Hi Mike Bravo
Stupid question time. If, because of the damage that emily may do to Mexico, I decide to postpone our trip there, will I have to pay any fees for reearranging this?? Not sure if you know anything about this. We are supposed to be going to Puerto Aventuras 19th August 2005, but, worst case scenario, the damage is too extensive etc. I still would luv to go to Mexico but changing dates would be an option.

This will depend on the tour operators terms and conditions, i doubt if they will have made a decission on your date yet, as its over a month away, more than likely standard booking cond will apply. contact you tour operator ar travel agent to check.

Thanks. I'll try calling and see what info I can get.

We were flown out to Cancun the day before the hurricane and just got back last night. We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe which was a stunning hotel. Its in the Riviera Maya.
We knew about the hurricane before we went but First Choice wouldnt let us cancel. They said we could change to another resort which we were happy to do, but there was nothing available leaving last weekend to ANYWHERE and as we couldnt change our booked time off we had to go.
We arrived at the hotel Saturday 6pm and had till 3.30 pm on Sunday when the hotel closed all its services down- bars restaurants pools -everything.
We were sent to our rooms with bags of sandwiches, fruit and bottled water.
We took our kids into our room and closed the shutters and put mattresses against the windows. We had no phones or tv for info and when the electricity went off they had an emergency generator which gave us some power eventually but no air conditioning or hot water.
The hurricane lasted from 8pm Sunday till 7am Monday. We got a direct hit apparently. The noise was unbelievable and our building shook. The rooms were 3 storey blocks strung out along the beach. We were lucky ours was about 100 yards back. We were on the top floor and still had water and vegetation under the door. The spookiest bit was when the eye hit us. Dead quiet for half an hour then it stared up worse than before.

In the morning we emerged and found the room blocks were all standing but the public areas were devastated. All the bars and restaurants had been badly damaged.One of the bars had still part of its roof on so they took us all there and managed to feed and water us for the rest of the day. The weather was still terrible so there was rain coming in the holes in the roof. They woudnt serve any alcohol unfortunately!
The beach was a mess with the dunes blown away. The pools were full of sand, vegetation and loungers. Lots of the trees were down. We spent all of monday and part of tuesday helping to clear up the grounds and dry our rooms. Our rep knew nothing as there was no phone connection out and the roads were blocked. Fortunately no-one was hurt. I have to say the hotel staff were consistently cheerful and helpful and the standard of food they managed to give us was marvellous in the circumstances. Once the place is rebuilt I'd defo go back.
On tuesday they were starting to evacuate people which was just as well as hygiene was starting to become a problem. There was rubbish piling up and no hot water so everything was getting smelly.
We got taken to Cancun on tuesday night. On the way north on our 2 hour drive we saw lots of damage but it got better as we got nearer to Cancun. I dont think they had much damage at all.
We were put into a pretty bad hotel in Cancun and were happy to wait here for our flight home to be arranged. However, we were told we would be expected to have the rest of our 2 weeks here! We asked to be moved somewhere better but it seemed there wasnt a bed to be had anywhere.
We then got on the phone to the UK to demand a flight home and eventually, the next day we were told theyd got some seats for us on a Spanish jumbo jet, so we got away at 7pm Wednesday. We were flown to Gatwick, taxied to Heathrow and put on a BA flight to Glasgow.
We are so glad to be home and safe as I know there are lots of people still out there. We will no doubt have a fight on our hands to get our money refunded but we will do our best as we feel we were sent into a dangerous situation and had no holiday.
We took loads of pictures before and aftre the hurricane if anyone's interested.
The staff at the Bahia said they were closing for repairs and expected they would take 3 months.
We were talking to evacuees from other resorts so if anyone needs to know about specific places in that area I may be able to help.

Bridd

our neighbours just came back from Cancun, 2 days late!

Bridd. That sounded like a nightmare. I hope everyone is ok. I'm truly amazed at the Tour Operators. I've heard some other stories about American TO's abandoning their customers and never turning up again for the rest of the holiday. I hope you get some compensation.

Hi,
we were also staying at Bahia Principe Akumal during the hurricane, we were in villa 46 and it was our honeymoon,
In total we had 7 days, 5 before the hurricane, in total we paid over £2,500 for the 14 nights, Mytravel have offered us £400 back to compensate for the 7 days we missed, but they never informed us before of the hurricane, until we got there,
We wont be travelling with My Travel ever again!!!!

I agree that the hotel were superb, but Tracy, was as useful as a choc teapot!!!!

I remember Tracy. She was as much use as Chris. He was the First Choice rep. 2 days after the hurricane he still hadnt asked us our names or checked our room numbers to see if we were alive and well.

Bridd

Thats it,

we decided to take a taxi to the airport and managed to get standby seats on a flight home, we left earlier than the rescue flight which went to gatwick,
in all of it, there was never any head count or anything,

Rob

hi there i am looking to book for end sept 2008 for cancun a lot of companies dont show availability thomson will let me book holiday flying on sep27 but not flight am i to early when is the best time to book