Holiday disasters

Volcanic ash, cruise shambles and ambles around Valencia

May 2010 Soon after the dust, or rather ash, had settled on the controversy of the closure of airspace following the Icelandic eruption the recriminations and accusations about whether the response was too cautious began. Much was said about the risk to passengers if jet engines became clogged but little about those who don't fly but just gaze at the jets and the condensation trails in the sky. The Lockerbie bombing demonstrated what can happen to a built up area when bits of jet drop on it. The damage that an intact jet could cause on a town if it dropped from the sky would be on a massively different scale. Some businesses were hard hit whilst others benefited. Many stranded passengers or travellers who lost their flights had a miserable time, but they are still alive. No plane dropped from the sky causing mayhem and anguish.

But perhaps things could have been done better and TUI Travel chief executive Peter Long said: “The Government’s response to the crisis has been a shambles.” The most well known of the TUI brands is Thomson Travel, and seeing the words Thomson Travel and shambles in the same paragraph brought to a Groby couple memories of holidays spent with Thomsons. (We'll call them Mr and Mrs Cruise.)

The weekend cruise shambles

A weekend cruise to Bruges and Amsterdam seemed a wonderful way to get a taste of cruising. You go to bed and wake up in another city with all the organisational problems taken care of. The brochure said that "if you prefer to explore on your own you'll find our direct transfers perfect for taking you to the heart of the action without any of the hassle." and promised “outstanding service that takes care of every detail.” The onboard destinations newsletter went further and said “time in port is precious- you don't want to waste it trying to find your bearings.”

Although the promise of a direct transfer to Bruges wasn't kept it was only a short train ride from the ferry port. But the Amsterdam stop was not at Amsterdam but 18 miles away. Once on board they found the only remaining option for a day in Amsterdam was a free shuttle to be provided each way to the 'flying ferry.' The cruise news later confirmed this, though there was now a charge which could be paid on the bus. This seemed fine but when they left the ship they saw a long queue for the shuttle. There were no Thomson staff anywhere to assist.

After queuing for some time they heard that now tickets had to be purchased at the kiosk. But the assistant had stopped selling tickets, as he had to try and match demand to capacity. Holidaymakers might have to wait 30 minutes, two hours or may not travel at all. He said it was impossible to get a taxi and it would take an hour to walk to the ferry point. An alternative was to visit the annual harbour festival in the local port instead of going to Amsterdam. Destination services seemed to have no local information.

Angry passengers

“There were very many angry passengers in the same situation as us, all of whom saw their Amsterdam visit evaporating before their eyes,” said Mr Cruise. “We decided to walk through the warehouses to the festival but by noon were left wondering what to do with the rest of the day. Eventually we found a bus link to Amsterdam, arriving at 13.45pm. The bus terminus was not in the centre of the city, so we made our way through the town, stopping for lunch. By late afternoon we decided to avoid the long walk back to the bus station on the edge of town and to catch the flying ferry back to the port instead. We knew that it would be unwise to leave it any later as they only ran every 30 minutes and were also struggling to carry the large numbers of Spirit passengers. The ferry clerk kindly arranged for a taxi at the other end.”

Customer Service impenetrable

It will come as no surprise that the Groby couple were unable to get past the barricades set up by Customer Services to prevent communication with any senior management. Customer Services apologised but there was to be no compensation for extra costs or failing to deliver on promises or misrepresenting the service. Thomson did say that the shore agent encouraged some of the passengers to take the service by public bus to the train station. “If this is the case they must have been doubly disappointed,” explained Mrs Cruise, “as the Port Authority confirmed that there is no public bus service near the arrival pier, the nearest being a 40 to 60 minutes walk away. If anyone had made it they would have been disappointed again as we were told the train station closed in 1999.”

A Cheshire couple write about their day in Amsterdam

"But, oh! what a disaster when it came to the advertised excursions. On a ship carrying something like 1200-odd passengers, calling at Amsterdam and Bruges, it would not seem beyond the bounds of conjecture that most people would be interested in going to visit these places. Thomsons apparently failed to make this leap of logic and were woefully underprepared for the demand."

Read more of the comments of a Cheshire couple on this cruise by following this link and scrolling down to 2007 - http://www.holiday-truth.com/holiday_truths/cruise_reviews/1/

Ambling through Valencia

They also recalled a visit with Thomson to Spain, and a day trip by coach to the famous March Valencian Festival in which huge papier mache effigies are constructed and subsequently set alight. Each week there were regular shopping trips to Valencia but in Festival Week the day was changed to provide a Festival visit. Sadly the trip description wasn't changed, so the shoppers were disappointed when they arrived in a packed city with most shops shut for the festival.

“Because of the crowds and road closures the bus had to drop passengers on the outskirts of the centre and the rep planned to escort around sixty holidaymakers through the busy streets to the bull ring, the assembly point for the return visit,” Mr Cruise said. “By the time the rep admitted that he was completely lost he had also lost half of his group in the crowds. His misery was just beginning. On the return trip he had to face many unhappy passengers. They had paid for a shopping tip they hadn't received and had ended up lost amongst a town packed with Spanish speakers and fireworks exploding on every corner.” And to top it all the thousands of festival visitors made an ideal environment for pick pockets who practised their art on the innocent visitors from Benidorm, many of whom went home with lighter wallets or indeed no wallets.

“The Festival was like nothing we'd ever experienced,” he added, “and hopefully will be the closest most people get to feeling that they are in a war zone. But we'll remember the day for all the wrong reasons.”

Holidaymakers caught in the present crisis will have much to thank Thomson and the other travel companies for the way they have been looked after but there are customers who would hope for the same standard of care at all times. “I know just what Peter Long means when he speaks of a shambles,” reflected Mr Cruise, “and although it may seem rather harsh I wonder whether the old saying 'it takes one to know one' is appropriate.”

Improvements at Thomson Holidays

After reading this report of the experiences of the holidaymakers from Groby Thomson Holidays said that efforts have been made in recent years to improve their Customer Services support. “ Our After Travel team has relocated and as a result of this a brand new team has been recruited to handle any issues our customers may have once they’ve returned home,” said a spokesperson for Thomsons.

“We also have new teams of overseas staff and all of our teams have attended customer care courses to ensure that the service we offer our customers is excellent. We have learnt from mistakes made in the past and at the heart of everything we do are our customers. I’m sorry that these Groby residents had a different experience to this and we’d love to welcome them on another Thomson holiday to show that their experience really was a one off.”

May 2010