Thanks, that's just made my decision a bit easier knowing it is a good price.

I've got a few options written down.

Either, use Direct Holidays, and also get 2% quidco cashback. Which will work out £1532 after cashback

Ring Thomas Cook, even if I can't get them to match the price (which I can't get over since they're supposed to be part of the same group) I've got a £50 off voucher so it should work out the same price, but I'm not sure if I can pay the rest off instore if I do it on the phone. £1564 if they won't match the price.

Book on Thomas Cook site, with 2.5% Quidco. £1573.65 after cashback

Go into THomas Cook and get them to match there own online price which shouldn't be a problem.

I've never been so confused booking a holiday.

I think I'm going to go ringing them up and booking the holiday with the voucher I've got. It's paying online, or over the phone that worries me. My mum and dad have had such a hard time paying up with TC, spending half an hour at a time on hold on the phone.

Boyfs checking at work tonight that he can have the dates as holidays and tomorrow hopefully we should be all booked

You can absoloutely guarentee I will wake up tomorrow all ready to book and the price will have gone up.

Helen T wrote:

A pair of lightweight linen trousers will be just as cool as cropped trousers. Your boyfriend can easily nip back to the room to change after dinner. Hubby can never wait to get out of the restaurants and open his shirt. Most places would accept a pair of smart cropped trousers. We went to mexico and the long trouser rule applied, but hubby was never turned away in his cropped one. I think the rule is more to ensure that there are no vests, shorts, & swimwear worn at the evening meals.

Yeah, I think we've come to a compromise that as soon as we've finished eating he can go get changed. His cropped trousers are nice and smart, not sporty ones. I think we'll probably just see what other people are wearing when we get there, take a couple of pairs of linen trousers just in case.

Don't forget to check out the above link first as even the published website price is only 699 for 14 days, ie possibly only £1400, maybe less, for the two of you. I was originally sceptical, but we had exactly the same holiday as people on first choice/thomas cook, very embarrassing as they told us what they paid thinking they had bargains. We did not reveal our costs just hinted that they should try looking at the website for future holidays. We had a more personalised service, even our airline meals were reserved and named. As far as I could tell, everyone got pot luck until they got to us , when they handed us our meals with our names written on the containers and the contents matched what was on the tickets!
There is a thread which shows there are other satisfied customers as well.

When I used the Caribbean Warehouse in summer 2007, I did a late booking and pointed out it would take time to get the money together in the bank, so I paid enough deposit to cover the airline tickets and a bit more for the atol bond(I think he said!), they then gave me time to get the rest together rather than having to pay everything at once, so it may also be worth trying to negotiate the full final payment to a date after you have it!

If you still decide to go for directholidays, It may also be worth printing off the directholidays prices and checking to see if the local thomsons or thomas cook shop will price match as all the main TOs seem to be relying on the 0871 premium rate numbers for their profits this year if you check the complaints threads!

I'm just a bit worried about paying all that money out online or over the phone, especially with a company I've never heard of, especially at the moment with companies going into administration all the time. It is a huge amount of money to me and if anything went wrong I would be devestated.

I've just been doing a bit of research on Caribbean Warehouse and they do seem to have really good feedback.

Going to use the phone us for free thing on there site tomorrow and see what they can do.

Thanks for the recommendation, you may have just saved us a couple of hundred pound which is a huge amount of money to us.

Similar thought to mine when I booked. I had just learned I was to be made redundant and so decided on a big family holiday and the party size was 12.
The CW told me that they were exactly the same as a high street Travel Agent such as FC but that they were not limited to certain holidays/brochures etc.
My main choice TO until then had been the Eclipsedirect arm of First Choice so much of the conversation compared the two. They pointed out that the CW "holiday" was protected as much as the FC one should they go into administration etc. I was told that one of the first things they had to do on accepting a booking was make a deposit in the insurance fund to cover it.
Could have been flannel, but I took it as genuine info and we went on to have a very good holiday. They continued to answer all my concerns right to the end and it was not the faceless call centre approach I was used to. If my original agent was not available, whoever took the call dealt with me and knew all about my holiday and situation.
I seem to recollect I was offered plane tickets on First Choice, Thomson and MyTravel, it was my choice as to which carrier I used. MYT was on offer, but they were all reputable, ie no budget airline booked quietly in the background. I am not sure if everyone gets this info, but I definitely asked as I was after making savings wherever possible. The hotel itself was apparently arranged through a local agent and hence cheaper than the UK companies prices! I asked some strange questions..

One thing to check for from reading current threads, is the luggage allowance. It was all inclusive when we went, but some of the big boys are following the budgets lead and charging for everything that isn't nailed down as extras, so many people are booking through the cheaper websites only to find that they than have to add extra for the case and transfers which negates any savings. This was not an issue when I booked, but even then I remember still asking for definitive answers on luggage and transfers during the conversations. Bit of a panic when the other trippers all got on their coach but we didn't appear to have any transport at Cancun, however it was down to our party being so large they laid on a special minibus to take just us and our cases and it was 10 minutes late arriving. We soon made up the time and it was door to door. Write down all the questions or queries you have and go through them one by one to make sure you get the right answers, I do.

Unfortunately in this current financial situation, everything is rocky, but on the bright side you are having an early holiday so you will be exposed less than someone booking up for next year!
The other thing is to get the holiday insurance sorted straight away and make sure it covers administration amongst the other issues.

Thanks for your advice, good idea about writing stuff down, will do that now, can't get to sleep as I'm too excited about getting this booked

I'm a bit paranoid about it all really. My boyfriend has literally just started work again in the past week after been made redundant twice in the couple of years. I like it that some of the TO advertise that if you are to be made redundant they will do what they can. Also, my mum and dad have just booked a hotel on TC's website and have had so much trouble paying the thing off, not been able to get through to them etc which has put me off doing anything that isn't face-to-face.

I'm hoping to get a quote from these first thing, print the Direct Holidays quote off then have a quick drive up to my nearest TC store for one last try in getting them to match the price, and hopefully also show them a quote from CW to try and persuade them to drop it even more If not, I'll ring TCs site up, see what they can do, if anything, then go from there, on whoever is cheapest.

Steve, you haven't got an email address for CW have you? I'd prefer to email than ring, like to have things written down but can't find an address anywhere.

Hi Laura, Caribbean Warehouse are recommended on quite a few forums now, unfortunately they don't price any flights/holidays out of Belfast, only mainland GB, so it was no good for us.

If you are concerned about paying a large sum of £, just make sure you have insurance when you book. Also pay at least £100 by credit card and you will have cover then IF the firm goes bust etc. and then don't worry

Thomas Cook on phone and in branch and other TO couldn't match the direct hols price here, try though as all they can say is yes or no at the end of the day. Think I shopped around for over a week as originally wanted Mexico but it was too expensive.

Well, according to google, Direct Holidays have a shop here, but I can't remember ever seeing it. If I could book with them instore that would be great. Can't get there until tomorrow though. I'm hoping to be able to email Caribbean Warehouse, so I can get a price in writing from them, need to do that today really. I've even left a message on their facebook asking for an email address.

Hi Laura,

just like to add that I've booked to go DR in August with Direct Holidays. I 've used them many times the only difference i've found between them and Thomas cook was the luggage labels and the price! Everything else was the same. Cannot fault them!

You'll love the DR this is our second visit and can't wait!..

Thanks for that.

It's more booking online or on the phone that worries me, not booking with Direct Holidays. I'm going to go into town tomorrow, I've got the address for the Direct Holidays shop, I've got a feeling it might have closed down though. Actually will give them a ring now and double check they are still there.

Just waiting for a call back from Caribbean Warehouse, requested a call back on the site and they rang literally seconds later very impressed!

I wish they would hurry up and call back with the price, im dying to know now too Would be brill if they could do cheaper that Direct Hols for you!

Just to add, I priced Direct Hols online, called them and booked over the phone with our local branch, just paid the deposit and the rest has to be paid by 9th May. Im keeping the rest in my own account until nearer that time then will pay it. We got the confirmation invoice out within days from Direct Hols and it had listed on it the deposit we had paid. Just to re assure you.

I wish they would hurry up too I wanted to ring Thomas Cook to try and get them to price match but I darent use the phone incase they ring. It's been over an hour since I put the phone down.

If DH have got a shop in town I would not have a problem booking with them at all, but I can't remember seeing it, then again, all the travel agents are down one road so it would be easy to miss. I'd just feel miles more comfortable paying it to a real person.

The holidays gone up today by 5pp. Can just about deal with a fiver increase but I hope it isn't a sign that it's going to go up even more.

Well, spoke to CW at 1.20 who told me they would do some research and give me a ring back, not had a phone call from them, not very impressed

All booked jaimec, think you're on our flight, it's going via belfast!

YEY!!!!!!! I have replied to you over on TA forums too.

So who did you book with in the end? <nosey lol> You going on 4th July for 2 weeks then? we will be on the same flight and same hotel lol Im sure we will meet at some point!

I so can't wait to go, we were out shopping last night for suncreams etc, on BOGOF in Boots at the mo and had a voucher so they were a bargain lol.

I was just about to reply to you on there

We went with Direct Holidays, how typical is this though, the price has been reduced on Thomas Cooks site today.

Yeah, two weeks we're going for.

Well, I'm saying this, me and my boyfriend have had a massive argument this morning, I've sent him to his Mum's and told him I'm cancelling the holiday

We've got so much suncream it should last us forever. I kept buying it and buying it when it was cheap in winter, and when it came to going to Tenerife in January we had about 20 bottles

Not sure what is going on , but half the thread did not appear until I had typed in a load of no longer relevant rubbish.

Glad you are sorted and have a good holiday.