Danny.
Linda has been spending time and money trying to get in touch with jet 2, without much luck, they should fly home on Thursday, but they have resigned themselves to the fact that they are looking at booking another week at their expense....we've been able to laugh through it all at times, and then other times frustration at the lack of information.
Some coaches left this morning and then this afternoon a Thomson coach arrived with clients who had been in Alicante and from what I can gather they are DIY s/c, so Thomson have given them a room in the hotel Regente, but they have all food/drink to pay for.
Some have no money left and the poor rep was ambushed by some tired, frustrated and angry people....tempers flared in the reception.
It seems to me (my thoughts only) that Thomson are using Benidorm as the "hub", the convoy of coaches were parked up in the area where the outdoor market is held on Sundays/Wednesdays and a TV crew was there filming the mass exodus.
What a performance getting David's medication....
We went to the clinica next/near to the Eurotabac on Juan Fuster Zaragoza and the queue was horrendous, even the Farmacias are running out of medications because of the massive "pull" on supplies, anyway being a pensioner the medication would have been free, you need your passport and EHIC card, but they only write prescriptions out until 2 pm. (which we didn't find out until we went back after 2pm)
If we are put on stand-by tonight and leave early in the morning, and on the road/sea for 3 days, then it was vital at least to get the medication for his blood pressure because I think his blood pressure will need controlling under the circumstances of a journey home by coach/boat/coach......so after treking around I paid for his tablets at a very sympathetic faramcia..otherwise I would have been back at the clinic first thing in the morning, but I dare not risk it.
Before the volcano erupted, Benidorm was quite busy, I took photos of the beaches being absolutely packed and you couldn't get a seat on the new Poniente promenade for love or money because the Spanish were still here last week for the Easter holidays, but now as people are being taken out of the resort, it really is becoming a ghost town, and those who are being shipped into the town, have no money left to spend anyway....all inclusive clients are not moving very far from the hotel, I really did notice the lack of people today apart from this morning and the long queues at the telephones.
That's about it for now, things are changing very quickly and all we can do is wait, watch and hope....this will be one holiday we won't forget.!
Sanji x
What an awful experience Sanji I'm glad we were unable to go to Benidorm this year as you know we've spent the last seven Easters there. After hearing tonight's news maybe you'll soon be getting back home, I hope so.
Jet 2 have just announced that flights are back on to and from Leeds Bradford from 7am tomorrow.
A lesson on the medication side for me as well, i am on BP tablets 3 different kinds and always just take 14 days supply, going away in June hopefully and will make sure i take extra
We have just had guests checking into the hotel who flew from Doncaster this morning, but the aircraft are not taking anyone back from here, the aircraft will go down to Reus to collect those who have been stranded since last Saturday in places like Salou.
We are going to be here another day and I think it will be tomorrow night or early Saturday before we get a flight home....... yesterday it was glorious weather, sunshine all day and really hot, but today the temperature must have dropped 10 degrees and it's raining.....people are just mopping around and fed up.
I must say that the Thomson rep in this hotel has been really good, he has been under a tremendous amount of pressure and he has coped extremely well, he has limited information himself, but he has been able to convey the information in a professional manner, so credit where credit is due......the First Choice rep escorted a coach to Calais and is returning to the Costa Dorada and it's a good job because the little madam would have been pulled over the desk with the attitude that she has and the way she spoke to people.
Now that we know that we are going nowhere today, if it stops raining we may go for a walk in the mountains.
Edit for typo error, Spanish keyboard
Sanji
-
Edited by
Sanji
2010-04-22 10:09:41
Thanks for letting us know how you have been getting on and about Linda aswell. Its certainly a holiday you wont forget!
Danny
Sanji have you ever wrote or thought about writing a book? You paint a picture very well with your words.Glad you and David are doing ok,hope you get back soon a safe. Thanks for keeping us all informed in this difficult time.
A notice has just gone up to say there's a load of Thomson flights leaving tomorrow for those who should have flown home last Tuesday and we are being picked up between 1-15 and 2 pm, but there is no time or guarantee when the flights will actually depart.
With a bit of luck I should be in my own bed tomorrow night
Since Monday night it has been a very stressful and frustrating time, we have been put on and off "stand-by" and unable to go far away from the hotel for the day, so I can't say I've enjoyed it since Monday night, it's been the "not knowing" that gets to you in the end.
Some people have been in a far worse situation than us and the weather didn't help today, I'm glad that we didn't have to make the long journey home via coach/boat/coach....I expect Alicante airport will be manic tomorrow.
I hope everyone where ever they are in the world, will soon be home safe and well.
Sanji
We were very lucky, as we had that flight booked already, it was never cancelled.
More on the holiday later, but I'm off to bed as soon as Corrie is finished, tara for now, Linda.
regards Margaret(madmum)
Hi Linda, welcome home - What an outing for you all! Hope to hear from Sanji tomorrow when she's arrived home safe and sound. Good luck to you and Your hubby Sanji.
Pleased to hear you arrived back safely Linda, Danny and I were wondering about you. Also I hope your flight is on time tomorrow Sanji. What a nightmare holiday you all had.
Good luck tomorrow Shirley . Hope you get away tomorrow and look forward to seeing you home tomorrow night .
lyn
Wishing everyone a safe trip home!
Glad to hear everyone is finally coming home What a palavar though xxx
We were stranded in Tenerife Sanji, and we just went to a pharmacy with our boxes that the medication was in and they gave us everything we needed, this was on the advice of our thomson rep who was superb.If you go to a doctor first they charge and then the Pharmacy charges too, so it's a double whammy.We finally arrived home on the thursday 22nd at 6am after 11 hours in the airport .Thomson were just getting people to the airport as soon as possible because the airport was quite chaotic. We should have been home Friday 16th. Like you we stayed in our hotel at Thomson's expense and we were Thomson flight only,so its for Thomson.
Edit: Strange, the AENA Website says it took of only 4 minutes late bit the Doncaster website says its due in at 19:25 which is 1hr 20 minutes late. Oh well, I'm sure none of the passengers are bothered, leasy they are finally coming home.
We were picked up from outside the hotel at 1-15pm and landed at Doncaster at 7-50 pm and as usual one of our cases was in the last lot to be off loaded, the flight took nearly 3 hours, we headed out to sea from Alicante and headed towards Ibiza, Majorca and nearly to Minorca before turning inland above Girona, the pilot explained that this was a very unusual route to avoid some airspace in France ...
Then after landing and standing around for ages waiting for the second case and starting to panic that it had been put on the Ryan Air flight that left a few minutes after us, I cannot believe it, we had her Majesty's Custom Officers pulling the last few passengers who had been waiting for their cases into another room to have their cases re-scanned...so I just spontaneously said " Oh for crying out loud" and this officer said something like " I do have a right madam blah blah blah" so I just said "it's been a very stressful week and it's took me over 3 days to get home and nearly a 3 hour flight from Spain for gods sake."
I was not amused and I don't care.
Serena, I'm glad you are home safe and well, David didn't take his packets, he loaded his tablets into one of those plastic day by day pill dispensers which help him rememeber if he's taken them all, because some he has to take in the morning and the other one he has to take in the evening before bed....he won't ever be doing that again.
Sanji
We are off again 5 weeks tomorrow(glutens for punishement I know .. lol)to Salou so I hope the bigger volcano next to that one behaves..lol.
We traveled diy with Easyjet and they were great ,they put us in hotels and had half board food that wasn't fantastic but it did the job and it was free, home tonight after 8 days stuck.Most other airlines left people to look after there selfs.From alot of travelers I would like to give them a big thankyou and support them in the future.We now have enjoyed Alicante that we probably would not have been to if this hadn't happened.
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