This was our first cruise, and we needed hand-holding. Daphne set everything up, but once our fees…read morewere submitted it was radio silence. Emails went unanswered many times. I ultimately contacted the cruise line several times, via phone and email, to have my questions answered. She's friendly and polite, but certainly didn't go the extra mile for us! Just as easy to book directly through the cruise line, which we will do in future.

I must preface with the fact that this was our 4th trip to Playa del Carmen and that ALL of our…read moreprevious trips have been wonderful, with top-notch accommodations at stellar resorts - AND WE ARRANGED ALL THE TRIPS ON OUR OWN WITHOUT THE USE OR COST OF A TRAVEL AGENT. One of the members of our party viewed photos of our destination and chose it because of what he saw. Obviously, no one at Travel By Ginny checked out this place or they'd have known that the photos were nothing like the actual place they sent us! In THIS case, our trip cost us nearly triple what we'd paid on previous trips to to Riviera Maya; and our visit this time, was nothing short of a DISASTER! (Tip: AVOID THE SANDOS ECO RESORT because 'Eco' doesn't have a thing to do with 'ecology;' it means ECONOMY! Trust me!) As avid travelers, my family and I have stayed all around the globe and at all kinds of places, but THIS is BY FAR the VERY WORST we've EVER experienced thanks to the uninformed and uncaring travel agent! (We couldn't WAIT to FLEE the Mexican dump where we were trapped and return to civility! Wish we'd never bothered because NOW we need a REAL vacation after all the stress!) We had to wait over 3 hours to check-in (which we didn't mind), but when we arrived in our 3 rooms, we felt like we'd been sentenced to prison! The room was bare-bones with dilapidated furnishings, dirty bed linens, a LOT of mold in the bathroom, a filthy toilet that we didn't dare TOUCH, lights that didn't work and a subpar A/C that altogether quit before we went to bed the first night. The bottom sheet on the bed was 2-feet too SHORT and put on sideways! REALLY??? THIS is what Travel By Ginny deems a 'resort?' I think NOT! We decided to make the best of it (since we had no other options and had already paid the travel agent) and we unpacked since it was getting late. Later that night, the situation turned more dire though, when the A/C stopped working at ALL and we suffered through the entire night with NO A/C and a promise from Maintenance that 'they'd be there at 9am to look at it.' It was hotter IN our room than OUTSIDE! (WHY would we leave our nice, air-conditioned home to swelter in a filthy dump???) That first night was HELL. At 8:20am, someone called to ask 'How is your stay?' ARE YOU KIDDING???? When the maintenance guys arrived, they dismantled the A/C and the cylindrical filter was CAKED THICK with dust and grime. (I was surprised it didn't catch fire.) My husband and I went to the front desk to speak to a manager about getting a different room. Since we'd gone to the 'resort' (and I use the term lightly) for a 'family vacation,' we wanted our 3 rooms to be near one another. Imagine our surprise when we got to the front desk and found two other couples complaining about their rooms too and demanding decent accommodations! THIS WAS WHEN WE KNEW THINGS WOULDN'T GET BETTER. I called Travel By Ginny and spent a half-hour outlining our miseries. The SINGLE reason for this trip was because one of the people in our party of 7 wanted to swim with whale sharks, an excursion trip booked for us by Travel By Ginny long before we ever arrived in Mexico. Imagine our surprise when we called to confirm our pickup time for the excursion and were told the company had previously notified our travel agent that they'd CANCELLED the trip entirely and couldn't open the trips again for over a month! So apparently, the travel agent thought it best to not pass on this little tidbit, as it would have meant we'd cancel the trip since swimming with the whale sharks was the REASON for this trip in the first place! We had a room that resembled a prison cell on an unkempt, dilapidated property AND we had no plans to do WHAT WE'D INTENDED TO DO ON THIS TRIP. But we were still STUCK in our Hellish nightmare for a few more days.... What else could go wrong? How about roaches crawling across the floors of restaurants; peacocks and small feral animals that wander through the outdoor dining areas AND literally eat from the food buffet as guests sidestep the animal poop in the seating areas; watered down drinks; NO washcloths in the rooms; a shower bar that fell from the wall and hit me in the head; a toilet and sink that leaked all over the bathroom; a room that had the acrid odor of a mixture of sewage and mold.... and MORE! THIS is what Travel By Ginny considers a 'resort????' My DOG's accommodations at the kennel were better than where we stayed - and SHE had AC! I will NEVER use the services (and I use the term loosely) of Travel By Ginny. I feel we got ripped off in every sense of the word. I even gave them the benefit of the doubt, since they KNEW about all this, and have waited 2 months to see if they offered a partial refund for the trip they didn't provide.....but, NO; not a word, not a partial credit, not an apology of any kind. As a business owner for 27+ years, I can tell you that THIS is not how to build goodwill and not how to ensure repeat business.