Disaster on a holiday you won or not come up to scratch.

eleanorre

We have twice complained about a prize of a holiday . The first was from the Scottish Field many years ago and it was allegedly a superior caravan holiday. The van we got was far from superior and had a large stain the the middle of the floor. I complained to the sponsors and we got another week's holiday in a lovely van in a different location. The second one was a weekend break which included a meal in the hotels posh restaurant . On arrival I asked about booking the fancy meal to find that restaurant did not open on the two nights we were there. I complained to the hotel and the hotel chain and we got another weekend with the meal we should have had .
We won a break to Heidelberg to the Christmas market once again many years ago and the Scottish Field again ( these were postcard entries ) . Al the parts of the holiday were organised separately we later discovered. On arriving at Frankfurt airport we had to go to a meeting point to pick up our driver. When we got there four men had just arrived and said they were sorry they had held us up but their plane was an hour late. We confirmed the minibus was going to Heidelberg so we all got on and sped through the night in pouring rain. When we got to the hotel the driver asked to be paid . I told him it was not up to us so we went into the hotel we were booked into and the owner told us just to pay up and she would sort it out . It later transpired nobody had organised transport for us and it was sheer luck that the driver had hung around wating for his four men to arrive. We had no emergency number to ring and it was late so it could have been a disaster. We did get our money back and the hotel sent up orange juice and little bottles of champagne that night to cheer us up . It turned out to be a great experience and I have always wanted to go back to Heidelberg but maybe not in December.

hamsterfan1

nos do much a disaster but impossible to actually book one optionm won 5 days in Cyprus flying from Manchester or Stansted 0 but the way the flights were from Manchester you couldn't do 5 nights, also it has a range of dates in which the holiday could be taken - but only one date was actually free for the flights

LutonGirl

I won a trip to Rome once with a magazine. Budget flights and a "4 star" hotel. The hotel was the Hotel Champagne near the Termini. It was more like the hotel "Asti Spumante" with a cabaret of regular fights outside between local working ladies and their clientele.

We had to change rooms twice - once because of a constantly filling toilet - like sleeping near a waterfall - and then because of a broken shower, but the third room was OK.

It was a freebie, didn't cost anything to enter the competition and it kick started my love affair with this fabulous city. I discovered a few things on that trip which stood me in good stead for subsequent trips - like where not to stay!

Helga14

I won a night at the Whittlebury Hall Spa once. It was the most depressing place. The food was awful, the spa was overcrowded and the rooms were tired. The only good thing was the included treatment which was very pleasant. Now I have to make sure I avoid competitions for stays there. They do a lot of competitions.

cluckyhen

We once won a family holiday to any of the park locations within the UK and opted for the IOW. Like you - the caravan was most certainly not up to scratch and the inclement weather we had that Easter had us shivering to the ferry to come home 2 days early - the site had no internet (which it promised it did), the caravan was moldy and wouldn't warm up and there was an amazing fight that they just let go on and on - after complaining they offered us another free holiday which we decided to take in Wales. I rung ahead to check on wifi etc as I needed to work one of the afternoons we were away and was assured the whole park had excellent signal. Again - it was a nightmare - the car blew up on the way there, we limped into the park later than anticipated and couldn't find anyone with our keys, when we let ourselves into our caravan we were right next to a train line (which funnily enough I often travel on now as we moved just down the road) but worst - no phone signal and no wifi. Going to get dinner we enquired about the wifi and were told that it had been offline all month and wouldn't be on for at least another month - we had a beer, went to bed and went home the next morning.

On another note though - we were lucky enough to win a family holiday to any Eurocamp park with a well known cereal brand and from start to finish they couldn't do enough for us. They got us extremely discounted travel from Southampton (only Dover was included), a luxury caravan with all the added extras as we were 'below' budget and we all agreed that was one of the best holidays we ever had!

Helga14

Sounds like a nightmare Cluckyhen. I avoid a lot of holidays in the UK and camping abroad type breaks because I imagine they could be like that.

I've been very lucky though I've had 25 holiday wins abroad and never had a bad one. Had some random holidays and trips a long way away for a crazy short amount of time but all have been memorable for good reasons.

Karen148

I won a cruise a couple of years ago. I was over the moon because I'd been trying to persuade my partner to go on a cruise for ages, with no luck, so I was thrilled to win a Norwegian fjord cruise.

I think it was an 8 day cruise. On day 2, captain put an announcement out to say that some folk had complained of stomach bug, so please take extra care washing hands etc. By that night my partner had been struck down with it quite badly and was quarantined to cabin for next 3 or 4 days. Just as he was getting over it, I got it and was then also quarantined for the remainder of the cruise.

So the first day and a half (whilst at sea) we got to venture outside the cabin, rest of the time we were stuck in a pretty shabby cabin living off tea and toast. It turned out that hundreds of people on the cruise were ill and they actually had to cut the cruise short as they couldn't cope. I was just very thankful that I hadn't paid for the pleasure. Didn't get any kind of apology or explanation, but I felt that I couldn't really complain as it was a freebie. Partner is definitely anti cruise hols now :-(

robbies_gal

thats a shame karen coz cruising is fun with al the diferent places u get to see

tbf though once a bug hits sonething like a ship theres not alot they can do

PeggyM37

I won a disastrous three night Norwegian fjord cruise with a budget ferry company. Nothing could prepare us for the cost of food - around £18 for a glorified sandwich. Our cabin was near the very noisy engines, which combined with a very turbulent sea meant that we got very little sleep.


When we got to Norway, we had to disembark to show our passports and pass through Passport Control. It was midnight and sub zero temperatures, and we were desperate for sleep. The next day we braved Bergen. Nothing was open, bar a few shops and the wind was piercingly cold, so that we ended up taking refuge in a clothes shop for much older ladies, just so that we could warm up. Dinner consisted of a Pizza Hut type restaurant - £30 for an average lasagne - but it was the only place open.


We then set off back to England, arriving two hours late- at one in the morning with a two hour drive ahead of us to get home. There had been numerous tannoy announcements on the way home - but all in Norwegian, so we didn't have a clue what was going on.


There was precious little to do on the ship- and it was freezing on deck. The one warm spot we found was next to a hot air vent coming from the kitchen, so we used to sit there putting up with some nice and some not so pleasant kitchen smells.


The only entertainment that we found on ship was a very slow game of Bingo. The prize was another trip on one of their cruises. The trip was so bad, that I decided that if I did win the game, I wouldn't shout "House" because I couldn't stand another trip on one of their cruises! Still, kind of glad I did win the prize - just for the experience. However - never again!

The_3rd_Zebu

PeggyM37 wrote: »

The only entertainment that we found on ship was a very slow game of Bingo.

That would have done it for me.


Sorry to hear about your experience Peggy.