This summer my family and I went with Thomas Cook to Cyprus. My father was responsible for booking the holiday and typically he was too busy. Then about two weeks before he admitted to the family he had not booked a holiday. So we told him to get on the computer and not come off until he found a holiday. He eventually found a holiday for the following week. Unfortunately by booking late you don't get much choice so we had to take off from Manchester Terminal 2. We live nowhere near Manchester so the journey was long…

So eventually we arrived in terminal 2 at 5:30 am and checked in. However rather than going through security we decided to have breakfast as we were starving and I was not feeling to good. After breakfast I felt much better and we queued up to go through security. Our plane wasn't leaving till 8:15 so we thought we had plenty of time. We got through security eventually and whilst we were putting our shoes back on (as they had to go through security too) we heard an announcement saying "This is the last call for" At which point we heard our surname. We hadn't realised it was 8am and we had heard no other calls so we were slightly confused. We ran to the departure point and on the way one of the Thomas Cook men said it's too late stop running and go home. My sister and dad arrived at the departure lounge first and then me carrying all three of our bags. My mum arrived last but we had to wait because she had the passports. My father apologised and said they had not heard any announcements apart from the last one. The people said well you might be too late and radioed the pilot. We were allowed on as they had not yet taken down the tunnel to the plane. As we got onto the plane my father apologised again but the cabin crew said no worries. My parents were very annoyed with Thomas Cook at this point. Later they realised it was their fault because they had not quite been awake as they had only had a few hours sleep and had to drive up to Manchester. However my parents were exceptionally annoyed with the man who said give up because if we had we would have missed our holiday and thought he was very rude. However the cabin crew were kind and we were on the plane sitting down at 8am and the plane didn't leave till 8:15. So we were still sitting there for 15mins. So overall we were not impressed with Thomas Cook at Manchester. At the time my parents were too tired to realise it was partly their fault but we still believe Thomas Cook should have given us some warning before final call.

On the flight out I slept for much of the way which wasn't very useful but I was very tired. The flight was 3 and half hours. When I woke up Ice Age 2 was on. We decided not to have food on the plane as I don't usually eat any of the food as I don't like it. They were handing out scratch cards and my parents never buy them. However my dad decided to buy one and as it was buy one get one free me and my sister got one each. Typically I didn't win anything however my sister won £2 worth of snacks on the plane. My sister got us a coke each and this gave me a good idea of their ridiculous prices. A can of pepsi, which I'm sure was smaller than a usual can was £1. There were headphones available for £3 but I had my ipod headphones. The chocolate bars were 60p each which was also ridiculous. SO my advice is take your own food on unless you want to be completely ripped off. We did not have food but I could still smell is when they were serving it and it wasn't very pleasant so I wasn't very impressed.

We had a package holiday so they found accommodation for us too which was meant to be family accommodation. However two or three times the hotel was lively until 1am and since we were very near to Aiya Napa there was little peace. Flashing lights and loud noises were often heard throughout the early hours of the morning and the door had to be kept open to keep the room cool enough. So overall I was not impressed with their "family accommodation".

We eventually got onto the plane after standing around for ages and were one of the first to make up for what happened on the outward journey. The set up was exactly the same except we were sitting by the window rather than all four of us sitting in the middle. As usual we had the safety brief and I read the safety card which I always do just in case and Thomas Cook didn't seem too reliable! The plane took off and I can't even remember what the film was but it wasn't very good. They didn't sell headphones this time but we were told of we want them to contact a member of the cabin crew. We were given those stupid things to fill in which are really long and boring. They are meant to be just for the adults but me and my sister had one too, maybe because we weren't sitting next to them. My sister got bored of hers so I filled hers in and mine identically! We then both went to sleep. When I woke up my parents were fast asleep and my sister so I watched the comedies on the TV and plugged my own headphones in. Once again we did not have food but I ate a sandwich I had made myself which was a lot nicer. When the cabin crew came around I had no money so I had a good excuse however I would not have bought any of their rip off rubbish anyway. Later on I was asked to give a donation but I had no money as my parents had it all so I thought I should pretend to be asleep. On the way out we were greeted by the usual goodbye goodbye goodbye. Honestly one goodbye will be sufficient! I suppose it's just being friendly…