Holiday Reports

[Steve Wooler]

Post Recreated: Originally posted - 23 January 2003

Well folks, after the drama of the burst water pipe (see “A Salutary Lesson”) our actual departure for Tobago went smoothly.

In view of the horrible 7am check-in, we travelled down to Gatwick on Friday evening and stayed at the Copthorne Gatwick Hotel. They are just 10 minutes away from the airport by courtesy bus. The walk-in rack rate at the Copthorne is £150, although I was quoted around £90 when I telephoned. However, booking on the Internet (http://www.stayaway.com) reduced the price to £59. At this price, it is very good value – but be warned that the food at the hotel is poor and massively over-priced, so eat before you get there. Sadly there are no pubs or restaurants within walking distance.

To our surprise, we found that our Monarch flight had been sub-contracted to JMC (soon to become Thomas Cook Holidays). Our aircraft was a JMC Airbus A330 originally intended for now cancelled long-haul London-Bali flights. The Premier Class accommodation of this aircraft was much higher than the standard Monarch A330 – leather seats, adjustable headrests, 38 inch seat pitch. Monarch Premier Class is truly excellent value at around £600 p/p return. The JMC upgrade made it a steal. I understand that JMC may continue to handle this route for Monarch for several months.

The flight was smooth, service and catering good a we actually felt like humans, rather than animals. Mind you, after 8 hours the interest started to wane. As usual, the aircraft landed in Grenada. There was some confusion about whether we needed to disembark, but after 10 minutes of confusion, it was decided to clean and restock the aircraft in Tobago, so we stayed on board. They said we would only be on the ground for a few minutes whilst they boarded Grenada/London passengers. However, an hour and a half later we were still there. Two passengers could not be traced and their baggage was already in the hold. They eventually turned up, laughing and grinning. Passengers who had been on the aircraft for over 10 hours were not so amused and showed their displeasure by booing loudly as they shamefacedly were led to their seats.

Anyway, we got here. It’s taken me a few days to get myself sorted with an Internet connection and I’m sorry that I’ve been unable to respond to forum posts. However, I’m delighted to see that others have taken over my mantle. Thank you so much for your support. I try so desperately to ensure that every post is replied to. I certainly have no desire to dominate the forum but it will only be a success if readers see that sensible questions always get a response. Trouble is, it does take a lot of time – time that I could otherwise use to research and write articles for the main myTobago site. So, I am delighted to see that in the week since I was last office-based, the forum has continued brilliantly without my supervision or input. Thank you everyone.

The hospitality and warmth of welcome that we have received since arrival have shot our plans to you-know-where. Everything is taking longer than expected (a way of life in Tobago). Our body clocks are in a state of total disruption due to the 4 hour time difference, plus the late, late nights staying up talking to people. As a result, we haven’t achieved much in the way of reviews. We will do our best and are off today to carry out reviews of Le Grand Courlan, Grafton and Rex Turtle Beach, plus hopefully the Mt Irvine Bay hotels. I will try to post a series of small reviews here in the forum.

[Tim W]

Post Recreated: Originally posted - 23 January 2003

Hi Steve, glad you had a safe flight - a mini review of the Arnos Vale before the 12th would be great!!

[Steve Wooler]

Post Recreated: Originally posted - 23 January 2003

Hi Tim Sad to say we're not in the Arnos Vale area until 8th February, so I don't think I can be of help. Relax - I'm sure you will thoroughly enjoy it there.