Sgt. Pepper

This is the reply I received from Vantage. No where on their website outlining the President's Club benefits does it mention all the restrictions. It doesn't make since that the Hotel Manager has to email HQ for approval. By the time they receive approval it may be the 3rd day into the trip. People are already unpacked and settled in their room. Upgrades should be offered at time of embarkation. Hq is aware of who qualifies for the upgrade prior to departure.

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Mominee,

Thank you for your email to Vantage Deluxe World Travel.We hope you enjoyed your last journey aboard the ms River Voyager.I am sorry that you were not pleased with the Hotel Manager on the ship.A copy of your email has been forwarded to our regional director to address with him.

With regards to complimentary upgrades, this is not up to the hotel manager.Any complimentary upgrades are assigned by the Vantage operations team.Upgrades are first offered for a discount prior to being given up as complimentary.If at all available, the operations team then assigns complimentary upgrades at their discretion factoring in highest president club status per cabin category, business class passengers, VIP passengers, total paid on the trip etc.I am sorry that the complimentary upgrade was not available to you at the time.

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback.Your comments are important to us, in our ongoing efforts to improve our quality and service levels.We certainly do appreciate your loyalty to Vantage and hope you have great memories of seeing the world with us.We hope to welcome you back

Kind regards,

Bethlehem Abebe

Customer Care Correspondent

I Original Message-----

From: PTQualityDiv <PTQualityDiv@vantagetravel.com>

To: RMOMINEE <RMOMINEE@AOL.COM>

Sent: Wed, Aug 23, 2017 7:08 pm

Subject: Re: Rhine Getaway; 543232 ; VAB 7/19/17

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Dear Mr. & Mrs. Mominee,

Thank you for your email to Vantage Deluxe World Travel.We hope you enjoyed your last journey aboard the ms River Voyager.I am sorry that you were not pleased with the Hotel Manager on the ship.A copy of your email has been forwarded to our regional director to address with him.

With regards to complimentary upgrades, this is not up to the hotel manager.Any complimentary upgrades are assigned by the Vantage operations team.Upgrades are first offered for a discount prior to being given up as complimentary.If at all available, the operations team then assigns complimentary upgrades at their discretion factoring in highest president club status per cabin category, business class passengers, VIP passengers, total paid on the trip etc.I am sorry that the complimentary upgrade was not available to you at the time.

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback.Your comments are important to us, in our ongoing efforts to improve our quality and service levels.We certainly do appreciate your loyalty to Vantage and hope you have great memories of seeing the world with us.We hope to welcome you back

Kind regards,

Bethlehem Abebe

Customer Care Correspondent

How can we help you:

I was a little disappointed with my experience with the Hotel Manager on the River Navigator this July. This was my 11th cruise with Vantage and as a President Club Member one of the benefits is a cabin upgrade if one is available. On this particular cruise there were 3 vacant cabins. I ask the Hotel Manager if I could upgrade to one of the vacant cabins. He stated he would have to contact Vantage main office for approval and he would get back to me. After the third day and not hearing anything from him, I asked him what the status of my request was. He replied "If there was good news I would have contacted you". He gave no reason why I couldn't upgrade. What good is it being a President Club member if they don't honor the benefits. I feel that that he acted in a totally non-professional way. The staff constantly stresses that everything is "excellent on board"

I sent an email to Al Dore at Vantage and also wrote it up in the trip evaluation. Haven't heard anything back from them yet. Won't hold my breath.

I was a little disappointed with my experience with the Hotel Manager on the River Navigator this July. This was my 11th cruise with Vantage and as a President Club Member one of the benefits is a cabin upgrade if one is available. On this particular cruise there were 3 vacant cabins. I ask the Hotel Manager if I could upgrade to one of the vacant cabins. He stated he would have to contact Vantage main office for approval and he would get back to me. After the third day and not hearing anything from him, I asked him what the status of my request was. He replied "If there was good news I would have contacted you". He gave no reason why I couldn't upgrade. What good is it being a President Club member if they don't honor the benefits. I feel that that he acted in a totally non-professional way. The staff constantly stresses that everything is "excellent on board"

Did they hold you to 33 lbs for check in and 18 lbs for carry on during travel through India?

For those who are interested in taking Vantages India and Ganges River Cruise I just received notice from Generations Visa Services that the India government has just raised it fees for their visas. Visa fees plus Generations fee now is $201 per person.

I am booked on the September 2nd cruise and will be happy to provide my feedback. I recently check the Vantage website and noticed that there are still plenty of cabins available for most dates. By this time most should be sold out, I am worried that they may cancel the cruise due to lack of travelers.

I have booked the September 2015 Ganges Vantage trip and would like to hear from anyone that will returning in January and February.

The Hotel Director is in charge of the day to day operations of the ship. He also gives the port call briefings at night. I really couldn't justify giving him the amount Vantage recommended. Just a reminder. The ship is not owned by Vantage and you can not charge your tips to your credit card. You have to use US or local currency. The crew and tour directors really go out of their way to make your trip enjoyable. They definitely are entitled to the recommended guidelines. I even gave them a little more. Don't feel pressured by the guidelines do what you feel is right.

There wasn't a retractable clothesline in the bathroom. Plenty of receptacles in the room, one in the bathroom, one near the flat screen tv and one at the desk. You will be visiting a school and before you go the tour guides will take up a collection to either buy sports equipment or school supplies. I did bring some candy with us. I found on our past trips the crew enjoy it. It something they don't have in their country. Crystal Delight was a big hit in Cambodia. I agree with the other post about giving handouts to the children. You will see once you get close to Mandalay that a majority of the local vendors are children and they do not take no for answer. They can down right get annoying to the point you won't enjoy the tour. The easiest thing to do is don't look at them or show any interest in what they are selling. Last resort is to ask your tour guide tot tell them you are not interested and to leave you alone. One tip for the ladies is bring some extra toilet paper with you on your tours. Most rest stops are not up to our standards.

In addition to table lamps. Each side of the bed had reading lights.

DeeDC,

We were on the 4th trip of the new ship. They had some major problems prior to our trip. With the exception of WIFi everything was perfect. There are decks outside of your room. They have floor to ceiling French doors that open up. There are two chairs in the room that you can use to view the scenery passing by. We used this many times to take pictures of the activities on the shore line. You can charge all shipboard expenses to your credit card including bar, massages, laundry. Free wine and beer were free flowing at dinner time. Beer and soft drinks were available at lunch. All local wines, beer and hard liquor was free during cocktail hour and up to the time the bar closed. Top of the line drinks and wines you paid extra. I don't recall the cost of laundry but if you travel in Europe it was about the same price. Unless you are planning on buying jewelry, silk products or any high dollar items you can get by in Burma with about $100 for the local markets. The evening tours were great. I was in Bangkok before and did the evening tour and decided to do it again this time because it was so good. We definitely enjoyed the evening tour in Yangoon. They keep you busy all the time yet there was enough down time to do whatever you liked. ATM's were available in the hotels whatever local currency we had left over we used it for the crew tips.. We were in cabin 205 which was an ideal location since the dining hall was on that level. Room 201 is right at the bow of the ship. This is were we usually disembarked for the shore excursions. Your tour director will send you a personal email outlining your arrival arrangements. Our plan was delayed 4 hours in SF. We were able to email him with our new arrival times. He responded to our emails within 15 minutes or sending it. He also had someone at the airport to meet us. I will say this about the tour directors especially Steve. They bent over backwards and went out of their way to make this trip one of the most enjoyable Vantage journeys that we have taken.. Don't worry you are in great hands.

Just returned on November 6th from fabulous Myanmar. I have attached two links to videos that were taken throughout the entire trip. I will share a couple lessons learned from this trip. The ship is not owned by Vantage it is leased, WFII is not readily available, tips for the crew has to be made in cash, if you are going to buy anything in US dollars all bills must be new without any marks or wrinkles even if you are exchanging it for local currency. Also you must walk bare footed in all temples. Sanitary conditions in some are lacking. The bus trip to and from the ship is approximate 7 hours depending on traffic and road conditions. There is usually 2 stops for toilet breaks but facilities are poor. Crew, Tour directors and local guides are outstanding, food was good and plentiful, excursions were great and you will be definitely amazed by the country. Lastly the hotels were 5 star and above

1 Bangkok till Monywa ;

2. Mandalay ; http://youtu.be/tLOHiKIe_dse

I jumped into this discussion a little late. Is it my understanding that Vantage is now automatically billing for tips at the end of the trip at a fixed rate. I thought tipping was strictly voluntarily and if you wanted to tip someone more or liess that was your option. It seems that Vantage is significantly raising the prices on their 2015 cruises and reducing the number of support staff. The personal touches the Cruise Directors gave was one of the reasons I decided to go with them. It looks like they are putting profit ahead of its travelers.

You may want to look a Vantage. I just returned from their Thailand, Viet Nam and Cambodia trip. Had a great experience. The boat was newly refurbished. Food was great and we had excellent Program Directors. Also the hotels we stayed at were superb.

Sgt. Pepper