CruiseBuilder

Bad business to fail to reimburse those who in good faith scheduled their trips. Your failure to properly communicate and or offer options should not fall on those who worked hard for their money. Filing bankruptcy is a scapegoat - you should be ashamed of yourselves.

I was told that I have till December 2024 to use my paid voucher from cancelled Cruise thru History with Glen Beck - we are having trouble contacting Cruisebuilder to make arrangements for a Mediteranian Cruise which we paid for.
Please contact us as soon as possible, we are not getting any updates from your company we would appreciate some communication from your company, Thank-you.
Maria and Nick Senenko

These are all lies, I have been waiting for over two years (post pandemic) and get the runaround the "We're getting close to sharing new date options" which has been a two year standard response. I prefer to get reimbursed. You claim it's the hotels and/or the airlines - this is untrue as I have personally called them, and they firmly state that they are not holding you back from reimbursing us. The current trips you have online are far more than what we paid and yet you refuse to honor what we did pay for. All the while you have collected our money (total of 8 people). This is unacceptable! Don't apologize - be reactive and do the right thing and either reimburse and/or honor the trip for the same price we paid for!

Cruisebuilders and Glenn B are criminal in their action not to refund money paid for a cancelled cruise.. They are withholding approximately $13 MILLION dollars that does not belong to them saying that the cruise was not cancelled. ALL 2,600 passengers who signed up for the cruise received an email from Costa Cruise line stating CANCELLED on March 11,2020 .Cruisebuilders says it is rescheduled but can't even give us a year let alone a date. This will not be a rescheduled cruise. This will be a different cruise, one that we did not sign up and pay for when they decide it's convient for them. A lot of us are out of work and need the refund NOW. Circumstances have changed dramatically for Cruisebuilders and also for we the passengers. It will hopefully be resolved by the Utah State Department of Consumer Protection. A company like this is only digging it's own grave As it is an unsympathetic , immoral and has no conscience.

I purchased a cruise package in August 2019 with Cruisebuilders for a trip flying to Milan, Italy, then to Venice boarding a ship to Israel and returning to Venice, then Milan. The dates were to be March 23 - April 7th. I purchased trip insurance. The trip was delayed to an indefinite date and thus far they have not set one. My issue and fear is that either the airline will go bankrupt, the cruise line, Costa, will go bankrupt, or both, or that the trip will be delayed indefinitely. Since the trip date has come and gone, I would like a refund of my money, which is considerable. $6,300. Because Cruisebuilders won't cancel, I can't file a claim with the insurance company so I am caught between a rock and a hard place.

I have been trying to cancel a cruise with cruise builders for many weeks. It is scheduled on Nov 1,2020. Due to health concerns and surgery that had to be postponed due to Covid 19 I and my sister are unable to go on this cruise. I want a partial refund of what we have paid which is 1500.00. It seems unlikely flight reservations have been made this early. . They seem unwilling to help me resolve this y either a partial refund or ability to reschedule for 2021. They have a poor response time in returning calls.

A refund for a cruise, come sail away

DUE TO THE WORLD PANDEMIC OF THE CORONA VIRUS(COVID-19) AND THE TRIP INVOLVING ONE THE MOST AFFECTED COUNTRIES(ITALY), WITH MOST CASES INVOLVING YOUNG CHILDREN AND OLDER PEOPLE WE FEEL AT RISK AND IN FEAR OF OUR HEALTH. SPECIALLY AFTER MOST CASES OF INFECTION ARE FROM TRAVELING TO ITALY.

Booked a cruise to Italy, Greece and Croatia, Now that the Coronavirus has limited travel Cruisebuilder along with Glenn B refuse to refund our money and say they are going to send us on a trip we did not sign up for. These people are criminals and are not to be trusted.

We went on a cruise from Rome in January 2020 and had a wonderful time, in spite of weather problems and transportation union problems which were out of anyone's control. The Costa Smerelda is a beautiful, huge ship. Be aware that the food is very European. Pizza and even gelato cost extra. Our group was small and intimate, which we really enjoyed. Our tour leaders couldn't have been better, so attentive to me in a wheelchair. The Rome temple and visitor's center was the highlight of our trip.

I am writing this complaint letter in regards to the negligence and misconduct of Cruise Builder. I had made several attempts to rectify the issue with no avail. This ***ation started with a standard booking of a travel package and booking errors were made by a representative of Cruise Builder, Rand M. When these errors were brought to his attention, false promises were made, and the financial burden which resulted from the errors was pinned on the customer. Therefore, I am in the hopes that this complaint letter would be handled with the upmost integrity and hold Rand M of Cruise Builder accountable.

The following will lists the chronological events which lead to our current ***ation and the countless efforts we’ve attempted to have Cruise Builder staff rectify the errors.

On February 4th 2019, my friend, ***. and I had reserved travel package over the phone with Cruise Builder after viewing its internet advertisement. The travel package included round trip international airfare, seven nights cruise (May 17th to 24th 2019) and two nights hotel (1 pre & 1 post the cruise). We then submitted our information: name, address, and phone number; cruise itinerary was sent to use the following day via e-mail.

On February 7th 2019, representative of Cruise Builder, Rand M contacted us and rushed us for the full payment of the travel package, *** made her full payment. An e-mail confirmation with air itinerary were sent to us. However, we noticed that our flights were booked with different airlines. My flight was with Air Italy and ***’s flight was with American Airlines, both required flight transfers. I called Rand M and informed him that we prefered to be on the same flight, which he promised with confidence that he would fix the ***ation and consolidate our flights.

During the follow-up call with Rand M, I inquired of adding three senior relatives (***, *** & ***) to the same trip with me. I emphasized with Rand M (over the phone & text messages) that they all had to fly with me because they were non-English speakers and never traveled by themselves in the past. If they were not arranged to fly with me around trip, they would not join me for the same trip. Rand M told me that the full payments were needed at the time in order for my three senior relatives to be added to the same trip, and he would book five of us (***, three senior relatives, & me) at the same flights with American Airlines.

On February 8th 2019, I made the full payment for myself and my three senior relatives over the phone, an e-mail confirmation with all three senior were added to the same trip under the same reservation number, but their round trip flight had not been booked. Furthermore, after examining the e-mail confirmation, I have discovered that *** and my round trip flights had not been consolidated with American Airline as promised by Rand M. I texted Rand M and he responded that he could not consolidate both our flights unless I spent approximately a thousand dollar for another round trip ticket with American Airlines. Since my three senior relatives' flight had not been booked, he would only arrange the same flights for four of us with Air Italy.

On March 27th 2019, six weeks after Cruise Builder collected the full payment of the trip, my three senior relatives had not received any e-mail confirmation for their round trip flights. I called Rand M for the flights confirmation and reminded him that those seniors had to fly with me round trip with Air Italy. Two day after the request call, my seniors relatives received the flights confirmation from Cruise Builder, their round trip fights were booked with KLM Airlines from San Francisco to Rome, Italy (5 hour overlay in Amsterdam, Netherlands), and returning with Alitalia Airlines from Rome Italy to San Francisco (3 hour overlay in JFK New York ), both airlines required transfer. All of my senior relatives were very nervous to fly from country to country by themselves as they are monolingual in Chinese and needed someone assist and guide them during the whole trip, especially during their flight transfers. I called Rand M and expressed our dissatisfaction with the flights arrangement; he denied all the responsibilities and refused to consolidate our flights with Air Italy.

On April 1st 2019, I contacted Cruise Builder customer support for a solution and was told that ***'s bother, *** who was able speak Chinese (I later verified with *** that her brother *** does not speaks any Chinese) would fly with my senior relatives one-way to Rome, Italy from San Francisco with KLM Airlines. Since ***'s family included *** would all stay extra days in Rome after the cruise. Cruise Builder would consolidate my return flights with my senior relatives either by flying Air Italy or Alitalia Airlines . One week after the phone conversation with customer support, there was no email confirmation for the consolidation of our return flights. I called Cruise Builder again and spoke with the customer support manager, Joey G who denied all responsibilities of the flight arrangements and informed us that we were needed to pay for one-way return airfares if we preferred to fly together. He emailed me the quotes for one-way airfare with Air Italy and Air Alitalia, and each airline would cost over two thousand dollars in order to consolidate our one-way flights.

On April 10th, 2019, I called KLM Airlines customer and was informed that my three senior relatives' round trip airfares were issued on March 28th, 2019 which was about seven weeks after Cruise Builder collected the full payment of the trip from us, also it was one day after I phoned Rand M to request for flights confirmation. I knew that the airtickets of my senior relatives would never be booked and issued without requesting over the phone on March 27th, 2019.

Booked a cruise and tour to Rome Italy. Itinerary included tour of sites in Rome, Rome LDS temple, flights From LAX-Rome and return.
At beginning of trip, discovered flight home changed without notice. Our entire group of six had no way home. Called and emailed Cruise Builders. No action for three days. Had to negotiate flights home with airline directly fo our group. Lost cost of connecting flights, prepaid seat selections. Spent two hours first day in Europe and four hours second day in Europe negotiating our way home. All the while I had five other people staring at me wondering why were being abandoned by Cruise Builders.
Rome tour did not include all sites in Itinerary

Well into the trip Cruise Builders responded and asked what the issue was.

After getting home, I sent email to Cruise Builders about our experience. I was told "tour leaders make adjustments" and "We were not the ones who changed your international flight--it was the airline. You were informed of this on one of the calls you made" THIS WAS NOT TRUE, I TOLD THEM IT OCCURRED upon discovery as were checking in. This is why I kept calling and emailing requesting help.

The most notable response I received from Cruise Builders was "well, we are not a full service travel agency".

Bottom line, completely wasted first three days of the trip doing their job, lost flight costs, lost seat costs.

Three other groups on our trip told us about their poor customer service interactions as well.

I wish I would have known. BUYER BEWARE.

We booked our Mediterranean Cruise with Cruise Builders on the Costa
Diadema
We had saved for a long time to be able to purchase our lifelong dream of visiting Europe and the places of our heritage. What we experienced was so disappointing that I cried many times due to the circumstances listed below. Instead of being the time of our lives, it was stressful and did not meet any of our expectations.

Due to poor communication from Cruise Builders we were constantly calling to confirm:
• We were not given much information on how the process will go and the length of time it would take to receive that information
• Airline reservations – since we didn’t find out until last minute how we were flying and the times of departure we were not able to purchase our airline tickets in advance to Los Angeles which made those tickets much more expensive than they would have been if we would have purchased earlier.
• Hotel reservations – we didn’t find out until last minute where we were staying and if they had a shuttle or if we needed to call for transportation.
Because of last minute communication it added a lot of undue stress to putting together our vacation.

Our arrival to the Costa Cruise ship Diadema:
• We booked a balcony cabin because of the length of the trip and when we cruise for 7 days it helps my claustrophobia/anxiety – instead we were booked in an inside cabin! If we had the balcony cabin, we could have enjoyed room service every morning and enjoyed the sunrises free of charge. Instead we looked at 4 walls and had to go to the buffet.
• We spoke to the Hospitality Director on Board (Christian) and he assured us the error would be corrected – which it wasn’t – we were stuck in the inside cabin the full 7 days
• The First Day (Barcelona) we were told to hold off on unpacking since they thought they could accommodate us in the balcony room or suite – this day was lost (not enjoyed) due to having to constantly check in with the Hospitality Director or the Cruise Builders representative Saray A, we were ready to get off the ship at this point. (see attached Hospitality Service Desk Messages)
• The Second Day (Palma De Mallorca) it was the same thing – having to check in and finally that night they told us we were stuck where we were & that they would refund the difference of the price of the room from the balcony to an inside cabin (EUR $260 each) which was several tiers below what we paid for in the first place. That did not suffice for the major inconvenience we were caused on our first trip on Costa and to the Mediterranean. They ended up giving us a free meal at the Samsara Restaurant and a $40 excursion, this did not sit well with us, thus the reason why I am writing this letter. (see attached Hospitality Service Desk Message). We did go out into town on the shuttle bus that day.
• Communication on excursion meeting time & places were not received until the night before & were only found in the Diario di Bordo so we did not know what time we needed to get up in the morning until then. We were not able to plan our night not knowing what time we would need to get up in the morning, so we could not enjoy our nights.
• The Third Day at sea
• The Forth Day (Cagliari) we went on the excursion #O1EJ “Discovery with tasting” for EUR $40 each (paid by Costa since they would only pay for an excursion EUR $50 or less) that was a walking tour that we missed along with 10 other people due to poor communication. We were told it was a tour bus and a walk to the tasting restaurant, but this was not the case. We ended up on another bus that went right back to the ship, we wasted an hour & a half because of this. We walked all the way up a hill to get a very small wine tasting and had to buy our own drinks thereafter. They had a dish of cheese, salami and crackers which was gone in seconds, we got a few crackers and meat. We then walked all around the town which was very boring, and the tour guide was not very knowledgeable. We had no time to shop and went back to the ship on the shuttle unfulfilled. It was not worth the money at all.
• The Fifth Day (Civitavecchia/Rome) We went on the excursion #2095 for “Roman Treasures: Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, St Peter’s, The Colosseum and the Forum” for EUR $120 each, this was a shuttle/walking tour. We had to go through the museum so fast we could not enjoy the history & art, same goes for St Peter’s. We did not go inside of the Colosseum which was disappointing. The microphone did not well on the bus with our first tour guide, so we had no idea what we were seeing. The second tour guide was awesome, he had the most knowledge of any of the tour guides we had on all of the other tours we went on. Again, we didn’t know where & what time to meet until the previous night in the Diario Di Bordo.
• The Sixth Day (Savona) We went on the excursion #0377 Monaco for EUR $55 each, another disappointing excursion. It was represented as a 6-hour excursion. We drove 2 hours and 15 minutes to see nothing! We had only 20 minutes in Monaco (10 minutes was spent standing in line for the restroom) and went back on the tour bus. In Monte Carlo we had 20 minutes to see the town. The Casino was closed and there was nothing else there for us to do after walking all the way up the hill. The only good thing was the car show. We had a sack lunch of either tuna or turkey which sat in a hot bus all day so we did not eat anything but the snacks that were in the sack. Then a 2 hour & 15-minute ride back to the port.
• The Seventh Day (Marseille) We went on the excursion #0421 “Panoramic tour of Marseille and shopping in the city center” for EUR $50 each We were supposed to walk all the way up a hill and many stairs to a church. I was not able to make the walk so had to wait in the sun for my husband, so we could go back to the bus. The shopping part of the tour was a joke since it was Sunday and only the bottom floor of the mall was open, we had to just walk the open shopping on the water.
The food was awful, they had the same exact menu every single day for breakfast. I ended up eating coco puffs almost every day. There was so much bread to choose from and not enough healthy entrees or other choices but eggs available. The only way to get a little bit better food was to pay for it at one of the restaurants that were not included in the price of the cruise, quite the rip off. The best meal we had was at the burger restaurant. Samsara EUR $25 each (meal that was given to us as a good will effort from Costa). We also ate at the Tavola Teppanyaki EUR $28 each, the shrimp my husband had was overcooked and so was my chicken. The rice was dry, and we probably had the worst chef there, other tables were having a great time and our table was very boring. According to your pamphlet online for the Diadema there was a mozzarella bar and chocolate bar advertised which we never saw. Again, a big disappointment.
Moreover, the other cruise guests were the rudest! They would almost knock you over, they gave no personal space & cut in lines. They were so disrespectful which only added to the unpleasant experience onboard the Diadema. The adults only jacuzzi was infested with kids so we could not enjoy that amenity either. This is not an American friendly cruise line. We will never cruise on Costa again. We have never had these issues on any other cruise line including Carnival your Corporate owner.
Costa felt that the EUR $100 for our dinner & the EUR $80 for our excursion was ample compensation for all of the inconvenience we suffered for a week.
This is the worst vacation we have ever been on it our life and would not recommend to anyone we know, no matter what the cost. We would like Cruise builder and Costa to make this right for the aggravation and unsettling feeling about this vacation and in doing so we would prefer a full refund of this trip. My husband worked 2 jobs for us to afford this trip of a lifetime. We realize it was not a major cost for you but, it was for us. We do not want to go to the Revdex.com (Revdex.com) or Social Media sites to get the attention we deserve, as we would rather come to an agreement with Cost and Cruise Builders to make this right. We look forward to your response.

I paid in full for a Cruise and flight tickets through Cruisebuilder. They entered my last name incorrectly on my Lufthansa airlines flight tickets (just a letter is wrong, the correct letter is g, instead q. Correct last name is ***, but Cruisebuilder entered ***). Even I have sent Cruisebuilder many emails requesting them to call Lufthansa to fix the problem, they didn’t do it. They just called Lufthansa one time, but Cruisebuilder requested Lufthansa to add a second last name on my flight tickets, so Lufthansa denied it. Cruisebuilder asked me to buy a new flight ticket.

We went on the Rome Temple cruise in May 2019. 7 day cruise and then almost a week in Greece and Italy. It was all so beautiful ??. Our favorite being in Greece! One thing people need to know about these tours is there is so much to see and they did their best to get it all in. You need to be prepared to do a lot of walking on very uneven paving stones and walkways.

We had 5 bus loads of people (hurrah for bus #4!!) and there were very few under the age of 60. So waiting, loading and unloading took up a lot of time. Our tour directors were so careful to help and accommodate everyone and their needs. Our tour guides were such beautiful young girls with a lot of love for us all, even tho we had a few complainers!

My only wish was that I was in my 30's instead of my 60's so I didn't hurt so much each night we arrived at our different hotels. We usually got there at bedtime each night, 9:00-10:00 pm. Had to get our suitcases off the bus, check in to the hotel, get what we needed out of our bags, sleep then get up early to get ready, repack our suitcases, get them on the bus, get some breakfast and be on the bus to leave around 8:00 am. Very rough on some of us! So just wanted to let others know what to expect. We had no idea how hard this would be plus a lot of walking each day. Get into good shape before you go!!

But all in all it was so worth it, what fabulous and amazing things to see!! Jaw dropping every day for us after a lifetime of learning about these places now being in front of them!! Next time I think I will mail my large suitcase home!! ??????

CruiseBuilders, aka, JUSTLDS.COM failed to follow through on its promises. CruiseBuilders caters to the LDS community. My family and I just returned to the US this morning from a CruiseBuilders Adriatic cruise (Costa Luminosa) followed by a bus tour of selected cities in Italy culminating in a session at the new LDS Rome temple. The best way I can describe the bus tour portion of the trip was that CruiseBuilders makes a limited effort to be technically complaint with their promises but not in any meaningful way. For example, when we left the cruise ship we were given one hour to explore Venice. From there, we drove to Pisa where we were given 20 minutes to explore the grounds. Our bus was the first of 5 to arrive so the rest of the group had less time than ours. The next morning we drove to Florence where the group was looking forward to the "included" tour of the Galleria dell'Accademia to see Michelangelo's David, among other exhibits. Sadly, this was not to be. Approximately 30 minutes before arrival our tour guide, who was utterly unsupported by CruiseBuilders but did her level best to be positive, told us that we would not be given tickets. She bravely told us that we could see a copy of the David in another part of the city which was "just as good." In Rome, where the literature explicitly stated we would be entering the Colosseum, we learned, once again, that this was not to be. By this point the entire group was skeptical of any promises made by CruiseBuilders and someone asked if we would actually be entering the temple. The hammer fell again -- for some. The tour guide was forced to acknowledge that not everyone would be able to enter due to logistical constraints. The disappointment was palpable. If you are looking for a tour company that offers something beyond unfulfilled promises and a complete lack of response once you have paid for your tour, avoid CruiseBuilders.