Having tried desperately hard to find some cheap flights to Tenerife, I thought that I had finally hit gold when I came accross the site of 'On the Beach'.
I duly filled in the on line booking form, and paid for the flights. That's it, I thought, job done. How wrong was I?
Several hours later I received an email asking me to phone them.
It was bad enough that the number they use is a premium rate 0870 number, but when they informed me that the price had now gone up by a MASSIVE £86 per person I was not a happy person!
They informed me that somewhere in tiny writing in their terms and conditions it tells me that the price could change. I could not see where it said that anywhere on the booking form I had printed out.
What, exactly, is the point of this company if they cannot guarantee the price at time of booking? To make matters worse, when I went back onto their website the same flights were being offered at the original booking price. When questioned about this, their answer was that 'On the Beach' do not have control of the website and that any airline can change details and prices to suit themselves, so again I ask
'ON THE BEACH' WHAT EXACTLY IS THE POINT OF BOOKING THOROUGH YOU?
My advice - DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Celebrity Eclipse
Graham and I celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary this week and were lucky enough to be aboard the brand new cruise ship 'Celebrity Eclipse' for this occasion.
It was her inaugural voyage (if you exclude her brave and daring mission to collect over 2,000 stranded Brits from Bilbao last week!), so everything aboard was brand new and pristine, just the way I like it.
She is a huge vessel at around 122,000 tonnes and carries just under 3,000 passengers. She is elegantly furbished with none of the tackiness I have seen on other American owned ships.
However, those who know me will be aware than I can be super critical, and some will say that I actually look for things to complain about. Moi? Surely not!!
So true to character, unsurprisingly, there were one or two things that I feel Celebrity need to take a look at.......
The first thing I noticed was that there was no coffee in the cabin,(sorry, stateroom as it is now called) only tea. As I do not drink tea I asked our steward for some coffee only to be informed that it was tea only on this cruise. What???? After a few choice words (from me, not him), he told me he would see what he could do. On returning to the cabin later I found some coffee had been brought, but guess what, this was at the expense of the tea bags!Obviously this must be some quaint new American health and safety law. Tea and coffee together in one cabin may lead to an overdose in caffeine! Also an apparant money saving idea was to leave out the biscuits that we used to enjoy with our cuppa.
Criticism No.2 - The toilet paper was so thin that, using newspaper would have been more effective. I do not understand how Celebrity think that this saves them money when you need to use four times as much as usual.
Criticism No.3 - Whoever designed the sink needs shooting! The taps take up the majority of it, and I had to stand sideways in order to use it. They should have been designed to push to one side.
By far my biggest complaint was the over-inflated prices on all drinks on board this ship. Yes, it is a 5 star ship and higher prices are to be expected, but these were well over the top, and if this wasn't bad enough 15% gratuity was automatically added to every order, even if you stand at the bar and collect it yourself. Sorry Celebrity, this leaves a bad taste in the mouths of us Brits.
I was also unhappy that Celebrity imposed a hefty charge to use the shuttle bus in Le Havre. It is hardly the fault of the passengers that the ship is too large to dock close to the town.
This always used to be a free service. As far as I am aware it still is on P & O ships.
It is all these little touches that, in my opinion, prevent a good cruise from being a great one.
However these criticisms aside, the ship is fabulous. We had a very enjoyable 3 nights aboard. The restaurant that we were allocated (Blu) had attentive waiters, and the food was extremely tasty. The Ocean view buffet style cafe was also excellent with top quality food and an extremely varied selection.
The outside deck area could get a little crowded. I do find that Americans do not give the same importance to outside space that the British do. However, the sun loungers were comfortable and there were plenty of towels freely available.
Would I recommend this ship? That's a tough one. I would say that as long as you are prepared to spend a lot of money whilst on board, then yes I would say give it a try.
It was her inaugural voyage (if you exclude her brave and daring mission to collect over 2,000 stranded Brits from Bilbao last week!), so everything aboard was brand new and pristine, just the way I like it.
She is a huge vessel at around 122,000 tonnes and carries just under 3,000 passengers. She is elegantly furbished with none of the tackiness I have seen on other American owned ships.
However, those who know me will be aware than I can be super critical, and some will say that I actually look for things to complain about. Moi? Surely not!!
So true to character, unsurprisingly, there were one or two things that I feel Celebrity need to take a look at.......
The first thing I noticed was that there was no coffee in the cabin,(sorry, stateroom as it is now called) only tea. As I do not drink tea I asked our steward for some coffee only to be informed that it was tea only on this cruise. What???? After a few choice words (from me, not him), he told me he would see what he could do. On returning to the cabin later I found some coffee had been brought, but guess what, this was at the expense of the tea bags!Obviously this must be some quaint new American health and safety law. Tea and coffee together in one cabin may lead to an overdose in caffeine! Also an apparant money saving idea was to leave out the biscuits that we used to enjoy with our cuppa.
Criticism No.2 - The toilet paper was so thin that, using newspaper would have been more effective. I do not understand how Celebrity think that this saves them money when you need to use four times as much as usual.
Criticism No.3 - Whoever designed the sink needs shooting! The taps take up the majority of it, and I had to stand sideways in order to use it. They should have been designed to push to one side.
By far my biggest complaint was the over-inflated prices on all drinks on board this ship. Yes, it is a 5 star ship and higher prices are to be expected, but these were well over the top, and if this wasn't bad enough 15% gratuity was automatically added to every order, even if you stand at the bar and collect it yourself. Sorry Celebrity, this leaves a bad taste in the mouths of us Brits.
I was also unhappy that Celebrity imposed a hefty charge to use the shuttle bus in Le Havre. It is hardly the fault of the passengers that the ship is too large to dock close to the town.
This always used to be a free service. As far as I am aware it still is on P & O ships.
It is all these little touches that, in my opinion, prevent a good cruise from being a great one.
However these criticisms aside, the ship is fabulous. We had a very enjoyable 3 nights aboard. The restaurant that we were allocated (Blu) had attentive waiters, and the food was extremely tasty. The Ocean view buffet style cafe was also excellent with top quality food and an extremely varied selection.
The outside deck area could get a little crowded. I do find that Americans do not give the same importance to outside space that the British do. However, the sun loungers were comfortable and there were plenty of towels freely available.
Would I recommend this ship? That's a tough one. I would say that as long as you are prepared to spend a lot of money whilst on board, then yes I would say give it a try.
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