The following comes from a travel review site. I have left it with the original spelling and capitalisation mistakes. I put the post in italics simply to make it clear what this commentator wrote at that time, and what I am writing now.
“this has to be the worst holiday we have ever had. arrived on a sunday, three hour plus transfer, make sure you use the loo at airport before going on the bus to the resort. when we arrived we were greeted by the most rude male receptionist who hurried us through the booking in process and our bags were loaded into a van which took us up to the back or top of the holiday village, there are many steep hills and quite a distance to walk back to the main street where what little there is to do is situated. once in the appartment which i might add was very nice we decided to wait until the next day and ask to be shifted down hill. that night we had a prowler in the garden standing watching us, when we reported this to the rep she dismissed it as being a security guard, we knew it wasn’t as we saw his clothing which was nothing like the other guards, later during the week we met another family who were staying just along from us and on the same night a couple of hours after they were broken into whilst they were in bed and had some money stolen. the next day we got shifted to another apartment in which we would feel safer.
we agreed to take the new apartment and it was not until we acutally lived in it that we realised that it was to put it politely – sub standard, dirty, smelly. rather than bore you about our accomodation, watch out if you put a bad comment in the comment book, one of our friends noticed a bad comment made by another guest and told us about it, she said it sounded exactly like the many complaints we had, next day the page was ripped out. sheet’s were never changed, towels only changed once on day 5, you are supplied with one toilet roll and then told you have to buy your own for the rest of your stay.
once out, it is hard to find a good place to eat, everything is the same and if you are a vegitarian, then i hope you like veg. soup and veg pasta because that is all you will find.
the resort is unusually quiet not much for the holiday maker to do, although a visit to lagos is a refreshing change as there is life there and some nice places to eat.
i would never go back to luz and all i can say is that whoever owns the apartment g 1 c that has a welsh dragon tile outside the apartment, you know who you are, you should be ashamed of yourself”
Submitted by mags bruce, 22 September 2008
The comment is at http://www.holidays-uncovered.co.uk/portugal/algarve/praia-da-luz/ocean-club.html
I was looking for information on how Ocean Club systems worked in 2006, and there is information about that on the same page, but that is reserved for a different post.
What can I say about this complaint? The first and most obvious point is that review sites are open to manipulation and it is impossible to verify the accuracy or otherwise of this comment.
If Mags Bruce was located to the north end of the Ocean Club, it would mean she her first apartment was north of the Millennium. That is the only part of the complex that fits. It is certainly a fair walk to the beach from there and Luz is hilly, so a fair bit of energy is required.
Some of the comment sounds simply like a bit of venting steam. Menu choice at the time was South African, Indian, Portuguese, Italian, English and Chinese. If you can’t get variety or a veggie out of these, I am at a loss to know what it takes.
Other comments are incorrect, though I can understand why. The owner of the apartment in question, Welsh dragon with G1C, would have been required to keep the property infrastructure, plus fittings and furnishings, up to a reasonable standard. Mags comments about G1C, re dirty, smelly, sheets changed on day 5, and only 1 roll of toilet paper provided, these are all the responsibility of the Ocean Club, not the owner.
The comment about Luz being quiet I would file into my true cabinet. If you don’t know about Luz, it seems like the sea, the beach, the sun, some places to eat, and nothing else. If you know anything about Luz, that perspective changes – late night bars, singing, dancing.
Here’s a small note for you. G1C is in the ground floor of block 1 on Rua Dr Agostinho. The blocks on the south side of this road were labelled, from west to east, G4, G5, G6 and G1. Mags stinky apartment was less than 100m from apartment 5A. The prowler had to be 700m plus away.
If you scroll down a bit further on the same link, you get the following. Again I have put it in italics to show what the original poster stated, and again I have not corrected or altered anything.
“My family and i have just returned from our holiday.with Thomas cook oceon club apartments praia da luz algarve portugal we got there on the 19th aug and by the 20th we had been burgled we found out later 3 other familys had allso been burgled from the same apartmentents praia da luz reminds me of alcatraz everywere you turn there are metal shutters and bars over every window. make sure you get a safty deposit box at reception as soon as you arrive .praia da luz is more for older couples with out children very quiet lots of resturants with great food at a good price however if your looking to find bars with sum music you will be looking for 2 weeks and you still wont find any”
Submitted by pearl beniston and family – birminham/sandwell Submitted 1st September 2006.
Other reviews of the Ocean Club are much more positive. The one for Ocean Villas is positively glowing. It is therefore important to point out that Ocean Villas is not part of the Ocean Club.
It would be great if I have got this wrong. In that instance, Smithman’s path would make excellent sense. He had taken his child out of the Ocean Club night crèche on Rua Direita, made a sensible diversion to the north, in order to avoid the roadworks on Rua Direita/Baptista, and was taking a logical route to Ocean Villas.
That would be Smithman solved, were it not for two problems. Ocean Villas is not part of the Ocean Club. And Andy Redwood did not find Smithman in the Ocean Club night crèche register. Oh, and Smithman, an innocent in this version, has not come forward in 8 years to rule himself out.
I am now trying to think what Andy Redwood said of the crime scene around Luz on the Crimewatch of late 2013.
I recollect it was to the effect that burglaries in the vicinity had gone up four-fold in the early months of 2007. If the prowler & burglary report of Mags in 2008, and the 4 burglaries report from Pearl Beniston in 2006 are accurate, then DCI Redwood is making Luz the crime capital of the universe.
At the moment, I am suspecting that these pieces do not fit together properly, but who knows.
Edit 15 May 2015. The current complaint system is a book, numbered pages, with 3 pages/copies per complaint. Top copy goes to complainant, middle copy must be sent to a local official, 3rd copy is kept in the book. I do NOT know what was in place in 2006/2007/2008, but a three-part copy system with numbered pages does not sound like rocket science. Ripping a page out is definitely not feasible.
Shining In Luz 