10:34 PM CDT on Thursday, June 1, 2006

By Chau Nguyen / 11 News

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Imagine your dream vacation is set to start in just a few days, but there’s a problem: your tickets don’t exist.

KHOU-TV

Mary Howard

This coming Sunday, dozens of people will have no place to go.

For the Harris group, made up of family and close friends, it was the vacation they had long awaited.

It was to be aboard a Carnival Cruise ship, sailing from Galveston to the western Caribbean.

Debbie Howard might have the one-week itinerary set to sail this Sunday, but no one has their tickets

“Yesterday I was disappointed. Last night I was disappointed.  Today I’m angry,” she said.

She is angry at Texas City Travel agency.

They showed 11 News receipts for the thousands they paid to the agency, in full, for the trip.

The thing is that their trip for 28 people was not booked.

Carnival Cruise lines got a bounced check from the travel agency.

“I don’t know what we’ll do now. A lot takin’ off from work and vacations,” said Mary Howard.

A representative with Texas City Travel told us by phone the agency will refund the money to the group, but the group isn’t buying it.

“What are they going to do? Are they ever going to make this cruise materialize,” said Mary Johnson.

The Better Business Bureau’s Dan Parsons, said the BBB did have one previous run-in with Texas City Travel over a customer’s and cruise complaint.

He said if the group doesn’t get their refund, they should go back to Carnival to explain what happened.

“You don’t want to add a bad customer service experience to the mix and make people say, ‘Hey, forget the cruise. I’ll go to Lake Travis’, “ Parsons said.

The Harris group won’t forget the over $700 per person they’ve paid.