My local Going Places had a advertising drive last year on discounted American holidays. Naturally, being a US 'virgin' I was intrigued by the sign which plastered "Going Place, for 30% less" and so my girlfriend and I booked 10 days in Florida, staying on the beach for a week (Clearwater) and then travelling up to the Theme Parks in Orlando. The staff at our local branch were very helpful, if a little over enthusiastic, and had all appeared to have visited, travelled or stayed in the actual beds we were to be sleeping in at some time in their lives, cue "you must do this, you must do that, you'll love it, I loved it, my nan had a great time, you can't leave this out, you can't leave that out etc etc etc". Their somewhat prescriptive attidue to holiday making is a little off putting, but overall you do feel as though you are being treated as a customer, and not an annoyance.
The payment scheme was fantastic, a deposit is needed on booking, and you can opt for a low deposit scheme, which enables you to pay less to start off with and more later on. This is particularly helpful if you are a bit unsure but want to make that great bargain of 30% discount. Then payment is pretty run of the mill, everything had to be paid up ten weeks before the holiday, though how much to pay and when is left to you. I thought this great, and really helped as some months we paid nothing, and others we paid a lot.
AIRPLANE
Going Places offer a variety of plane packages, we opted for paying a little extra of legroom, which I was surprised did make a difference and ensured that the journey was comfortable. You can pay extortionate amounts for their "gold" packlage, but to be honest it really is not worth it, a couple of drinks and a free magazine does not justify adding £100+ to your holiday budget. The flight was good, in flight entertainment easily accessible on the newer planes, and a good choice of films. Airplane food is terrible at the best of times, and this was no execption.
ARRIVALS?
Getting to Florida was the easy part, getting to the hotel was hard, getting a room impossible!!!!! Going Places had 'forgotton' to book our five hour (!!!) transfer from Sanford Internation to Clearwater. They had also forgotton to tell us that we could have opted for an airport arrival nearer to Clearwater for no price increase, and so our initial impression of the Sunshine State was standing in a Cab queue for an hour to find that £100 would have to be forked out for the journey (Going Places did refund this, eventually ...). When we arrived, five hours later, at our hotel, having been travelling now for over 18 hours, we found that the ultra friendly staff at our local branch had also forgotton to reserve our rooms, and has we arrived on Labour Day, we had no chance of getting a room anywhere! My girlfriend, in tears at this point, wanted to get back in a cab and go home. Having finally connected with Going Places Orlando, five hours away, we were told that there was nothing they could do until after Labour Day and we were to fend for ourselves.Suffice to say we argued for a good few hours, until they agreed to put us up in a hotel much greater in quality to our original one, and paid the extra to stay there for the entirety of our beach holiday.
All in all a great holiday, marred slightly by the fact that Going Places staff back home should spend less time talking about what they have 'done' and what you should 'do' and more time on ensuring we are given the means to 'do' it.
Overall my estimations of Going Places improved greatly as the holiday went on. They were more than helpful in finding us a hotel, 2 stars above what we had booked when they finally conceded that it was their fault, and did refund our cab journey to Clearwater.
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Advantages: Good value for money, excellent deals, very helpful staff. Disadvantages: Have to buy own food. Might have go tit cheaper if booked at last minute.
carolinesite 07.04.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Going Places
Advantages: Good value for money, excellent deals, very helpful staff. Disadvantages: Have to buy own food. Might have go tit cheaper if booked at last minute.
carolinesite 07.04.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Going Places
Jan 21st, 2002
very helpful by (100%):
