There are no porters on arrival, so desolé, but unless you’ve booked a VIP meet & greet or luggage delivery service, expect to lug your suitcases across the platform (not helped by the fact that this feels like the length of an airport runway). The crumpled hot mess look isn’t what most people are looking to achieve on their debut day in the City of Light.
Jokes aside, arriving like this can really ruin the start of a trip. It’s stressful, tiring and something that can easily be avoided.
At the start of a wildlife safari, there really is nothing more annoying than arriving off a long journey – desperately hoping to go straight to your accommodation – and being cornered by a lodge manager who wants to give you a safety briefing and recite your schedule for the next few days. “What would you like for your sundowner?” asked nobody else ever at breakfast time. So why this is the norm on safari is an enigma.
Arriving by boat at the landing stage of a world-class Maldivian island resort to a lineup of grinning senior management. All eight of them – General Manager, Director of Sales, Director of Food & Beverage, the butler, the resident cat and its offspring – thrusting business cards in your hand and carrying a tray of unwanted welcome drinks as if they were displaying the crown jewels. By the time you get to your obligatory check-in, you’ve already considered throwing yourself off the jetty five times. It’s not ideal.
In fact, anything that disrupts the arrival flow is a mere inconvenience. Take check-in procedures where you are asked for a credit card on arrival, regardless of whether you’ve paid in advance or provided these details pre-arrival. It gives the impression that everything relies on protocol, policies and being another number rather than a valued guest. And frankly, it’s just really, really irritating!
Feeling agitated when you first arrive somewhere doesn’t bode well. It usually sets the scene for more annoyance to come and it’s a waste of time and energy. It’s also a reliable indicator that whoever takes care of your travels isn’t doing a good enough job.
We’ve been through all of these things because we travel frequently, paying our own way and experiencing travel exactly as you do. Attention to detail is absolutely paramount and we orchestrate the specifics to perfection behind the scenes.
TELL US about your last bad arrival experience. Perhaps something at check-in? A memorable journey for all the wrong reasons? Something that wasn’t organised well enough? We’d love to hear from you.