I've just returned from my 3rd visit now to Tenerife - unfortunately for me this was my first experience of JMC - hopefully it may well be my last!!!!!!
OK OK I know I booked a late minute 'bargain' holiday through Thomas Cook but thats still no excuse for crap service as a lot of people may well have paid the brochure price.
The Flight ~~~~~~~
We arrived at Gatwick Airport, checked in our luggage, walked around the shops had some food the plane was leaving on time - Excellent!!
We boarded the plane and found our seats - one by the window and the other in the middle - a slight mistake if you travel with JMC I found out - best to ask for isle seats as THERE'S NO B****Y ROOM!!! I've travelled a few times - not loads - but enough to feel that this was the most uncomfortable plane journey ever!! The seats are so close together that theres only just enough room to lower your table for the food!!!!
Once seated the pilot introduced himself, told us how long the flight would be, where we would fly over and then handed us over to the head air stewardess. She then introduced her team and we watched the inflight safety video - followed by an exercise video by Mr Motivator(!!!) OK thats fine move your arms
and legs as he says - but theres not enough room!!!!!!!!!!!! how on earth they thought that anybody was going to sit there doing this!!!
The flight was due to last just under 4 hours the stewardesses then came round selling headsets for the inflight movie and a couple of comedy shows which were Barbara and Trigger Happy TV. What then annoyed me with this was the fact that they put the movie on first - fine - but the food is bought round early on in the flight - so if your trying to watch the movie you miss most of it by being interrupted with drinks, food and rubbish collections!! It really would have been best to show the short shows first then show the movie once all the food was collected out of the way as we still had a 2 - 2 1/2 hours flight left - plenty of time to show a movie.
The other points I noted throughout was the presentation of the in flight staff - I don't want to appear to be picky - but they could have made a bit more effort to look smart - most had no make up on and their hair had just been 'thrown' back into a ponytail - I personally think that stewardesses should look smart, neat, tidy and clean.
My other gripe was with the head rests on the seats there wasn't any sheet/cloth on the headrest like you normally find - its nice to rest your head against something clean which are changed at every flight.
The best aspect was the pilot - we had such a smooth landing when we arrived at our desination - the best ever!!!!! Congratulations Mr Pilot!!!!!!!
The Transfer ~~~~~~~~~
Nothing flash about the transfer coach from and to the airport - it was a different JMC rep on both trips - but I heard the same oneliners and jokes from both!!!!!!!!!!! aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
The Destination ~~~~~~~~~~~
As this was a December holiday and booked at the last minute - we settled for our 3rd visit to Tenerife as this is probably one of the hottest places this time of the year - I like Tenerife - but this was my worst visit - mainly because of the appartments.
We stayed at the Xanadu apartments which are located at the Torviscas end of Playa de las Americas. I stayed at this end (at a very nice hotel) about 3 years ago - this was why I had no problems with returning.
The Xanadu apartments are situated at the top of a very steep hill, which apparently the locals know as 'Cardiac Hill' I can see why!!!!!!!!!!!!! These apartments are on a self catering basis with very basic decor and furnishing (which turned out to be because it is used as a club 18-30 in the summertiime!).
These apartments are not suited for people with children as there is nothing for them to do, there is no childrens club or entertainment, only a shallow end of the pool to play in. Obviously from its situation it would definately not be suited for the elderly or disabled either.
The site itself had lots of steps, our apartment was sited at the very end of a block - there were 7 flights of 7 steps before we reached the building - we were then in the top room of 2 and had a very unsafe looking spiral staircase consisting of about 12 stairs to climb to the door - not too good when you have a very large/heavy suitcase in tow!!!
The balcony was nothing to write home about either as most of the view was blocked by the roof of the apartments in front!!!
The room service had much to be desired, in a week, our room was visited twice at which they changed the towels, but the bedding was only changed once!!
JMC did run a welcome meeting on the first morning - this we didn't attend as we had been to the resort before and been and seen most of what was available - so I cannot comment on how good or bad this was, we just wanted a bit of relaxation and lots of sun!!!!! :)
Even when I did see the reps on site - again they didn't look particularly smart - white blouse/shirt and khaki shorts. The whole impression came across as being cheap and nasty!! I'm sorry - but it did!!!
I did feel that the pool area and sunbeds could have been cleaned a lot better than they were - I never once saw them hose down the sunbeds or pool area - it wasn't filthy and I never saw a cockroach (probably couldn't be bothered to climb cardiac hill!!!!!!!) but it could have been a little cleaner.
Food was served from the pool bar all day - this was ok if you were just wanting a snack and didn't want to endure the hill - but mostly we ate out apart from a couple of breakfast and toasted sandwich.
One morning in the early hours the water heating boiler broke down and flooded the kitchen - we managed to get the security guard to come up and turn off the water - and at 8am that morning the engineer changed the boiler for a new one!!!! ( I didn't realise at the time until the way home - that somebody else had a similar experience - they complained to JMC and got a free trip - I didn't complain to them at the time - so missed out - I shall be writing my experiences to them instead!!).
Finale ~~~~
Well what can I say except you get what you pay for - and thats definately true with JMC - cheap but frankly not cheerful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I would add that I did have a good holiday - despite all the above!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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From a (fromer) JMC rep's point of view, I have to say we much prefered the "casual" uniform to those really gross dresses all the other companies have.
belinda9 27.12.2001 23:41
Oh dear and we were just considering using them as my husband gets 12.5% off working for Rolls Royce.
SecretFormula 19.12.2001 16:12
No it doesn't matter what the uniforms were like or what the stewardess look like in regard to whether or not I enjoyed my holiday - but remember they are representing the company - would a receptionist sit at the front desk meeting customers and being the first point of contact giving out an image of a company in jogging bottoms and t-shirt??
Having normally travelled with a spanish airline - they put JMC to shame.
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Dec 19th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
