Hotel Xcaret question

[dancin Disney style]

Since I can't find a concrete answer to your question I've deleted my post ... I don't like to be sharing things I can't provide supporting documentation to back up my information. I was just sharing what my hubby has often said and he also refuses to share information he can't support. I asked him and we both spent time with Google without finding a direct answer.

It sounds like it could absolutely be true. Since my DD has been telling it to everyone who will listen, I'm dying to know. She told someone just on Friday who burst out laughing and said that was crazy. Unfortunately all the people I know that work at the company are in distribution and finance.

Didn't this thread take a huge turn

 

[Donald - my hero]

Ok gang, I'm needing some SERIOUS calming vibes here!! I've been checking multiple times a day for prices (obsess much??!!) and something really scary popped up yesterday on the AT site

When i look on the Transat travel site and the AT site proper, there are no dates available for Hotel X past Dec 31st, the dates are open for every other resort and were for this one until about noon yesterday. NOW, we had already decided we are going with Air Canada after a text conversation i had with our son in the morning. He & his wife are in the Dominican and flew AT and said it was HORRID .. they subbed in a plane from Germany, had no food, drink or entertainment and they listened to 6 very irate couples trying to deal with the fact that this plane had no Club section and the staff were insisting they had to take the seats now assigned at the BACK of the plane?!?!?! That led me to read reviews and if even possible, they're worse than when i looked in December - numerous complaints of similar nature and far too many complaints of planes having no water (how can they fly with no proper facilities available???)

FINE then, let's check AC then, right? It's showing up on their website proper but when i look on the Transat Travel site this is now popping up


Of course, tomorrow is a Toronto day for me and the earliest i can get to the travel agent is around 2. Can't go today because hubby has the car and i don't want to take numerous buses to get down to that part of the city. I tried calling and couldn't get her to understand what i was saying "well that doesn't make any sense that you can see something i can't" She's convinced that because the package I see on Air Canada's site is NOT on the Transat Travel site we can't book it

 

[dancin Disney style]

If you look on Tripcentral it's only showing as available with AC and Sunwing for January 2020. No idea what's up with AT. I have many contacts in the travel industry, I used to work for an airline, but unfortunately the ones that could shed some light on this are currently away (together) on an extended vacation. There are many reasons why AT may not be offering the resort past Dec 31. The most likely is that the contract expired and they are not renewing it. If you look at Sunwing they sell the resort for nearly double what AC is offering and that is because they have no contract.

Technically glitch is another possibility...that type of thing happens on a regular basis.

I honestly wouldn't say that AT is "horrid". The bad experiences we have had with them was mainly on the ground at YYZ. There have been a couple of other small blips onboard but I've had far worse inflight issues with AC. I think I already said that after my AC flight to Cuba in December I would probably take AT over AC in future.

What you mention that happened to your son. They usually sub planes in when the original aircraft has gone mechanical. They may have had to get another crew as well which often causes other issues because they are not always a regular crew that would know the service routines. Often, there are communication issues when you are in places like the DR with regard to explaining what is happening and why. So it's entirely possible that the ground crew were very bad at dealing with it. That said the vast majority of passengers are very uneducated in the way that airlines/tour operators work and what they are and are not responsible for. Passengers go immediately to the 'throw a tantrum and I'll get what I want' stage. That tactic might partially work for you in Canada/USA but in other places...forget it.

 

[Donald - my hero]

If you look on Tripcentral it's only showing as available with AC and Sunwing for January 2020. No idea what's up with AT. I have many contacts in the travel industry, I used to work for an airline, but unfortunately the ones that could shed some light on this are currently away (together) on an extended vacation. There are many reasons why AT may not be offering the resort past Dec 31. The most likely is that the contract expired and they are not renewing it. If you look at Sunwing they sell the resort for nearly double what AC is offering and that is because they have no contract.

Technically glitch is another possibility...that type of thing happens on a regular basis.

I honestly wouldn't say that AT is "horrid". The bad experiences we have had with them was mainly on the ground at YYZ. There have been a couple of other small blips onboard but I've had far worse inflight issues with AC. I think I already said that after my AC flight to Cuba in December I would probably take AT over AC in future.

What you mention that happened to your son. They usually sub planes in when the original aircraft has gone mechanical. They may have had to get another crew as well which often causes other issues because they are not always a regular crew that would know the service routines. Often, there are communication issues when you are in places like the DR with regard to explaining what is happening and why. So it's entirely possible that the ground crew were very bad at dealing with it. That said the vast majority of passengers are very uneducated in the way that airlines/tour operators work and what they are and are not responsible for. Passengers go immediately to the 'throw a tantrum and I'll get what I want' stage. That tactic might partially work for you in Canada/USA but in other places...forget it.

Until about 6 last night AT showed the packages available so I completely agree that they've just decided not to offer the resort anymore. I remember looking at this last year when the conversation first popped up in the AM thread and at that point Westjet was also offering it, then early fall you could book just the resort with them until eventually not even that was possible. I'm wondering what would happen if we had managed to get to the travel agency and booked the trip with AT while it was still there? Would they refund our money? Would we be SOL??

I'm not excited about AC Rouge, go out of our way to avoid it at all costs if we can, but if it's between them and Sunwing it's a no-brainer. Hubby finally got home and he said "fly with anyone and book the hotel direct" I reminded him that would eliminate the $3,300 savings from the vouchers and he slinked out of the room

Regarding our son .. this happened when they were leaving YYZ not coming home. He was worrying about the flight coming home this evening because the poor kid is 6'3" and the seat he had booked on the way down wasn't available since the plane didn't have as many rows! (can't wait till i get to listen to the whining in person fingers crossed the flight home is uneventful) AND you are so right about the entitlement attitude that people tend to use anymore, for anything from the service they get at Timmies (seriously, do you think the kid can do anything about the fact that you haven't won anything yet?!?!) to the room they get assigned at a hotel. I always treat people the way i want to be treated, take the time to talk to those who serve me anywhere, talk to the people who clean the floors & bathrooms, thank the bus drivers and it amazes me how many of them seem shocked!

It's beginning to feel like we'll never get to use these danged vouchers and I really wish i hadn't redeemed all of those miles!

 

[marchingstar]

Until about 6 last night AT showed the packages available so I completely agree that they've just decided not to offer the resort anymore. I remember looking at this last year when the conversation first popped up in the AM thread and at that point Westjet was also offering it, then early fall you could book just the resort with them until eventually not even that was possible. I'm wondering what would happen if we had managed to get to the travel agency and booked the trip with AT while it was still there? Would they refund our money? Would we be SOL??

I'm not excited about AC Rouge, go out of our way to avoid it at all costs if we can, but if it's between them and Sunwing it's a no-brainer. Hubby finally got home and he said "fly with anyone and book the hotel direct" I reminded him that would eliminate the $3,300 savings from the vouchers and he slinked out of the room

Regarding our son .. this happened when they were leaving YYZ not coming home. He was worrying about the flight coming home this evening because the poor kid is 6'3" and the seat he had booked on the way down wasn't available since the plane didn't have as many rows! (can't wait till i get to listen to the whining in person fingers crossed the flight home is uneventful) AND you are so right about the entitlement attitude that people tend to use anymore, for anything from the service they get at Timmies (seriously, do you think the kid can do anything about the fact that you haven't won anything yet?!?!) to the room they get assigned at a hotel. I always treat people the way i want to be treated, take the time to talk to those who serve me anywhere, talk to the people who clean the floors & bathrooms, thank the bus drivers and it amazes me how many of them seem shocked!

It's beginning to feel like we'll never get to use these danged vouchers and I really wish i hadn't redeemed all of those miles!

ugh, this sucks. how is it that no part of your planning has gone smoothly?! i really hope you can get things figured out tomorrow and that you’ll be booked by the end of the day. until then...everything is crossed for you!

 

[dancin Disney style]

Until about 6 last night AT showed the packages available so I completely agree that they've just decided not to offer the resort anymore. I remember looking at this last year when the conversation first popped up in the AM thread and at that point Westjet was also offering it, then early fall you could book just the resort with them until eventually not even that was possible. I'm wondering what would happen if we had managed to get to the travel agency and booked the trip with AT while it was still there? Would they refund our money? Would we be SOL??

I'm not excited about AC Rouge, go out of our way to avoid it at all costs if we can, but if it's between them and Sunwing it's a no-brainer. Hubby finally got home and he said "fly with anyone and book the hotel direct" I reminded him that would eliminate the $3,300 savings from the vouchers and he slinked out of the room

Regarding our son .. this happened when they were leaving YYZ not coming home. He was worrying about the flight coming home this evening because the poor kid is 6'3" and the seat he had booked on the way down wasn't available since the plane didn't have as many rows! (can't wait till i get to listen to the whining in person fingers crossed the flight home is uneventful) AND you are so right about the entitlement attitude that people tend to use anymore, for anything from the service they get at Timmies (seriously, do you think the kid can do anything about the fact that you haven't won anything yet?!?!) to the room they get assigned at a hotel. I always treat people the way i want to be treated, take the time to talk to those who serve me anywhere, talk to the people who clean the floors & bathrooms, thank the bus drivers and it amazes me how many of them seem shocked!

It's beginning to feel like we'll never get to use these danged vouchers and I really wish i hadn't redeemed all of those miles!

Keep in mind this resort has only been open for 14 months. The opening specials last year where fantastic so all the tour operators had some rooms to sell. They may have been selling from inventory or they may have been selling under temporary contracts.

If you had already booked and now it was not available nothing would happen. You would still get your vacation. Now, if something like a fire or some other disaster occurred they would obviously move you.

Your son....it doesn't make any difference what city he was in. While that is his originating city it's not for the aircraft, usually. Most of the time the aircraft is in service 24hrs a day. They only make money when they are in the air. It could have been subbed out 3 cities back and until they can sub the original back in they keep going. The goal is always to keep the passengers moving because just canceling a flight creates a huge problem. When things like this happen passengers will try to go after the airline or the tour operator saying that they didn't get what they paid for. The hard fact is that basically the airline can do what it wants as long as they get you from A to B. The contract of carriage covers them every which way and no one ever reads or understands it.

 

[Donald - my hero]

@dancin Disney style this is why i do my best not to post on social media when my emotions are clouding my judgement and the majority of time will type out something and re-read it 2 or 3 times before hitting enter. I'm not able to make myself clear, i get caught up in details that don't matter or come off as rude. I would give anything to be able to go back and delete all of my last posts but since you quoted them all it wouldn't make any difference

Thank you for your comments, it helps to know that someone understands (even when I'm slightly muddled and curt). I know most of the things you mentioned regarding tour operators, planes being subbed out, little blips in service (even flight crew are human and have day-to-day events that will colour their work <gasp>) and I always do my best to read the fine print of anything before i book/buy/order anything (might get more than a tad confuzzled but i try !) That has rubbed off on our kids and our son & his wife just took it in stride -- he was commenting on the attitudes of the other passengers and THAT is what made his flight so miserable. He was able to suck up the lack of legroom on the way down and because he's familiar with seatguru (why don't more people use this tool ) they sat in perfect seats on the way home.

SOooo many things came into play to create the perfect storm of my above comments (and you should thank ALL the gods i was smart enough not to post anything yesterday ) : lack of sleep, we're talking less than 4 hours each night for the last 2 weeks, hubby is beyond busy leading to me being alone a LOT and the Duck needs at least some time together, my oven -- OMGeee it has now reached the point of not being reliable enough to cook ANYTHING, looking for a way to cut the cable out of our lives (can't justify spending $80/month for tv that we rarely watch), our daughter turns 30 in March and while that doesn't bother me there were some very sad moments surrounding her birth that always bring a cloud, my parents are both very ill and my mom is the queen of guilt, the weather?!?! I can't get outside when it's this cold and slippery


You made me feel much better by letting me know that if we had booked the trip we would at least still get it, i couldn't get a concrete answer from ANYONE about that and it was part of the reason i left the travel agency in tears yesterday. If we book the trip and then can't go we're not only out the $3,300 in travel vouchers but also without a vacay for 2020. We're leery of booking with Air Canada for this very reason and the agent i got stuck with yesterday (the woman we were dealing with is on Mat Leave -- how rude of her ) just didn't understand what i was trying to ask, wouldn't look at the printouts i brought with me showing the exact package we want. Nothing is showing on their site and he refused (or didn't know how) to look at the AC site directly. He kept pushing to book for this year, to book another resort ("they all have good food I don't know why you won't even look" ) and I left frustrated and confused.

Thanks for all of your help with my rambling posts and putting up with my endless questions! Currently we're pondering booking in December (but that brings won't give hubby the break in winter he craves and would drop us home in the middle of holiday crush) or booking flights & hotel separately in January and saving the vouchers for some future trip since they never expire.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Ohhhh….I don't think you have said anything that was even remotely rude or curt or any other way that you feel like you have. I would say, in fact, that I've NEVER felt that way about you. This situation right from day one has been difficult and disappointing for you.

Well my dear you are a rare bird indeed if you are familiar with the things I mentioned about tour operators, airlines etc. Seems like no one understands where the lines are drawn anymore. I too am one that needs to know every detail of everything so even if I had no back ground in travel I would still have taken the time to learn all the little bits and pieces. LOL.....'rare bird'

I can relate to one disaster after another. That's my life! Funny....you want together time and I love my alone time. I work from home on Mondays and when there is a holiday Monday I want to kill someone because that's MY DAY. I can't get anything done when I feel like eyes are on me.

Personally, I don't love travel agents. Most don't actually know what they are talking about. They remind me of Disney CM's....they will say anything. Take Flight Centre for example. They will hire anyone that passes the personality test. Most are very young and can't afford to travel. So they are selling you something that they have ZERO knowledge of.

I've taken the 'winter break' vacay at all times of the winter and to be honest no time is better than another. My next time to try is early Spring....maybe beginning to mid April. We are no longer tied to the school sched, which is exciting. My thinking is that it will feel really good to leave winter behind and come home to weather that has turned around. It's hard to come home to snow and realize that there is still 1-3 months of it. I also find it extremely irritating to fly mid winter and deal with weather delays. I've had the terrible luck (more than once) of paying extra for an earlier flight and then been delayed for weather, then de-icing etc, etc.

Feel free anytime to PM me if you need to talk. I will give you my email. Maybe we could even meet for coffee some time.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Soooo this happened this afternoon .... decided to go in December once we discovered it's almost $1000 less than early January. I'm so flippin excited i can't stand it

 

[marchingstar]

Soooo this happened this afternoon .... decided to go in December once we discovered it's almost $1000 less than early January. I'm so flippin excited i can't stand it

I'm so excited for you! And 1000$ savings...even better!

 

[bababear_50]

crossing my fingers and toes!
Hugs
Mel

 

[Donald - my hero]

crossing my fingers and toes!
Hugs
Mel

Oh it's a done deal Mel! We've booked the trip!!!!!! Our vouchers cover exactly half of the trip almost to the penny. We have enough miles in the secondary account to book the Sheraton Gateway for the night before we fly out as well -- since it's so far in the future the number of miles needed is wickedly low!

 

[bababear_50]

Oh it's a done deal Mel! We've booked the trip!!!!!! Our vouchers cover exactly half of the trip almost to the penny. We have enough miles in the secondary account to book the Sheraton Gateway for the night before we fly out as well -- since it's so far in the future the number of miles needed is wickedly low!
View attachment 384708

I am so happy for you!
Hugs
Mel

 

[dancin Disney style]

YAY!!!! That must be a big relief to have it booked.

 

[alohamom]

So excited for you to have finally gotten this all booked. What a roller coaster and I want to go give that first travel agent a piece of my mind!

 

[marcyleecorgan]

I have an upcoming stay booked at the Occidental Xcaret .... thanks DH for surprising us! Um. I know nothing about these sorts of vacations, someone please give me some starting points
I can handle a Motel 6 by the beach, that's all I want is a vacation where I pretty much live in my swimsuit and eat sugary things.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I have an upcoming stay booked at the Occidental Xcaret .... thanks DH for surprising us! Um. I know nothing about these sorts of vacations, someone please give me some starting points
I can handle a Motel 6 by the beach, that's all I want is a vacation where I pretty much live in my swimsuit and eat sugary things.

The Occidental is not that bad.....the motel 6 remark is aimed at comparing it to the Hotel Xcaret. These are two different properties. HX is a new 5* resort with a Mexico's only Michelin star chef.

I'm a firm believer in arming yourself with as much info as possible about a resort and a destination. Hang out on the TripAdvisor forums and ask lots of questions and read everything you can about the resort. The X parks that are all in the surrounding area are fun. You might want to do one or two of them but make sure that you don't spend all your time doing excursions. If you are going on a 7 night package the time flies a lot faster than you think it will so don't miss out on the relaxation part.