Lesson learnt - don't let husbands help with travel arrangements - updated with TR

[Kalice]

we were supposed to go to Bali tomorrow morning. I was at work today, hubby pulled out passports, lo and behold kids expire this week. He pulled them out a couple of months ago and commented that the kid's will need new passports, then re-filed them! We've now booked emergency appointments for passports, on Wednesday. Changed flights, which cost nearly as much as the original flights.

The only saving grace, appears to be that the Holiday Inn have come through and amended our non-cancel, non-anything room booking. Thank goodness for the price per night.

So now not going til Saturday (return same date), not working and freezing in Perths horrid weather. I want to cry!!!!!!!! and

 

[PrincessInOz]

Kalice - I'm so sorry!
Good vibes to you for a speedy turnaround of the kids passports.

ps. Have a great time in Bali, when you do go on Saturday!

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Oh no, what a shame. There's many things i could say about husbands right now but I think we all know what they are .

I hope it gets all sorted out quickly and smoothly for you.

 

[DizOz]

we were supposed to go to Bali tomorrow morning. I was at work today, hubby pulled out passports, lo and behold kids expire this week. He pulled them out a couple of months ago and commented that the kid's will need new passports, then re-filed them! We've now booked emergency appointments for passports, on Wednesday. Changed flights, which cost nearly as much as the original flights.

The only saving grace, appears to be that the Holiday Inn have come through and amended our non-cancel, non-anything room booking. Thank goodness for the price per night.

So now not going til Saturday (return same date), not working and freezing in Perths horrid weather. I want to cry!!!!!!!! and

We had a similar experience many years ago travelling to Bali. We arrived at the airport and passports had to have 6 months left on them before they expire and my wife miscalculated and had 5 months and 28 days. Qantas would not let her fly as they said she would only be turned around when we landed.

We were travelling with friends so she told me to go and she would renew her passport on the Monday (This being Sunday) and she flew in on the Wednesday with Garuda which changed her ticket over for her after Qantas could not help. She managed to get a passport same day at the passport office in Melbourne.

Also a few years back I was travelling to Hong Kong and Vietnam on business. To get into Vietnam need to get a visa at the Vietnamese embassy, only problem it was in Canberra and I was in Melbourne so I had to send passport registered mail to get stamped. Needless to say it got lost (So much for registered mail) and need a new one. Got it in 24 hours with the new computer chip and everything. I just went to the passport office in Melbourne and took a number. We were interviewed on the spot and came back next day to pick up the passports.

Good luck getting the new passports and relax and enjoy your holiday.

 

[heidispidi]

Oh no - how incredibly frustrating that must have been for you. Happy to hear that - apart from the flight costs and shortened stay - everything else has worked out OK, and there will still be a holiday for you all.

 

[aussiegirls]

oh no kalice, what a bummer

Hoping you get the passports sorted soon and that your shorter than anticipated stay in Bali is awesome.

xxx

 

[aussietravellers]

Oh NO

Hope you get it all sorted and get your new passports and then have a wonderful relaxing time in Bali

 

[Travel Mum]

Oh you poor thing! You must have felt literally sick when you realised! So pleased to hear that it is all sorted now though and I hope you still have a great holiday

 

[Kalice]

Even though we've got an appointment for tomorrow morning, hubby and son have gone to sit at passport office in hope they have a no-show. Although, the call centre operators have given the impression that it doesn't matter if someone doesn't show, they still won't see you!!!

Also, hints were given that if our circumstancess were different, i.e sick relative, they would get us in earlier. I think that based on my impressions, (friend that used to work here) they should see everybody. Not that many show for emergency passports, and they get extra $80.

Well anyway, my holiday is important! Going nuts knowing we should be sipping cocktails by the pool! Anyway, fingers crossed they feel sorry for hubby and grant him our wish

 

[Kalice]

Good news, passport office was kind to us. Hubby and son got last minute appointment and lodged applications yesterday. Passports picked up lunch time today, less than 24 hours!!!

Changed flights again, and we are now leaving tomorrow morning. Yippeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! Bali here we come, watch out pool bar.

 

[aussietravellers]

Good news, passport office was kind to us. Hubby and son got last minute appointment and lodged applications yesterday. Passports picked up lunch time today, less than 24 hours!!!

Changed flights again, and we are now leaving tomorrow morning. Yippeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! Bali here we come, watch out pool bar.

That's great!

Have a wonderful trip

 

[teskak]

We just managed to find DH's passport from his trip to Europe in January. I knew it had expired, but I was not looking forward to having to do the "lost passport" application if we could not provide the original.

After all of the grief with stolen aussie passports being used on that raid, I thought there would be all sorts of trouble.

Thankfully he found it, so now he also goes with us to KL for September school holidays. I cannot wait as I am also freezing in Perth

 

[aussiemickeys]

Kalice - not sure if you will see this in time. Just wanted to say that we are happy for you that it all worked out. Have a great time in Bali & wish we were there too at them moment (actually our brother is!). Freezing our a...s off here in Kalgoorlie too!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Kalice - How was Bali????

 

[Kalice]

Okay, here goes my second DIS trip report – on Bali! I typed a very long report and even though I’d already logged into the system, when I tried to post the report the log in screen came up again, and my report was lost in cyberspace!!

Anyhow here it goes again. We left Perth two days later than our original plans, due to our abovementioned passport drama. But we had already changed our plans with Jetstar and our hotel, to leave four days after. We managed to change our flights with cost, our original change cost $1000, very high give the whole booking was originally $1200 return. They charge the difference between your original flight booking and the current price + a change fee for each passenger! So after paying $2200 for our flights, they wanted another change fee. I pointed out that the flights were cheaper by $400, she said that didn’t matter. However, when I pointed out it was because of a passport issue, she stated that they could waive the fee if I could provide evidence. I faxed the receipt from the passport office. So no charge.
Our flight was a reasonable time, so didn’t need to leave home til 6.30am. We checked in and headed to the Qantas club, the international lounge in Perth pales in comparison to the First Qantas lounge in Melbourne. Perth only has one Qantas lounge at the international airport. Anyway, great place to chill out, eat a little breakfast. Kids hit the internet. Flight was only half full so hubby and son moved a bit further back to a spare row. I had the privilege of taking care of miss 3. As we didn’t get the entertainment system, she thought it would be entertaining to visit the teeny tiny airplane toilets with Mum 6 times and only pee twice. Needless to say we did get her a system on the way back. Although hubby did not see why it was necessary, GRRR.
Cleared customs in about half an hour, much quicker than our last trip which took over 2 hours. The staff seem to work in slow motion, like the stamps are made of lead. Went to the taxi booth and prepaid for two taxis $10 total. Went to Febri’s and our room was available immediately, brilliant. The room was big and clean, link to trip advisor report below.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297697-d588475-r73523116-Febri_s_Hotel_Spa-Kuta_Bali.html

This hotel is central so an easy walk to restaurants, shopping etc. It cost $90 per night for five of us including breakfast. Bargain.
Then we moved on to Holiday Inn Baruna. As our trip report is titled we LOVED this place. It is further out, but taxis cost only $1-2 to the action. Son loved the teenagers club. Very relaxing here, beautiful hotel with a beautiful view.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g562690-d1197076-r72857823-Holiday_Inn_Resort_Baruna_Bali-Tuban_Bali.html

The laundry on the same street as our hotel charged 75c per kilo of washing, so we bought back all our clothes pressed, wrapped and wonderfully fragrant. Hmmm.... that Bali Laundry smell.
We ate at some great restaurants, the stand outs were:
Bianco, watched the AFL here, the food was outstanding with wonderful presentation, a bit noisy because of the sport, but that kept hubby happy.
Biku, for high tea. $10 each for adults $4 for kids. Food presented on beautiful fine china three tiered tea tray. Inlcuded sandwiches, scones, tarts,etc. The children’s smaller trays had similar offerings and a lovely cupcake. We had coffee included with ours and the kids had fresh juices. You could pay a little extra to have a ‘mystic high tea’ it is not offered every day, but was on offer on Sundays, when we were there. You can have either a card or tea leaf reading. They also offer an Asian high tea with spring rolls etc. Will definitely try this in October. Food and drinks were lovely. Will book next time as we had to wait 10 minute for a table.

We didn’t do any touring this time only went for a day trip to Waterbom Park. Love this place. Couldn’t get miss 3 to ride any of the slides went down a few of the mini slides with her on my lap, but still no go. This is the same girl that loved the barnstormer in MK.

Shopping
Purchased some beautiful bracelets for myself and miss 9 from Joy Jewellery, on Jalan Oberei in Seminyak. Love this stuff. Will be back for more.
http://www.joyjewellery.nl/collection.html

The little children’s boutique a few doors down had some gorgeous handpainted singlets. Grabbed two for each of my DD’s.
Son grabbed a couple of those hideous large surf caps for $4 each.
Billabong and *********** tops $3-5 each.
Books for $10-15 each – non fiction
Dresses $4 each
Manicures and massages $5 – on beach
Purchased some tops from top shop, and a jumper from marks and spencer. Can’t remember price but love them.

Overall a very relaxing trip, as Bali tends to be. But regret booking for October, otherwise hubby would have agreed to me booking to go back to the US in May 2012. So looks like I have to wait til 2014.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for the report Kalice. I was cringing at the potential changeover costs to your flights!
Glad to see you had a good relaxing time and here's to you being able to change hubby's mind from 2014 to 2013!

 

[darren123]

Have to change Hubby's mind to 2012 as Little Mermaid and Carsland will be open by Summer.
I would like to say one thing about Hubby's doing the trip planning
I must be one in a million because I do all the planning for our trips my wife just tags along as she says
I work out all the details for our holidays but as a good Hubby I always have her sit beside me when making the bookings on the internet best to have both set of eyes to make sure all the details are correct and go through what we are doing with her and make and changes to what she wants to do.
And yes I have made a huge boo boo when her Uncle died I booked airfares from Brisbane to Mackay and booked return tickets with another airline when returning home from Mackay I had booked us tickets from Bris to Mky ops atleast Jetstar was able to get us home the same day I felt so stupid so I learnt my lesson two sets of eyes when booking are better then one

 

[Kalice]

I also made an error on our last US trip, I input the wrong month for our LA hotel (Holiday Inn Hollywood Walk of Fame), they also came through. Even though we were at their mercy as we were checking in at 10pm, they didn't charge. We had already missed our night by a month!