1st4cruising.com www.1st4cruising.com

I booked a cruise for November 2012 for a family of five. We are cruising from L.Angeles to the Hawaiin Islands.

At the time of booking the prices were excellent and the customer service first class.

Today I have been informed by letter that the company was liquidated on 7th. March and the bookings have been taken over by Hayes Travel who appear to be the parent company for 1st4 Cruising.

I keep my fingers crossed that everything will work out O.K.

This company does not allow you to complain it has major problems but you cant get any one to anser your e/mails,I would bet you that this review does not get viewed ,they say thatyou will be looked after but reality is they dont .B.Thomas

Dear Watchdog

I rang 1st4 Cruising on 11/09/11 13:00 hrs to book a panama canal cruise with a hotel stay at Fort Lauderdale and Los Angles, when Spoke to Louise I also asked for an extra night at LA she said that she would ring me back with the updated price.

When she rang me back Louise said that the price £1699 as advertised on the web site and brochure was wrong and it should be £1899 which means that it was an extra £400 for a couple, so we decided not to make the booking.

I then go onto the web site on Monday at 13:00 hrs the offer is still on the web site plus the prices are all mixed up, cruise only £1899, Fly-cruise £999 and the cruise that we wanted to book at £1699 with hotel stay at Fort Lauderdale and Los Angles.

I then rang them again and asked what was going on with the prices as it was very confusing and I was told that she did not know, when I said that this was not the way to do business and I would take it further with Watchdog and fair trading she would get Louise to ring me.As I am waiting for the call back the price has change yet again to £2399.

Copy to: ABTA Consumer Affairs, ABTA Ltd, 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ

This was our first time booking was this company. I wanted something different from the cruise and needed hotels in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The staff were helpfull and we were given options on the hotels before and after the cruise. The hotels were excellent and We stayed in the Inn and Venice Beach, Los Angeles for 3 days before a fantastic princess Cruise to Hawaii and then 3 days in the Planet hollywood las Vegas, The 1st4cruising staff kept us updated and when I compared the cost had I booked the holiday myself it would have cost at leat £2000 more. Would recommend this company and will use again

Booked a November Med Cruise on Cunard Queen Victoria with 1st4cruising in August 2010 and was told that the flight details would follow. All well until flight details had still not arrived about a week before holiday. Phoned and was told by Cunard that it had only been booked as a Cruise only !!! by 1st4Cruising. After initial panic (slight understatement) this was sorted out and then found out that our flight details meant that there was a double flight to contend with on our journey back from Venice. Our flight was Venice to Dusseldorf and then Dusseldorf to Heathrow instead of a direct flight as we had been led to believe on booking this cruise with 1st4cruising.

After a lot of irate calls to 1st4Crusing and to Cunard we were able to get onto a direct flight from Venice. Some other passengers on this cruise also had great difficulty and had to come back via Rome, Brussels or Dusseldorf adding many extra hours and inconvenience onto their travel plans. We were very lucky but would warn other people booking cruises with Cunard/1st4cruising to double check their flight arrangements on return journey and insist you have the flight details well before your cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed the Med cruise but the problems we had before the cruise did mar it considerably. After a lot of hassle - for us it was sorted out ...... eventually.......... but please be aware that this can happen with Cunard cruises***************and double check and insist on having your flight details when you book your cruise.

I booked a 22 night Carribbean Cruise for November 2009. The service I received was excellent and if they had an 'employee of the month' I would reccommend Amanda Berry with whom I dealt. She looked after us so well and nothing was too much trouble. Out tickets were to arrive 7 - 10 days before we left but as we live in Ireland and were leaving home several days before the cruise I was worried about they not arriving on time - I needen't have worried, Amanda made sure we got them on time. I felt at the end of our communications, all done by e.mail, that I was dealing with a friend. Thanks Amanda.

Noreen Ormsby

We were anxious to secure a berth on the QE2 Farewell Voyage to Dubai, and responded to an advertisement in The Daily Mail from 1st4cruising.

We were able to get the voyage that we wanted.

We had to pay a 'cancellation or change of name charge'.

The surcharge for using a credit card was very high and they insisted that we pay the balance several weeks before the money was requested from Cunard.

We thought that as a Company they were not very helpful.

We had taken up an offer with 1st4cruising.com on a cruise to the Caribbean sailing from New York. We were keen to book an "add on" for 2 nights in Manhattan at the end of the cruise and this was requested on booking. We were told that the details of this would be available later and to keep in touch. We rang numerous times over many months only to be told that there would be additional charges to change the booking. Also that we could only be taken to Newark rather than JFK (they had no idea of the distance involved when getting from Manhattan to Newark).

We have had dozens of cruises and never had a problem in booking add ons (additional sales!) but this company to me seemed incapable of meeting this request. If you want a bog standard cruise you may be okay but if your want anything slightly different find some one else. You have to wonder how capable they will be in the event of a problem.