Welcome home from holiday from hell

www.intelligencer.ca By Henry Bury The Intelligencer Saturday, February 15, 2003 - 10:00

Local News - What started off as another holiday in a Central American country ended up as a living nightmare for a Consecon couple. A string of calamities befell Gudrun and Fred Schwarze — including a serious illness for Fred and many of the other guests, largely on the trip and hailing from Ontario and Quebec — during their trip last month to a resort in Honduras. The illness outbreak forced the couple and others to fly home after only completing one of their two holiday weeks. The couple is now waiting to be reimbursed for their ordeal. “The holiday surely wasn’t what we expected,” Fred Schwarze told The Intelligencer. “We have been in Third World Countries on holidays and we had an idea of what to expect. But this was way out of proportion.” He suffered severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever for almost three days; his wife was more fortunate, but she still felt nauseous for almost the entire time there. Many of the other guests fell sick as well to a mysterious illness and were flown home early. The Schwarzes booked their two-week holiday in early December through Sears Travel at the Quinte Mall. Over the past several winters, they had vacationed in such countries as Venezuela, Cuba, Costa Rica and Mexico, as well as Europe and never experienced any problems. So when they read a travel writeup on a holiday in Honduras, they decided to give it a try. “We prefer vacationing away from the hustle and bustle of large resorts with thousands of people,” Fred Schwarze said. They spent $3,800 for a two-week holiday offered by World of Vacations at the new four-star resort, Barcello Palma Real, on the Caribbean Sea in Honduras. Their trip was for Jan. 27 to Feb. 10. Reading the brochures, the Schwarzes knew the 161-room resort was a 90-minute bus trip from the San Pedro Sula airport. But, two days prior to their departure, they received a phone call informing them that the bus trip from the airport to their resort was more than three hours. “If we had known it was a three-hour-plus ride to the resort, we wouldn’t have gone,” he said. “But it was just too late to cancel the trip.” Things got much worse after they arrived at the resort. They had requested a room with a garden view — instead they faced a large parking lot. They said the stench of runoff water from the kitchen at the resort was so bad that it made walking on the narrow beach quite unpleasant. “The hotel itself was nice but the surrounding area was still being developed, including the water park,” he noted. Three days into their holidays, Fred Schwarze became violently ill. He suffered severe cramps and abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. The Schwarzes estimate that 75 to 80 per cent of the guests at the resort fell ill as well. It got so bad, they said, that World of Vacations, brought a doctor in every day to dispense medication to the guests. “What bothers me,” Fred Schwarze said, “is that the resort had similar problems with people being sick back in December. That was admitted to us by World of Vacations while we were there and they said they thought they had the problem solved. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t.” If they had known about the December illness affecting many vacationers at the resort, “then we would have never gone there,” he said. A Toronto newspaper quoted Brenda McInerney, Ontario general manager for World of Vacations, earlier this month as saying that her organization was cancelling vacations for about 1,700 people who had planned trips to Honduras and was arranging to bring hundreds of holidaymakers home early. She said the cut-off was due to unseasonably wet weather in the Central American country, and that the company was still looking into reports of illnesses. By Friday, Jan. 31, World of Vacations decided to move all the vacationers, including the Schwarzes, to San Pedro Sula and put them up in hotels there. They were told a plane would pick them up Saturday morning. The plane never arrived until Sunday afternoon and took vacationers to Cancun, Mexico. World of Vacations offered the travellers who were on two-week holidays a chance to stay in Cancun for their second week at no additional charge. The Schwarzes declined the offer and were eager to return home. Their plane landed in Montreal to drop off the Quebec travellers and then flew on to Toronto. They arrived Feb. 1 around midnight and began their two-hour drive home. Fred Schwarze said while they were still in Honduras, World of Vacations gave them a written agreement to give travellers who had booked a two-week holiday a full refund. “Sears Travel is still working on getting us the refund,” he said. Gudrun Schwarze did not lay the blame entirely on World of Vacations. “They did their utmost to make us comfortable,” she said. “They did their best to remedy a bad situation.” They brought in doctors to the resort to help the ill, she noted. Her husband took medication to ease his symptoms. “They even offered us a free trip to the Capan Ruins because our plane was a day late coming there,” she said. They took the trip, valued at $165 U.S. each. But Gudrun said she’s not eager to return to Honduras. “It was an eye-opener to see how people exist and have to survive...we are blessed to live in Canada.” Fred Schwarze agreed and added the couple will think twice about where they go on holiday next. “It’s just a bad memory now,” he said. Louise Crandall, communications director for the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies, said in an earlier interview that Honduras is a new vacation destination and there will be problems “and growing pains” as there were for the first vacationers in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. She encouraged consumers to make detailed checks, through their agent, on every aspect of a new destination trip, including the prevailing weather patterns, state of construction of new hotels and all related facilities. They can also contact the Travel Industry Council of Ontario with their concerns.