‘White powder on bed’ the lowlight of holiday camp
ADAD-OF-THREE was disgusted when he opened out the sofa bed his daughter was due to sleep on during their family holiday to Pontins.
Nic Gilgannon went on holiday with his three daughters, aged 12, eight and three and his fiancee to Pontins in Ainsdale for four nights.
However the dad claims the family could only last the two days after an array of issues blighted their trip away.
When the 37-year-old checked in and went to their chalet, he claims he was greeted with a dilapidated door and a dirty room.
On inspection of the room he found white powder that he suspected to be drugs on the sofa bed where his eldest daughter was meant to be sleeping.
Nic, a gas engineer by trade, told the Visiter: “We got to the room and it was absolutely disgusting. The apartment was filthy. I folded out the sofa bed to test everything out and found (suspected) cocaine on the sofa bed.
“I managed to get a cleaner to clean that up for us then went to reception because they hadn’t given us enough bedding that we had paid for.
“We requested the room to be cleaned as well and when we came back it looked like all they had done was splash the floor with some water.
“There was urine on the toilet seat as well so no-one had even cleaned the room before we had checked in.
“We went for the evening meal and the trays, plates and cutlery were dirty. We had to fish for clean cutlery.
“The carpet was grubby and needed a good clean. The food itself wasn’t bad on the first night. When we got [to the canteen] half the tables were empty with just plates and cutlery on them from previous guests.
“All the tables were wobbly and the one we sat at just span freely when you tried to cut your dinner.
It was just horrible. There was leek and potato soup in the soup cauldron and people had spilled some down the side, the next morning it was still there, it hadn’t been wiped.
“The plates and cutlery had food on from when they had apparently been washed, trays were wet with bits of food on. The breakfast wasn’t that bad. I was just trying to tough it out because the kids were enjoying themselves, they don’t see it the way you see it.”
The last straw that saw Nic take his family back to Skelmersdale two days early was when they sat down for breakfast on the third day of being there.
He said: “We got ready for breakfast, got there, queued, fished around for clean plates and cutlery. The leek and potato soup was still on the caldron from the Monday night.
“I got a cooked breakfast and sat down at the table. I started eating it and there was a plastic bristle on the sausage so I picked that off and tried to carry on.
“I went onto the hash brown and noticed it had a hair on it as I was about to put it in my mouth. For me it was the final straw, up until then I had been toughing it out for the kids.
“The kids were enjoying themselves and enjoying the park. Whilst we were there we went to the amusements and half of the amusements were either broken or turned off and we were planning to go for the nights entertainment that night but I couldn’t do it anymore.
“I felt physically sick when I found a hair in the hash brown. I ended up speaking to the manager, he gave me permission to record him, but the be all and end all was that he offered to clean the room again or check out.
“The attitude just wasn’t professional at all and it was a ‘not bothered’ sort of attitude. I couldn’t stomach it anymore so I booked out with the kids. We were meant to be there for four nights, Monday through to Friday morning.”
The holiday was organised by Nic’s mum and dad as a birthday present to Nic and to give him sometime away to spend with his fiancee and his daughters.
Unfortunately Nic was left feeling disappointed and disgusted by the trip away.
He told the Visiter: “It was supposed to be a nice little adventure for our family. Although it’s on our doorstep essentially, it was just somewhere not at home for the week.
“It was a let down. I feel disgusted and I can’t believe they’re allowing people to stay in conditions like that. The attitude of it is just like ‘oh well’.
“There’s talks of people getting discounts off future holidays, as if you would want to stay there again, but not actually getting refunded.”
Britannia Hotels has approached for comment.
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