alexincornwall
Active member
The title of the post might not seem very sailing related but bear with...
We have paid the deposit for an off season contract with Cartagena Marina and plan to set sail from Falmouth at the end of August 23', returning to the UK sometime in the summer next year. We’ll essentially be leaving the boat but visiting for long weekends and school holidays as and when work/family commitments allow. Cartagena looked attractive when we visited but part of the rationale was that no other Spanish marinas were prepared to accept a booking so far in advance (most insisted we call back in mid-August which cuts things a bit fine for a 1200nm trip).
We live in West Cornwall and rather conveniently for Cartagena, Ryanair have flown directly from our local airport Newquay to Alicante for the last couple of years, whereas flights to other European destinations are usually suspended for the winter. If the route didn't operate, it's a 100 mile drive to Exeter or even further to Bristol which adds a degree of inconvenience for an “easy” long weekend of winter Med sailing.
However, this year their timetable for all flights departing from Newquay stop at the end of October. Ryanair insist that this doesn't necessarily mean that they won't be running the same timetable again, but also will not confirm that they will! Their call centre staff have no idea when the new timetable will be released.
We're now being asked to pay a hefty instalment to secure our berth but without the confirmation of convenient flights, we're taking a bit of a gamble.
Has anybody been in a similar predicament or have any inside info on Ryanair scheduling? The objective of the exercise is to keep life simple and with school aged kids, we don't have a huge amount of flexibility.
We have paid the deposit for an off season contract with Cartagena Marina and plan to set sail from Falmouth at the end of August 23', returning to the UK sometime in the summer next year. We’ll essentially be leaving the boat but visiting for long weekends and school holidays as and when work/family commitments allow. Cartagena looked attractive when we visited but part of the rationale was that no other Spanish marinas were prepared to accept a booking so far in advance (most insisted we call back in mid-August which cuts things a bit fine for a 1200nm trip).
We live in West Cornwall and rather conveniently for Cartagena, Ryanair have flown directly from our local airport Newquay to Alicante for the last couple of years, whereas flights to other European destinations are usually suspended for the winter. If the route didn't operate, it's a 100 mile drive to Exeter or even further to Bristol which adds a degree of inconvenience for an “easy” long weekend of winter Med sailing.
However, this year their timetable for all flights departing from Newquay stop at the end of October. Ryanair insist that this doesn't necessarily mean that they won't be running the same timetable again, but also will not confirm that they will! Their call centre staff have no idea when the new timetable will be released.
We're now being asked to pay a hefty instalment to secure our berth but without the confirmation of convenient flights, we're taking a bit of a gamble.
Has anybody been in a similar predicament or have any inside info on Ryanair scheduling? The objective of the exercise is to keep life simple and with school aged kids, we don't have a huge amount of flexibility.
