frustrated because my calls and emails weren't being returned. I had asked about the cost of a room for 3 5 days ago and as the deadline for deposits was getting nearer, we still hadn't gotten a response.
February 10: Fran finally called back. It seems our cruise ship was chartered for the date we picked… She said we had to sit and wait -that RCCL may offer a discount since we were bumped. I was ready to pop at this point, I had to notify all my guests of the date change and I had no answer for when it was being moved to… She said she'd call me back the next day with our options.
February 11: I was out of the office that afternoon, but before I left, I emailed Fran with my cell phone number and asked her to call when she had any news.
February 14: I emailed Fran at noon asking if there was any news because she hadn't called me yet. I wanted to tell my guests what was going on and start figuring out what replacement date would work for all of them…
February 20: Still no news, I emailed Fran with my home number in case she had any news for me over the weekend.
February 22: Still no news, I emailed Fran again.
At some point Fran called and we decided to just switch our reservations to Jan 14th since I just wanted to have the date set to let my guests know. I also wanted to book as early as possible to increase the chance that we could all get cabins near each other.
March 11: I spoke to Fran on the phone and she said she'd send me a list of my guests who had sent her a deposit.
March 16: I hadn't received the guest list yet, and emailed Fran asking for it. I also told her that the dinner seating was wrong on the invoice for both us and Ed's Mom. I wanted all my guests to be put down for the “Late” seating and at the same or adjoining tables if possible.
April 18: I emailed Fran to ask about adding another cabin and, at the same time, inquired about getting room numbers because I was curious, but I also wanted to know that we were all going to be given cabins in the same area on the ship.
May 23: I emailed Fran asking if we could get airfare through her for 6 people.
July 19: At this point I needed the cabin numbers to complete the wedding paperwork, so I emailed Fran asking for them and letting her know why we needed them
ASAP.
Fran eventually called with the cabin numbers.
September 6: I emailed Fran asking how the medical equipment rental and how much it'd be.
Fran let me know that I had to make the arrangements for the medical equipment myself. She gave me a phone number to call.
October 26: Fran called with some questions about who to send reminder cards to for the last cruise payment. During the course of the call I reminded her that last time the cards said the “Steeve - Mason” wedding (it was supposed to be the “Steeve - Marshall” wedding!) and I asked her to double-check it this time to make sure she doesn't have me marrying someone else again.
October 27: I got the reminder post card, and it said “Steeve-Mason” again.
October 28: I emailed Fran telling her that the name was wrong AGAIN -even after I reminded her to check it. I also asked that she check and be sure that my entire party was signed up for the LATE seating for dinner, and put near each other if possible.
November 15: I emailed Fran saying that we received the final invoice for the cruise and it said we were requesting the EARLY seating for dinner. (How many times have I reminded her about this???) I also asked why our cabins were listed as TBA when she had given us our cabin #'s over the phone.
