Panorama Review

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★★☆☆☆
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cnocbui's review of Panorama

“Went on a first time skiing trip to Livigno Italy with...”

★☆☆☆☆

written by cnocbui on 16/01/2006

Good Points
Some of the Reps were helpful

Bad Points
Not helpful towards the needs of families. Some of the reps. were not helpful and failed to provide essential information.

General Comments
Went on a first time skiing trip to Livigno Italy with a family of four. Some vital aspects of the holiday were entirely spoilt by the inconsiderate action/inaction of the local Panorama supervisor (never met the person.)



We stayed in one of 11-12 apartments with 2 young children (5 and 10). The first night was Ok as everyone was so whacked at having to get up at 4am for the flight and the subsequent 5hr transfer they needed the rest. The second night, residents of another apartment returned at 2am after the pubs closed and made enough noise to wake us and prevent us getting back to sleep for about an hour. At 4am another lot returned from the local Disco and made a louder racket for about an hour and a half.



So after the first days skiing we were a bit sleep deprived - and you really need the sleep after the days physical exertions!



We spoke to a helpful Rep who said that several other residents from other apartments had complained of the noise also and that the offending yobs (4am shift) had been given a warning that if they did it again they would be kicked out. Following two evenings were OK but the subsequent one was not.



Some residents of an apartment returned from the pub at 2am and made a din for about an hour and a half. At 4am the same yobs returned and we heard a lot of shouting, thumping, banging and abusive noises. At least one of the yobs went outside again and proceeded to shout threats back at someone. Those that remained in their apartment continued to make a significant din until just after 6am when our 5 year old was eventually woken so any prospect of a bit of sleep was lost.



When we later entered the stairwell to descend to the ski locker room we were greeted by blood smears and splashes on the walls, significant amounts on the floor, stair banisters and this mess went on up for at least another level in the building and all the way down to the locker room. It looked like some animal had been slaughtered in the stair well and dragged up and down a couple of flights of stairs.



We met an unfortunate lady who was attending to some of the mess. She apologised and said the offenders were being evicted. Great, we thought.



Unfortunately that is not what happened. We met the helpful Panorama rep the following day and were told the Panorama supervisor had overuled the reps intention to evict the yobs and had given them another chance - but that they had been made to pay €500 for the damage to their apartment and would clean up the mess. Only some of the mess had been cleaned by the time we departed.



The bus for our apartments was to pick us all up at 4.30 am, on Saturday morning so we packed on the Friday and went to bed at 9pm in the hope of getting some sleep before rising at 3:30. Fat chance! At 9:30pm the yobs came back from the pub and made a lot of noise as they crashed, thumped and banged about doing their packing for the next three hours. So instead of 6.5 hrs sleep we got about 3.



There was another family in another apartment with three young children who suffered as we did.



We can not understand why Panorama would let the yobs in one apartment spoil the holidays of the residents of the other 10. Skiing is fairly tiring and you really need a good sleep to recuperate.



Panorama failed to help us negotiate with the ski school over the timing of the kids lessons and ours. So when the 5 year old wanted to pull out on several days, one of us had to quit our lesson. The ski school initially had both of us in the same class at one time and the children at another time! We did manage to get it changed so the kids lessons were at the same time as ours but it was a kludge of a fix as the 5 year old was put in the same class as the 10 year old. The class was a mess as there were other kids ranging in age from 5 to 10. The instructor was obviously not happy with the situation and had his hands full. He did his best but the range of ages meant he had to devote most of his time to the youngest in the class so the older ones missed out.



We paid Panorama for lessons for 4 but only one person got full value.



I will spare you the other minor gripes.



So if you want a family skiing holiday - I would strongly recommend you use another tour operator.



We did enjoy the holiday, don't get me wrong, but it could have been so much better had Panorama done things better.

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