Mundy Carte Blanche

The disastrous opening of terminal 5 at Heathrow inspired some pretty depressing headlines: Heathrow set for a ‘summer of hell’ screamed one London paper recently, carrying on with the following explanation: ‘Growing passenger numbers will send the baggage system into meltdown and create massive queues at Terminal 5…The number of bags handled at the terminal will treble to 75,000…Passengers will double to 80,000 a day. Yet BAA said there were no plans to change the handling system that fell into chaos last month.’

Well, we all know to take tabloid newspaper articles with a pinch of salt, and British Airways, after its all too public humiliation in late March, will not be standing still in its efforts to ensure the systems are working effectively. But the fact remains that whenever you hand over your suitcase to those smartly clad young women at the laughingly called ‘fast baggage drop’, you are taking a leap of faith in believing that it will arrive at your destination at the same time as you – in fact the amazing thing to me is not that it doesn’t, but that it so frequently does.

At your destination, the long business of getting off the plane, clearing immigration, and then realising you need a small denomination coin to obtain your trolley, is all overlaid with anxiety about whether or not your luggage will turn up. Of course even when you do experience that surge of relief at the sight of your belongings appearing on the baggage carousel, your problems are not over. You still have to muscle through other anxious passengers crowding the sides of the carousel in order to manhandle your own cases off the belt, heave them onto a trolley which invariably has a life of its own and sets forth in a completely different direction, search out a taxi with sufficient capacity for both you and your luggage, and eventually arrive exhausted at your destination, tipping left right and centre to ensure nothing goes astray.

Well maybe it is time to bite the bullet, and plan to send your luggage ahead with the Mundy Carte Blanche private luggage service. True, you need to pack a little earlier than normal to have your cases picked up in advance by this efficient service, but the relief of knowing, before you even leave home, that your luggage has arrived safely and is waiting for you, and the joy of negotiating both your departure and arrival airport with hand baggage only (imagine whisking past the snaking baggage drop queues as you leave, or waving goodbye to your fellow passengers anxiously waiting to be advised at which carousel their luggage is due to appear whilst your holiday has already begun) is a big holiday boost.

Mundy Carte Blanche private tours

A Mundy Carte Blanche private tour is not just an alternative to a shore excursion. You might take one during a land stay prior to joining the ship, or indeed, as one of our clients recently did, to fill the time during a long airport stopover:

I recently flew to San Juan via Madrid with a transit time of six hours. As much as I love the buzz of being in an airport it can only last so long…..so it was suggested to me to hire a Mundy Carte Blanche car and driver and what a good idea it was!

Our English speaking chauffeur was waiting for us upon arrival in Madrid and we were shown to our car which thankfully was only a short walk away. As we drove towards the centre we asked for his suggestions for shopping/sights/eating – all of his recommendations were perfect. Our first stop was the Serano area (equivalent of Bond Street). We had a tour around the centre with points of interest being pointed out, absorbing the vitality and character of Madrid, opting to stop at the Royal Palace for a photo opportunity and some lunch at the café de Oriente which is opposite the Palace and a perfect spot for people watching. The weather was perfect and so was lunch and with time on our side we had a stroll around the nearby Plaza taking in the Madrilenos going about their business.

With our visit to Madrid over we met our Chauffeur and made it back to the airport in plenty of time for our connecting flight totally stress free and feeling like we’d had a mini break away already.

Although our time in Madrid was brief it gave us an insight into the city and we’ll definitely go back for longer. I’d recommend to anyone with time to kill in transit to try this, it’s a great way to experience places – just like a port of call.