Cruise was awesome; IHG was not

We had a great time!  Great cruise and itinerary!

Havana was the big draw.  Last May, my husband and I were on the first cruise ship from the US to travel to Cuba in over 50 years.  This year we brought two of our adult children to Havana so they could see why we fell in love with it.

Key West is a lot of fun. While there we decided we'll try to go back for a week in November for a family vacation.  It's a great place with so much to do!.

In Cozumel I booked a a private ATV tour.  It was a lot of fun!  Afterward we had a little time left and decided to walk somewhere close to the dock for an authentic meal.  It was about 7 pm and may store were closed.  Just a few hundred yards from the dock we began to receive offers for drugs. Nope. Buh-bye Mexico. I can ride ATVs elsewhere without that kind of debauchary.

Here's the disappointing part of the whole booking:  I responded to an IHG email for the cruise (and when I say "I", I mean my wife, because I passed the email along to her). She called IHG to book because the price was within a couple of dollars of the cruise line's price, but the email also said, "Bonus Offer: Earn tons of points on your sailing!", "EXCLUSIVE: FREE Specialty Dinner for 2!", and "Instant Savings: Prices Reflect 30% Savings!" (Hmmm . . . actually the whole cruise line was on sale at 30% off,. I'm happy I knew that already).  Also, this was a good one: "Royal Caribbean offers promotions for travelers 55 years old and older for select sail dates and ships" (But not this one!  You must be 60 to play!)

So the email (devoid of disclaimers that would have told me I was not eligible for ANY of these things) prompted our call to IHG to book.   What a disappointment.  There was NO advantage to booking with IHG.  I took a screen shot of the email and sent it to the travel agent working my call so he could see how misleading it was. (IHG's server bounced the email; he didn't receive it.)  Even the "tons of points" promise never materialized!  SMH.

But wait, there's more.  I called back to book another cabin so I could add more family members.  It seems IHG doesn't have their own block of cabins - they need to call Royal Carribean the same way I would in order to book a trip.  There were no more cabins available at my price.  We could continue to check with them to see if there were cancellations, but "we" meant "me". Phone associates don't have the flexibility for that level of customer service Yes, I know ; there are metrics and thresholds to be met).  

Overall, the IHG experience was disappointing.  Never again.