Letters to the Editor

Dear Sir,
I have heard quite a few statements and read many articles over the years from Mr Calder and as a Brit with a hotel in Majorca many have annoyed me greatly. Having been in Majorca for over 15 years I did not get to vote to stay or leave the EU, but there was a vote and the majority of UK residents voted out and I have to respect that.

However, I am over 65 and can remember before the UK joined the Common Market, because that is what I voted to join, I travelled around Europe many times and did not need a visa to visit France, Italy, Spain and many other countries. Mr Calder looks older than me but I now realise he must be much younger to have not ever travelled in the 60s or 70s.

Why does this so called travel consultant make such ridiculous statements? Why would Brits not want to come to Majorca, why would airlines not want to fly here? we have never been part of the Euro and holidaymakers have always been affected by changes in the exchange rate.

I am sure Majorca will continue to flourish as a top holiday destination and many more Brits will continue to come even when we are out of the EU.

I remember when Mr Calder was talking about TripAdvisor a few years ago and we were the number one hotel on the island and had worked very hard to be there. He stated you should ignore the top ten and the bottom ten. I did write to him but he never replied, and that told me something of the man.

TripAdvisor is now just another greedy booking engine but that’s another story for another day.

Adrian Bertorelli

Come to Majorca but not by boat!

Dear Sir,
I have been coming to Pollensa every year since 1959 and during the last 20 years coming by car. As far as the ferry vessels are concerned, the Spanish do not seem to be very enlightened as to what a modern ro-ro ferry is. The procedure of embarking on a Trasmediterranea vessel entails a number of 3-point (for owners of SUV’s this could be 5 or even 7 point) turns to squeeze your vehicle into the haphazard parking spaces.

20 years ago one could book a "clase preferencia" cabin for a small extra charge and enjoy a club lounge in the terminal building before embarking in Barcelona. There was also a cafeteria/bar of somewhat dubious quality in the somewhat dingy terminal building. 18 years ago the club lounge was scrapped. Around 8 years ago the "clase preferencia" disappeared, at least from the non-peak season ships.

MV Sorolla (the pride of the Transmed fleet!) was replaced by the 30 year old MV SNAV Adriatica which was certainly showing its age. Three years ago the cafeteria/bar was permanently closed. The result, this year, Trasmediterranea does not allow checking into an outside cabin except at the terminal, so we did this and ended up with an inside cabin.

The driver enters the ship, totally unchecked, in the car - the passenger must board on foot and is rigorously checked - where is the logic? My car was directed to deck "A" (the lowest) reached after the requisite very tight 3-point turns. The driver, in this case an asthmatic 70 year old, then has to climb 8 steep flights of stairs to reach the reception deck - there is no lift!

On disembarkation from deck "A" there are 8 lanes of cars 4 lanes each back to back with a space for the ramp in the middle. The apparent mode of disembarking is the boldest starts first and with no crew guidance everybody else enters the fray - carnival dodgem cars don’t have a look in!

The price of this ticket for the 7 hour journey in a one star ferry was €620 compared to the DFDS 17 hour crossing in a 4/5 star ferry between Newcastle and Amsterdam (Ijmuiden) was £208.

I do realise that a very small percentage of tourists arrive by ferry to this beautiful island but do we not deserve better?

Sincerely

Alister Bottomley
Pollensa