American Discount Cruises & Travel

I can't say enough good things about American Discount Cruises. I've been using them for years and they never disappoint. Great deals and a really fantastic team of customer service representatives. I've booked a bunch of cruises with them on their web site, as well as over the phone with their travel agents. Also booked a couple of all-inclusive vacations over the years.

Beware of this booking company. I have used them now 3x and 2 out of the 3 went without a hitch. 3rd times a charm? As I had identically done the first 2x - I bought a cruise and trip insurance through their website. You check a box for trip insurance, it is added to your total - and you check out. Seemingly simple - worked the first two times, why not the third. The end result is basically this, if you book with them and anything goes wrong - you will be screwed. If you book directly with the cruise companies this will not happen. THEIR system had a 'glitch' that somehow caused me to not get insurance for this trip, when I needed it. My previous two cruises apparently successfully purchased trip insurance - and was not needed. I purchased this 3rd cruise exactly the same. I will leave you with a quote on some of their 'excuses'. Mind you the whole ADC Rep: "I understand that your main concern is that our agency did not purchase your traveler's insurance properly. The system did not make your insurance purchase, and you were a sent an automatically generated email stating that it had not been processed (this email included all of your cruise specifics and also noted that the insurance had not been purchased). Yes, you authorized the insurance purchase while booking your cruise. But afterwards, you received notification that the purchase was not made. After a company advises you of a purchase failure, you can potentially make that purchase elsewhere with a different company. To avoid duplicate insurance purchases, it is our policy to communicate with our customers prior to attempting to reprocess the insurance purchase after the time of booking the reservation. In your case specifically, it appeared that the insurance did not process as a result of a processing glitch in the connection between us and the travel insurance provider. While we know now that you did want the insurance, it was equally possible at the time that the booking engine error could have indicated a false opt-in for insurance, which without communicating directly with you about your intentions, could have resulted in us purchasing insurance for you that you did not want. Whenever an error like this happens, it is best to communicate directly with the client before making any assumptions." In further discussions ADC REP: "But we need to do so in a way that does not assume our clients' authorization. " My E-mailed response- you guys keep going back to this authorization, you were given authorization. Your software failed. I get it in your mind I somehow selected I want insurance and please charge me, then your technology broke, and then I magically no longer wanted it and/or purchased it elsewhere. In my opinion ASSUMING that is the scenario vs ASSUMING you have authorization is crazy. One seems MUCH more logical of an assumption - than the other. One was a defined choice and permission from a customer, the other is some sort of %.01 of the time scenario that had not been actually discussed or determined. Simply put, I did what I was supposed to do on my end - AND had already successfully done with your company 5 months prior - but I got different results due to your technological errors. Anyways I would recommend booking directly with a cruise line AND trip insurance. I am sure if the cruise line had an issue, and it was on their end that screwed up the acquiring of insurance they would help you.

Be aware that this agency charges a $100 fee for cancelling a reservation for any reason at any time. This fee is not mandated by any any cruise line, it is this agencies policy to charge this fee. ASK about this fee BEFORE you give a deposit. Other agencies, and even the cruise lines, do NOT have this type of fee. Book elsewhere.

I've booked online with American Discount Cruises and I've used their travel agents to walk me through. Both were wonderful experiences and you can't beat their pricing. They are always a phone call away to help whenever you need them. Great Travel Agent. I won't book with anyone else.