All Inclusive

I have never been tempted by an all inclusive holiday. When Christine was small I may have tried one as they do certainly have their uses, but they just weren't available then. My only experience of all inclusive was of two holidays Christine and I took when Kai was a toddler to Corfu. We actually stayed in room only accommodation, but the hotel was slap bang in between 3 all inclusive resorts.

Of an evening, we used to go out to find somewhere to eat for dinner and there wouldn't be a soul about, as a consequence, there were very few restaurants and bars suitable to take Kai to and speaking to the locals, many bars had closed because there were no customers walking about of an evening, they were all tucked up in their all inclusives.

When I took my first holiday to St Lucia I was asked if I was going all inclusive. When I said no I was looked at as if I had grown another head. I was warned of dire consequences of walking around St Lucia  at night. 2 women alone, oh the horror. I was bound to be mugged or kidnapped or in the worst case scenario, killed. I was so horrified I was dreading the holiday.

I had a fantastic time once I'd relaxed. The people of St Lucia were wonderful. One evening we went to a street party in Groselet. It was rammed packed with people, mostly St Lucians. There were stalls selling Caribbean food and the famous rum punch. The music was loud and  people were dancing, St Lucians were genuinely happy that we were enjoying ourselves. Of course we got some hassle from the men but a polite rebuff and they were cool. I remember later on sitting on a step having a rest when I saw a boy of about 8 with his younger brother and sister trying to get a drink from some of the stalls. Every stall owner was telling him no so I called him over and asked if he wanted a drink and he answered very politely that he did, I gave him 20 EC dollars and told him to get a drink for himself and his brother and sister. 20 EC dollars wasn't a lot, it was about £5 but it was quite a bit for 3 drinks but I expected  not to see any change. 5 minutes later, the boy returned with his brother and sister and held out the change to me, it actually makes me well up when I think of it, I thought it was such a polite thing to do, that I told him to keep it. To see his little face light up was wonderful and he and his brother and sister skipped off, they were about 6 and 4 and as the little girl skipped away she turned back to me with the most wonderful smile and mouthed one word, Thank you. All inclusive takes that away from an area.

I returned to St Lucia when my daughter got married. My son in laws parents retired back there, they arranged a party for the Saturday in their villiage of Canaries which is surrounded by all inclusive hotels, the only tourists they saw were the ones going through on their organised tours. All the villiage were invited (but not all came) and at the beginning of the party, they sat at one end of the garden and we sat the other until I just went along and shook everyones hand and introduced myself with my niece, nephew, sister and brother in law behind me doing the same. That was a fantastic party I can tell you, and on a boat trip later in the week they remembered us and kept the vendors selling dodgy goods away from us.

No, I understand a need for all inclusive, but it's not for me.

Wedding Dress

My Daughter is getting married in St Lucia on October the 8th. At the beginning of the year she chose a wedding dress from Monsoon. They assured us they would have them all year...........

We went out wedding dress buying the other weekend and Monsoon had their sale on, there were a few wedding dresses but not the one she had chosen so we were advised to telephone the customer services to see if they could find us one, which is what I did.

The lady was very nice, read back the product code and description and said there were some units available and that it would be sent to us by post. Last Saturday, it came.

Have you ever bought a wedding dress for your daughter? It was a really exciting momnent for me, until I noticed it was actually an 18 x 18 inch jiffy bag. I wracked my brains trying to think if I had ordered anything else, but I hadn't. When I opened it, it was a wedding dress, wrapped in tissue paper, no hanger, no plastic hanging bag, shoved into the envelope, then horrors of horrors, I took it out and it wasn't the right dress!!! I was upset then angry and tried, without success, to contact the branch of Monsoon that had sent it.

Eventually, my daughter made contact with them and asked me to call them, where I spoke to a lady called Claire. She told me she had a dress in stock and that if I paid for it again she would send it to me and I could take the other one back to any Monsoon and get a refund.

Yesterday that came. In a much bigger jiffy bag along with a really lovely letter. It read:

Dear Mrs Ives
I am sorry for the inconvenience that you have been caused, I have packed the dress as carefully as I can along with it's padded hanger and wedding dress plastic cover.

I have taken the liberty of enclosing more tissue paper so that you can wrap it carefully and lovingly for its journey to St Lucia. I hope you have a great day.

Yours Sincerely
Claire Ralls

Well whoever Claire is, she certainly restored my faith in good customer service and I will be emailing Monsoon and telling them so. People are quick to complain but we never seem to praise much when praise is due do we? So I am going to praise Claire up to her employers and keep my fingers crossed that the dress fits!!!