Trip to Fuengirola

My trip to Fuengirola was great, not only did I have a brilliant time, and make some new friends, I also had some of the biggest laughs that I've had in months! You may think that part of this tale is like something out of a comedy sketch, but believe me it is true!

Once again I flew with "My Travel Airtours," and they're not too bad, they got me on to the plane without any mishaps, and I was treated with respect, and the porters went out of their way to help me to my seat. After the plane took off and the seatbelt light had been extinguished, a stewardess came up to me and stated that I didn't look too comfortable in the seat, and she informed me that there was a jump seat at the side further back down the plane. 'If you'd like to follow me, I'll show you where it is' she stated with a large smile on her face.

I took a long look at her, but I failed to see anything unusual about her as she stood patiently with the large fixed grin, waiting for me to get up and go with her down the aisle of the plane. 'Are you a miracle worker?' I enquired with a glint of amusement in my eye after I noticed a couple of passenger's disbelief at her request for me to follow her. 'Is this plane going higher than we had first anticipated?'

The smile left her face, and the stewardess was clearly stunned, without a clue as to what I was talking about!

I explained that I had spoken to her that she had said "Good Evening" to me only a few minutes previously "as I was being carried to my seat by two porters."

The smile returned to her now crimson features as she realised, and with her head slightly bowed, she turned and went back to her cabin where the other stewardess was doing her best to keep a straight face.

So it appears that stewardesses don't notice everyone getting on their planes, hmm, very good security. I guess she wouldn't have noticed if I had been carrying something that I shouldn't have been?

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Hotel Gardenia Park

3 star classification

It was very warm, so by the time that we arrived at the hotel "Gardenia Park," we were thirsty. On first impression the hotel was "very nice." We arrived at just over one o'clock in the morning, and we were shown to our room. After all the travelling, I was fair looking forward to a nice "Cuppa!" I went to reception and asked for a "cup of tea" to be informed that beverages are available between "7 am and 12 o'clock midnight." In between "Midnight and Seven am" there was nothing available as the kitchens were closed. I was not informed that there was a machine on the floor below that sold fruit drinks. So we only had a quarter of a bottle of water to share between us, which we divided equally into cups and sipped very sparingly. (We had already been warned not to drink the local tap water, and I didn't fancy going down with a bad stomach at the beginning of my holiday.) We eventually got to bed, but my impressions on the service of the hotel (on a scale of 1 to 10) went from 7 to 1.

Later that morning, we arose around 9 am, (well I was on holiday.) The room, seeing it in daylight was excellent, very large, and the wheel in shower bathroom was more than sufficient for a wheelchair user, and contained all the adaptations necessary including "grab rails." It was obvious to me that, whoever designed it, knew what they were doing. There was no problems getting the wheelchair on to the balcony, and the sea view was very good. Looking down, I could see that the whole of the pool area was very clean, and tidy. The first thing on the agenda was to get some drinks. I rang reception and asked for cups of tea, only to be informed that there was no "room service." We showered and dressed appropriately for the weather. By this time my throat was dry and I was looking forward to a drink of anything. We headed for the restaurant and found that the only way that I could get to it was by lift (elevator). There were three lifts, but only two of them went to the restaurant, so I pressed the button and waited patiently, but every time the lift stopped on my floor, it was full of other guests going to breakfast and I had to wait for almost twenty minutes before there was a half empty lift, but the occupants stated that they were going up, but I didn't care and they made room for me, at least I was in a lift and knew that it would have to go to the restaurant eventually!

As we finally entered the restaurant, we found that we had to lay our own tables, as there was no waiter service, only waiters to clear the tables after use by the guests.

We were sat eating our breakfast, when a young lad of around fourteen years of age came in and sat at a table, two up from ours. At first he looked around unsure what to do, but after a few minutes he followed other guests and helped himself to his breakfast from the servers. He brought it back to his table and then went to get a knife and fork, but when he returned to the table, his breakfast had gone! For a few moments he stared at the now empty place, and then he looked around at other tables, he went up to a table where a man was sitting alone, probably to see if he had taken it? Anyway, he scratched his head and went and got another breakfast. On his return to his table, this time his knife and fork had gone! By this time the lad was clearly frustrated, and he placed his second breakfast on the table and gradually walked backwards not taking his eye from his plate of food. He reached the canteen and got a knife and fork by touch, not once did he remove his eyes from his plate. Feeling very pleased with his performance, he walked backwards a little more until his reached the drinks dispenser. Stretching out, he obtained a cup, and for a second he removed his eyes from his table to pour tea into his cup, but when he looked at his table again, he saw that the waiter had just lifted his breakfast and was in the process of scraping it into the waste bin. Well, the now dejected lad dropped his cup of tea, and raced to the waiter shouting at him to stop, but by the time he had reached him, the lad's breakfast had gone, and all he could do was stare around. He asked the waiter why his food had been cleared away, but all the waiter did was to shrug his shoulders and walk away. 'Blow it!' the lad shouted to no one in particular, 'it's obvious I'm not meant to have breakfast today,' and he stormed out of the restaurant without even a cup of tea!

The table clearing waiters were so fast that smoke could be seen coming from the soles of their feet. Anyone having a meal in the restaurant had to leave at least one person sat at the table to ensure the waiter didn't snatch the plates.

Another incident in the restaurant a few days later was when a waiter removed a plate of "caramel custard" from a table and his actions were so fast that the custard flew from the plate on to the floor and a lady stood in it and lost her balance and the dinner that she was carrying flew over her head and landing on top of another woman's breasts behind her. The second woman dropped her dinner and tried to remove the food from her chest causing some of it to go inside of her top, so she lifted her dress allowing the food to fall to the floor, and then she bent over to brush away any remains of food from her top to the floor, when a man went flying over the top of her, and it all happened so fast that the waiter didn't even notice as he was too busy clearing the tables of the people who had just got up to see what all the commotion was about!

I took a good look around the hotel and most of the amenities were wheelchair friendly, but there were no disabled toilets, and when I enquired at reception, I was informed that the disabled toilet was in my room, and that there were no other facilities for the disabled around the hotel. Satisfied that I had at least one bathroom that I could use satisfactorily, I decided to get on and enjoy my holiday.

I approached the "Airtours Rep" and enquired of the trips that were available and she showed me a book with several tempting places to visit, including three free trips. So I chose the ones that I wanted to go on, but the rep was very apologetic as she then informed me that there were no trips available for wheelchair users as there was no transport with a tail lift or a ramp. When I complained, she rang head office and then getting back to me. She stated that there was only one trip available, and this was a day visit to Gibraltar at the end of the week. I took up this offer, but asked her what I was supposed to do for the other days as apparently the majority of the amenities available in the hotel were for the children, which left me with the option of just lying around sunbathing for two weeks. The rep informed me that I could book a taxi to different places at my own expense, but there was absolutely nothing else available for wheelchair users.

My wife had told me that she would be waiting by the swimming pool, so when I had finished with the rep, I decided to seek her out. While I was waiting for a lift to my floor, a portly lady, dressed in a bikini, and nothing at all on her feet, was stood at my side. When the lift arrived, being the gentleman that I am, I let the lady enter first, and when she did, her left leg skidded across the lift floor one way and her other leg went the other way, and she crashed to the floor in a howl of pain and embarrassment, but to cap it all, the lift door kept opening and closing on her leg that was sticking out of the lift entranceway. I couldn't help the poor soul, but the receptionist screaming to someone in Spanish, came rushing across the floor to help the unfortunate lady, and gradually helped and half dragged the lady from the lift to her feet, and out of the corner of my eye I saw two people rushing towards them, and at first I thought they were going to assist the hurt lady, but they rushed past and cleaned the lift! The only person that helped the lady was the receptionist, as the other two members of the hotel staff were only concerned at the time with clearing up the mess. Fortunately the lady only suffered a minor sprain to her ankle and a split bikini.

Anyone who knows me knows that I talk to anyone, and this helped Betty and I immensely to break the ice with other couples. Soon we had four couples around our table, all laughing and joking. I was glad we were with a friendly bunch, as this made the holiday just that bit special if you know what I mean?

I made one special friend, and it was with a twelve-year-old girl suffering Cerebral Palsy. She was adorable, and whenever she was around I went up to her and talked to her, and the radiant smile she gave me was magic. While we were talking, I asked if she could swim, and she said no, so I asked her if she would like to learn, and she said no, so I informed her that I was going to pick her up and throw her in the swimming pool, and she howled with laughter, so much that others around laughed too.

On our trip to Gibraltar, I was allocated the seat next to the young girl, as there was no other seat that I could have taken up. As we travelled along, I talked to her, and we had a good laugh much to the amusement of our fellow passengers. As her granddad who was in charge of her was sitting behind us, he requested that if I didn't mind, would I help him with the girl, by giving her a drink, to which I tilted the bottle of water to her mouth and she drank thirstily from it, but my hand slipped and some of the water went down her top and also wet her shorts. Boy, did she laugh, it was a laugh so loud that I just couldn't help but join in. This little girl didn't have a care in the world except to be happy, and in my opinion, she certainly was doing a good job of that.

We finally arrived in Gibraltar, and after we got off the coach we went on our shopping trip. Now for quite a while, I have been seriously thinking of staying in Gibraltar for a couple of weeks, but after spending a few hours there, I'm glad that I never booked, as the island is so small that after one day I would have been bored as to what to do? But the few hours that I did have there were fantastic. The prices in Gibraltar are quite steep compared to Spain, so I only bought a few small souvenirs, as Betty and I knew that we could by the same items in Fuengirola for a quarter of the price.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday despite the lack of trips by airtours, but we hired a large vehicle and we went to Torremolinos for the day and we had a fantastic time. As with all holidays we meet people, it's their turn to leave to go home, we were sad, they were sad, and we stated that we would keep in touch. It's early yet, but we are still in touch with two of the couples that we met.

Although the hotel was not up to our usual standard, it was accommodating and very clean, and what staff there were, was very friendly, and sheets and towels are changed daily. I cannot fault the hotel on anything really, except for the small amount of staff available for the guests. I definitely think that they should hire some waiters for the restaurant.

1. Would I return to Gardenia Park hotel?

Answer, maybe

Reason, not enough entertainment, the entertain that was laid on was mostly done by airtours reps, and any hired entertainment, dancers, magician etc, were in my opinion, bottom of the barrel, and besides which, the entertainment room was far too small for the amount of guests.

Food was repetitive and after a few days I got sick at looking at the same menu, and I certainly dislike powdered potatoes, Powdered soup, for dinner, and curried scrambled eggs with peppers for breakfast.

2. Would I return to Fuengirola?

Answer, yes if I just want a complete relaxing holiday on the beach

For me there was not enough facilities for wheelchair users, and a few of the kerbs were too high, and roads too busy in places

Fuengirola is mostly one of those small quiet seaside resort places, that once you've been and enjoyed oneself going around the shops, well, that's it.

My personal choice: Neither the Gardenia Park hotel or Fuengirola resort had that "come back again feeling." I had a wonderful time, and met some great friends.

Mike Coatesworth