Dreams La Romana

[amygirl1169]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenne I'm not entirely sure why the flight was cancelled. I asked my fiance because it was his brother whose trip was cancelled and he said that they cancelled it because the flight didn't exist anymore. I guess they cancelled certain flights and then whoever was on them got their trip cancelled.

Ahhh, ok. This is the same thing I posted about a little while back, where Sunwing contacted us and said that as of the end of March 2010, they will not be flying directly to La Romana, but instead, our same trip would land in Punta Cana and then take a transfer (bus) to La Romana (1.5hrs).

No biggie, but they gave us the option to cancel our entire trip if we wished. All of our guests were fine with it, so we just kept our booking as is. They also agreed to upgrade us on the flight and at the resort to keep us from cancelling, so it worked out in our favour!

I don't think it's a big deal.. and I didn't see any other airlines that flew direct to La Romana (within price range) since it's off season.

[dolfinluck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole8 thanks dolfin... Any idea of the cost I am assuming it is more?

I believe it would be just the cost to have a private reception, off the top of my head i think for the silver its @$30 per head plus tax.

[dolfinluck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole8 thanks dolfin... Any idea of the cost I am assuming it is more?

I think is is just the cost of having a private reception. So if you did the silver meal it would be @$30 pp plus tax.

[nicole8]

I spoke with the TA and she had contacted Sunwing and all is good so far and the reason that it got CXL was maybe not enough people. We have about 30 people on our flight so hopully it wont be a problem.

 

Yeah we got the 13th person free so myself and my fiance got to go for free + the taxesw about 250.00 each...not bad!!

[Sunandsand]

Here's an email I got from "Takeoffeh.com" --- apparently they send out info on the travel industry

 

"There Will Be Deals

The travel Industry is rife with speculation about the marriage of two of Canada’s largest packaged vacation operators – Signature and Sunwing. The overall consensus is it will keep prices low this winter. The union of Signature Vacations and the Sunwing Travel Group appears to have been a bit of a shotgun wedding. Signature has been bleeding red ink – to the tune of $20-million so far this year – while privately held Sunwing claims profitability despite offering what many observers have seen as unsustainably low pricing. Sunwing has grown by leaps and bounds in the past five years, accelerating from $30-million in revenue to $660-million in 2008. Adding Signature’s revenues to the pot, Sunwing will likely see sales of about $1-billion this year. As Brent Jang reported in The Globe and Mail, the merger will likely put some heat on industry leader Transat, which has been critical in the past of Sunwing’s low-ball pricing. If Transat hoped for more rationality in the marketplace this year, it will likely be disappointed by comments in the Globe from Sunwing COO Stephen Hunter. “"The consumer will benefit with better pricing and improved product lines in the next six to 12 months," he said."People don’t want to stay at a dump. They want a nice hotel, but they don’t want to pay a lot. There will be deals." Get out the sunscreen folks."

 

On that note, my TA got me a great deal with every 12th person free for DLR and a great discount too. I've done some comparison shopping and his is the best.

 

PM me if you're still looking for flights out of Toronto.

[amygirl1169]

I just had my trip re-quoted for a few more people who would like to book now. The first group originally paid $1360pp (Apr 23rd departure) and the new rate has gone up to $1495...

 

I hope the merger means some of the rates will go down, because I think the price jump is turning off a lot of our guests

[Sunandsand]

Yikes,

My fiance has been suggesting we put off booking our trip but our prices are $1218 including tax (and that's without factoring in the group discount) so maybe we should book!

This is all just such a gamble!

[amygirl1169]

I think $1218 is a pretty good rate for the time of year you're going (you're going in the summer, right?)

 

For me, I didn't feel like anything was real until we booked, so I have peace of mind now. Didn't want to take any chances that our dates would get booked up!

 

And now I think a lot of our guests are wishing they booked earlier too... :/ But who knows, maybe they will get great last minute deals - although if you check out the last minute rates to go now, they're really not that much cheaper and the Fall is hurricane season!

[Sunandsand]

That's a good point. What I may do is book my initial 12 people so I can get the discount (my immediate family, parents, brothers, etc.) and then everyone else can decide when they want to book.

I'm just waiting on Severine from photosouvenir to see if they can make it to La Romana to shoot the wedding. I think they may be avoiding my emails because they can probably find work in Punta Cana and it may not be worth the drive to La Romana (even though I agreed to pay their $200 travel fee). Fingers are crossed because I really like their work.

[amygirl1169]

Oooh, I'd be interested in hearing your response from them and their rates. I've tried to contact the photographer that someone posted earlier (NinPhotography) but I got a bounceback from their server...

 

I am still trying to convince one of our photographically gifted guests to be our wedding photographer, but I don't think he wants the pressure! lol

 

Otherwise I'm thinking that flying our own photographer down might be the other only option...hopefully someone that will do it for a free trip!