The Sundance Vacations Cruise is not a scam. It's not fraudulent or a fraud.

When our agents contact the public they are trained to inform guests that they will have to pay some fees. Here is a log that was created and sent to us by an traveler who took a previous giveaway trip to Orlando. This person's experience with Sundance Vacations' offer went well.

Registered Online with the certificate on July 31, 2007

August 8, 2007: I received a letter in my email for the $50.00 deposit remittance coupon. Then a letter was also written by Spirit on August 1, 2007 (received 8/9/07) and sent to my home regarding the deposit and confirming my initial registration with the certificate. The letter also stated that I had one year to use the certificate from the date of registration. I mailed deposit that day.

August 16, 2007: Received a letter from Spirit confirming receipt of my deposit. In the letter, it provides you with a link/website to visit to begin the vacation selection process. It stated that once I picked my dates and Spirit received them, then a travel consultant would call me within 21 days. The letter also explained the option of upgrading the trip. Additional nights, upgraded hotel accommodations, and expanded airline schedules. I immediately went online and submitted my selected travel dates.

1.You must select a dates between Sunday and Wednesday only.
2.Once you put in the first date, the system then narrows your options further.

I started with October 21st -23rd of 2007 (not my preferred date, but started there)
Then computer asked me to pick between December 2-4th, 9th-11th and January
6th-8th, 13th-15th, and also some dates in February. So they give you dates to choose.
I was pleased because I initially wanted to go on the trip Jan 6th-8th to begin with.

Then, I was told that a representative would call me regarding my travel arrangements within 21 days. I spoke to someone on September 10, 2007. We talked about availability and cost. They told me they had my January dates available for me. At that moment, she said I had to book right then and there and be prepared to pay as well, but I was not. I had something important going on at work, and could not stay on the line for 30 minutes. They ask you if you have 20-30 minutes to wait around while they check availability. She then told me I would have to call the customer service department when ready to book.

I called at least once a week from late September 2007 on, until November 20th, 2007 when “Elaine” called me at my work number. She asked me if I had the 20-30 minutes to talk with her and I accepted, due to the fact that I did not receive a call back for a long time before and wanted to finalize the trip. This process was the only difficulty. It took longer than expected for someone to get back to me.

First, she went over the taxes of the trip and then the upgrade options: additional nights, expanded airline options, and upgraded hotel accommodations. She said if you upgrade to an additional night, including rearranging the airline flight, it would be an extra $125.00 person. That price included the additional night as well as a changed flight. Then the taxes, which we do not disclose from our customers, are always anywhere from $45-65.00 a person.

If you chose not to upgrade, she told me, you would only have to pay $132.16 for the airline taxes of the trip. I said that would be fine, let’s book January 6th-8th, 2008. She then asks you to hold so she can book everything. I was on hold about 10 minutes. She came back and told me my flight information:

Depart DAY on 1/6/08 @ 7:03pm, Arrive in Atlanta @ 8:38pm, Leave Atlanta @ 9:20pm,
Arrive in Orlando @ 10:24pm. (So you get there on first day late at night).

Depart Orlando @ 6:00am on 1/8/08, Arrive in Atlanta @ 7:27am,
Leave Atlanta @ 8:15am, Arrive in Dayton @ 9:44am.

The Hotel in Orlando would be the Ramada Plaza Gateway

I put her on hold to speak with someone regarding the trip. At that point, I wanted to see what the cost of upgrading and what it entails would be. So you only actually get less than one day in Orlando, if you have to be at the airport by 4:00 am.

Cost of upgrade: $312.00. This included extra night in hotel, and much better flight times(3 full nights in hotel, and perfect flight times for us). This cost included the “airline taxes and all other fees as well.” New Schedule would be as follows:

Depart DAY on 1/6/08 @ 8:05am Arrive in MCO (Orlando) @ 10:11am.
Depart MCO on 1/9/08 @ 6:22pm, Arrive in DAY @ 8:25pm.

The Hotel would also be the Ramada Gateway Kissimmee(one mile from Disney)

Accepted upgrade, received an email from “Elaine Garcia” at Spirit Incentives that day with all of my travel confirmations: A Confirmation from Air Tran Airways, and the Ramada which I was to print off and take with me. A few days before the trip I called Air Tran to confirm my flight, and all was set. I did the same with the Hotel and all was set as well.

If you are paying airline taxes anyway ranging from $60-100+ a person, why not upgrade for just one more hundred dollars to make it more memorable. Everything went smoothly.

The hotel (Ramada Gateway Kissimmee) was very nice for what I was paying and how many nights we ended up staying. There were a few pools, game rooms, 2 restaurants, shuttle service to the parks, and other restaurants and activities close by. Disney was less than a mile from hotel. My advise would be to upgrade if you can. It was well worth it.

Spirit was very accommodating after that point as well. The back of the certificates are key. I have read the terms and conditions on these several times, if people read them, and follow the instructions word for word this is simple.

As you can see from the submission above, the cruises and vacations offered by Sundance Vacations is not a scam or fraudulent. You have to read the terms and conditions, be a little flexible, and pay the disclosed taxes and processing fees. Spirit Incentives is a reputable company who does fulfill their obligation to send people on the current cruise as long as the customer follows all the rules and is prepared to pay a small portion.

It's important to understand that you do not have to upgrade, as the person above did. These upgrade options are purely vacation experience enhancements.

I hope this helps people who are reading all kinds of mis-information put out by people who thought they were getting a totally free cruise and became very angry and posted wrong information. We try to make it very clear that there are some fees involved.

Enjoy your cruise.

-Sundance Vacations

If you would like to visit one of the Sundance Vacations offices to learn about our unique travel opportunities and receive a promotional trip please visit our main site at http://www.sundancevacations.com/contact.html. We have offices in Rockaway NJ, Princeton NJ, King of Prussia PA, Harrisburg PA, Wilkes Barre PA, Downers Grove IL, and Brookfield WI. We hope you come for a visit soon.