I'm revisiting my initial post. I was contacted by Linda B., after my initial post, who apologized for no one getting back to me. She rescheduled our appointment, we attended. The program is a buy down of future vacations. This is an excellent program for couples who are actively traveling or will be traveling in the future.
Mike, the Presenter, did a fabulous job explaining the program. Shauna and Dawn both were exceptional in selling the program. My husband and I chose not to sign-up. We are fortunate to have visited the places on our bucket list and we now prefer driving to our destinations with no particular schedule.
We received our Amazon Gift Card and Voucher for the Cruise as promised. I was surprised that Goldrush Getaways does not handle the booking of the giveaways. It's handled by a third party, Casablanca Express. The Google reviews for this company mention "frustrating at every point of the way to deal with and ridiculous hoops to jump through when trying to book your trip."
I mailed my voucher certified mail 9/25/25 with a request for a signature acknowledging receipt. I will keep you all posted with the details of how the booking process went.
As promised to Linda B., I'm changing my initial rating based on what I've experienced to date. I reserve the right to update my experience as it relates to Casablanca Express.
You know the adage, if it sounds too good to be true..., then it probably is. Well, the jury is still out on this one. I was notified by someone from "the rewards department" that I had won a cruise for two. When I eventually spoke with this person, she confirmed my details (nothing that hadn't already been disclosed at the time of entry). I received an email outlining the available cruises and was told we (hubby and I) needed to attend a 90-minute presentation. I knew it wasn't timeshare related but was pretty sure something was going to be sold.
When I questioned the individual about how I was selected and what percentage of the entrants won a cruise, she said about 3%. When I asked the purpose of the 90-minute presentation, I was told that it was to acquaint us with the travel agency and the only thing asked in return was a google rating of our experience. Sounded plausible.
MY INTIAL POST
Unfortunately, I contracted a bad case of pinkeye and was in the contagious stage the day we were scheduled to attend the 90-minute presentation. We did not attend. After recovering from pinkeye, I realized we'd missed the meeting. I left 2 voicemail messages and sent a text message asking to be rescheduled. I haven't heard back. Because I didn't hear back, I became curious as to what we had missed and wanted confirmation whether we truly won a cruise for two that included round trip airfare and our only out of pocket expense would have been port fees. No one has responded to my voicemail or text messages. Perhaps we missed our window of opportunity. No response prompted me to do some digging on the internet. This is how I learned about the travel agent buy in offered during the presentation.
In any event, I was told I won a cruise, wasn't told that the only way to collect my prize was to attend a "mandatory" meeting. I wish to know how and where to collect my prize. Honestly, If the purpose of the 90-minute presentation is to recruit travel agents, what's the big secret? Why not call it what it is instead of using the guise of "you won a cruise." My husband is retired. Perhaps he would have considered becoming a travel agent.
I said all of this to say "if I won the cruise, as I was told, how do I collect the vouchers? If the only way to claim the vouchers was a one-time chance to attend the 90 minute "buy into becoming a travel agent presentation" be honest about it.
At this time I can only rate my experience based on what I've experienced which is a verbal prize acknowledgement, an email detailing the prize and an invite to a presentation.
Response from the owner:Hi Abby,
I'm truly sorry for the confusion and for the lack of response to your calls — that’s not the experience we aim to provide. I’m glad to see you were able to come in on July 20th to pick up your cruise and Amazon gift card. We hope you enjoy your vacation, and we appreciate the opportunity to make things right.
