Statement of intent

StuartGMC

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Very jealous.

How old is your daughter Stuart? Whereabouts are you planning to go in Mexico? I have it on my (mental so far) list of places to visit on our 2011 long holiday - the latest project in our house, hence the question. We almost went for our honeymoon; looks like a lovely country. Of course the weather, cold beer and food are very good starters.

Lunar Eclipse, thanks. DD is now 11 so has had a good exposure to both the historic and modern cultures of the Med and North Africa, so probably ready for a different location. Location is south of Cancun, we of course are restricted to school holidays so need to avoid hurricane season... I do the long haul to Houston at least once a year and think DD will now be able to cope, but the longest she's flown so far was northern Cyprus (via mainland Turkey). Temperatures should just about be ok for me, but I do like to have a minimum of 35°C day time so hope we'll get this.

SMF2 we're taking a package as it tends to work better for some destinations especially with kids in the summer peak. Also need care in the ATOL/ABTA cover, remember XL,Zoom etc which failed and left people without fallback cover.

OH got details sorted, whilst branch had a phone quote at £4.2k, branch manager can discount to about £3.8k, so should be sorted tomorrow :T

StuartGMC

Well OH booked holiday today (I'm still recovering from virus) and got a third quote from Thomas Cook's central office whilst in their branch. It was the lowest at £4179, which was then discounted 10% by the branch so with £5 to use credit card (extra assurance if there are problems) OH got the holiday at £3766 for the three of us.

14 nights full inclusive including a 3 night 4 day tour (Bed, Breakfast & Dinner) within the Yucatan peninsular to see the Mayan ruins etc :j:j:j

Just need to get cat booked into a cattery (hope he'll be ok having been abandoned in one for 15months :rolleyes:), travel insurance and the taxi to/from airport. So we should be able to bring it in at very close to the £4300 budget I allocated based on the trip to Crete last year for door-to-door costs.

uzubairu

StuartGMC wrote: »

Well OH booked holiday today (I'm still recovering from virus) and got a third quote from Thomas Cook's central office whilst in their branch. It was the lowest at £4179, which was then discounted 10% by the branch so with £5 to use credit card (extra assurance if there are problems) OH got the holiday at £3766 for the three of us.

14 nights full inclusive including a 3 night 4 day tour (Bed, Breakfast & Dinner) within the Yucatan peninsular to see the Mayan ruins etc :j:j:j

Just need to get cat booked into a cattery (hope he'll be ok having been abandoned in one for 15months :rolleyes:), travel insurance and the taxi to/from airport. So we should be able to bring it in at very close to the £4300 budget I allocated based on the trip to Crete last year for door-to-door costs.

Well done. It's great to hold out and still get what you want.

I hope you have a good time.

jsaver

Hi StuartGMC,

I've read your thread, and have finally registered! I am in a similar situation to you, but not quite the same (further to go), and would be v. interested to have a look at your spreadsheet if you could send it to me. I have my own version here, but it doesn't sound quite as advanced as yours!

Thanks in advance - JSaver

StuartGMC

JSaver
Just dropped you a PM

Hope all goes well with your targets too.

Little_Mama

StuartGMC wrote: »

I note I didn't get cashback from Play.com via TopCashBack so need to look into this; seen a few posts indicating they only pay once.. "listen very carefully, I'm not 'appy about zis!". So will need to chase.

Hi Stuart, I've made two play.com puchases this week via TCB. The first didn't come through but I thought that perhaps that was due to it being a pre-order, however, I've just looked and seen that the other hasn't either and generally they are on there within 24 hours. Looks like I'll be seeing you in the chasing queue....it's not a lot but it all helps in the MFW quest.

LM

I should say that Play.com have always been very good in the past with prompt cashback payments, it's just since the recent update from PLAY.com to Play.com (you'll see this on your list of retailers) that I've had probs.

Lunar_Eclipse

StuartGMC wrote: »

Well OH booked holiday today

Well done!:) I'm sure your daughter will be fine with the flight. We have taken our two to NZ twice; at 4 & 5 and most recently aged 7 and 8. They travel very well; from experience it is the time difference that is the killer, not the actual flight/travelling time.;)

The other thing I was going to recommend/suggest you consider is annual travel insurance since you mentioned insurance. Worth a look if you travel regularly. (We bank with First Direct and have what they call First Directory, essentially a monthly £10 banking charge, but with lots of benefits. We have it purely for the annual travel and mobile phone insurance. Only mentioned FD in the event that you bank with them too).

StuartGMC

Little_Mama wrote: »

Hi Stuart, I've made two play.com puchases this week via TCB. The first didn't come through but I thought that perhaps that was due to it being a pre-order, however, I've just looked and seen that the other hasn't either and generally they are on there within 24 hours. Looks like I'll be seeing you in the chasing queue....it's not a lot but it all helps in the MFW quest.

LM

I should say that Play.com have always been very good in the past with prompt cashback payments, it's just since the recent update from PLAY.com to Play.com (you'll see this on your list of retailers) that I've had probs.

LM - unfortunately when I did a check TopCashBack indicated no tracking... which is very odd. Maybe because I'd visited Play.com earlier to browse their offerings upon receipt of voucher? Lesson there is to delete cookies next time I think. Good luck in your attempts.

StuartGMC

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Well done!:) I'm sure your daughter will be fine with the flight. We have taken our two to NZ twice; at 4 & 5 and most recently aged 7 and 8. They travel very well; from experience it is the time difference that is the killer, not the actual flight/travelling time.;)

I think daughter will be fine with flight, but as you say it's the time difference which will be an issue. Personally it hits me every time I'm in US on business especially as I get up at 0500GMT here.... Wife however likes a lie-in on holiday so it should suit her fine

The other thing I was going to recommend/suggest you consider is annual travel insurance since you mentioned insurance. Worth a look if you travel regularly.

Good point. We're with NatWest (well it should be safe now????) and I've stayed with their standard offering. However, House & Contents Insurance with DirectLine has some annual travel insurance included for free so we need to look at it and determine if it needs augmenting. One to do when I feel well....

Little_Mama

StuartGMC wrote: »

LM - unfortunately when I did a check TopCashBack indicated no tracking... which is very odd. Maybe because I'd visited Play.com earlier to browse their offerings upon receipt of voucher? Lesson there is to delete cookies next time I think. Good luck in your attempts.

I've just been on and looked at the item I ordered via TCB on friday and it's not even on the play.com outstanding orders page! I've got to wait a week so that will show exactly when I visited but OH and I did it together as I wasn't sure which book he wanted. Now I've gone back in on play.com and the book is out of stock, now whether that had a bearing or not I don't know........the mystery deepens! :mad:

LM