Air Canada

Day 1 - Oct 13 - We traveled Business class and were told our bags would be priority, which they weren't. Our baggage came off on the wrong carousel and I had to go ask the Air Canada lady where our baggage was, she said oh they put it on the wrong carousel, it's over here on this one, but no announcement was made. We get to the resort and I'm handicapped and they saw this. They tried to put me on the 3rd floor of a walk up, we had to change rooms to "The Tower", which I heard was very noisy. They put us on the second floor without the ocean view I paid for, so they wanted to move us to the next floor up, but there was no electricity or air conditioning in that room, so they ended up putting us on the 5th floor facing away from the resort. Facing Mambo beach which has very loud night life until about 2 am. We even had to move our own bags, as they wouldn't. We plugged in a power bar in the room on the 5th floor and found ourselves in darkness. My husband tried calling the concierge but no one was picking up, so he had to go and find someone, they had to switch it over to US electricity. We didn't get lunch because we missed it, Dinner at the Italian place was horrible, I ordered medium and got well done meat, I couldn't eat it. The concierge talked us into a 90 minute presentation which included lunch in that 90 minutes and $150 towards a rental car for the next day Oct 14. Also, no one told us about the amenities the resort had to offer, so we never used any of them because we didn't know what time they were or where they were.

Day 2 - Oct 14 - We had breakfast at one of the restaurants, it was buffet style and there were flies all over it. Then we went to meet the concierge for the Presentation. The first guy we spoke with at the presentation said we didn't have to buy that day, this was a vacation club. I said that's good because I will need to think about it as I'm ill right now and this might be my last vacation. 4 hours later and no lunch, my husband and I are both diabetic, they started at $28, 000 USD and finally got it down to $8, 400 USD and had talked us into it. I think because our sugar levels were all over the place. They had a tablet and went over some highlights of about 4 pages, they took our money and didn't give us a receipt, had us sign and initial in boxes on the tablet and it pre-populated the contract, which we thought was 4 pages. I got home and clicked on the email they sent and it was now 44 pages of stuff we didn't agree to, so yes I'm going to say it, they scammed us. I'm now in a dispute process with my credit card company over that one. So after our 4 hour ordeal they order the rental car, not from Dollar Rental who's on the property but from Prudential and my husband had to walk off property stand in the heat and humidity for 30 minutes to sign all the paperwork. The Air Canada Rep was only at the desk on the Sunday we arrived and the Sunday we left. All other times the sign said to go into the VIP lounge which we were now technically members of. But we kept getting kicked out of there, go deal with this person or that person. I said we bought into your club, well they are all busy with other members. It's seems once you join they treat you like crap unless you are Dutch. After all it is a Dutch island. We never did get anything to eat, we took the car and went for a drive. When we came back we found a place to eat but it wasn't much, so the next day we found a supermarket and bought some snack type foods even though we're not supposed to eat them, we can't go without eating.

Day 3 - Oct 15 - We went off resort for the entire day. When we came back once again not enough towels and wash cloths or hand towels in the room. My husband tried again to call the concierge, but no one was answering, so he went and found a manager, he said he would make it right and also offered us a complimentary breakfast in bed. At dinner we found out from another couple there was supposed to be a binder in our room with a room service menu in it. My husband and I went after dinner to ask about this binder and we told them there wasn't one in our room and they said oh well. We still didn't get one, but they did give us a room service menu and we booked our complimentary breakfast in bed for Friday morning.

Day 4 - Oct 16 - We ordered room service, which took them over an hour to get to us, it was just scrambled eggs and a fruit plate. The scrambled eggs were microwaved, cold and grey in color, it was horrible food. We then went off resort for the day.

Day 5 - Oct 17 - My husband got up, found a buffet and got us some toast, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Then we went off resort for the entire day. We were back in time for dinner and the girl couldn't remember that I asked for a sprite, she came back 2 times with the glass in her hand. I then asked for ice water and she got me nice warm tap water.

Day 6 - Oct 18 - Our complimentary Breakfast in bed, they called and said they didn't have croissants. Ok, so only have of what we ordered came, she forgot my Earl Grey tea, she said, you have tea in the room. Not Earl Grey, plus they only give you one stir stick a day for 2 people. The breakfast was disgusting, once again the eggs were microwaved, cold and grey. My husband had also ordered sausage and bacon, it was cold and greasy, the fruit tray look days old and of course my husband ordered either pancakes or french toast which didn't show up and neither did the yogurt. So we ate and left the resort. The car was due back at 4:00pm where my husband picked it up at. We got back to the resort at 3:30pm and went to our room. Ate something and then he took the car back at 3:50pm. He waited until 4:15pm and called the car rental company, they told him to take it back to the resort and leave the keys with the concierge. My husband told the lady he was supposed to leave it there and that's where he was leaving it but he would give the keys to the resort. Which he did. In the meantime, someone from the concierge desk called at 4:05pm and said, the car was supposed to be back at 4:00pm bring the keys downstairs. I told them my husband was to meet the guy where he picked up the car and that's where he was now and I hung up on them. My husband walked back to the resort and gave the keys to someone at the concierge desk. Our romantic dinner on the beach was for 7:30pm, we showed up on the dot and the girl almost bit our head off because she thought we were early, my husband said we are here on the dot, it's 7:30pm. She told us to get a drink from the bar, which is impossible at the Oceana, because the bar staff ignore you, unless you're Dutch or maybe it's because I have vitiligo and I'm spotted, maybe they are just prejudice. So about 15 minutes went by and our waiter came and got us and we went to the beach where our table was set up. There was no light on the table and the lobster was over cooked and we had a hard time pulling it off the shells and because of no light, we kept getting pieces of shell in our mouths. Talk about romantic, let's just choke on lobster shell. Since I don't drink we weren't having the champagne, so my husband ordered a beer. By the time dinner was served, he asked for another beer and the restaurant had run out of beer, but our waiter went across the resort and got my husband another beer. We finish our dinner and decide to go to the casino which is on the property. The ATM wasn't working, so we told the front desk, they said we had to walk all the way down to Mambo beach to the ATM there. Air Canada could have told us that the BMO Mastercard Debit cards, which is your actual bank cards don't work in those machines. So we transferred some money via apps from one bank to our credit union and I got money out that way, as the credit union we use doesn't have the debit cards like BMO. We walk all the way back to the resort and the ATM machine is now working again. So my husband now had to go and change his shirt. We went into the casino and had a good time. There was a letter in our door which said we needed to check out by noon, which we knew, but that we needed to come downstairs to see when the shuttle would be there to pick us up. We went between dinner and the casino and we were supposed to somehow know that we had to look in a specific binder at the Air Canada desk to find out when our shuttle was coming. Someone did look it up for us, our shuttle was for 11:15am. We once again complained about the Complimentary Breakfast and was asked if we wanted to speak with a manager, we said why, so they can offer us another cold greasy complimentary breakfast in bed?

Day 7 - Oct 19 - We didn't have a car now so we had to stay on the resort. Hubby found a buffet and got us some breakfast, then we went to the pools and played around in them and then we went to the ocean and stayed there most of the day playing in the ocean. We did have lunch at one of the buffets, but it wasn't much. I don't really like being in the water because my sunscreen wears off which makes me tan more which of course brings our my vitiligo more. After playing in the ocean we went back and packed some, we went and had dinner and went back to our room and packed everything except for what we would be wearing the next day. By the way, Housekeeping still hadn't improved by this point. Now before anyone says well most resorts like you to reuse your towels, Curacao makes their own water from the ocean, so there's no shortage on water there.

Day 8 - Hubby went and got us some breakfast from a buffet, we got dressed and took our own luggage down. The Air Canada Rep called out to me by name and asked if I remembered her, I said somewhat, she said we met last week when you arrived. I said, ok. She asked how our stay was, I said we had a wonderful time off resort and met a lot of nice local people, one especially that we kept running into who was an angel. But on resort, no, we didn't have a good time. Then I told her, we had checked out and that the girl kept ringing for the bell boy to put our bags somewhere and no one was coming. Well I found out why, you were responsible for your own luggage. None of this was told to us. Everything our travel agent told us was a down right lie. Air Canada Vacations did not treat us the way she said we would be treated and I'll be seeing her in person and letting her know all of this. Oh and we had to spend 3 hours in the airport as our plane was running late. Could we go into the lounge there, no because Air Canada doesn't have a contract with them. I thought that was all a part of my Vacation Package that I paid a hefty price for, but no it wasn't. I may be sitting in Business class, but that was it. That was our perk of the entire trip.

ALSO, NO ONE told us the following...
There was construction on the resort that started at around 6:30am every morning every day we were there.
They were pruning the palm trees everyday stating at around 6:30am every morning every day we were there.
That Mambo beach was open and playing very loud music until 2 in the morning

This was the worst vacation in my life. Did we get what I paid for, no we didn't. We got treated like crap. Is this a 4 star resort? I've had a better time and better service at 2 1/2 and 3 star hotels.

Air Canada Vacations I do hold you responsible. I tried calling, but you don't have a button to push for complaints, so I filled out your form. I'm sure I'll never hear from you again. I cried every single day, blaming myself for getting us such a horrible vacation, one that is most likely my last vacation. I just wanted to be treated like a normal person, not people judging me for how I look with my vitiligo and I truly believe that's what it was, they were all afraid they were going to catch something from me. So they were prejudice.